Notes:
On December 11, 2019, the South Pacific Archipelago of Bougainville voted to become independent of Papua New Guinea. Around 98% of 1,81,067 voters voted to get independent from Papua New Guinea.It is the largest island of the Solomon Islands Archipelago. The island has the world’s largest copper deposits. The most widely spoken language in the country is Halia.

Notes:
Government organized a Symposium on Scope of Science of Ayurveda in Global Health on 11 December,2019 at New Delhi. It was organized by the Ministry of AYUSH in coordination with the Ministry of External Affairs. It is in line with the Ministry of AYUSH’s commitment to promote Ayurveda and Traditional systems of Medicine globally. The symposium aimed to sensitize all the Ambassadors and High Commissioners and impart them with the information about advanced research and recent developments in Ayurveda. It is expected that these personalities play a vital role in exploring the possibilities to establish age-old Ayurveda a Traditional Medical System in different countries.

Notes:
On 14 December, 2019, the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly has passed the Andhra Pradesh Disha Bill, 2019 (Andhra Pradesh Criminal Law (Amendment) Act 2019). The bill provides for awarding death sentence for offences of rape and gangrape and expediting trials of such cases to within 21 days. Major provisions include completion of investigation in seven days and trial in 14 working days, where there is adequate conclusive evidence, and reducing the total judgment time to 21 days from the existing four months. The AP Disha Act also prescribes life imprisonment for other sexual offences against children and includes Section 354 F and 354 G in IPC.

Notes:
Universal Health Coverage Day is celebrated annually on December 12 and is promoted by the World Health Organization.December 12,2019 is the anniversary of the first unanimous United Nations resolution calling for all nations to provide for their citizens affordable, quality health care.UHC is promoted as an instrument to help advance the more broadly conceived human right to health, which is based upon a number of international agreements, or widely affirmed international documents.Universal health coverage has been included in the new Sustainable Development Goals for 2015-2030, adopted by the United Nations. In many nations, inclusive healthcare is very rudimentary and does not include heroic interventions or long-term care.

Notes:
Union Cabinet approved the proposal of Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH), which authorizes National Highways Authority of India(NHAI) to set up Infrastructure Investment Trust(s) (InvIT) as per InvIT Guidelines issued by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI). This will enable NHAI to monetize completed National Highways that have a toll collection track record of at least 1 year and the NHAI reserves the right to levy toll on identified highway.

Notes:
George Laurer, the US engineer who helped develop the barcode, has passed away at the age of 94.Mr. Laurer has been recognized as the co-inventor of the Universal Product Code (UPC) or barcode. It is found on millions of products, services, and other items for identification. When he was working as an electrical engineer with IBM, he developed UPC or barcode. He developed a scanner that could digitally read codes. He used stripes to print the codes.

Notes:
United States has surpassed Kuwait to become India’s sixth-largest oil supplier. India began to import crude oil from the US in 2017 as a move to diversify India’s import basket beyond the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) nations. Note that, currently Iraq is top supplier of crude oil for India, while Qatar is top supplier of natural gas to India.

Notes:
Andhra Pradesh is to set up a virtual police station (VPS) in the Andhra University (AU). It will be the first of its kind. It will help the students to report violence or any other crime online. The plan to establish VPS was initially proposed by AU vice-chancellor Prasad Reddy in August 2019.

Notes:
Author Peter Handke was conferred the Nobel Literature Prize. He received the 9 million-kronor ($948,000) award from King Carl XVI Gustaf at a ceremony in Stockholm. Peter Handke, 76, is an Austrian author and playwright. He was recognized for his influential work that with linguistic ingenuity has explored the periphery and the specificity of human experience. He has been a controversial figure as he supported the Serbs during the 1990s Yugoslav war. He was charged in 2001 with the Bosnian Genocide.

Notes:
The 37th National Symposium of Heads of Police Training Institutions is being held at BPR&D Headquarters, New Delhi. The two-day symposium is held from 12-13 December 2019. The symposium is organized by the Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPR&D), Ministry of Home Affairs.
The theme of the two-day Symposium is Optimal Utilization of Resources – Through Sharing and Networking.