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.