Notes:
The 37th Senior National Rowing Championship has started in the Army Rowing Node in Pune, Maharashtra on December 17. Around 500 rowers and coaches from various rowing associations acrossthe country will take part in the Championship which will run up to 22nd ofthis month. The Rowers for the World Championships-2019 will be selected from this event. The World Championship -2019 is the first qualifying Championship for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Notes:
Tulsi Giri (93), Nepal’s two-time prime minister and senior politician, has passed away in Kathmandu, Nepal on December 18, 2018. Born in 1926 in Siraha district, Giri started his political career from Nepali Congress party. He later turned a die-hard supporter of Panchyat system after then King Mahendra Shah imposed the system. He served as the country’s Prime Minister twice during the tenure of slain King Birendra Bir Bikram Shah in 1975 and 1977. Birendra, the eldest son of King Mahendra Shah, was the King of Nepal from 1972 until his death in the 2001 Nepalese royal massacre. After the country eliminated the Panchyat system and absolute monarchy through the 1990 People’s Movement during the rule of King Birendra, Giri left the country and was living in Sri Lanka. He returned to Nepal in 2005 when then King Gyanendra Shah, who took over the reigns following the royal massacre, appointed him the vice-chairman of the Cabinet (equivalent to the Prime Minister’s post).

Notes:
Indian-American Shree Saini has been crowned Miss India Worldwide 2018 at a pageant held in the Fords City of New Jersey. The event was organised by the New York-based India Festival Committee (IFC). Sakshi Sinha from Australia and Anusha Sareen from the United Kingdom were respectively declared first and second runner-ups in the 27th annual global pageant for people of Indian origin.

Notes:
Government think-tank NITI Aayog organised the 3rd edition of the Women Transforming India Awards 2018 in collaboration with United Nations, and launched the upgraded portal of the Women Entrepreneurship Platform on December 16. The awards were instituted to recognise and celebrate stories of exemplary women from across India. This year’s theme is ‘Women and Entrepreneurship’ and 15 winners have been chosen through an extensive six-month long process to identify fascinating and inspiring stories of women entrepreneurs. The event will include panel discussions. The panellists include entrepreneurs, investors and experts such as Debjani Ghosh, Shivani Wazir Pasrich, Geeta Chandran, Radhika Ghai and Sania Mirza.

Notes:
Ramphal Pawar, an IPS officer from the West Bengal cadre, has been appointed the new Director of National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB). The NCRB is responsible for collecting and analysing crime data as defined by the Indian Penal Code (IPC). It is headquartered in New Delhi and is part of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA). Apart from this, Intelligence Bureau (IB) Director Rajiv Jain and Research & Analysis Wing (RAW) Secretary Anil K Dhasmana, both of whose two-year terms were scheduled to end later this month, have been given six-month extensions. As per officials, the Central Government does not want to disturb the continuity in the IB and the R&AW and wanted a new government to take a decision on appointments on these key posts after the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.