Notes:
On December 21, 2017, the International Cricket Council (ICC) announced the women’s ODI and T20I teams of the year with England’s Heather Knight named as captain of the 50-over side and Stafanie Taylor of the West Indies appointed skipper of the 20-over side. The teams were selected taking into consideration player performances from September 21, 2016 to date. In it, India’s left-arm spinner Ekta Bisht is the lone cricketer to feature in both the ODI and T20 Teams of the year announced by the ICC. Bisht is ranked 14th in ODIs and 12th in T20Is, and took 34 wickets in 19 matches and 11 wickets in seven T20Is in the period under consideration. Indian captain Mithali Raj has been named in the ICC Women’s ODI Cricket Team of the Year. Besides the duo, Harmanpreet Kaur has found out a place in the ICC Women’s T20I Team of the Year.

Notes:
Mamang Dai, Itanagar-based author and journalist, has won the 2017 Sahitya Akademi Award in English language for her 2014 novel “The Black Hill”. The novel gives innate descriptions of the life of the tribal people of north east India from the yester years, interweaving their lives with fiction and history. It is the story of Gimur, a girl from the Abor tribe who runs away with Kajinsha of the Mishmee tribe. Their tale of love is painted with the mid-19th century Northeast India as the background. It had also brought in missionaries, one of them being Father Nicolas Krick, a Jesuit priest who wanted to carry his mission to Tibet. ‘The Black Hill’ is a richly imagined story descriptively created around two recorded historical events – this French priest’s mysterious disappearance and the execution of Kajinsha for his murder. The award in the form of a casket containing an engraved copper-plaque, a shawl and a cheque of Rs 1 lakh will be presented to the author at a special function on February 2018.

Notes:
In a move aimed at combating black money stashed abroad, India has signed an agreement with Switzerland that would allow automatic sharing of tax-related information from 1 January, 2018. The agreement was signed by CBDT chairman Sushil Chandra and Swiss ambassador to India Andreas Baum at the North Block in New Delhi on December 21, 2017. With this pact, it will now be possible for India to receive the financial information of accounts held by Indian residents in Switzerland for 2018 and subsequent years on an automatic basis from September 2019 onwards.

Notes:
Manoj Sinha, the union minister of communications, has launched project “DARPAN – The Digital Advancement of Rural Post Office for A New India” in New Delhi on December 21, 2017. The project has an outlay of Rs 1400 crore and intends to provide a low power technology solution to each Branch Postmaster (BPM). This will enable each of approximately 1.29 lakhs branch post offices to improve service delivery. DARPAN offers core banking services to the account holders. The project will improve the quality of service, add value to services and achieve financial inclusion of un-banked rural population. It is targeted to complete the project by March 2018.

Notes:
Ramesh Kuntal Megh has been conferred with the 2017 Sahitya Akademi Award for Hindi literature for his book of literary criticism “Vishw Mithak Sarit Sagar”. The award in the form of a casket containing an engraved copper-plaque, a shawl and a cheque of Rs 1 lakh will be presented to the author at a special function on February12, 2018.

Notes:
The 2017 bilateral naval exercise “Naseem-Al-Bahr” (or known as Sea Breeze) has started between Indian Navy and Oman Navy at Said Bin Sultan Naval Base, Wudam on December 17, 2017. The Indian Navy deployed a submarine, P8I long-range maritime aircraft, two naval ships – INS Trikand and INS Teg – for the bilateral exercise. This exercise was the 11th edition and has been a biennial feature since 1993. India has an ancient maritime tradition and maritime interaction with Oman dates back to over 4000 years B.C. The bilateral relation between India and Oman were formally established with signing of a 1953 Indo-Oman Treaty of friendship, Navigation and Commerce, a first between India and an Arab country. Since then, Naval exercises have contributed to strengthening of bilateral ties between India and Sultanate of Oman. The first exercise Indian Navy with Royal Navy of Oman was conducted in 1993 and this year marks 24 years of Indian Navy -Royal Navy of Oman bilateral exercises.

Notes:
The Union Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has launched Students and MEA Engagement Programme (SAMEEP) to bring Indian foreign policy to students across the country. Under this, MEA officials will talk to students to help them better understand foreign policy. The main purpose of SAMEEP is to take Indian foreign policy and its global engagements to students across the country. Under this programme, all the ministry officers – under-secretary and above – will be asked to go to their hometowns, particularly their alma maters. They will be expected to interact with the students about the way the MEA works, basic elements of its policies, how diplomacy is conducted, and generally give students an idea of what a career in the MEA would look like. The officials will be provided a basic standardised presentation by the ministry, but will be free to add their own improvisations and experiences.The agenda of the programme is not only to make students interested and aware of India’s place in the world and its global ambitions, but also to drive interest in diplomacy as a career option.

Notes:
India’s first and only design university “World University of Design (WUD)” has started at Sonipat, Haryana. The university, which is dedicated to education in the creative domain, is promoted by Om Parkash Bansal Educational and Social Welfare Trust of Mandi Gobindgarh, Punjab. The campus is situated on NH1 in Rajiv Gandhi Education City (NCR), Sonipat – the largest planned integrated city for education in India. The University has International Collaborations with foreign Universities like UWS University of West Scotland, VFS the Vancouver Film School, and IAAD the Italian University of Design. The WUD offers India’s largest creative course catalogue – 23 specialized UG and PG programs in various design arenas such as design, fashion, communication, visual arts, design and retail management, and architecture. It follows a unique curriculum that encourages research, academic excellence, industry preparedness and social innovation. It has a 1000 capacity open-air theatre and several smaller venues to host and hold cultural performances.

Notes:
The Birmingham city has been officially selected to host the 2022 Commonwealth Games on December 21, 2017. This will be the third Commonwealth Games to be hosted in England following London 1934 and Manchester 2002. The international multi-sports event are expected to take place between 27 July and 7 August 2022.The 2022 Commonwealth Games were originally given to Durban in 2015, but the South African city was stripped of the event this year because of financial difficulties.

Notes:
The United Kingdom (UK) has topped the Forbes’ rankings of best countries in the world for business in 2018. It is the first time this country has taken the top spot in the Forbes 12th annual survey after rising from 5th in 2016. The UK scored well on technology plus the size and education of the workforce although ‘political risk’ was seen as the weakest point. The list ranks 153 countries on 15 factors including property rights, innovation, taxes and red tape. New Zealand ranked second overall for the third straight year, followed by Sweden and Canada. India was ranked 62nd on the list.