Notes:
Indian woman Vedangi Kulkarni has become the fastest Asian to cycle the globe. Hailing from a suburb of Pune, Vedangi cycled into Kolkata in the wee hours on 23rd December 2018, completing the 29,000 kilometers’ distance required to qualify as bicycling across the globe. She spent 159 days peddling up to 300km a day in 14 countries. Starting off from Perth in July 2018, she will now be flying back to the Australian city to complete the record by cycling a 15km distance to reach the same place from where she started. Vedangi is a student of the University of Bournemouth in the United Kingdom pursuing a degree in sports management. Earlier, British adventurer Jenny Graham (38) is the fastest woman to have cycled the globe in 124 days in 2018.

Notes:
India’s first music museum will be set up with assistance from the Central government in Thiruvaiyaru, Tamil Nadu, the birth place of Saint Tyagaraja, one of the Trinities of Carnatic music. The Tyagaraja Aaradhana Music Festival which is held annually in January in Thiruvaiyaru attracts musical talents from all over the world.

Notes:
The National Farmer’s Day (NFD) is celebrated every year in India on December 23 to acknowledge the role of farmers in India’s socio-economic development and to mark the birth anniversary of 5th Prime Minister Late Chaudhary Charan Singh. He used to be referred to as the ‘champions of India’s peasants’ for his strive for the betterment of farmer’s lives in the country. The day is popularly known as Kisan Diwas.

Notes:
In Indonesia, a volcano-triggered tsunami has killed at least 281 people and injured more than thousand in Sunda Strait. Hundreds of buildings were destroyed by the wave, which hit the coast of southern Sumatra and the western tip of Java after a volcano known as Anak Krakatoa (the “Child of Krakatoa”) erupted. Anak Krakatoa has been active since June 2018 & occasionally sending massive plumes of ash high into the sky and in October a tour boat was nearly hit by lava bombs from the erupting volcano. Experts say Anak Krakatoa emerged around 1928 in the caldera of Krakatoa, a volcanic island that violently erupted in 1883. With subsequent lava flows it grew from a submarine setting to become a small volcanic island, with the cone now standing at an altitude of around 300 metres (1,000 feet) above sea level. Since its birth, Anak Krakatoa has been in a “state of semi-continuous eruptive activity”, growing bigger as it experiences eruptions every two to three years. The vast archipelago nation is one of the most disaster-prone nations on Earth due to its position straddling the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire, where tectonic plates collide.

Notes:
The National Consumer Day (NCD) is observed every year in India on 24th December to highlight the importance of the consumer movement and the need to make every consumer more aware of their rights and responsibilities. The 2018 theme is “Timely Disposal of Consumer Complaints”. On this day the Consumer Protection Act, 1986 was enacted. The Act aims to provide consumers with effective safeguards against different types of exploitation, such as defective goods, deficiency in services and unfair trade practices. Recently, the Lok Sabha passed the Consumer Protection Bill of 2018, which seeks to replace the Consumer Protection Act of 1986. It also seeks to establish Consumer Disputes Redressal Commissions at District, State and National level.