Notes:
The Madhya Pradesh government has declared the Kuno Wildlife Sanctuary (KWS) as National Park in compliance with the last condition imposed by a Supreme Court-appointed committee for the much awaited ‘translocation of Asiatic lions from Gir in Gujarat’. The move is expected to pave way for translocation of lions from Gir National Park (GNP) in Gujarat to Kuno. The Palpur-Kuno Wildlife Sanctuary is located in Sheopur district of Gwalior division & has been chosen as a second home for over 500 Asiatic lions. It is spread over 750 sq km area.

Notes:
On December 26, Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh has been conferred the “Champions of Change” award by Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu for exemplary leadership in bringing about transformation in governance in the Northeastern state at an event organized at Vigyan Bhavan in New Delhi. The other awardees included Union Minister of State for Food Processing Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti, Union Minister for Tribal Affairs Sudarshan and Member of Parliament Nishikant Dubey. The award was instituted by the Centre to identify remarkable progress made in 115 “aspirational” districts whose development is being monitored by NITI Aayog. The event was attended by eminent jurists, politicians, social leaders etc. The award is an initiative of the Interactive Forum of Indian Economy, a Government of India (GoI) recognized NGO.

Notes:
Aadi Sai Vijaykaran, a 13-year-old from Chennai, has created history by winning the Junior Debate Championship at the World Scholar’s Cup held at Yale University, the USA from November 16-21. He has been adjudged the world’s best School debater at a global contest. This is the first time an individual from India has won the coveted title. The theme for the cup was ‘An Entangled World: diplomacy, human relationships, the science of memory, and literature, art’. Vijaykaran is a trained Carnatic musician, has a black belt in Karate, plays chess and football.

Notes:
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has constituted an expert committee, headed by its former governor Dr. Bimal Jalan, to review the existing Economic Capital Framework (ECF). The purpose of the committee is to suggest how the central bank should handle its reserves and whether it can transfer its surplus to the Government of India (GoI). The six-member panel has former deputy RBI governor Rakesh Mohan as its vice chairman and comprises economic affairs secretary Subhash Chandra Garg, RBI central board members Bharat Doshi and Sudhir Mankad and deputy governor NS Vishwanathan. It will review the need and justification of various provisions, reserves and buffers that RBI has maintained for contingency purposes and suggest an adequate level of risk provisioning. It will submit its report within 90 days of its first meeting.

Notes:
Russia has successfully tested a new hypersonic nuclear weapon delivery system , named “Avangard”, from the Dombarovskiy missile base in the southern Ural Mountains. It successfully hit a practice target on the Kura shooting range on Kamchatka, 6,000 kilometers (3,700 miles) away. The Avangard hypersonic glide vehicle flies 27 times faster than the speed of sound, which makes it impossible to intercept. It has been claimed the Avangard system is designed using new composite materials to withstand temperatures of up to 2000 degrees Celsius that come from a flight through the atmosphere at hypersonic speeds. As per officials, the Avangard could be fitted to the Soviet-made UR-100UTTKh intercontinental ballistic missile, which is code-named SS-19 Stiletto by NATO. Russia claims its new weapons will be more nimble and can change direction making them far harder to track and intercept.