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The United Arab Emriates (UAE) government has officially declared 2019 as Year of Tolerance to strengthen the nation’s role of encouraging stability and prosperity in the region. As per officials, the ‘Year of Tolerance’ would be an extension of the current ‘Year of Zayed’, which celebrates the values of the country’s founding father Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan. This year, the UAE announced it will be a global co-ordinator for co-operation within a new Global Tolerance Alliance to promote acceptance around the world. The Special Olympic World Games, to be held in Abu Dhabi from March 14-21 in 2019, are also expected to feature heavily in a year-long series of events promoting tolerance.

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Industry body Nasscom has collaborated with the IIT-Madras for its FutureSkills Platform that is targeted at re-skilling/upskilling 4 million people from the IT-ITeS industry, students entering the workforce and employees of other industries/government on digital skills. The partnership will be directly with the Sector Skills Council (SSC), which is the education and skill development initiative of Nasscom. The SSC and IIT Madras will work towards building a skills academy and establish a program with extensive courses and training programmes to facilitate skill building in the institution.

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Actress Sonam Kapoor has been named People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) India’s Person of the Year for 2018 for her animal advocacy efforts. Sonam has been feted as she sings in praise of vegan eating and because she keeps animal skins out of her handbag line for her fashion brand Rheson, apart from taking other action for the welfare of animals. Past recipients of PETA India’s Person of the Year Award include Anushka Sharma, Sunny Leone, Shashi Tharoor, Kapil Sharma, Hema Malini, R. Madhavan and Jacqueline Fernandez. The motto of PETA India is “Animals are not ours to experiment on, eat, wear, use for entertainment or abuse in any other way”.

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The Department of Posts (DoP) has recently released the commemorative Postage Stamp on Rajkumar Shukla, who was associated with Champaran Satyagraha of 1917. In drawing the attention of Mahatma Gandhi to the plight of peasants suffering under an oppressive system established by European indigo planters in Champaran (Bihar), Rajkumar Shukla made a seminal contribution culminating in the launch of the Champaran Satyagraha in 1917 by Mahatma Gandhi ji. This struggle was a turning point in India’s fight for independence. The DoP has been paying a tribute to eminent personalities who have made a significant contribution to public life especially freedom fighters. With this stamp, the Department has released 43 issues in the current calendar year.

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The European Union (EU) has decided to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from new cars and vans by 2030 despite industry concerns the targets are for now “totally unrealistic”. The targets will require new cars sold in 2030 to emit 37.5% less Co2 on average compared to 2021 levels. Emissions from new vans will have to be 31% lower. Ambassadors from EU countries are expected to endorse the deal in Brussels on 19th December 2018 after the COP24 summit in Poland aimed at breathing new life into the 2015 Paris climate deal. The new law means by 2030 around a third of new cars will be electric or hydrogen-powered. Under the COP21 agreement in Paris, the EU pledged to cut greenhouse gas emissions (like those of carbon dioxide and methane) by 40% of 1990 levels by 2030.

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The Haryana Government has launched ‘Shiksha Setu’ app to ensure better connectivity with college students. It will provide students information on attendance, fee, online admission and scholarships of all government colleges of the state. The app will provide instant updates of important notices, circulars and other programmes to students and teachers, while allowing the former to pay their fee online. During admissions, the students would be able to check the status of seats or course in every college in the state and will also get access to information such as details of scholarships and eligibility conditions among others. Apart from this, the students will also get instant information on assignments and notifications.

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Nageswara Rao, a 1986 batch officer of the Odisha cadre, has been appointed the additional Director of Central Bureau Investigation (CBI). Prior to this post, Rao was holding post of interim CBI Director after the government stepped in between Director CBI Alok Verma and Special Director Rakesh Asthana fight on 24th October 2018. The Centre had sent both top two officers of the CBI – Verma and Asthana – on “compulsory leave” as the spat between them reached the Delhi High Court.

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The 9th meeting of India-ROK Joint Commission (ROK/ South Korea) was held in New Delhi on December 18-19, 2018. South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha co-chaired the meeting with her Indian counterpart Sushma Swaraj and reviewed the progress in multifaceted cooperation under the Special Strategic Partnership between the two countries. Both sides agreed to raise the quantum of the bilateral trade to US $50 billion by the year 2030.

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On December 19, ISRO has successfully launched its military communication satellite GSAT 7A through launch vehicle ‘GSLV-F11’into the orbit from Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SHAR) at Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh. Dubbed ‘Angry Bird’, GSAT 7A is designed to expand network capabilities to the Indian Air Force (IAF) in Ku-band over the Indian region. It will do this by connecting many of the ground radar stations, airbases and aircrafts operated by the IAF, and is also expected to boost some of their network-dependant warfare and drone capabilities. GSLV–F11 is ISRO’s fourth generation launch vehicle with three stages. The four liquid strap-ons and a solid rocket motor at the core form the first stage. The second stage is equipped with a high thrust engine using liquid fuel. The Cryogenic Upper Stage forms the third and final stage of the vehicle. The 2,250 kg GSAT-7A is a geostationary satellite & has a mission life of 8 years.

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Gujarat has emerged as the top performer among States and Union Territories (UT) in the first-ever ranking of the Start-up Ecosystem across the country. The ranking was released by the Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion (DIPP). Gujarat, with 100 percentile, has performed better than all other states in all the 7 areas including start up policy, incubation support, seeding innovation and scaling innovation. Meanwhile, Karnataka, Kerala, Odisha and Rajasthan, with a score of more than 85 percentile, have been adjudged the top performers. Other States, namely, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Telangana were identified as “leaders”.