→ A sub-machine gun designed by the DRDO has successfully undergone the defence ministry’s user trials.

→ Ashraf Patel has won the Social Entrepreneur of the Year award instituted by the Schwab Foundation and Jubilant Bhartia Foundation.

→ AstraZeneca plc has partnered with Russia’s Gamaleya Research Institute, Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) and R-Pharm.

→ Austria’s Sabrina Filzmoser and Brazil’s Flavio Canto have been appointed as International Judo Federation (IJF) climate ambassadors.

→ Best-selling author Amish has announced a new non-fiction book Dharma: Decoding the Epics for a Meaningful Life.

→ Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has partnered with Skylotech India (Skylo), a global machine connectivity solutions company, to launch satellite-based narrow band-Internet of things (NB-IoT).

→ Bill Gates was conferred with the Life-time Achievement Award at the TiE Global Summit 2020 held virtually.

→ Former champion Chennai City FC appointed Satyasagara as the team’s new head coach for the upcoming I-League season.

→ Housing and Urban Affairs Secretary Durga Shanker Mishra has launched a programme of Socio-Economic Profiling of PM SVANidhi beneficiaries and their families, as an additional component of PM SVANidhi Scheme.

→ India has contributed US$ 2 million to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).

→ Maharashtra’s Dept of Social Justice has launched the MahaSharad Digital Platform on 12 December 2020.

→ NGO HelpAge India received the “2020 UN Population Award” in the institutional category for its contribution towards serving disadvantaged elderly people and raising awareness on their cause.

→ Paolo Rossi of Italy, who scored 6 goals in the 1982 World Cup, passed away.

→ Prime Minister Narendra Modi has addressed the International Bharathi Festival 2020 through video conferencing.

→ RBL Bank and ICICI Prudential have joined hands under a bancassurance partnership.

→ The 17th edition of the annual flower show of Nagpur’s Hislop College was inaugurated on December 12, 2020.

→ The 5th India Water Impact Summit (IWIS) kicked off on 10th December 2020 virtually.

→ The Finance Ministry has approved ₹9,879.61 crore worth capital expenditure proposals of 27 states.

→ The Finance Ministry informed that banks have sanctioned loans worth ₹2,05,563 crore to about 81 lakh accounts under the ₹3-lakh crore Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS) for the MSME sector.

→ The launch of communication satellite CMS-01 onboard the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C50), is scheduled on 17 Dec’20 from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota.

→ The Manila-based Asian Development Bank (ADB) has launched an initiative called, the Asia Pacific Vaccine Access Facility (APVAX), for its developing member countries.

→ The manure-making machine ‘Bhu Siri’ and soil testing equipment ‘Bhu Mitra’ developed by Hi-Tech Agriculture Chairman Dr Nagaraj Hegde was unveiled by Karnataka CM on 12 Dec 2020.

→ The Ministry of Agriculture has declared Lakshadweep as India’s first Union Territory to become 100 per cent organic.

→ The Russian navy will take part in military drills with multiple NATO members for the first time since 2011.

→ The union government will merge all the higher education regulators including the University Grants Commission (UGC) and All Indian Council for Technical Education (AICTE) to create a single education commission in 2021.

→ US President-elect, Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris have been jointly named Time magazine’s 2020 “Person of the Year”.