1. Mali president announces new Prime Minister

Malian President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita announced that his brother, Prime Minister Modibo Keita, has been replaced by Abdoulaye Idrissa Maiga by way of presidential decree. Maiga was serving as defense minister of Mali. The previous prime minister, Modibo Keita, had served as prime minister since 2015.

2. Vineet Chowdhary appointed chief secy to Himachal govt

Vineet Chowdhary, a 1982 batch IAS officer of Himachal cadre, was appointed chief secretary to the Himachal government.

Chowdhary replaced Vidya Charan Pharka, who was appointed chief secretary on June 1, 2016, superseding six senior IAS officers, including Chowdhary who had proceeded on leave under protest.

3. Om Prakash Singh is UP’s new DGP

Om Prakash Singh will be the new Director General of Police of Uttar Pradesh.  He will succeed incumbent Sulkhan Singh.

Till the new appointee takes charge, Anand Kumar, additional director general (Law and Order) will look after the day-to-day affairs.

4. Delhi transport dept may use QR codes to track autos, cabs

With an aim to boost passenger safety, the Delhi Transport department is working on a QR code based system to keep a tab on the autorickshaws and cabs plying on city roads.

The department would set up a control room at its headquarters in Civil Lines, so that autorickshaws and cabs could be tracked while ferrying passengers.

QR code stickers on cabs and autorickshaws would enable the passengers to have the details of the driver which they could also share with others through their smartphones.

5. Vikas Samiksha Yatra

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has laid foundation stones for more than 100 projects worth Rs 700 crore in Nalanda district as part of his state-wide “Vikas Samiksha Yatra”.

At Chamera village in Ekangarsarai block, the Kumar dedicated to the public 132 projects worth Rs 97.63 crore in addition to the 114, worth Rs 698.65 crore, for which foundation stones were laid.

6. Arunachal Pradesh declared Open Defecation Free

Arunachal Pradesh has emerged as the second state in the Northeast, after Sikkim, to be declared Open Defecation Free. The three remaining districts – Upper Subansiri, Siang and Changlang — were declared Open Defecation Free (ODF) officially.

Arunachal has 21 districts and the state attained the feat much before the national deadline of October 2, 2019. The state government also launched Swachh Arunachal Mission on October 2 this year at Tawang which envisaged the Swachh Protocol (Cleanliness Protocol) aimed at ensuring sustainability of assets created under SBM (Gramin).

7. CM launches programme to provide electricity to all villages

Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das has launched “Saubhagya Yojana”, a programme that would provide electricity to all the 29,376 villages in the state.

Launching the “Saubhagya Yojana” here, Das said only 38 lakh households out of 68 lakh households in the state could get electricity in 67 years.

8. Turkey, Russia sign deal on supply of S-400 missiles

Turkey and Russia have signed an accord for Moscow to supply Ankara with S-400 surface-to-air missile batteries, Turkish authorities said, finalizing a deal set to deepen military ties between NATO member Turkey and the Kremlin.

The S-400 deal, reportedly worth some $2.5 billion and in the works for more than a year, has worried the West because the system cannot be integrated into NATO’s military architecture.

As part of NATO’s collective defense pledge, the allies integrate their ships, planes and weapons systems to make them work together, as well as sharing command across the alliance.

9. Kapur wins third title of the year

Indian golfer Shiv Kapur today produced a dramatic turnaround in the closing stages to win the Royal Cup and end the year on a high note by claiming his third Asian Tour title of 2017

The 35-year-old, who had just one win in almost 11 years till April this year, has now won three times in last eight months.

Kapur first won on Asian Tour in his debut season in December 2005, but it took more than 11 years and four months for the next Asian Tour win, which came in April 2017.

10. Educationist Pylee passes away

Renowned educationist M V Pylee died. He was 98. An authority on the Constitution of India and a pioneer in the field of management education in the country, Pylee had served as Vice Chancellor of Cochin University of Science and Technology (CUSAT) from 1977 to 1981.

He was also a visiting professor at various foreign universities.  Pylee was awarded Padma Bhushan in 2006.