1. National Mathematics Day is celebrated every year on 22nd December to commemorate the birth anniversary of Srinivasa Ramanujan who is known for his contributions to number theory, mathematical analysis, infinite series and continued fractions. He was born on 22 December 1887 in Tamil Nadu’s Erode district. He is also known for the Hardy-Ramanujan number – ‘1729’. The Government had also declared the year 2012 as the National Mathematics Year.
2. Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel has appointed Manuel Marrero Cruz as the country’s first prime minister in more than 40 years. Marrero, who has served as the tourism minister for 16 years and is an architect by profession, helped boost Cuba’s economy by making tourism one of the engines of growth. The post of “prime minister” was scrapped in 1976 by the then-revolutionary leader Fidel Castro.
3. The Assam Cabinet has decided to request the Centre to amend Article 345 of the Constitution of India to make Assamese as the State Language of the state forever, excluding BTAD, Barak valley and hill districts. The State Cabinet also decided to bring a new bill in the next assembly session securing the land rights for the indigenous people. The cabinet also decided to request the Centre to conclude the Bodo Peace Accord at the earliest.
4. National Security Adviser Ajit Doval and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi held talks on the Sino-India boundary issue on 21st December, 2019 under the framework of the Special Representatives dialogue. The two sides have held 21 rounds of talks under the framework of the SR dialogue, which was set up to find an early solution to the border dispute. The India-China border dispute covers 3,488-km-long Line of Actual Control.
5. Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India, Prof. K Vijay Raghavan launched EChO Network, a national program to provide a template for cross-disciplinary leadership in India with the specific focus of increasing research, knowledge and awareness of the Indian ecology and the environment was launched on 19th December, 2019 in New Delhi. EChO Network would develop a national network to catalyze a new generation of Indians, who can synthesize interdisciplinary concepts and tackle real-world problems in medicine, agriculture, ecology and technology. 
6. Ethiopia’s first-ever satellite ‘Ethiopian Remote Sensing Satellite’ (ETRSS) has been launched into space by China from the Shanxi Province, China. The earth observatory satellite is designed to help the East African nation gather data for agricultural, mining and environmental protection. The 72 kilogram satellite took three years and incurred a total cost of $8 million. This launch makes Ethiopia the 11th African country to put a satellite into space while Egypt was the first in 1998.
7. The Government of India signed a $490 million loan with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) for public-private partnership (PPP) project to upgrade about 1,600 km of state highways and major district roads (MDRs) from single-lane to two-lane widths in Madhya Pradesh. An additional $286 million investment will be mobilised through the private sector participation under the PPP modality. This new project will further open a new partnership by introducing PPP through hybrid-annuity model (HAM). Established in 1966, the ADB is a regional development bank.

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Today’s Quiz:

Q1. On which day is the National Mathematics Day observed every year?

1. December 21
2. December 22
3. December 23
4. December 24

Q2. Who has been appointed as the Prime Minister of Cuba?

1. Miguel Diaz-Canel
2. Manuel Marrero Cruz
3. Fidel Castro
4. Salvador Valdés Mesa

Q3. Who launched Ethiopia’s first-ever satellite into space?

1. India
2. US
3. China
4. Russia

Q4. Which was the first African country to launch a satellite into space?

1. Ethiopia
2. Egypt
3. Nigeria
4. Morocco 

Q5. When was the Asian Development Bank established?

1. 1966
2. 1978
3. 1987
4. 1994

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