# New parliament building

• On 10th December, ground breaking ceremony of the new parliament building was done by PM Narendra modi .

• The ceremony included an all faith prayer and rituals by priests from the Sringeri sharda peetham, Karnataka.

• PM modi said, the new parliament building will be the amalgamation of the new and the ancient and reflects also the spirit of fostering change in oneself adapting to changing circumstances,

• some of the features of the new building: shape-triangular, Total area: 64,500 square metres. Main spaces: lok sabha, rajya sabha and central lounge.

• Theme of interior: Lok sabha- peacock (national bird), Rajya sabha- Lotus (national flower), Central lounge- Banyan (national tree). Capacity- lok sabha-888 seats (current capacity-552), Rajya sabha- 384 seats.

• The Lok sabha will also have an additional capacity, upto 1272 seats, to host joint sessions.

# HelpAge India

• HelpAge India has been presented the United nations population award(UNPA) for 2020 (institutional category).

• UNPA was established by United nations general assembly in 1981. It recognises contributions in the fields of population and reproductive health.

• This committee of UNPA, which made the selections, is chaired by Ion Jinga, the permanent representative of Romania to the UN.

• This is the first time an Indian institution is getting this award. Prior to this, in 1992, JRD Tata got this award in personal capacity.

# Lawsuits on facebook

• Facebook Inc could be forced to sell whatsapp and instagram after the US federal trade commission and nearly every US states filed lawsuits against the company.

• The main allegation against the company is that, it used a “buy or bury” strategy to snap up rivals and keep smaller competitors at bay.

# Anthrax kills elephants

• The authorities in eastern Assam’s Dibrugarh district have undertaken a drive to vaccinate livestock around the Joypur rainforest after anthrax was confirmed as the cause of the death of two female elephants a week ago.

• This is the second case of Anthrax in the state after two asiatic water buffaloes died in the Pobitra wildlife sanctuary (mini kaziranga) in october 2019.

• Anthrax is a disease caused by Bacillus anthracis, a spore forming bacteria.

# India-nepal relations

• India and Nepal have decided to launch an air bubble arrangement for restarting commercial flights.

• This proposal was cleared during foreign secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla’s recent visit to Kathmandu.

• Also, India and Nepal agreed for the construction of a fast track rail project connecting India and Kathmandu.

• This move is significant as China is also working on a project to connect Tibet to Kathmandu.

• The width of the railway tracks of China and India to Kathmandu will be different.

• India’s rail tracks will be 1,676 milimeter broad gauge and China’s rail track will be 1,435 milimeter broadgauge.

# Israel-morocco ties

• Morocco has become the fourth Arab nation this year to recognise Israel.

• Prior to this, Bahrain, Sudan and the UAE has already recognised Israel as a sovereign state.

# Economy

• Indian oil corporation, the country’s top refiner, is back at full capacity for first time since february.

• Asian development bank (ADB) narrows India’s FY 21  GDP contraction projection to 8%.

# Today in India’s history

• 1845 – First battle between britishers and sikhs. In 1849, punjab lost its independence. This is reffered as first anglo sikh war.

• 1968 – Indian born Har govind khorana receives the nobel prize for medicine and physiology.