·       The streets of Santiago erupted in celebration after leftist millennial Gabriel Boric became Chile's youngest-ever president-elect with an unexpectedly large victory over his far-right rival in a polarizing race.

·       Boric, 35, garnered nearly 56 per cent of the vote compared to 44 per cent for ultra-conservative Jose Antonio Kast, who conceded even before the final result was known.

·       Boric had campaigned on the promise of installing a "social welfare" state, increasing taxes and social spending in a country with one of the world's largest gaps between rich and poor.

·       Branded a "communist" by his detractors, he vowed in his first official address to "expand social rights" in Chile, but to do so with "fiscal responsibility."

·       Brexit minister, Lord David Frost, has resigned as the man in charge of overseeing matters related to Britain's exit from the European Union (EU) amid opposition to "coercive" lockdown restrictions due to a surge of the Omicron variant of COVID-19.

·       Companies shelled out Rs 1.09 lakh crore towards various CSR activities, including those related to health, education and poverty eradication, under the companies law in the last seven financial years, according to the corporate affairs ministry.

·       Under the Companies Act, 2013, certain class of profitable entities are required to spend at least 2 per cent of their three-year annual average net profit towards Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities during a fiscal.

·       Minister of State for Corporate Affairs Rao Inderjit Singh said on Dec 20 that since the enactment of CSR provision from April 2014, companies are responding positively and have shown encouraging signs in adopting the culture of being responsible towards society.

·      The activities include those related to health, education, poverty eradication, hunger, women empowerment, welfare of armed forces veterans, environment, sports, rural development, slum development and welfare of weaker sections.

·       British architect Richard Rogers, known for designing some of the world's most famous buildings including Paris' Pompidou Centre, has died .

·    The Italian-born architect won a series of awards for his designs, including the 2007 Pritzker Prize, and is one of the pioneers of the "high-tech" architecture movement, distinguished by structures incorporating industrial materials such as glass and steel.

·       Retirement fund body EPFO has added 12.73 lakh net subscribers in October, registering an increase of 10.22 per cent compared to the same month last year, according to the latest payroll data.

·       Of the total 12.73 lakh net subscribers added, 7.57 lakh new members have been enrolled under EPF & MP Act, 1952 for the first time.

·       Approximately 5.16 lakh net subscribers exited but rejoined EPFO by opting to continue their membership with EPFO by transferring their PF accumulations from previous to present PF account instead of opting for final withdrawal .

·       Age-wise comparison of payroll data shows that the age-group of 22-25 years has registered the highest number of net enrolments with 3.37 lakh additions during October, 2021.

·       Age-group of 18-21 also registered a healthy addition of around 2.50 lakh net enrolments.

·       Age-groups of 18-25 years have contributed around 46.12 per cent of total net subscriber additions in October, 2021.

·       State-wise comparison of payroll figures highlights that the establishments covered in the states of Maharashtra, Haryana, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka are in lead by adding approximately 7.72 lakh subscribers during the month, which is around 60.64 per cent of total net payroll addition across all age groups.

·       Gender-wise analysis indicates that net share of female enrolment during the month is 2.69 lakh.

·       Share of female enrolment is approximately 21.14 per cent of the total net subscribers addition during the month of October, 2021.

·       Industry-wise payroll data indicates that 'expert services' category (consisting of manpower agencies, private security agencies and small contractors etc.) constitutes 40.73 per cent of total subscriber addition during the month.

·    The EPFO provides provident fund, pension benefits to the members on their retirement and family pension & insurance benefits to their families in case of untimely death of the member.

·    India's Kidambi Srikanth lost 15-21, 20-22 to Singapore's Loh Kean Yew in the men's singles final of the BWF World Championships in Huelva, Spain on Dec 19 . Srikanth became the first Indian man to take home a silver medal from the competition, with the previous best result by an Indian man being a bronze medal -- Prakash Padukone (1983), HS Prannoy (2019, Lakshya Sen (2021). Earlier, the 28-year-old Srikanth became the first Indian male shuttler to reach the final of the tournament after defeating compatriot Lakshya Sen in the semi-finals. Lakshya finished the tournament with a bronze medal.

·       Surprising, though, it may sound but is true. A drastic decrease in the population of donkeys has been registered in India. An investigative study, conducted by the Brooke India (BI)-the chapter of UK-based international equine charity Boorke through Sharat K Verma, has revealed an overall 61.23% of drastic decrease in the donkey population across the country.

·       He said that the Investigative Study by him is based on the hypothesis that an illegal Donkey Hide Trade (DHT) exists in India.

·       As per the 2012 census of live stocks India had a population of nearly 0.32 million of donkeys which reduced to only 0.12 million as the 2019 Livestock census-giving a drastic decrease of nearly 61.23%.

·       The donkey’s skin is smuggled to many other countries, especially to China for the Ejiao, which used for making some medicines.

·       Star Indian swimmer Srihari Nataraj continued his record-breaking spree at the FINA short course World Championships in Abu Dhabi on Dec 20 , registering his third 'Best Indian time' in the tournament.

·       The 20-year-old clocked 48.65s in the men's 100m freestyle event to better Sajan Prakash's best Indian performance.