·       Opposing the government's decision to raise the legal age of marriage for women, some khap leaders have claimed that it will adversely affect the society and lead to increase in crimes against women.

·       The Union Cabinet had on Dec 15   cleared a proposal to raise the legal age of marriage for women from 18 to 21 years, bringing it at par with that of men.

·       The government is likely to bring a bill in the ongoing Winter Session of Parliament to amend the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006.

·       Ahead of the state polls, Goa BJP MLA and former minister Alina Saldanha resigned from the assembly as well as the ruling party on Dec 16  and later joined the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in New Delhi.

·       Alina Saldanha, a two-time MLA, resigned claiming the BJP was no longer the party which she had joined after the demise of her husband, a former minister who was associated with the saffron outfit, in 2012.

·       Australia and Britain signed a free trade agreement on Dec 17 that will eliminate almost all taxes on exports between the countries.

·       The FTA was signed at a virtual ceremony by Australian Trade Minister Dan Tehan in Adelaide and Britain’s Secretary of State for International Trade Anne-Marie Trevelyan in London.

·       The deal abolishes 99% of taxes on exports, saving Australia about $10 billion on exports including lamb, beef, sugar and dairy. It is expected to save Britain 200 million Australian dollars ($144 million) a year on items such as cars, whisky and cosmetics.

·       Australian agricultural exporters also will have better access to the British market and 40 million Australian dollars ($29 million) a year of tariffs will be removed from Australian wines entering the United Kingdom. Australians and Britons will find it easier to live and work in the other country.

·       Tehan said the deal, which will take effect sometime in 2022, will grow investments and help with the recovery from the pandemic.

·       Britain has aggressively pursued trade agreements after its departure from the European Union. It has touted the deal as its largest “from scratch” agreement to be finalized.

·       The deal may help Britain's bid to gain access to a Pacific Rim trade initiative, the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership, an 11-nation pact that includes Australia.

·       An in-principle deal between the two nations was announced by prime ministers Scott Morrison of Australia and Boris Johnson of Britain in June following months of negotiations.

·    The UK is Australia’s eighth-largest two-way trading partner, worth almost 27 billion Australian dollars in 2018. It is also Australia’s third-largest services trading partner, with Australian service exports valued at 5.5 billion Australian dollars and imports totaling 9.2 billion Australian dollars in the same year.

·       The Democratic People's Republic of Korea, known commonly as North Korea, commemorates the 10th death anniversary of its former leader and current leader Kim Jong-un's father Kim Jong-il, on December 17.

·       The country has allegedly banned its citizens from laughing, shopping and drinking during the 11-day mourning that follows.

·       Kim Jong-il, the son of North Korea's founder Kim Il-sung, was the country's second ruler. He took over after his father's death in 1994 and continued as its leader till his death in 2011, followed by his third son Kim Jong-un.

·    Country's largest lender State Bank of India (SBI) has increased benchmark lending rate or base rate by 0.1 per cent, a move that may be followed by other lenders. With the increase the revised base rate is 7.55 per cent . The new rate is effective from December 15, 2021 .

·       The decision is not going to affect those who have taken loan since January 2019 but those before that. SBI has migrated to External Benchmark Lending Rate (EBLR) linked to repo rate since January 2019. There is no change in EBLR rate and this rate changes with change in benchmark interest rate of Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

·       The bank has also revised the benchmark prime lending rate to 12.3 per cent from 12.2 per cent. With regard to domestic term deposits, the bank has decided to raise it by 0.1 per cent for high value deposits over Rs 2 crore.

·       The Central Board of Reserve Bank on Dec 17 discussed various aspects related to Central Bank Digital Currency and private cryptocurrencies.

·       The RBI in a statement said the 592nd meeting of the Central Board of Directors of Reserve Bank of India was held at Lucknow under the Chairmanship of Governor Shaktikanta Das.

·       Deputy Governors Mahesh Kumar Jain, Michael Debabrata Patra, M Rajeshwar Rao, and T Rabi Sankar were present in the meeting.

·       Other directors of the Central Board Satish K Marathe, S Gurumurthy, Revathy Iyer and Sachin Chaturvedi attended the meeting.  Debasish Panda, Secretary, Department of Financial Services also participated.

·       The government has proposed to bring in legislation on cryptocurrencies.

·       It has listed Cryptocurrency and Regulation of Official Digital Currency Bill, 2021, for consideration in the ongoing Winter Session of Parliament.

·       However, that it may not be taken up during the session scheduled to end next week.

·    Parliament was recently informed that the government had received a proposal from the RBI in October 2021 for the amendment to the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934 to enhance the scope of the definition of 'bank note' to include currency in digital form.

·       Exports of mobile phones have increased from USD 0.2 billion in 2017-18 to USD 1.7 billion in 2021(April 21-September 21). Imports of mobile phones have decreased from USD 3.5 billion in 2017-18 to USD 0.5 billion in 2021(April 21-September 21), said the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.

·       Minister of State Anupriya Patel, in a written reply, informed the Rajya Sabha on Dec 17 that the steps taken by the Centre to increase the domestic manufacturing and export of electronics goods including mobile phones include formulation of Production Linked Incentive Scheme (PLI) for large scale electronics manufacturing, Production Linked Incentive Scheme (PLI) for IT hardware, Scheme for Promotion of Manufacturing of Electronic Components and Semiconductors (SPECS), Modified Electronics Manufacturing Clusters (EMC 2.0) under the National Policy on Electronics, 2019, which envisages to position India as a global hub for Electronics, System Design, and Manufacturing (ESDM).

·    Moreover, FDI up to 100% under the automatic route is permitted for electronics manufacturing subject to applicable laws. Phased Manufacturing Programme (PMP) has been notified to promote domestic value addition in mobile phones and their sub-assemblies / parts manufacturing. Tariff Structure has also been rationalized to promote domestic manufacturing of electronic goods, including Cellular mobile phones.

·       Around 1.05 crore domestic passengers travelled by air in November, 17.03 per cent higher than the 89.85 lakh who travelled in October, the country's aviation regulator said on Dec 17.

·       While IndiGo carried 57.06 lakh passengers in November, a 54.3 per cent share of the domestic market, SpiceJet flew 10.78 lakh passengers, accounting for a 10.3 per cent share of the market, according to the data shared by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).

·       Air India, Go First (previously known as GoAir), Vistara, AirAsia India and Alliance Air carried 9.98 lakh, 11.56 lakh, 7.93 lakh, 6.23 lakh and 1.20 lakh passengers, respectively, in November, the data showed.