·       Delhi batter Yash Dhull will lead a 20-member India squad in the upcoming Under-19 Asia Cup scheduled to be held in the UAE from December 23.

·       There will be a preparatory camp in Bengaluru ahead of the tournament and the governing body also named a 25-member squad for the same, which includes five standby players.

·    Dhull was a leading run-getter in the Vinoo Mankad Trophy earlier this year.

·    The Board, however, said that India's squad for the U-19 World Cup slated for January-February next year in the West Indies will be announced later .

·       Two-time defending champions India have won the ACC U-19 Asia Cup six times in the last eight editions, while sharing the trophy with Pakistan in 2012.

·       The Indian Air Force (IAF) has launched a tri-services Court of Inquiry (CoI) to look into every aspect of the ill-fated MI-17 V5 Helicopter which crashed in Coonoor, Tamil Nadu leading to the death of India's first Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Bipin Rawat and 12 others.

·       The Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has said that the IAF has ordered a tri-service inquiry into the military chopper crash. The investigation will be led by Air Marshal Manavendra Singh.

·       Air Marshal Manavendra Singh is currently the Air Officer Commander in Chief, Training Command which takes care of the entire training related issues of the IAF.

·    Air Marshal Singh was Commissioned in December 1982 and is himself a helicopter pilot with an experience of more than 6600 flying hours. Among the other appointments during his long career he also has served as the Director General Inspection and Flight Safety. ​

·       The demise of Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat  came as a shock, for it was the loss of the senior-most serving military officer of the country who had more than an year to complete his three-year tenure.

·       Maj Gen SB Asthana (retd) said, “The Chief of Defence Staff is also the Permanent Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee. So logically, the senior most services chief should officiate as the CDS till the time the government selects the incumbent.”

·       The position of CDS, created on 31 December, 2019, is critical and is vested with a whole lot of powers influencing procurement and modernization, promotions, and postings. And, India is continuing with the tense deployment along the Chinese borders and a volatile environment in the neighbourhood.

·       It won’t be an easy exercise as Air Chief ACM VR Chaudhari and Navy Chief Admiral R Hari Kumar have taken charge recently.  Army Chief General MM Naravane retires in April.

·       The Supreme Court has stayed the criminal proceedings against two women journalists ( Samridhi Sakunia and Swarna Jha ) and media house (Theo Connect Pvt Ltd) booked by the Tripura police for their reporting on alleged communal violence in the State.

·       The top court also stayed the proceedings against a third journalist, (Arti Ghargi ) an Associate Editor in the same media house, who was recently summoned by the police in connection with the reports on violence.

·       Authorities in New Delhi have   issued show-cause notices to Air India and Vistara for not complying with passenger boarding guidelines issued by the Centre following the emergence of Omicron variant of the coronavirus.

·       They said four international passengers, one in Air India and three from Vistara, were allowed to board flights without filling their self-declaration forms (SDF).

·    According to the guidelines issued by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on November 30, airlines are directed to allow boarding to only those international passengers who have filled up their personal details on Air Suvidha portal and uploaded the negative RT-PCR test report.

·       The Jharkhand government has  announced an ex-gratia of Rs 50,000 each for the kin of 5,133 people who died of COVID-19 in the state, Health and Disaster Management Minister Banna Gupta said.

·       Gupta said Rs 25.26 crore will be transferred to the accounts of the kin of the deceased.

·       Switzerland's parliament on Dec 8  selected Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis to become the rich Alpine country's next president on New Year's Day.

·    The choice of Cassis, 60, was largely a formality after he was chosen as vice president a year ago.

·       Switzerland's presidency rotates every year among the seven members of the executive Federal Council, and the president serves as the first among equals.

·       Cassis, the first president from Switzerland's Italian-speaking Ticino region this century, will succeed President Guy Parmelin on Jan.1.

·       Switzerland has more than 100 bilateral treaties with the EU.

·       Cassis, who has a medical degree and practiced as a doctor specialising in internal medicine, is a fluent speaker of German, French and Italian, Switzerland's three main languages.

·       Canada will join the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia in a diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympics over human rights concerns, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said.

·       The announcement came after the White House, the Australian government and the UK government confirmed diplomatic boycotts of the Winter Games in February to protest Chinese human rights abuses. China has vowed to react with "firm countermeasures".

·       The diplomatic moves by Canada, the US, Britain and Australia do not affect their athletes' ability to compete in the games.

·       Rights groups have called for a full-blown boycott of the Beijing Winter Games, citing Chinese human rights abuses against its Uyghur minority in the northwest Xinjiang province, which some have called genocide.

·       They also point to Beijing's suppression of democratic protests in Hong Kong and a sweeping crackdown on dissent in the semi-autonomous territory.