i. Armed Forces Flag Day is being observed throughout the country on 7 December to honor the martyrs and the men in uniform who valiantly fought on our borders to safeguard the country’s honor.

ii. The day marks the annual Armed Forces Flag day in India since 1949.

i. Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the BR Ambedkar International Centre in New Delhi. The prime minister also unveiled two statues of the Dalit icon at the center in Janpath.
ii. Union Sports and Youth Affairs Minister Vijay Goel was also present at the event. The center was a fusion of Buddhist and modern architecture. He had laid the foundation stone of the center in 2015.

• BR Ambedkar- Independent India’s first law minister.
• Passed Away: 6 December 1956.
• Place of Birth: Mhow in Central Provinces (currently Madhya Pradesh).

i. The government has set up a high-level committee headed by NITI Aayog chief executive Amitabh Kant to address the problem of stressed assets in India’s power sector.

ii. Non-performing assets (NPAs) in power generation accounted for around 5.9% of the banking sector’s total outstanding advances of Rs4.73 trillion, according to the second volume of the Economic Survey 2016-17.

Government- sets up a high-level committee– headed by NITI Aayog chief executive Amitabh Kant- to address NPAs in India’s power sector.

i. India and Cuba signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for enhanced cooperation in the health sector.

ii. The objective of this MoU is to establish comprehensive inter-ministerial and inter-institutional cooperation between the two countries in the field of health by pooling technical, scientific, financial and human resources in both countries.

i. Union Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Minister, Shri Radha Mohan Singh with H.E Maurizio Martina, Italian Minister for Agriculture Food and Forestry Policies have signed a new MoU for cooperation in Agriculture and Phytosanitary issues that will replace the one signed in 2008.

ii. The MOU provides a good framework for cooperation in this field. India has contributed 37 million USD in the 10th replenishment of IFAD for the period 2016-2018. Mr. Singh with the Italian Minister participated in the AGRIMACH India, 2017.

i. India’s largest digital bank Paytm Payments Bank is the only bank providing zero balance accounts and zero charges on digital transactions. The bank has unveiled ‘Paytm Ka ATM’ outlets that allows customers to open Saving Accounts and deposit/withdraw money from their bank accounts.

ii. In the first phase, Paytm has started with 3,000 ‘Paytm Ka ATM’ points in select cities including Delhi NCR, Lucknow, Kanpur, Allahabad, Varanasi, and Aligarh.

iii. These outlets feature local banking correspondents who help customers in depositing and withdrawing money from their Paytm Payments Bank account, making banking simpler and more accessible for one and all.

i. UNESCO has inscribed ‘Kumbh Mela’ on the Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. The decision was taken during the 12th session of the Intergovernmental Committee on Intangible Cultural Heritage at Jeju in South Korea.

ii. This inscription is the third in two years following the inscriptions of ‘Yoga’ and ‘Nouroz’ on 1st December 2016. The ‘Kumbh Mela’ is the largest peaceful congregation of pilgrims on the earth.