Senior politician Tulsi Giri has passed away on 18 December. He was the Former Prime minister of;

Indian Coast Guard vessel Veera commissioned by General Bipin Rawat, Chief of Army Staff in the presence of Director General of Indian Coast Guard Rajendra Singh, Chief of Eastern Naval Command Vice Admiral Karambir Singh and other senior dignitaries of the central and state government in a ceremony organised at Eastern Naval Command in Vishakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh. Veera, the third in the series of the new generation Offshore Patrol Vessel (OPV) is under the administrative and operational command of the coast guard regional headquarters. This is indigenously designed and built by Larsen & Toubro Ltd. at its shipbuilding facility at Kattupali in Chennai. The 98 meters long, 15-metre wide patrol vessel has a 3.6-metre draft and a range of 5,000 nautical miles.

The article titled 'Coalgate 2.0' authored by Nileena M S and published in The Caravan magazine in March 2018 has won the ACJ Award for Investigative Journalism, 2018. The award, which comprises a trophy, a citation, and Rs. 2,00,000 cash prize. It was presented to the winner by John Micklethwait, Editor-in-Chief of Bloomberg News, who was the chief guest at the journalism school's annual convocation ceremony. On 3rd May, the final jury comprising Gopalkrishna Gandhi, Nilita Vachani and Dr A R Venkatachalapathy unanimously decided on Nileena's work as the winner. The article is has been recognised for its detailed, exhaustive and persuasive investigation and its clear exposition. It also met the criteria of what comprises a solid work of investigative journalism, combining extensive research uncovering new evidence to reveal a truth, hitherto unknown to most, and of essential public interest.

Filmmaker and former director of Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), John Sankaramangalam, died due to age related ailments in Thiruvalla, Kerala. John Sankaramangalam was 84 years old. He hailed from Pathanamthitta in Kerala. He had received two National and four Kerala State Film Awards. He had directed several experimental movies and documentaries. He had secured a diploma in direction and screenplay writing from FTII. Later, he became the director of FTII.

NASA's Anne McClain and Nick Hague took a spacewalk on 22nd March to replace ageing batteries on the International Space Station. Two American astronauts worked for several hours to swap three nickel-hydrogen batteries with more powerful lithium-ion ones. The duo overcame minor struggles in their first task, which involved attaching a tool bag on one of the station's trusses for possible future use. The space station uses solar panels to generate power but the batteries are used when it is in the dark and not getting power from the sun.

Swargate Multimodal Hub' in Pune, Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis arrived at Jalgaon, attending the Jan Jati Sammelan organised by Krantikari Khajyaji Naik Smruti Sanstha at Dharangaon. Kranti Kari Khajyaji Naik gave immense contribution during the freedom struggle. CM Fadnavis approves Rs 15 crores for the memorial of Krantikari Khajyaji Naik in Maharashtra.

INS Trikand, the frontline warship of the Indian Navy, participated in a multi-national training exercise 'CUTCLASS EXPRESS 2019'. The annual Exercise Cutlass Express is sponsored by U.S. Africa Command (USAFRICOM) and conducted by Naval Forces Africa (NAVAF). It is the eighth iteration of the annual multinational maritime exercise and was held in the vicinity of Djibouti, Mozambique and Seychelles. The aim of the exercise was to improve law enforcement capacity, promote regional security and progress inter-operability between the armed forces of the participating nations for the purpose of prohibiting illegal maritime activity in the Western Indian Ocean.

The Defence Ministry has awarded a contract of worth Rs.6,311 crore to Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers Limited (GRSE) to build eight anti-submarine warfare shallow watercraft (ASWSWC) for the Indian Navy. As per the agreement, the first ship is to be delivered within 42 months from the date of signing of the contract and subsequently, two ships are required to be delivered per year. The eight vessels are to be delivered between 2022 and 2027. The vessels are equipped with highly advanced state-of-the-art integrated platform management systems including propulsion machinery, auxiliary machinery, power generation, and distribution machinery and damage control machinery, etc.

Google's Next Billion Users (NBU) team announced the national roll-out of its Neighbourly app in Delhi and Bangalore. It will help people by sourcing local information from their neighbors about their neighbourhood in an easier way.The full-fledged app offers services in 8 vernacular languages and is a targeted app with a geographic radius between 1 to 5 km. The initial phase was tested in Mumbai, followed by Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Mysuru, Vizag, Kochi and Coimbatore. Henceforth more Indian cities like Chennai, Hyderabad, Pune, and Kolkata would be covered.