Current Affairs in Short: 9 December 2020

Parthiv Patel retires from all forms of cricket

•Wicket-keeper-batsman Parthiv Patel announced his retirement from all forms of cricket on December 9, 2020, bringing down curtains on his 18-year-long career.
•Parthiv Patel made a special note for the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) President Sourav Ganguly, under whose captaincy he had made his debut in international cricket. 
•The wicket-keeper batsman had made his Test debut against England at Trent Bridge in 2002 at the age of 17 years and 153 days, becoming Test cricket's youngest wicket-keeper at the time. Though he was the frontline choice in the longest format of the game for a couple of years, he ended up losing his spot after MS Dhoni’s emergence in international cricket.
•Parthiv Patel had made his ODI debut in 2003 and was a part of the 2003 World Cup squad as well but did not feature in the playing XI. Overall, he played 38 ODIs, 25 Tests and 2 T20Is for India, scoring 1,706 runs across all formats.

Union Cabinet approves Atmanirbhar Bharat Rojgar Yojana

•The Union Cabinet on December 9, 2020 gave its nod to the Atmanirbhar Bharat Rojgar Yojana (ABRY) to boost employment and incentivise creation of new employment opportunities during the COVID-19 recovery phase under Atmanirbhar Bharat Package 3.0.
•The Cabinet has given its nod to expenditure worth Rs 1,584 crore for the current fiscal year and Rs 22,810 crores for the scheme’s entire duration from 2020 to 2023.
•Under the Yojana, the subsidy will be provided for two years in respect of new employees engaged on or after October 1, 2020 and up to June 30, 2021.
•The government will pay both 12 percent employees' contribution and 12 percent employers' contribution, which is 24 percent of wages, towards the Employees' Provident Fund (EPF) in respect of new employees in establishments employing up to 1,000 employees for two years.

AYUSH Ministry, AIIMS to jointly set up Department of Integrative Medicine

•The AYUSH Ministry and AIIMS have decided to initiate work on setting up a Department of Integrative Medicine at AIIMS. This was decided during a joint visit and review by Vaidya Rajesh Kotecha, AYUSH Secretary and Dr. Randeep Guleria, AIIMS Director of the Centre for Integrative Medicine and Research (CIMR) at AIIMS, New Delhi. 
•The CIMR has received notable support through the Centre of Excellence Scheme of the Ministry of AYUSH. Seeing the increased interest of patients at AIIMs in the CIMR, it was decided to further develop a standalone Department for Integrative Medicine at AIIMS in the near future. 
•The department may later be developed with dedicated faculty and staff to make it into a permanent Department at AIIMS.

Cabinet approves MoU between India, Suriname on Cooperation in Health & Medicine field 

•The Union Cabinet on December 9, 2020 gave its approval for the Memorandum of Understanding signed between India and the Republic of Suriname on Cooperation in the field of Health and Medicine.
•The bilateral agreement aims to encourage cooperation between the Union Health Ministry and the and the Ministry of Health of the Government of the Republic of Suriname through joint initiatives and technology development in the health sector. 
•The agreement will strengthen bilateral ties between India and Suriname and leads towards achieving Atmanirbhar Bharat through sharing of expertise in the public health system and promoting mutual research in various relevant areas.

Cabinet approves SEBI proposal to sign bilateral pact between India, Luxembourg

•The Cabinet has approved a proposal by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) to sign a bilateral agreement between India and Luxembourg. 
•The agreement is likely to strengthen cross-border cooperation between the two nations in securities regulations and facilitate mutual assistance and contribute towards the efficient performance of the supervisory functions and enable effective enforcement of the laws and regulations governing the securities markets of India and Luxembourg.
•The bilateral pact will also contribute towards strengthening the information sharing framework, leading to effective enforcement of securities laws. It would also help in establishing a technical assistance programme, which will benefit the authorities by way of consultations on matters relating to capital markets, capacity building activities and training programmes for the staff.

Virat Kohli equals Rohit Sharma's record for most half-centuries in T20Is

•Indian skipper Virat Kohli has equaled the record for most half-centuries in T20Is, which was held till recently by Rohit Sharma.
•Kohli achieved the feat with his 25th half-century during India’s third and final T20I match against Australia at Sydney Cricket Ground. 
•Rohit Sharma had taken 100 innings to reach his 25th half-century in T20Is, while Kohli reached the milestone in his 79th innings. Australia’s David Warner is third on the list with 19 fifties.