A 34-year-old transport minister and lawmaker has been tapped to become Finland's youngest prime minister ever and its third female government leader.

Finland's ruling Social Democratic Party council voted 32-29 late Sunday to name Sanna Marin over rival Antti Lindtman to take over the government's top post from incumbent Antti Rinne.

Having emerged as Finland's largest party in the April election, the Social Democrats can appoint one of their own to the post of prime minister in the Nordic nation of 5.5 million.

Marin has been the party's vice chairwoman, a lawmaker since 2015 and served as until this week as the minster for transport and communications. According to Finland's biggest newspaper Helsingin Sanomat and the Ilta-Sanomat tabloid, Marin will become the world's youngest sitting prime minister.

The Bangabandhu Bangladesh Premier League (BBPL) took off to a glittering start on Sunday in Dhaka with scintillating firework and musical performances by Bangladeshi and Indian singers. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina inaugurated the special edition of the T20 cricket championship to mark Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s birth centenary in 2020.

In the first part of the opening ceremony, popular singers from Bangladesh Moidul Islam Khan Shuvo, James, Momtaz and others gave performances at the packed Sher-e-Bangla stadium in Dhaka. It was followed with Indian singers Sonu Nigam and Kailash Kher along with Salman Khan and Katrina Kaif entertaining the audiences with live performances.

A total of 7 teams are participating in the BBPL event. They will play 46 matches including the 4 play off matches. The BBPL final will be held on January 17, 2020. The first match of the BBPL will be played on Wednesday with Chattogram Challengers taking on Sylhet Thunder in the opening match.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi participated in the 54th DGsP/IGsP Conference in Pune on December 7-8, 2019. Apart from leading the discussions and giving valuable suggestions over the past two days, The Prime Minister addressed the valedictory session of the Conference on SUNDAY evening. The Prime Minister also awarded the President's police medals for distinguished service to officers of the Intelligence Bureau.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi participated in the 54th DGsP/IGsP Conference in Pune on December 7-8, 2019. Apart from leading the discussions and giving valuable suggestions over the past two days, he addressed the valedictory session of the Conference on sunday, 8th December evening. He also awarded the President's police medals for distinguished service to officers of the Intelligence Bureau.

Commending the Conference for generating good inputs on policy planning and implementation, Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid emphasis on emergence of concrete outcomes from the finalized action points. He appreciated the meticulous efforts made by the country's police forces for maintaining general peace and tranquility in the country and ensuring normalcy.

In a bid to promote digital transactions, Reserve Bank has said that round-the-clock transactions will be allowed under the National Electronic Funds Transfer (NEFT) system from December 16. RBI said that the 24x7 NEFT system will be available on all days of the year, including holidays.

NEFT transactions are settled in hourly batches. For weekdays, the batches are from 8 am to 7 pm. On first and third Saturdays, the settlement happens from 8 am to 1 pm. 

Retired IPS officer K Vijay Kumar has been appointed as senior security advisor in the Ministry of Home Affairs.

In his new role, the former police officer will be primarily responsible for advising the home ministry on all security-related matters pertaining to the newly-constituted Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir. He will also be advising the ministry on security issues of states affected by Left-wing extremism.

Vijay Kumar had earlier served as advisor to the Governor of the erstwhile state of Jammu & Kashmir, before its reconstitution into a Union Territory comprising of the Jammu and Kashmir regions, separate from Ladakh.

The ties between India and Bangladesh transcend the strategic partnership. Speaking at a function in Dhaka on Friday to commemorate the 48th anniversary of India granting recognition to Bangladesh, India's High Commissioner to Bangladesh Riva Ganguly Das said that bilateral relationship between the two countries is at an all time high. She said that India accords top priority to its relationship with Bangladesh.

The multi dimensional relationship between the two countries cover not only traditional areas like trade, commerce, security and border management but also new areas such as IT, space and nuclear science among others. 

Riva Ganguly Das said that India is a committed development partner of Bangladesh with a credit line worth 8 billion US dollars of which 80 percent is earmarked for infrastructure and connectivity sector.

Saudi Arabia, state oil company Aramco has set a share price for its much-anticipated initial public offering.

According to reports, Aramco has set a share price that will value the company's initial public offering (IPO) at 25.6 billion Dollar, making it the largest ever seen. In a statement, Aramco said that the IPO will consist of 3 billion shares, or 1.5% of the company, offered for 8.00 to 8.53 Dollar per share. The Saudi's state-owned crude oil company had announced in November that it would be putting shares up for sale.

The move is part of the country's plan to diversify its economy away from its dependence on oil and increase the country's sovereign wealth fund for investment in other projects.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on December 5 released final guidelines and opened the window for applicants to approach the regulator at any point of time for 'on-tap' licensing of Small Finance Banks (SFBs).

The minimum paid-up voting equity capital or net worth requirement has been set at Rs 200 crore,  up from Rs 100 crore as set earlier.

For primary urban cooperative banks that intend to convert into SFB, RBI said that the initial requirement of net worth shall be at Rs 100 crore, which will have to be increased to Rs 200 crore within five years from the date of commencement of business.

Canada’s largest pension fund manager Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) has committed to invest up to $600 million in National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF).

The investment would be made through a $150 million commitment in the master fund of NIIF and co-investment rights of up to $450 million in future opportunities to invest alongside the master fund.

Post the funding, CPPIB will become a shareholder in NIIF’s investment management company.

“With this fourth close of the NIIF Master Fund, we are pleased that the fund has achieved its initial target size of $2.1 billion with domestic and international investors of the highest reputation and quality. We thank all our investors, and the Government of India, particularly the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of External Affairs, for their strong support," said Sujoy Bose, managing director and chief executive officer of NIIF.

Union Home Ministry has sanctioned a sum 100 crore rupees from Nirbhaya Fund for setting up and strengthening of Women Help Desks in Police Stations.

This scheme would be implemented by the States and Union Territories.

The Help Desks would focus on making the Police Stations more women-friendly and approachable, as they would be the first and single point of contact for any woman walking into a police station.

Essentially, lady police officers would be deployed at these help desks.

The officials of Women Help Desk would be trained to be sensitive towards women.