Top five news stories to watch out for on December 23, 2019

External Affairs Minister Jaishankar will be visiting Iran as part his trip to West Asian countries of Iran, He is slated to visit Oman in the coming days.

President Ram Nath Kovind likely to visit Puducherry and address the 27th annual convocation of the Pondicherry University on December 23:  President Kovind is presently on his annual southern sojourn and is likely to return at Rashtrapati Nilayam, Hyderabad later in the month.Puducherry Lt Governor Kiran Bedi, Chief Minister V Narayanasamy, Members of Parliament from Puducherry V Vaithilingam and NGokulakrishnan and the University Vice Chancellor Gurmeet would be among those present at the convocation. Earlier last week The Pondicherry University’s student council said it will boycott the annual convocation, which will be presided over by President Ram Nath Kovind.

RBI's 'Operation Twist' to take place on December 23: The special open market operations (OMO) announced by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) late Thursday is aimed at addressing the hardening in longer-tenor bond. The OMO will involve a simultaneous buy and sale of government securities, worth Rs 10,000 crore on December 23 - purchasing 6.45 per cent government bonds maturing in 2029 and simultaneously selling the same amount of short-term bonds maturing in 2020.Read more

Counting of votes for the five phase Jharkhand polls will take place on December 23: The assembly polls to the 81-member assembly in the state were held in five phases as well in 2014.The BJP is in power in the state and an alliance of opposition parties, mainly the Congress and the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, is making a determined bid to oust the government headed by Chief Minister Raghubar Das.Also read

Maharasthra Cabinet expansion is likely to take place on December 23: Uddhav Thackeray was sworn in as the chief minister of Maharashtra on November 28 along with six ministers -- two each from alliance partners the Shiv Sena, NCP and the Congress.Thackeray held talks with NCP chief Sharad Pawar and Congress general secretary Mallikarjun Kharge in Nagpur last week over the expansion of the council of ministers.Portfolios in the Maha Vikas Aghadi government were allotted earlier this month.