Current Affairs December 2019 - Reports

1 - India ranked 129^th in Human Development Index 2019

India inched up one spot to rank 129^th out of 189 countries on the 2019 Human Development Index (HDI) released by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The report found that despite progress where 27.1 crore people were lifted out of poverty from 2005-06 to 2015-16, group-based inequalities persist in India, especially affecting women and girls. Norway topped the index followed by Switzerland, Ireland and Germany in top five list.

2019 Human Development Report (HDR) was titled as “Beyond income, beyond averages, beyond today, inequalities in human development in the 21^st Century’.

2 - Maharashtra topped India Skills Report 2019

India Skills Report 2019 showing status of employability of citizens and availability of employment in cities, was released jointly by the Confederation of Indian Industry, All India Council for Technical Education, United Nations Development Programme and Association of Indian University.

Key findings

Maharashtra topped the list of states with the highest employable talent, followed by Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh.
Mumbai, Hyderabad and Pune stood out as the most employable cities.
About 46.21% students were found employable or ready to take up jobs in 2019.
Most employable candidates as per the courses were MBA Students.

3 - Global Climate Risk Index 2020 released

Global Climate Risk Index 2020, published by environmental think tank Germanwatch was released.

Japan, being most vulnerable country to climate change topped the index. Japan was followed by Philippines, Germany, Madagascar and India in the top 5 list. Due to severe impact of southwest monsoon in Kerela in 2018, India was ranked fifth most vulnerable country globally to climate change.

The Global Climate Risk Index 2020 analyses to what extent countries and regions have been affected by impacts of weather-related loss events.

4 - India ranked 5^th worst country in terms of invasive use of biometric data

Comparitech, a Britain-based tech research firm’s report on extensive and invasive use of biometric data unveiled that India is the fifth worst country for people's privacy and biometric data collection. China topped the index followed by Malaysia, Pakistan and United States in terms of extensive and invasive use of biometric data.

Ireland, Portugal, Cyprus, the UK and Romania emerged as the five best countries for biometric data collection. Researchers analysed 50 different countries where biometrics are being taken.

5 - Nirmala Sitharaman ranked 34^th in Forbes’ 100 Powerful Women of 2019

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has been ranked 34^th in the world's 100 most powerful women by Forbes. The Forbes 2019 list of ‘The World's 100 Most Powerful Women’ has been topped by German Chancellor Angela Merkel. President of the European Central Bank Christine Lagarde is second while Speaker of the US House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi is third.

Nadar Malhotra, CEO of HCL Corporation, is ranked 54^th on the list and Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw of Biocon is 65^th.

6 - India ranked 63^rd in World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business Report 2020

India ranked 63^rd among 190 countries in World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business Report 2020 improving by 14 ranks from its rank of 77 in 2019. New Zealand topped the list followed by Singapore, Hong Kong, Denmark, Korea and U.S.A. in top five. In Doing Business 2020, the 10 top improvers are Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Togo, Bahrain, Tajikistan, Pakistan, Kuwait, China, India, and Nigeria.

All of the 20 top ranking economies have online business incorporation processes, have electronic tax filing platforms, and allow online procedures related to property transfer. Doing Business 2020 acknowledged 22 reforms in the 20 top-ranking economies.

7 - India slipped to 112^th place on WEF’s Global Gender Gap Report

India ranked 112^th in terms of gender gap among 153 countries surveyed in the World Economic Forum's (WEF's) Global Gender Gap Report 2020. The report unveiled that India is the only country where the economic gender gap is larger than the political gender gap.

Iceland topped the report and remained the world’s most gender-neutral country followed by Norway (2^nd), Finland (3^rd) and Sweden (4^th). Yemen was ranked the worst (153^rd) in the report. Other economies in the top 10 included Nicaragua, New Zealand, Ireland and Spain.

8 - India is world’s third largest producer of scientific articles: US Report

According to latest report by US National Science Foundation (NSF), India emerged as the world's third largest publisher of science and engineering articles. China topped the list with 20.67% of all global publications in scientific articles followed by U.S at 2^nd position.

India published 1,35,788 science and engineering articles and 1.35 lakh scientific papers in 2018. Countries who made it to top ten were Germany (1,04,396), Japan (98,793), UK (97,681), Russia (81,579), Italy (71,240), South Korea (66,376) and France (66,352).

9 - Bangladesh topped WEF Gender Gap Report in South Asia

Bangladesh is the only country in South Asia to feature in the top 50 of the Global Gender Gap Report 2020 released by the World Economic Forum (WEF). Bangladesh retained its position at the 50^th rank in the index that measures gender gap in political, economic and social spheres in a country.

Iceland is the most gender-equal country in the world for the 11^th time in a row. It is followed by Norway, Finland and Sweden. India has slipped to 112^th position.

10 - Tamil Nadu topped ‘Good Governance Index’

Tamil Nadu state topped the Good Governance Index released by the Government of India. Other states such as Maharashtra (2^nd), Karnataka (3^rd), Chhattisgarh (4^th) and Andhra Pradesh (5^th) were in the top five of index. Himachal Pradesh topped in the North-East and Hill States category of Index. Puducherry emerged as the best-governed union territory. Lakshwadeep was found to be the worst-performing.

Good Governance Index has been scientifically designed on various parameters of governance, keeping in mind the citizen-centricity. Index will also seek to determine the status of governance.