Current Affairs June 2020 - Reports

1 - NSO launched annual report of Periodic Labour Force Supply

National Statistical Office launched the Annual Report of Periodic Labour Force Survey conducted during July 2018 - June 2019 covering 1,01,579 households and surveying 4,20,757 persons.

The key findings are mentioned below:

India’s unemployment rate declined to 5.8% in 2018-19 (July-June) from 6.1% a year ago.
The labour force participation rate rose to 37.5%.
The unemployment rate for urban females remained higher than the all-India numbers.
Unemployment rate for males moderated to 6% and for females to 5.2%.
Unemployment rate for youth in the 15-29 years remained high at 17.3%.

2 - India ranked 168^th on Environmental Performance Index

India ranked 168^th out of 180 countries on Environmental Performance Index released by the Yale University. The report unveiled that India’s de-carbonisation agenda needs to accelerate, and the country faces a number of serious environmental health risks. India was ranked at 179^th for air quality and at 148^th for biodiversity and habitat of the 2020 EPI.

Denmark topped the index followed by Luxembourg, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, France, Austria, Finland, Sweden, Norway and Germany in the top 10 countries.

3 - Global economy to shrink 5.2% in 2020-21 due to coronavirus pandemic

The World Bank in its report ‘Global Economic Prospects 2020’ predicted the global economy to shrink by 5.2% in 2020-21, due to the massive shock of the coronavirus pandemic and the shutdown measures to contain it.

The highlights are as follows:

Economic activity among advanced economies is anticipated to shrink by 7%.
Per capita incomes are expected to decline by 3.6%, which will tip millions of people into extreme poverty.
Emerging Markets and Developing Economies are expected to shrink by 2.5%.
Decline in global per capita Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by 6.2 %, making it the deepest global recession since 1945-46.

4 - NIRF India Rankings 2020

According to the National Institutional Ranking Framework Rankings (NIRF) India Rankings 2020 of the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), Indian Institute of Technology, Madras is the best higher education institution in the country. Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru was ranked second, while IIT Delhi was third.

The top three universities are IISc Bangalore, Jawaharlal Nehru University and Banaras Hindu University. The top three engineering colleges are IIT Madras, IIT Delhi and IIT Bombay. AIIMS Delhi was the top ranked medical college followed by PGI, Chandigarh and CMC, Vellore. IIM, Ahmedabad topped in Management Category.

5 - Three DST institutes among top 30 Indian Institutions in Nature Index 2020

Three institutions of the Department of Science & Technology (DST), Government of India have found places in the Nature Index 2020. These are the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science (IACS), Kolkata at 7^th position, Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR), Bangalore at 14^th position and S. N. Bose National Centre for Basic Sciences, Kolkata at 30^th position.

Globally the top-rated Indian institutions in this list are Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), a group of 39 institutions at the 160^th position and Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bangalore at the 184^th position.

6 - QS World University Rankings 2021 released

The Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) world university rankings 2021 released their Top 1000 list of institutes from all over the world. India’s eight institutes made up to top 500 of QS World University Ranking 2021.

The highlights are as follows:

Massachusetts Institute of Technology was named the world's best university.
National University of Singapore was named as Asia's top university.
Stanford University, Harvard University and California Institute of Technology were ranked as 2^nd, 3^rd and 4^th place.
Britain’s University of Oxford was ranked fifth best university in world.

7 - Mercer’s 2020 Cost of Living Survey

Hong Kong topped the Mercer’s 2020 Cost of Living Survey 2020. Ashgabat, Turkmenistan was placed at second position. India’s Mumbai was ranked as 60^th most expensive city for expatriates globally, while it ranks 19^th in Asia. Tokyo and Zurich remain in third and fourth positions, respectively, whereas Singapore was in fifth place.

Mercer's widely recognised survey is one of the world’s most comprehensive, and is designed to help multinational companies and governments determine compensation strategies for their expatriate employees. The survey includes over 400 cities.

8 - India 9^th largest recipient of FDI in 2019

According to the World Investment Report 2020 prepared by the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), India received $51 billion in foreign investment in 2019. India was the world’s 9^th largest recipient of foreign direct investments (FDI) in 2019.

FDI to India, the largest South Asian recipient, increased 20% from the $42 billion of FDI received in 2018. In the “developing Asia” region, India was among the top five host economies for FDI.

9 - Two Indian firms in WEF’s 2020 Technology Pioneers

The World Economic Forum announced its 20^th cohort of Technology Pioneers as it unveiled 100 new tech firms awardees in carbon capture, alternative meat and circular economies, while others aim to address food security, financial access and more. It includes two Indian firms named as ZestMoney and Stellapps.

India’s ZestMoney is using its technology to transform the financial services industry, offering affordable credit to those who are unable to access this through traditional finance paths. Stellapps, India is data-led, internet of things-based, farm-to-consumer dairy supply chain digitisation.

10 - India released National Report on the state of Climate Crisis

For the first time, India released its own national report on the state of the climate crisis. It is titled as “Assessment of Climate change over the Indian Region”. The report compiled by Ministry of Earth Sciences, analyses, where India stands regarding long-term changes in climate patterns, and their attendant risks.

The major findings of the report unveils India's average temperature that has increased by 0.7 degrees Celsius from 1901 to 2018, and that this is purely due to the emission of greenhouse gases (GHG).

11 - Institute for Management Development released World Competitive Index

The Institute of Management Development released the World Competitive Index 2020. India retained its rank on 43^rd place due to poor infrastructure and insufficient education investment. India showed improvement on long-term employment growth, current account balance, high-tech exports and foreign currency reserves.

On a 63 nation list, Singapore topped the rankings followed by Denmark and Switzerland at second and third place respectively. Other countries that remained in top ten list were Netherlands, Hong Kong, Norway, Sweden, U.S.A. and Canada.

12 - SIPRI Yearbook released on ‘Nuclear Weapons of India and China’

The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) launched the findings of SIPRI Yearbook 2020, which assesses the current state of armaments, disarmament and international security. A key finding is that despite an overall decrease in the number of nuclear warheads in 2019, all nuclear weapon-possessing states continue to modernise their nuclear arsenals.

The 51^st edition of the SIPRI Yearbook reveals a continuing deterioration in the conditions for international stability and insight on developments in conventional arms control in 2019. The SIPRI Yearbook is a compendium of cutting-edge information and analysis on developments in armaments, disarmament and international security.

13 - India slipped to 77^th rank in terms of foreign funds with Swiss banks

According to the latest Swiss National Bank data, India has moved down three places to 77^th rank in terms of money parked by its citizens and enterprises with Swiss banks at the end of 2019. Funds parked by Indian individuals and enterprises in Swiss banks fell by 5.8% in 2019 to Rs. 6,625 crore.

Indians accounted for just 0.06% of the aggregate funds parked by all foreign clients of Switzerland-based banks. UK has retained its top position. US, West Indies, France and Hong Kong complete the top five.