Current Affairs March 2017 - Reports

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News 1 - Internet users in India to cross 450 million by June

As per a report by the Internet and Mobile Association of India and Indian Market Research Bureau, internet users in the country are expected to be in the range of 450 to 465 million by June 2017.

The report said that there were 432 million users in December 2016. Of them, about 269 million were in urban areas of the country. Urban India has close to 60% Internet penetration while rural India has only 17% penetration.

News 2 - Thiruvananthapuram ranked as India's Best Governed City

As per the fourth edition of the Annual Survey of India’s City Systems 2016, Thiruvananthapuram has been ranked as the top city equipped to manage urbanisation followed by Pune and Kolkata. Delhi was ranked 9^th.

The survey was conducted by the Bangalore-based urban research and advocacy group, Janaagraha. 21 cities in 18 states were surveyed on 83 parameters. Mumbai was ranked 4^th while Bengaluru was ranked 16^th. Hyderabad was ranked 5^th.

News 3 - IISc became the first Indian University to be ranked among the top 10 in World

The Indian Institute of Science, IISc in Bangalore has become the first Indian educational institution to make it to the top 10 of a global ranking for universities.

The IISc has been ranked eighth in the Times Higher Education Rankings, 2017 in the best small universities category. It joined the elite list that includes California Institute of Technology (Caltech) from the US, Ecole Normale Superieure from France and Pohang University of Science and Technology, South Korea. Small universities are those with a student strength of less than 5,000.

News 4 - Hyderabad Airport ranks 1^st in the world in Airport Service Quality

As per the prestigious Airports Council International (ACI) – Airport Service Quality (ASQ) survey, Hyderabad's Rajiv Gandhi International Airport has secured first position in the world in the 5-15 million passengers per annum (MPPA) category for the year 2016.

The Airport has improved its score from 4.4 in 2009 to 4.9 in 2016 (measured on scale of 1 to 5). Besides, the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) in Delhi has been ranked world’s second best airport in the category of passenger handling capacity of more than 40 million passengers annually.

News 5 - Indian economy to grow 7.1% this fiscal: Global Rating Agency Fitch

Global rating agency Fitch predicted Indian economy to grow by 7.1% in the current fiscal before stepping up to 7.7% in the next two financial years.

Fitch said, gradual implementation of the structural reform agenda is expected to contribute to higher growth, as will higher real disposable income.

The rating agency said it expects the policy interest rate to stay at its current level of 6.25%.

News 6 - India ranked top in bribery rate among 16 Asia-Pacific nations

As per a survey released by anti-graft Transparency International (TI), India has the highest bribery rate of 69% among the 16 nations in the Asia Pacific region.

The second in the list is Vietnam (65%). Thailand (41%) is third, Cambodia, Pakistan and Myanmar, each with 40%, were next. The rate was much lower in China (26%) and it was the lowest in Japan (0.2%). 41% people in India said that the level of corruption had increased in 2016.

News 7 - Mercer 2017 Quality of Living index

As per the Mercer’s Quality of Living Rankings 2017, Hyderabad has emerged as the best city in terms of living standards among the Indian cities for the third year in a row.

Vienna occupies first place for overall quality of living for the 8^th year running, with the rest of the top-ten list mostly filled by European cities: Zurich is in second place, with Munich (4), Dusseldorf (6), Frankfurt (7), Geneva (8), Copenhagen (9), and Basel, a newcomer to the list, in 10^th place. The only non-European cities in the top ten are Auckland (3) and Vancouver (5). The highest-ranking cities in Asia and Latin America are Singapore (25) and Montevideo (79), respectively.

News 8 - Tata Steel, Wipro in World's most Ethical Companies' list

Tata Steel and Wipro have been included in a report of world's most ethical companies published by American think tank Ethisphere Institute. A total of 124 honourees were listed in the report for 2017.

The report honours those companies who recognise their role in society to influence and drive positive change in the business community and societies around the world. Ford Motor Company was named one of the World's Most Ethical Companies for the eighth straight year in the report.

News 9 - Women in Politics Map 2017, India placed at 148^th number

As per a report published by the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) and UN Women that ranked all 193 UN member countries with respect to the number of women parliamentarians, India was placed at 148^th rank.

India ranked 88 in the number of women ministers with five or 18.5% in the cabinet.

Rwanda ranked first in the number of women parliamentarians with 61.3 percent in the lower house, followed by Bolivia with 53.1 percent and Cuba 48.9 percent.

News 10 - IISc, Bengaluru ranked 27^th among the Top 50 in the Asia University Rankings 2017

As per the Asia University Rankings 2017 released by Times Higher Education (THE), 33 Indian universities featured in the top 300. Bengaluru’s Indian Institute of Science (IISc) was the highest ranked Indian institute at 27. The ranking was topped by Singapore’s National University, followed by China’s Peking University.

The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay was ranked 42 and Chennai-based private institute Veltech University was a joint 43 in the top 50. India became the third most-represented nation in the table for the first time.

News 11 - Changi Airport voted as the World's Best Airport for the 5^th consecutive year

Changi Airport Singapore was voted as the World’s Best Airport for the fifth consecutive year at the 2017 World Airport Awards. The airport also received the award for the Best Airport Leisure Amenities. It was also named the Best Airport in Asia.

The 2017 World Airport Awards are based on 13.82 million customer nominations across 105 nationalities of air travellers, with 550 airports worldwide taking part.

The top 5 rankings for the World’s Best Airport Award in 2017

• Changi Airport Singapore
• Tokyo International Airport (Haneda)
• Incheon International Airport
• Munich Airport
• Hong Kong International Airport

News 12 - Five Indians in WEF’s 2017 Young Global Leaders list

Five Indians have made it to the annual World Economic Forum's 100 Young Global Leaders list.

There were nine global leaders from South Asia, out of which five are from India. They are:

• Vijay Shekhar Sharma: Founder and CEO Paytm
• Shruti Shibulal: The Tamara Hospitality
• Ambarish Mitra: Founder and CEO Blippar
• Hindol Sengupta: Editor-at large, Fortune India
• Rwitwika Bhattacharya Agarwal: Founder and CEO Swaniti Initiative

News 13 - 2017 Healthiest Country Index

Bloomberg has released it's 2017 World Health Index. Italy has been ranked as the healthiest country out of 163 countries in the index. Singapore is the healthiest country in Asia and the fourth healthiest country in the world.

Iceland and Switzerland stand second and third respectively. The index ranked 163 countries based on variables such as life expectancy, causes of death and health risks such as high blood pressure, tobacco use, malnutrition and the availability of clean water.

News 14 - India home to 101 billionaires, Mukesh Ambani tops list: Forbes

As per a new list released by Forbes magazine, India is home to world's fourth highest number of billionaires after the US, China and Germany respectively. Reliance Industries chief Mukesh Ambani leads the club of more than 100 super rich Indians.

The list has been topped by Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates for the fourth year in a row with 86 billion US dollar networth, followed by Berkshire Hathaway Chief Warren Buffet with a new worth of 75.6 billion US dollar. Amazon's Jeff Bezos with 72.8 billion US dollar in networth was ranked third.

News 15 - Four Indian cities among the Cheapest Global Cities

As per the Worldwide Cost of Living Index 2017 published by Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), four Indian cities - New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Bengaluru are among the cheapest cities to live in globally. Almaty of Kazakhstan was the cheapest city in the index.

Singapore was ranked as the most expensive city. Hong Kong, Zurich, Tokyo and Osaka were the other top cities in the most expensive cities list.

News 16 - India ranks 131 on the Human Development Index, Norway Number 1

The UN Development Program (UNDP)’s 2016 ‘Human Development for Everyone’ report has ranked India 131^st among 188 countries. India was categorized under the medium human development category based on life expectancy, access to knowledge and standard of living.

India's HDI has increased from 0.428 to 0.624 between 1990 and 2015. China occupies the 90^th spot. The top three countries in HDI were Norway (0.949), Australia (0.939) and Switzerland (0.939).

News 17 - Norway is the happiest place on earth

As per a United Nations agency report, Norway is the happiest place on earth. Denmark ranked second in the list. Iceland, Switzerland and Finland are the other nations in the top five, while the Central African Republic came last. Western Europe and North America dominated the top of table, with the US and UK at 14^th and 19^th. India was ranked 122^nd in the list.

The World Happiness Report was released to coincide with the United Nation's International Day of Happiness.

News 18 - India ranks 87^th on Energy Architecture Performance

As per a report released by Geneva-based World Economic Forum (WEF), India was ranked 87^th among the surveyed 127 countries on a Global Energy Architecture Performance Index (EAPI).

The top 5 Countries are:

• Switzerland (1)
• Norway (2)
• Sweden (3)
• Denmark (4)
• France (5)

India has some of the lowest scores in CO2 emissions from electricity (117^th) production and PM2.5 levels (123^rd) indicators. Bahrain is ranked the lowest at 127^th.

News 19 - HDFC Bank's MD Aditya Puri featured in World's 30 Best CEOs list

HDFC Bank Managing Director Aditya Puri has featured in the list of world's 30 best Chief Executive Officers (CEOs). The list was published by American financial magazine Barron. Mr Puri was ranked 23^rd in the list, above Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg who is listed on the 30^th spot.

The top five CEO’s are:

• Mary Barra of General Motors
• Gary Dickerson of Applied Materials
• Stephen Hemsley of UnitedHealth Group
• Jensen Huang of Nvidia
• Satya Nadella of Microsoft

News 20 - India became the 3^rd largest Aviation Market in Domestic Traffic

As per a report from the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation (CAPA), India has become the third largest aviation market in terms of domestic passenger traffic. India surpassed Japan to secure the position. India's domestic air passenger traffic stood at 100 million in 2016.

The United States with 719 million and China with 436 million domestic air passenger traffic were the top two countries in the list. Japan flew 97 million domestic passengers in 2016.

News 21 - SBI's Arundhati Bhattacharya among the top 50 global leaders

The Fortune Magazine has ranked the State Bank of India (SBI) Chairman Arundhati Bhattacharya at the 26^th position in its list of World 50 Greatest Leaders 2017. She is the only Indian to feature in the list this time.

The list features those who are “transforming the world and inspiring others to do the same.” The list is topped by Theo Epstein, President for Baseball of Chicago Cubs.

• Jack Ma, founder of Alibaba Group (2)
• Pope Francis (3)
• Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Co-chair Melinda Gates (4)
• Amazon Founder and CEO Jeff Bezos (5)

News 22 - Around 730 million Internet users are anticipated in the country by 2020: NASSCOM

As per the National Association of Software & Services Companies (NASSCOM) – Akamai report launched on 17.08.2016 regarding “The Future of Internet in India”, 730 million Internet users are anticipated in the country by 2020.

For provision of broadband facility in rural areas, the Government is also implementing BharatNet project to provide 100 Mbps broadband connectivity to all Gram Panchayats (approx. 2.5 lakhs) in the country by using an optimal mix of underground fiber, fiber over power lines, radio and satellite media.