Current Affairs May 2017 - Reports

News 1 - Global Financial Integrity report estimated entry of $770 billion black money into India

Global Financial Integrity released its ‘Illicit Financial Flows to and from Developing Countries report for year 2005-2014. Report estimated entry of $770 billion black money into India during 2005-2014 and exit of $165 billion in illicit money out of the country. Global Financial Integrity report is the first global study that has placed equal emphasis on illicit outflows and inflows.

The report asked the governments to set up public registries to check black money and banks to check for the true beneficial owner of any account.

News 2 - Swachh Survekshan 2017 Rankings released

Indore emerged as the India’s Cleanest City in the Swachh Survekshan-2017 conducted in 434 cities and towns, the results of were announced by the Minister of Urban Development M. Venakaiah Naidu.

The Quality Council of India that conducted the survey during January-February 2017 deployed 421 assessors for on the site inspection of cleanliness in 434 cities and another 55 for real time monitoring of progress of survey and field inspections.

News 3 - United Kingdom’s rich list 2017 topped by Hinduja brothers

The 29^th United Kingdom’s rich list 2017 was topped by Hinduja brothers as their wealth increased by a further £3.2billion to estimated fortune of 16.2 billion pounds. With this, Hinduja brothers became the richest people in Britain.

Among the other 40 Indian-origin super-rich list names, new billionaires Gujarati based Mohsin and Zuber Issa, with estimated wealth of 1 billion pounds.

The Hindujas brothers bought British assets like Careline, an outsourcing business, and the bus maker Optare. They possess assets in Switzerland of about 3.6 billion pounds.

News 4 - Forbes Middle East lists top 100 Indian business leaders

According to a Forbes ranking for the Middle East, Retail Mogul Yusuff Ali and Pepsico executive Sanjeev Chadha are among the top 100 Indian business leaders in the Arab World 2017.

Mr Ali was followed by Sunil Vaswani, Chairman of Stallion Group and B R Shetty, Founder of NMC Healthcare and the UAE Exchange. While Mr Chadha was followed by Raghavan Seetharaman, Group CEO of Doha bank and Adnan Chilwan, Group CEO of Dubai Islamic Bank holding the top three positions.

Forbes Middle East is an annual ranking of the top 100 Indian business owners and the top 50 Indians in executive management.

News 5 - Bengaluru ranked world's most affordable tech city Index

Bengaluru has topped the list of 22 tech cities across the world in affordable living, as per the Savills Tech Cities Index. Overall, Bengaluru ranks a low 20 among tech cities in the world, with Austin topping the list, followed by San Francisco and New York.

The Savills Tech Cities 2017 programme aims to understand the diverse factors that make up a good location choice for the tech sector – examining 22 global centres.

News 6 - Indian Exclusion Report (IXR): Dalits, Adivasis and Muslims remain Worst-Hit Communities

According to the 2016 Indian Exclusion Report (IXR) released by the Centre for Equity Studies (CES), Dalit’s, Adivasi’s and Muslims continue to be the worst hit communities in terms of exclusion from access to public goods: pensions for the elderly, digital access, agricultural land, and legal justice for under trials.

The rate of landlessness was highest among Dalit’s at 57.3%; Muslims at 52.6% and 56.8% of women-headed households were landless. In addition, in terms of internet reach, almost 1.063 billion Indians were offline.

News 7 - Kerala topped the Public Affairs Index

The 2017 Public Affairs Index (PAI) was topped by Kerala followed by Tamil Nadu on the 2^nd place, Gujarat on the 3^rd place, Karnataka on the 4^th and Maharashtra on the 5^th place. Bihar was placed at last position. The survey was conducted based on 10 themes, 26 focus subjects and 82 indicators.

According to PAI survey, women and children continued to be the most vulnerable section of the society. Punjab topped the category of essential infrastructure; Kerala topped the human development category and women and children category. Tamil Nadu secured first place in maintaining law and justice.

News 8 - India ranks 26 in World Bank’s electricity accessibility list

India moved up from 99^th place to 26^th place in World Bank's electricity accessibility ranking released recently.

The improvement has been possible due to government's rural electrification programme of providing power to all households by 2019. The government has electrified over 13,000 villages out of 18,452. The remaining work is on track for completion within the targeted 1,000 days.

One of major scheme Deendayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi with an aim to provide 24×7 uninterrupted electricity supply to each rural household across the country by 2022.

News 9 - Reliance Industries Chairman topped Forbes list of 'Global Game Changers'

In the Second list of 'Global Game Changers' among 25 top businesspersons, who bring digital transformation and bring millions to internet, released by Forbes, was topped by Reliance Industries chairperson Mukesh Ambani. According to Forbes, Reliance Jio leader gained 100 million customers in just six months.

The other business leaders were founder of home appliances company Dyson, James Dyson, Larry Fink, Deputy Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia Mohammed bin Salman and Evan Spiegel.

News 10 - India becomes the second best in renewable energy attractiveness index

According to 'Renewable energy country attractiveness index', a report by UK accountancy firm EY, India has become the second-most attractive country after China for renewable energy investment. India pipped USA to secure the second spot. The report ranks top 40 renewable energy markets worldwide.

India has added more than 10 GW of solar capacity in the last three years. In addition, there was a record new wind capacity of 5.4 GW installed in 2016-17.

News 11 - India betters ranking in international tourist arrivals

India has jumped 16 places in the revised World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) rankings to settle at 24^th for 2014 and 2015. Earlier, India was ranked 41^st and 40^th in 2014 and 2015 as per the global ranking.

UNWTO is the United Nation's agency ranks countries in terms of their ITAs- comprising both foreign tourist arrivals as well as non- resident arrivals. India’s rank in the Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index (TTCI), 2017 had also shown a 12 places jump from 2015. Rank of India in TTCI Report of 2017 was 40 as compared to 52 in 2015, 65 in 2013 and 68 in 2011.

News 12 - Visakhapatnam railway station cleanest, Darbhanga dirtiest

According to a survey carried out by the Quality Council of India and released by the Railways Ministry, Visakhapatnam railway station is the cleanest followed by Secunderabad, among the 75 busiest stations. The Jammu railway station stood third in the list.

The Darbhanga railway station in Bihar was the dirtiest. Among the A category, Beas railway station was the cleanest. The railways has about 8,000 stations which are classified into - A1, A, B, C, D, E and F categories - based on annual passenger revenue.

News 13 - India becomes world’s second largest steel producer

According to data released by the International Stainless Steel Forum (ISSF), India replaces Japan to become the second-largest steel producer in the world after China. As per the latest statistics, India’s stainless steel production rose to 3.32 million tons for 2016 compared to 3.0 million tons of 2015.

Indian Stainless Steel Development Association has been continuously providing support to take the Indian stainless steel industry to newer heights. Several government schemes such as ‘Make in India’, smart cities promotion, building new infrastructure has uplifted the stainless-steel industry’s growth and production.