Current Affairs October 2017 - Reports

1 - Gujarat’s IFSC placed at 10^th spot in Global Financial Centers Index

Ambitious project on International Financial Services Centre of Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT) is ranked at 10^th place among top 15 Global Financial Centers Index), London. According to GFCI report, such 15 centers are likely to become more important in the next few years.

Index is based on calculating the attractiveness of financial centers. Some of other such centers who topped the list were from New York, London, Singapore, Hong Kong and Tokyo. GIFT city is India’s first International Financial Services Centre with conducive multi service SEZ, the next-in-class infrastructure, connectivity and legal framework.

2 - Forbes India Rich List 2017 topped by billionaire Mukesh Ambani

Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) Chairman Mukesh Ambani bagged the topmost position once again in Forbes’s annual list of India’s 100 richest businesspersons with a net worth of $38 billion. Despite the country’s economic hiccups, the combined net worth of India’s 100 wealthiest witnessed a wealth soar of 26% from $374 billion in 2016.

Mukesh Ambani was followed by Wipro’s Azim Premji at second position. Some other billionaires who were among the top ten list were Hinduja brothers of Ashok Leyland, Lakshmi Mittal, Godrej family, Shiv Nadar of HCL Technologies and Kumar Birla of Aditya Birla Group.

3 - World most followed leader list on Twitter topped by Donald Trump

US President Donald Trump topped the world's most followed leader on Twitter. List was unveiled by Twiplomacy, a Burson Marsteller research project that tracks the use of Twitter by governments and international organizations.

This list was followed by Pope Francis at the second position and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at 3^rd position while the official @PMOIndia account is at the fourth position. The @POTUS and @WhiteHouse accounts secured the fifth and the sixth position respectively.

4 - India is Second Largest Market for Pharma

According to a report, "The Indian Pharma and Biotech Industry", published by professional networking giant LinkedIn, India has emerged as the second largest market for the industry. Talent coming to India include professionals hailing from sales followed by quality assurance and research.

According to the report, almost 48% of talent from USA in the the pharma and biotech industry are migrating to India while 36% from India are moving to the USA. In addition, New Delhi, Kolkata and Chandigarh are the key cities to attract the talents.

5 - Global Hunger Index placed India at 100^th position

The 2017 Global Hunger Index placed India at 100^th position than 97^th position from 2016 rankings, among 119 countries. Rankings were released by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). It was based on undernourishment, child mortality, child wasting and child stunting.

Overall rankings state that Central African Republic is the only country having alarming hunger levels of 58%. IFPRI urged all countries to meet Sustainable Development Goal 2 of Zero Hunger for everyone by 2030. The Global Hunger Index is an index that depicts the hunger situation in various countries.

6 - World Safe Cities Index 2017 released

The Economist Intelligence Unit's Safe Cities Index 2017 placed 60 cities on basis of 49 indicators such as personal, digital health and security. Index was topped by Tokyo, called as safest place to live in. Cities in bottom list were Manila, Ho Chi Minh City, Cairo, Tehran, Dhaka, Karachi and Jakarta.

Cities in the top 10 list were as follows -Madrid, Singapore, Osaka, Toronto, Amsterdam, Melbourne, Sydney, Hong Kong and Zurich. Indian cities Delhi and Mumbai were placed at 43^rd and 45^th place respectively.

7 - Google most authentic brand in India, Amazon globally

According to the global authenticity index reported in "Authentic Brands Study 2017" and revealed by Cohn & Wolfe, Indian consumers regard Google as the most authentic brand. Amazon tops the list globally.

In India, Google is followed by Microsoft, Amazon, Maruti Suzuki, and Apple. Globally, Apple takes the second spot followed by Microsoft, Google and PayPal at third, fourth and fifth places respectively. The study is based on surveys on more than 1,400 brands.

8 - Most Pollution-linked Deaths Occur in India

According to a major study released in The Lancet medical journal, India has been ranked No. 1 in pollution related deaths. India recorded 2.51 million pollution-linked deaths in 2015 while China recorded the second highest number of such deaths (1.8 million).

Air pollution caused 6.5 million premature deaths globally in 2015. Nearly 25% of all deaths in India in 2015 were caused by pollution. The financial cost from pollution related death, sickness and welfare is costing some $4.6 trillion in annual losses — or about 6.2% of the global economy.

9 - Times Higher Education Rankings placed IISC & IIT Bombay among world’s top 200

According to Times Higher Education subject wise rankings, India’s Indian Institute of Science and IIT Bombay were placed among the world’s top 200 institutions for engineering and computer science. Indian Institute of Science was placed at 89^th place and IIT Bombay was pegged in the 126- 150 category.

Rankings were among the 500 institutions worldwide, based on parameters such as industry income, international outlook, teaching and research. Times Higher Education subject wise rankings was topped by Stanford University followed by California institute of Technology, Oxford University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Cambridge University.

10 - Cristiano Ronaldo retained the top spot in the Forbes' wealthiest athletes list

According to the Forbes' annual list of the world's wealthiest athletes, Real Madrid forward Cristiano Ronaldo is the highest-paid sportsperson. The Portugal captain had topped the list previous year also. Ronaldo earned $93m (£72.05m) from salary, bonuses and endorsements last year.

The Top 10 athletes are:

Cristiano Ronaldo - football ($93m/£72.05m)
LeBron James - basketball ($86.2m/£66.79m)
Lionel Messi - football ($80m/£61.98m)
Roger Federer - tennis ($64m/£49.58m)
Kevin Durant - basketball ($60.6m/£46.95m)
Andrew Luck - American football ($50m/£38.74m)
Rory McIlroy - golfer ($50m/£38.74m)
Stephen Curry - basketball ($47.3m/£36.64m)
James Harden - basketball ($46.6m/£36.10m)
Lewis Hamilton - formula 1 ($46m/£35.64m)

11 - State of World Population 2017 Report Launched

According to the State of World Population 2017 report released by the United Nations Population Fund, entitled, “Worlds Apart: Reproductive Health and Rights in an Age of Inequality”, suggested a 10-point actions to help nations to bridge the inequality gap between the poor and the rich in society.

As of 2017, half of 1.6 billion women of reproductive age living in developing regions want to avoid a pregnancy. Only about half of the world’s women hold paid jobs. Globally, women earn 77 percent of what men get.

12 - Singapore Passport ranked 'Most Powerful'

According to the 'Global Passport Power Rank 2017' by global financial advisory firm Arton Capital, Singapore has the world's "most powerful" passport. It was for the first time that as Asian country has topped the ranking.

India was ranked 75^th, three notches better than its previous ranking. Germany is ranked second, followed by Sweden and South Korea in third place.

Afghanistan was last in the rank, places at 94, followed by Pakistan and Iraq at 93.

13 - Forbes list of the world's most valuable athletes

According to the latest list of the world's most valuable athletes released by Forbes, India's Virat Kohli's brand value is higher than football legend Lionel Messi. Roger Federer tops the list.

The top 10 most valuable athletes:

Roger Federer $37.2m
LeBron James $33.4m
Usain Bolt $27m
Cristiano Ronaldo $21.5m
Phil Mickelson $19.6m
Tiger Woods $16.6m
Virat Kohli $14.5m
Rory McIlroy $13.6m
Lionel Messi $13.5m
Steph Curry $13.4m

14 - India has third Highest Number of Family-Owned Businesses

According to the Credit Suisse Research Institute's (CSRI) latest "CS Family 1000" report, India has 108 publicly listed family-owned businesses, third highest in the world. In terms of market capitalization, India ranks 5^th in Asia Pacific excluding Japan and 22^nd globally, with m-cap of $6.5 billion.

The list is topped by China with 167 such companies followed by the US, which has 121. The others in the top ten are France (4^th place), Hong Kong (5^th), Korea (6^th), Malaysia (7^th), Thailand (8^th), Indonesia (9^th), Mexico (10^th).