Current Affairs September 2017 - Reports

News 1 - Arunachal Pradesh and J&K are the fastest growing economies

According to the recently published new series of gross State Domestic Product (SDP) data with 2011-12 as the base year by Central Statistics Office(CSO), Jammu and Kashmir and Arunachal Pradesh were the fastest growing State economies in 2015-16.

Arunachal Pradesh grew by 16.5% while J&K grew by 14.7%. Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh expanded about 8-8.5%. Maharashtra remains the largest State economy followed by Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka in the top-five. These five States together account for about 46% of the nation’s GDP.

News 2 - Gujarat has the highest per capita income

According to the recently published new series of gross State Domestic Product (SDP) data with 2011-12 as the base year by Central Statistics Office(CSO), the per capita income was the highest in Gujarat at ?1,22,502.06, followed by Maharashtra (?1,21,514.50), Karnataka (?1,13,506.12) and Tamil Nadu (?1,11,453.76).

The per capita income for Jammu and Kashmir was estimated at ?60,171.36 compared with ?2,67,328.90 for Goa and ?2,26,583.11 for Delhi.

News 3 - CSIR Ranked 9^th Public Research Institution of the World

According to the Scimago Institutions ranking World Report 2017, the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) has been ranked ninth in the world amongst a total of 1,207 government institutions.

The ranking was topped by Chinese Academy of Sciences with Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, France at second and Helmholtz Gemeinschaft, Germany ranked third.

CSIR is India's largest autonomous public research and development organisation. Scimago Institutions Ranking (SIR) is a science evaluation resource developed by Scimago Labs.

News 4 - Road accidents in India decrease by 4.1% during 2016, fatalities rise by 3.2%

According to the Road Transport and Highways Ministry’s annual publication ‘Road Accidents in India-2016, road accidents in the country have decreased by around 4.1% during 2016, with the year seeing 4,80,652 road accidents as against 5,01,423 in 2015.

However fatalities resulting from these accidents have risen by about 3.2% during the same period. Nearly 1,50,785 persons were killed in 2016 as against 1,46,133 in 2015.

According to the report, between January to July 2017, there has been a 3 % reduction in road accidents, along with a 4.75 % reduction in road accident fatalities.

News 5 - World University Rankings 2018 released

According to World University Rankings 2018, India’s Indian Institute of Science was the highest ranked institute from the country, followed by other institutes such as IIT Delhi and IIT Kanpur.

Indian Institute of Science was ranked in band 251-300, whereas IIT Delhi and IIT Kanpur were ranked in 501-600 band. IIT Bombay was placed in band of 351-400 club. Except IIT Bombay, other institutes slipped to downward position as compared to last year’s rankings.

University of Oxford was ranked topmost in the world followed by Cambridge University. California Institute of Technology and Stanford University were placed at 3^rd position.

News 6 - Norway topped the Global Human Capital Index

Norway has topped the Global Human Capital Index released by the World Economic Forum. India was ranked 103^rd, the lowest among BRICS economies. India was ranked 105^th on this list last year.

Among the BRICS nations, Russia was ranked 16^th followed by China at 34^th, Brazil at 77^th and South Africa at 87^th place. Finland and Switzerland were placed second and third respectively in the overall list.

Other countries in the top 10 include, the United States (4^th), Denmark (5^th), Germany (6^th), New Zealand (7^th), Sweden (8^th), Slovenia (9^th) and Austria (10^th).

News 7. Jaipur's National Institute of Ayurveda enters Guinness Book

Jaipur's National Institute of Ayurveda has entered the Guinness Book for 'Most people receiving Nasya Panch Kararma simultaneously'.

733 Ayurvedic practitioners performed Nasya Karma on the second day of National Ayurveda Yuva Mahotsav which has been registered in the Guinness Book of records.

The Nasya Karma is beneficial in all diseases related to brain. Three thousand youth Ayurveda students and doctors from across the country participated in the three-day National Ayurveda Youth Festival.

News 8 - UNCTAD reported India and China as major growth poles in global economy

UNCTAD’s Trade & Development report 2017 titled ‘Beyond austerity - towards a global new deal’ was released. The report highlighted the fact that growth in two countries China and India will play major role as a growth pole in global economy. However, they are growing at a slow pace due to serious downside risks.

Report stated that global economy growth is expected to reach 2.6%, but due to too much debt and too little demand at the global level, global growth has sustained its expansion.

News 9 - 40 million people trapped in modern slavery: UN report

According to the United Nations report, an estimated 40 million people, mostly women and girls, are trapped in modern slavery and 152 million children are subject to child labour. 29 million are women and girls.

The report said one in four victims of modern slavery are children which totals about 10 million. The report said that some 152 million children, including 64 million girls and 88 million boys, are subject to child labour, accounting for almost one in ten children around the world.

News 10 - Three Indians included in World's '100 Greatest Living Business Minds'

According to the Forbes’ special list of the world’s ‘100 Greatest Living Business Minds’, three Indian corporate czars - Lakshmi Mittal, Ratan Tata and Vinod Khosla have made it to the list. Lakshmi Mittal is the Chairman and CEO of Arcelormittal, Ratan Tata is Tata group’s Chairman Emeritus and Vinod Khosla is the co-founder of Sun Microsystems.

Some of the other notable people in the list included Amazon Founder Jeff Bezos, Virgin Group founder Richard Branson; Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett; Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and News Corp Executive Chairman Rupert Murdoch.

News 11 - China's Hui Ka Yan became Asia's Richest Man

According to the Forbes Real-Time Billionaires List, Hui Ka Yan, the Chairman of big China real estate developer China Evergrande Group, has become Asia’s richest man.

Among the Chinese, Hui’s estimated fortune of $42.2 billion puts him ahead of Tencent Holdings Chairman Ma Huateng ($39.1 billion), Alibaba Group Chairman Jack Ma ($38.9 billion), and Wanda Group Chairman Wang Jianlin ($30.4 billion). Ma Huateng currently ranks second in Asia and Jack Ma third.

News 12 - India Third in Nuclear Power Installations: Report

According to the World Nuclear Industry Status Report 2017, India is third in the world in the number of nuclear reactors being installed while China tops the list. India has 6 nuclear reactors while China has 20.

In 2016, nuclear energy contributed only 10.5 % to the total global power generation. Whereas, renewable energy contributed 62 % to the global power generation. In 2016, nuclear power generation increased by 1.4% globally. Wind power generation increased by 16% and solar power generation by 30%.

News 13 - Two Indians on Fortune’s most powerful women in business list

Chanda Kochhar and Shikha Sharma have featured in "the Most Powerful Women in Business Outside the US list", released by the Fortune magazine. ICICI Bank’s Kochhar was ranked 5^th while Axis Bank’s Sharma was ranked 21^st.

Banco Santander group executive chairman Ana Botin topped the list. GSK CEO Emma Walmsley is at the second place and Engie CEO Isabelle Kocher at the third slot.

US Most Powerful Women in Business list was topped by General Motors chairman and CEO Mary Barra followed by PepsiCo chairman and CEO Indra Nooyi.

News 14 - RIL ranked as world’s 3^rd largest energy firm

According to Platts Top 250 Global Energy Company Rankings, Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) has been ranked at the third position among the world’s biggest energy companies behind Russian gas firm Gazrpom and German utility E.ON.

Indian Oil Corp (IOC) was ranked at 7^th place, up from 14^th rank in 2016. Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) was placed at 11^th position in 2017 as against 20^th in 2016. South Korea’s Korea Electric Power is ranked 4^th, followed by China Petroleum & Chemical and Russia’s PJSC Lukoil.

News 15 - CISF security at Mumbai Airport rated best in the world

According to an independent evaluation by the World Quality Congress (WQC), the security checks by the CISF at India’s Mumbai airport has been awarded the best security award.

The Mumbai airport is the second busiest airport in the country and it handled 45.2 million passengers in the last fiscal year. The CISF takes care of passenger frisking, hand baggage screening, CCTV surveillance, Quick Reaction Team (QRT), anti-hijacking response team etc.

News 16 - India ranked 40^th in the Global Competitiveness Rankings

According to the World Economic Forum’s global competitiveness index, India has been ranked the 40^th most competitive economy. India was ranked 39^th last year. The list is topped by Switzerland.

US and Singapore are ranked second and third in the list. China is ranked at 27^th. Russia is placed at 38^th position.

Other countries in the top 10 are the Netherlands (4^th rank), Germany (5), Hong Kong SAR (6), Sweden (7), United Kingdom (8), Japan (9) and Finland (10).