Current Affairs December 2016 - Reports
News 1 - Mahatma Gandhi’s Charkha among 100 'Most Influential Photos of All Time'
As per a compilation by Time Magazine of "Images that changed the world", the 1946 picture of Mahatma Gandhi with his Charkha (spinning wheel) is among the 100 most influential images of all time. The black and white photo was taken by Margaret Bourke-White.
The collection includes 100 history-altering images, dating back from the 1820s to 2015. Among the pictures is the tragic photo of the lifeless body of three-year-old Syrian Alan Kurdi lying face down on the shore near the coastal town of Bodrum.
News 2 - Four India-born CEOs on Fortune's Businessperson of the Year list
Four leading India-born CEOs have featured in Fortune’s Businessperson of the Year list. These four Indians in the list are −
Microsoft’s Satya Nadella ranked 5th
CEO of Milwaukee-based maker of water heaters A O Smith, Ajita Rajendra on the 34th spot
HDFC Bank’s Managing Director Aditya Puri on the 36th position
Mastercard’s Ajay Banga on 40th
News 3 - Narendra Modi won the reader’s poll for the TIME Person of the Year 2016
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has won the online reader’s poll for TIME Person of the Year. Modi won with 18% of the vote, placed well ahead of his closest contenders, including Barack Obama, Donald Trump and Julian Assange, who all received 7% of the “yes” vote.
The winner’s name is decided by the editors of the magazine. US president elect, Donald Trump, was declared as the TIME ‘Person of the Year’ 2016.
News 4 - India's internet population to touch 600 million by 2020: Study
As per a study by Assocham and Deloitte, India's internet population is likely to increase from current 343 million users to 600 million by 2020.
India is the world's second largest mobile phone market with over a billion mobile phone connections. Among this, 240 million mobile connections belong to smartphones.
Internet user base in India is rapidly expanding and has reached a penetration of over 27 percent versus 50.3 percent penetration in China.
News 5 - English most powerful language in the world: World Economic Forum
The World Economic Forum (WEF) published the 2016 World Power Language Index (PLI) and announced English language as the most powerful language in the world. Hindi language was ranked 10th in the 2016 PLI.
The top 10 Languages in 2016 are as follows: English (1st), Mandarin (2nd), French (3rd), Spanish (4th), Arabic (5th), Russian (6th), German (7th), Japanese (8th), Portuguese (9th) and Hindi (10th). The top six languages are official languages of the United Nations.
News 6 - Time magazine named Donald Trump as the person of the year
Donald Trump has been named Time’s Person of the year. Democratic nominee and runner up of the US presidential elections, Hillary Clinton, was also the first runner-up for Person of the Year. Online hackers were judged as the second runner ups. The Time cover read, "Donald Trump: President of the Divided States of America".
The last five Time’s Person of the year −
- 2011: The Protester
- 2012: Barack Obama
- 2013: Pope Francis
- 2014: Ebola fighter
- 2015: Angela Merkel
News 7 - UNESCO report on Universal Educational Goals
As per the Global Education Monitoring Report, 2016 by UNESCO, India will be half a century late in achieving its universal education goals. The Report also states that India will achieve universal primary education by 2050, universal lower secondary education (Grades VI - VIII in case of India) by 2060 and universal upper secondary education (Grades IX-XII in case of India) by 2085.
UNESCO has informed that these projections have been made based on past trends. It has not involved the Ministry of Human Resource Development in this exercise.
News 8 - India has improved by 21 spots as per latest Gender Gap Report of World Economic Forum
As per the Global Gender Gap Report 2016 by World Economic Forum, India ranks at 87th in respect of Global Gender Gap Index (GGI) among 144 countries of the World. According to the Human Development Report 2015 brought out by UNDP, India ranked 130 on the Gender Inequality Index among 155 countries. India had ranked at 108th in 2015.
Other parameters:
- Education Attainment: 113th
- Economic participation: 136th
- Health and Survival: 142nd
- Political Empowerment: 9th
News 9 - Forbes' second annual rich list of under 40 includes two Indians
Forbes’ second annual list of wealthiest entrepreneurs under the age of 40 was topped by Facebook founder Mark Zuckeberg. Two Indian-origin men Vivek Ramaswamy (biotech entrepreneur) and Apoorva Mehta were placed at 24th and 31st spot respectively. Ramaswamy is a biotech businessman with net-worth of 600 million dollars and Apoorva Mehta is considered as one of Silicon Valley’s youngest successful immigrant with net-worth of 300 million dollars.
List also consisted some new personalities such as boxer Floyd Mayweather, pop star Beyonce, actress Jessica Alba and NBA stars Kobe Bryant and LeBron James.
News 10 - The 2016 IHS Jane’s Defence Budgets report released
The 2016 IHS Jane’s Defence Budgets report placed India at the fourth place in defence expenditure around the world. List was topped by United States ($622 billion), China ($191.75) and the UK (53.81bn), followed by India (50.67bn). India surpassed countries like Saudi Arabia, France, Germany and Russia in defence spending.
The report analyses defence expenditure of about 105 countries and tracks 99 percent of global defence spending, based on five-year planning, historical data, budget allocation and trend evaluation.
News 11 - UN report states earth's poorest countries are falling further behind
UN report revealed that many of the poorest countries’ situation has been worsened in the last 45 years, since the United Nations created its list of Least Developed Countries. Only 4 countries have made themselves out of such situation such as Botswana, Cape Verde, Maldives and Samoa. Report projects that only three countries show symptoms of positive outbreak out of such poor situation ie. Angola, Equatorial Guinea and Vanuatu.
The current list of least developed countries comprises of 34 African Nations, nine in Asia, four in the Pacific region as well as Haiti.
News 12 - PM Modi ranked 9th among most powerful people: Forbes
Forbes has ranked Prime Minister Narendra Modi among the top 10 most powerful people in the world. he has been ranked 9th on the Forbes list of 74 of the World’s Most Powerful People.
The list is topped by Russian President Vladimir Putin for a fourth straight year followed by US President-elect Donald Trump in the second place. The others in the top ten list are −
- German Chancellor - Angela Merkel
- Chinese President - Xi Jinping
- Pope Francis
- Chair of the Federal Reserve - Janet Yellen
- Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates
- Google Co-founder - Larry Page
- Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg
News 13 - India ranked first in Asia in innovation chart
As per a research published by Capgemini, India has been ranked as the number 1 innovation destination in Asia and number 2 in the world for innovation centers.
Bengaluru is ranked as the 5th hub at the global level. Nine innovation centers were opened in the country between March and October this year. The total number of innovation center’s now stand at 25. The first in the list, USA has 146 centers.
News 14 - Priyanka Chopra ranked at 55 in the IMDb’s most popular celebrities’ list
Priyanka Chopra has been ranked at number 55 in the IMDb’s most popular celebrities’ list. She has been ranked ahead of Hollywood’s big names like Jennifer Aniston, Emma Watson, Leonardo Di Caprio, Johnny Depp, Scarlett Johansson and others. She is also the only Indian on the list.
Sofia Boutella of the "Kingsman: The Secret Service" fame, was ranked number 1 in the list. Jennifer Aniston stands at number 56, Emma Watson at 63, Leonardo DiCaprio at 77, while Johnny Depp is at number 81.
News 15 - Sushma named among 15 Global Thinkers
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj has been chosen to be part of a list of 15 top global thinkers by the prestigious magazine on foreign affairs ' Foreign Policy' for the year 2016. She's been cited for fashioning a novel brand of social media diplomacy.
She has been included in the 'Decisionmakers' category alongside former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, UN Secretary General Bank ki-Moon and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
News 16 - India ranked at the 4th position in the Global Wind Power Installed Capacity Index
As per a research note from the Global Wind Energy Council, India has achieved 4th rank in the Global Wind Power Installed Capacity index. The cumulative installed wind power generation capacity of India was 28,279 MW in 2016. The first three countries in the list are China, USA and Germany.
India continued to be the fifth largest annual market globally. India was also among the top ten countries in terms of renewable energy investment, which rose to USD 10.2 billion.
News 17 - Amazon surveys named Delhi as India's most well-read city of year 2016
As per the 'Annual Reading Trends Report for 2016' survey conducted by Amazon.in, Delhi has emerged as the most well-read city in India for the fourth consecutive year with Bengaluru and Mumbai at the 2nd and 3rd spot, respectively.
Karnal, Vadodara and Patna were first-time entrants in the Top 20 list. ‘The Rise and Fall of Nations’ by Ruchir Sharma was announced as the winner in business category. Chetan Bhagat’s book ‘One Indian Girl’ emerged as the highest selling book.
News 18 - Forbes India Celebrity 100 List 2016 topped by Salman Khan
Forbes India Celebrity Top 100 list of 2016 revealed that actor Salman Khan’s total earnings of 270.33 crores constituted 9.84 percent of the total wealth of all the top 100 celebrities for the year and so he was ranked 1st among all the celebrities, followed by actor Shahrukh Khan with 221.75 crores and cricketer Virat Kohli with 134.44 crores.
The Forbes top 5 celebrity list is as follows −
- Salman Khan
- Shahrukh Khan
- Virat Kohli
- Akshay Kumar
- MS Dhoni
News 19 - Global Wage Report 2016-17 released by the International Labour Organisation
The International Labour Organisation released the Global Wage Report 2016-17 showing the worst levels of gender wage gap among the countries worldwide. India in this report shows men earning more than women in similar jobs with 30% gap. Major findings were that women form 60% of the lowest paid wage labour, but only 15% of highest wage-earners.
Singapore shows least (3%) gender gap whereas Berlin shows highest wage gap. The ILO threw light on high income inequality. The report also found that the share of women among wage earners was among the lowest in South Asia.
