Current Affairs February 2020 - Reports

1 - India ranked 40^th in Intellectual Property Index

India was ranked 40^th out of 53 countries on a global intellectual property index. USA topped the index with an overall score of 42.66 points. UK, Sweden, France and Germany remained in the top five economies of index. India was appreciated in terms of scores when it comes to the protection of IP and copyright issues.

The GIPC Index consists of five key sets of indicators to map the national intellectual property environment for the surveyed countries.

2 - TTCSP unveiled 2019 Global Go To Think Tank Index Report

Think Tanks and Civil Societies Program (TTCSP) of the Lauder Institute at the University of Pennsylvania unveiled the 2019 Global Go To Think Tank Index Report. It ranked India’s Observer Research Foundation (ORF) at 27^th place among 176 global think tanks.

The Think Tanks and Civil Societies Program (TTCSP) of the Lauder Institute at the University of Pennsylvania conducts research on the role policy institutes play in governments and civil societies around the world.

3 - IIMB ranked 3^rd in the list of MOOCLab’s Business School Rankings 2020

Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore (IIMB) was ranked 3^rd in MOOCLab’s Business School Rankings 2020 for its provision, design and delivery of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). IIM Bangalore has 43 open online courses available on the edX platform, as well as a professional certificate and 2 MicroMasters Programs. HEC Paris (France) topped the list followed by Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania (USA).

The 2020 edition of the rankings has surveyed 16 business schools across the world offering courses on the three leading MOOC platforms: Coursera, edX and FutureLearn.

4 - NCRB unveiled report on women and child trafficking

A study by National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) unveiled that highest incidence of children and women being trafficked were observed from the cities of Mumbai and Kolkata.

Highlights of report

• Maharashtra reported the maximum number in the case of missing women.

• Madhya Pradesh reported a maximum number of cases of missing children.

• Mumbai, Pune, and Thane are considered the most vulnerable.

• About 35% of the victims trafficked for forced labour.

• More than half of the victims of trafficking for forced labour were men.

5 - “State of the World's Children Report 2019” of UNICEF

As per UNICEF's State of the World's Children Report 2019, the Under 5 Mortality Rate in India is 37 per 1,000 live births against Global average of 39 per 1,000 live births in 2018, which translates to more than 8 lakhs under 5 deaths in India. As per the Sample Registration System (SRS) 2010-13 report of Registrar General of India, major causes of child mortality in India are Prematurity & low birth weight (29.8%).

Government of India has launched various programmes like POSHAN, PMMVY to improve the nutritional and health status of children in the age-group 0-6 years.

6 - Hindi ranked as 3^rd most spoken language in the world

Hindi has been ranked as the 3^rd most spoken language of the world in 2019 with 615 million speakers. The 22^nd edition of the world language database Ethnologue stated English at the top of the list with 1,132 million speakers. Chinese Mandarin is at the second position with 1,117 million speakers.

Bangla has been ranked as the 7^th most spoken language of the world. Ethnologue brings out an yearly database of living languages of the world, since its establishment in 1951. The current round of the database covers 7,111 living languages of the world.

7 - Hurun Global Rich List 2020

Hurun released its Global Rich List for 2020. It has ranked 2,816 billionaires across the world. 34 new billionaires from India added into the list taking the total to 138. Mukesh Ambani is the top ranked Indian at ninth place with $67 billion of networth.

The top five in the list are:

8 - India ranked 77^th on Sustainability Index

Lancet medical journal released by World Health Organization (WHO), UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) unveiled that India ranked 77^th on a sustainability index that, takes into account per capita carbon emissions and ability of children in a nation to live healthy lives.

India was ranked at 131^st on the Flourishing Index 2020 that, values the best chance at survival and well-being for children. Top performing countries on child flourishing measures and CO2 emissions were Albania, Armenia, Grenada, Jordan and Moldova. The Sustainability Index ranks countries on excess carbon emissions compared with the 2030 target.

9 - India becomes world's 5^th largest economy

According to a report published by a US-based think tank World Population Review, India emerged as the world's fifth-largest economy in the world with a GDP of $2.94 trillion. The size of the UK economy is $2.83 trillion and that of France is $ 2.71 trillion.

In purchasing power parity (PPP) terms, India's GDP (PPP) is USD 10.51 trillion, exceeding that of Japan and Germany. Due to India's high population, India's GDP per capita is USD 2,170 (for comparison, the US is USD 62,794).