Union Minister Nirmala Sitharaman & 3 other Indians featured on Forbes’ 2023World’s 100 Most Powerful Women
The 20th annual ranking of the World’s 100 Most Powerful Women (2023) features a total of 4 Indianwomen. Union Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Ministry ofFinance and Corporate Affairs is ranked 32nd on the list.The other 3 Indians are Roshni Nadar Malhotra(rank 60),Chairperson of HCLTech; Soma Mondal(rank 70),former Chairperson of Steel Authority of IndiaLimited(SAIL) and Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw(rank 76),Founder and Executive Chairperson of Biocon IndiaPrivate Limited.Ursula vonder Leyen, the President of the EuropeanCommission, European Union (EU) topped the list for thesecond consecutive year.
Top 3 Rankings along with Indian women:
Key Points:
- Nirmala Sitharaman was the first woman to be appointed full-time Defence Minister of India in September2017.In 2019, She was appointed as the first full-time female Finance Minister of India.Previously, she was ranked 36th in 2022, 37th in 2021, 41st in 2020, and 34th in 2019 on the list.
- Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw is one of India’s richest self-made women with a net worth of USD 2.3 billion.Biocon founded in 1978 has Asia’s largest insulin factory in Malaysia’s Johor region
- Roshni Nadar Malhotra is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of HCL Corporation and Chairperson ofHCL Technologies. She is the first woman to head a listed Indian IT company.She is also a trustee of the Shiv Nadar Foundation, focused on education.
- Soma Mondal served as the chairperson of SAIL, central public sector undertaking(CPSU) under theMinistry of Steel, from January 2021 to April 2023.She is currently a member of the Public Enterprises SelectionBoard (PESB).
University of Delhi ranked 220th on QS WorldUniversity Ranking for Sustainability 2024;University of Toronto tops
According to the QS World University Rankings:Sustainability 2024, the 2nd edition of the list published byQuacquarelli Symonds(QS), a global higher education analyst, the University of Delhi (DU), ranked 220th (globally), has topped among the 56 Indian Universitiesfeatured on the list.DU is ranked 30th among Asian Universities.The University of Toronto, Canada, has topped the list as the world’s most sustainable University followedby the University of California (UCB), Berkeley, the United States of America(USA) at 2nd and theUniversity of Manchester, the United Kingdom (UK) at 3rd place.
About QS (Quacquarelli Symonds):
Founder and President– Nunzio Quacquarelli
Headquarters– London, United Kingdom (UK)
WHO Report: India Accounted for 66% of Malaria Cases in WHO South-East AsiaRegion in 2022
As per the 2023 World Malaria Report by the World Health Organization (WHO), India constituted 66% ofmalaria cases in the WHO’s South-East Asia regionin 2022. Despite an overall decrease of 11.9% inestimated cases between 2021 and 2022 in theregion, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Myanmar andThailand recorded an increases in cases.i.Plasmodium vivax(P. vivax), a protozoal parasite,contributed to almost 46% of cases in the region.ii.Notably, India and Indonesia accounted for about94% of all malaria deaths in South-East Asia regionin 2022.iii.Around 249 million malaria cases have beenreported around the world(in 85 malaria endemiccountries and areas) which exceeded the pre-pandemic count of 233 million in 2019.
About World Health Organisation (WHO):
Director General – Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus
Headquarters – Geneva, Switzerland
Establishment– 1948
AIIB, UNDP Signed MoU for Promoting Sustainable Infrastructure Development
The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) withthe United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to promote sustainable infrastructure developmentand address development challenges in Asia and beyond.The MoU recognises the shared objectives of AIIBand UNDP in supporting national climate goals andthe 2030 Agenda through financing sustainabledevelopment initiatives in common members ofoperations.
About the Partnership:
- Under this partnership, AIIB will leverage itsrespective strengths and resources to drive positivechange and make a lasting impact on the lives ofpeople in Asia and beyond.
- With this partnership, UNDP can unlock newopportunities for financing sustainabledevelopment projects and promote innovativesolutions that address pressing global challenges.
- Under the MoU, AIIB, and UNDP will:- Plan to co-invest and leverage multilateral funding and private financing in developing countries:
- Collaborate on measuring the impact of investments on climate goals and Sustainable Development Goals(SDGs); and
- Pursue joint technical assistance and explore innovative de-risking instruments, knowledge sharing, jointadvocacy, and policy support work
About United Nations Development Programme (UNDP):
Administrator– Achim Steiner
Headquarters– New York, United States of America (USA)
Established in– 1966
Google Launches its largest and most capable AI Model ‘Gemini’
Google launched its largest and most capable multimodal Artificial intelligence (AI) model, ‘Gemini’, whichcomes in three sizes: Gemini Ultra, Gemini Pro, and Gemini Nano.
Key Points:
- Gemini Ultra: The largest and most capable model for highly complex tasks
- Gemini Ultra is the first model to outperformhuman experts on MMLU (massive multitasklanguage understanding) with a score of 90.0%.
- MMLU uses a combination of 57 subjects, suchas math, physics, history, law, medicine, andethics, to test both world knowledge andproblem-solving abilities.
- Gemini Ultra’s performance exceeds currentstate-of-the-art results on 30 of the 32 widelyusedacademic benchmarks used in largelanguage model (LLM) research anddevelopment.
- Gemini Pro: The best model for scaling across a wide range of tasks
- Google Bard integrated with Gemini Pro for more advanced reasoning, planning, and understanding.
- Gemini Nano: The most efficient model for on-device tasks
- It is expected to launch Bard Advanced with Gemini Ultra in early 2024.
About Google:
Chief Executive Officer(CEO) – Sundar Pichai
Headquarters -California, United States of America(USA)
Established – 199
International Civil Aviation Day 2023- December 7
The United Nations (UN) International Civil Aviation Day is annually observed across the globe on 7December to create awareness about the importance of international civil aviation and its role in the socialand economic development of a country.The day also highlights the role of the InternationalCivil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), a UN agency,in helping countries to cooperate and realise a trulyglobal rapid transit network at the service of allmankind.The 2023 theme of International Civil Aviation Dayis “Advancing Innovation for Global AviationDevelopment”.
Key Points:
- International Civil Aviation Day was establishedin 1994 as part of ICAO’s 50th anniversaryactivities.
- In 1996, under an ICAO initiative and with the assistance of the Canadian Government, the UnitedNations General Assembly (UNGA) adopted the resolution A/RES/51/33 and proclaimed the 7 December ofevery year as International Civil Aviation Day in the UN system.About International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO):
ICAO is funded and directed by 193 national governments (Member states) to support their diplomacy andcooperation in air transport as signatory states to the Chicago Convention (1944).
Secretary General– Juan Carlos Salazar (Colombia)
Headquarters– Montreal, Canada
Armed Forces Flag Day 2023- December 07
Armed Forces Flag Day (AFFD) is annually observed across the globe on 7 December to honour themartyrs, men, and women in the armed forces who bravely fought andcontinue to fight on the borders to safeguard the country’s honour.Flag Day emphasise the dedication to looking after the war-disabledsoldiers, Veer Naris, and the families of Martyrs who have sacrificedtheir lives for the country.
Key Points:
- A committee was set up on 28 August 1949 under the then DefenceMinister Baldev Singh. The committee recommended observing FlagDay annually on December 7.
- The 1st Armed Forces Flag Day was observed on 7 December 1949.About Indian Army:
Chief of the Army Staff– General Manoj Pande
Motto– ‘Seva Paramo Dharma’
Odisha CM Launches ‘AMA bank’ Scheme to Provide Banking Service in UnbankedGram Panchayats
Chief Minister (CM) of Odisha Naveen Patnaik has launched “AMA Bank” scheme for providing bankingservices through Customer Service Point (CSP) Plus banking outlets in 4373 unbanked Gram Panchayats(GPs) in Odisha.Ama Bank model is the first-of-its-kind financialinclusion programme in India.
Key Points:
- Ama Bank offers credit for small businesses alongwith 15 banking services through CSP Plus bankingoutlets.It is positioned between a business correspondent(BC) and a small bank branch and offers allbanking services.
- The bank also offers doorstep services to theelderly, differently-abled persons and pregnant women.
- The scheme was launched in collaboration with six public sector banks (PSBs) namely State Bank ofIndia (SBI), Punjab National Bank (PNB), Union Bank of India (UBI), UCO Bank, Bank of India (BoI) andBank of Baroda(BoB).
- As part of the scheme, the Government of Odisha will provide rent-free banking space for 5 years alongwith bearing one-time expenses for fixed costs and recurring expenses for three years.
- It was launched with a budget of about Rs 500 crore.
- The scheme will be implemented in a phased manner, with the first phase covering 750 GPs and theremaining GPs will be covered by March 2024.
- The scheme is in alignment with Odisha’s 5T initiative.
About Odisha:
Chief Minister – Naveen PatnaikGovernor – Raghubar Das
Wildlife Sanctuary – Lakhari Valley Sanctuary, Karlapat Sanctuary
Tiger Reserve – Similipal Tiger Reserve, Satkosia Tiger Reserve
Gujarat & AAI signed a MoU to develop airports in Gujarat
- A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between the Civil Aviation Department of theGovernment of Gujarat and the Airport Authority of India (AAI) for the advancement of airports inGujarat.
- Under this MoU, AAI will advance theestablishment of 11 proposed greenfield airports,and evaluate their technical feasibility and theavailability of land.
- The MoU was signed in the presence ofBhupendra Patel, Chief Minister(CM) of Gujaratand Union Minister Balwantsinh Rajput, Ministryof Civil Aviation (MoCA).
- Airports Location:11 locations of Gujarat earmarked for thedevelopment of airports are Ankleshwar, Morbi,Rajpipla, Botad, Dwarka, Dhordo, Rajula,Dahod, Ambaji, Dholavira, and Palitana.