The Daily Brief – 15th March 2019

The statistics of the Inter-Parliamentary Union highlight that the percentage of female elected heads of state dropped from 7.2 per cent to 6.6 per cent from 2017 to 2018 in India. The global share of women in parliament increased by nearly one percentage from 2017 to 2018, to 24.3 per cent. Established in 1889 Inter-Parliamentary Union is a global inter-parliamentary institution.

Andhra Pradesh IT minister Nara Lokesh, BJP MP Poonam Mahajan, Xiaomi India head Manu Kumar Jain, Telangana government’s Chief Innovation Officer Phanindra Sama, SaveLife Foundation’s Piyush Tewari and Kaleidofin’s co-Founder Sucharita Mukherjee are the Indians featuring in the list of Young Global Leaders 2019. The Forum of Young Global Leaders is the World Economic Forum’s foundation for remarkable leaders under 40.

The sixth edition of Global Environment Outlook (GEO) Report which is the UN Environment Programme’s environment assessment has been released. As per it, poor environmental conditions cause approximately 25% of global disease and mortality and resulted in around 9 million deaths in 2015 alone. Due to lack of access to clean drinking supplies, 1.4 million people die each year from preventable diseases such as diarrhoea. Air pollution causes 6-7 million early deaths annually. The first edition was published in 1997.

Erode Turmeric has received GI tag from the Geographical Indication Registry. Erode is the city in the state of Tamil Nadu. Erode Turmeric is golden yellow in colour with resistance to pests after boiling and contains 2.5 to 4.5% of curcumin content. Erode Turmeric is grown in hot moist conditions prevalent in the area with temperature ranging from 20 degrees to 37.9 degrees Celsius with an average of 600 to 800 mm rainfall in a year.

The Cabinet has approved the proposal to harmonise the classification systems for examination of trademark and design applications, in line with the systems, followed globally. As a step towards it cabinet approved India’s accession for Nice Agreement on the International classification of goods and services for the purposes of registration of marks, Vienna Agreement for setting up an International classification of the figurative elements of marks and Locarno Agreement for establishing an International classification for industrial designs.

China has again blocked the bid to designate Pakistan-based terror group Jaish-e-Mohammed Chief Azhar Masood as a global terrorist in the United Nations Security Council 1267 list. The proposal was moved by France, the UK and the US on February 27, on the backdrop of Pulwama Terror Attack. Just before the deadline for filing of the objections was about to end, China which is the permanent member of the United Nations Permanent Council filed the objection.

World Kidney Day 2019 was observed on 14th March with the theme Kidney Health for Everyone Everywhere. World Kidney Day is observed every year on second Thursday of March across the world as a global health awareness campaign focusing on the importance of the kidneys and reducing the frequency and impact of kidney disease and its associated health problems worldwide.

The United Kingdom has commemorated Professor Stephen Hawking in a new 50p coin to celebrate the life and “ground-breaking” achievements of Hawking, who passed away in 2018. The coin has references to the late physicist’s pioneering work on black holes. British engraver and printmaker Edwina Ellis designed the coin.