The Daily Brief – 25th January 2020

An International Summit on Women in STEM–“Visualizing the Future: New Skylines” was held on 23^rdand 24^thJanuary, 2020 at India Habitat Centre, New Delhi. It was organised by Department of Biotechnology with the overall aim to boost the participation of women in STEM field for development of scientific career. STEM stands for science, technology, engineering and mathematics. The summit provided a good platform for young students and researchers to interact and network with leaders in the field, to develop ideas and generate a future action plan for making career in STEM fields.

The first Ganga Volga Dialogue of Civilizations between India and Russia was held in New Delhi on 22^nd January, 2020 to provide an interface between the civilizations of two countries. It was inaugurated by Minister of State for External Affairs V. Muraleedharan. The theme for the dialogue was ‘Connectivity’. It was organised by Minister of External Affairs in collaboration with Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Research Foundation. The dialogue was conceptualized during the October 2018 India-Russia Summit between President Putin and Prime Minister Modi.

National Voters Day is celebrated every year on 25^th January in India to commemorate the foundation day of the Election Commission of India (ECI) in 1950. Theme for this year is ‘Electoral Literacy for a Stronger Democracy’. The day was celebrated for the first time in 2012. The day aims to encourage, facilitate and maximize the enrollment of new voters and active participation of the active voters. ECI is a constitutional body deriving its authority from Article 324 of the Constitution and Representation of the People Acts.

International Day of Education is celebrated every year across the world on 24^th January to recognise the role of education in bringing peace and development. The United Nations General Assembly on 3^rd December, 2018 adopted a resolution proclaiming 24^th January as International Day of Education. The theme for this year was ‘Learning for people, planet, prosperity, and peace’. Right to education (RTE) was inserted in Article 21-A of the Indian Constitution through the Constitution (Eighty-sixth Amendment) Act, 2002 to make it a Fundamental Right for the children between the ages of six and fourteen.

Uttarakhand’s Disaster Mitigation & Management Centre in the institution category and Kumar Munnan Singh in the individual category have been selected for the Subhash Chandra Bose Aapda Prabandhan Puraskar 2020. Instituted in 2019, the award is announced every year on 23^rd January, on the occasion of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose’s birth anniversary. It aims to recognise the excellent work done by individuals and institutions in India in the field of disaster management. Kumar Munnan Singh was appointed as a founder member of the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) in 2005 in recognition of his commendable work during the destructive 2004 Tsunami.

India slipped two positions from 78 in 2018 to 80 in 2019 in the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI -2019) released by Transparency International on 23^rd January, 2020. Denmark and New Zealand topped the index listing 180 countries. The index uses a scale from 0 to 100, where score 0 indicates a highly corrupted country whereas number 100 indicates corruption-free country. India scored 40 in 2019 while the average score is 43. Transparency International is a non-governmental organization established in 1993. It has been publishing the Corruption Perceptions Index(CPI) every year since 1995.

NITI Aayog on 23^rd January, 2020 announced that it will launch National Data and Analytics Platform (NDAP) to make all government data accessible to stakeholders in a user-friendly manner. Vice Chairman of NITI Aayog Dr. Rajiv Kumar released the vision document for NDAP. The NDAP will host multiple datasets, present them coherently and provide visualisation and analytics tools. National Institution for Transforming India (NITI Aayog) was formed on 1^st January 2015.