Headlines at a Glance – 12th February 2022
Atal Innovation Mission, NITI Aayog & UNDP India launch Community Innovator Fellowship
The NITI Aayog’s Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) and UNDP India on Friday launched the Community Innovator Fellowship (CIF), which will provide the youth with an opportunity to establish their social enterprise focusing on sustainable development goals (SDG)-based solutions for solving community issues, according to an official statement. This is going to be a one-year-long intensive fellowship programme, which has been designed for aspiring community innovators, irrespective of their socioeconomic background. During the course of this fellowship, each fellow will be hosted at one of the AIM’s Atal Community Innovation Centers (ACICs) and will acquire SDG awareness, entrepreneurial skills and life skills while they are working on their idea, it added.
SOURCE: The Hindu
Norway tops 2021 Democracy Index of 167 countries released by EIU
Since the year 2006, the Economist Intelligence has been bringing forth the state of democracy worldwide in around 165 independent nations and two territories through its democracy index. The last year’s democracy index was published on February 10, 2022. Like every other year, it is based on the clearly stated five categories, i.e. electoral process and pluralism, functioning of the government, political participation, political culture and last but not least, civil liberties. According to these categories, the list has been further bifurcated into three categories encompassing nations that enjoy full democracy, flawed democracy, hybrid regime and authoritarian regime. India with a rank of 46 found its presence in the flawed democracy segment. If you are sad thinking about it, then you should also know that the USA has also been placed as a nation with flawed democracy.
SOURCE: The Indian Express
One Ocean Summit being held at Brittany, France
Taking place in Brest in Brittany in the northwest of France, the “One Ocean Summit” will be held in the context of the French Presidency of the Council of the European Union, with the support of the United Nations. It is an opportunity to kick off the second year of the Ocean Decade to translate our shared responsibility to protect the ocean and reverse its declining health. As part of our commitments to unlock ocean solutions for sustainable development, WorldFish will support the goals of the summit by participating and showcasing our research and innovation in marine ecosystem protection, sustainable ocean fisheries and aquaculture, response to the impacts of climate change as well as advocate for improved governance of the oceans.
SOURCE: The Hindu
4th Quad Foreign Ministers’ Meeting held in Melbourne
External Affairs Minister (EAM) S Jaishankar is participating in the 4th Quad Foreign Ministers’ meeting, which began on Friday, in Melbourne. Jaishankar is on an official visit to Australia from February 10-13 at the invitation of his Australian counterpart Marise Payne, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said in a release. The MEA also said that this will be his first visit as External Affairs Minister to Australia. Australia is hosting India, Japan and the United States for the fourth Quad Foreign Ministers’ meeting and the top diplomats are seeking to bolster cooperation in areas including economy, security, coronavirus pandemic and free and open Indo-Pacific. The Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad) is a partnership of four nations, each of whom shares a commitment to openness, transparency and challenges coming out of the current global order.
SOURCE: Hindustan Times
NASA selects two missions to help better understand earth-sun environment
NASA has selected two science missions – the Multi-slit Solar Explorer (MUSE) and HelioSwarm – to help improve our understanding of the dynamics of the Sun, the Sun-Earth connection, and the constantly changing space environment, according to a statement on Thursday. These missions will provide deeper insights into our universe and offer critical information to help protect astronauts, satellites, and communications signals such as GPS. “MUSE and HelioSwarm will provide new and deeper insight into the solar atmosphere and space weather,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for science at NASA Headquarters in Washington in a statement.
SOURCE: Business Standard
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