WHO Global TB Report 2016
- The Global TB Report 2016 has revised the estimates j for the tuberculosis (TB) burden in India on October 13, 2016.
- The country has 27% of the global burden of incident tuberculosis and 34% of global TB deaths.
- For the year 2015, the updated estimate of incidence (new and relapse TB cases per year) is 2.8 million cases.
- India diagnosed and notified 1.7 million incident TB patients in 2015, leaving approximately 1.1 million presumptive patients whose fate was unknown.
- WHO has published a global TB report every year since 1997. .
- The main aim of the report is to provide a comprehensive and up-to-date assessment of the TB epidemic, and of progress in prevention, diagnosis and treatment of the disease at global, regional and country levels.
Global Hunger Index, 2016
- India ranked 97th out of 118 countries on the International Food Policy Research Institute’s (IFPRI)-Global Hunger Index (GHI) in 2016, behind Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, among others, but ahead of Pakistan and three other Asian countries.
- It was positioned at 80 out of 104 countries the previous year. The country had only the fifth highest rank in the whole of Asia, better than only North Korea (98), Pakistan (107), Timor-Leste (110) and Afghanistan (111).
- Nepal (72), Sri Lanka (84), and Bangladesh (90) had higher ranks among 96 countries than India’s. Also, India had the lowest rank among BRICS nations, with Brazil in the top 16, Russia at 24, China at 29 and South Africa at 51
- While, India has improved its score on various parameters over the past few years, two out of five children below five years of age are stunted in India, IMF Released World Economic Outlook
- The IMF predicted Subdued Global Growth in the world economic outlook released on October 5, 2016.
- Global growth subpar at 3.1% in 2016, with slight increase to 3.4% next year.
- Persistent stagnation in advanced economies could further fuel anti-trade sentiment, stifling growth. Advanced economies will expand just 1.6% in 2016, less than last year’s 2.1% pace and down from the July forecast of 1.8%.
- In emerging market and developing economies, growth will accelerate for the first time in six years, to 4.2%, slightly higher than the July forecast of 4.1%. Next year, emerging economies are expected to grow 4.6%.
See Also – Daily Current Affairs.
BRICS Agreed to Set-up Credit Rating Agency
- The five-nation group BRICS agreed on October 16, 2016 in order to set-up an independent rating agency based on market-oriented principles. According to BRICS, the agency would further strengthen the global governance architecture.
- This has led the five-member grouping to pursue idea of creating its own independent rating agency, which was discussed during the two-day annual summit at Benaulim, Goa.
- BRICS institution-building is critical to the shared vision of transforming the global financial architecture to one based on the principles of fairness and equity and to further bridge the gap in the global financial architecture, the five countries agreed to fast-track the setting-up of a BRICS Rating Agency.
- Batting for a rating agency backed by BRICS, New Development Bank president KV Kamath had expressed concerns over methodologies of the three global agencies i.e., S&P, Fitch, Moody’s.
17th India-Russia Annual Summit Held in Goa
- India and Russia will review strategies to boost bilateral trade and investment, while committing to improve ease of doing business, including liberalising travel regime, in their countries.
- It was issued after the meeting of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin on October 15, 2016 at the summit of the BRICS group, comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
- Another agreement was signed to set-up a joint venture to manufacture 200 Kamov 226T helicopters. An MoU was signed for setting-up an investment fund of $ 1 billion.
4th BRICS Science, Technology and Innovation Ministerial Meeting Held
- India will host the 8th BRICS Summit, in Goa on October 15-16, 2016 during its Chairmanship of BRICS.
- As the precursor the same, the 4th BRICS Science, Technology and Innovation Ministerial Meeting was convened on October 8, 2016 at Jaipur to further strengthen the collaboration amongst the BRICS countries in the areas of Science, Technology and Innovation (STI).
- It adopted a five-pronged approach, Institution Building, Implementation, Integration, Innovation and Continuity. Our emphasis is on institution building, implementation of previous commitments, tapping synergies of the existing BRICS cooperation mechanisms, exploring some new areas of cooperation and maintaining continuity in the existing areas.
- The theme—Building, Responsive Inclusive and Collective Solutions, the Jaipur Declaration was unanimously adopted by all the BRICS countries.
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