India, Iran, Afghanistan FinalisedChabahar Port Agreement
- India, Iran, and Afghanistan finalised the trilateral agreement known as the Chabahar Agreement on April 17, 2016 which will allow India access to Afghanistan via the strategically located Iranian port of Chabahar.
- India is interests because India wants to develop it as a counter to Pakistan’s Gwadar port which was built with Chinese assistance.
- The port will allow India to bypass Pakistan to transport goods to Afghanistan and Central Asia using a sea-land route. Chabahar Port lies outside the Persian Gulf in Iran and will help India in expanding its maritime commerce in the region.
India, Germany Joined Hands to Clean River Ganga
- India and Germany on April 13, 2016 signed an agreement to adopt and replicate the river basin management strategies of the European rivers Rhine and Danube to rejuvenate the river Ganga.
- The objective of the agreement is to enable responsible stakeholders at national and State-level to apply integrated river basin management approach for the rejuvenation of the river Ganga.
- Agreement was signed between the Union Ministry of Water Resources and German International Cooperation (G1Z) of Germany.
- Initial actions will be focussed on the stretch of the river in Uttarakhand, it will later be expanded to other Ganga States.
- The duration of the project is three years and the German contribution in the project will be to the tune of Rs 22.5 crore.
Reports/Indices
World Anti-Doping Report 2016
- India had the 3rd highest Anti-Doping Rule Violations (ADRVs) in 2014, with 96 cases, behind Russia (148) and Italy (123). Belgium (91), France (91), Turkey (73), Australia (49), China (49), according to the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) report released on April 28, 2016.
- Out of these 96 dope violations, 79 (56 men and 23 women) failed in-competition tests while 13 (9 men and 4 women) were caught out-of-competition.
- Anti-Doping Rule Violations is a doping case in which a decision is rendered against an athlete following a full disciplinary process. The sanction is either a reprimand or a period of ineligibility.
World Press Freedom Index 2016
- India racked 133rd out of 180 countries listed in the World Press Freedom Index 2016, released by NGO Reporters Without Borders on April 19, 2016.
- India jumped three places compared with last year’s ranking. This report is Published annually and rankings are based on freedom allowed to journalists in countries around the world.
- Top three North European countries in the list were— Finland, the Netherlands and Norway. Africa as a region overtook the Americas when it comes to press freedom.
- Pakistan was ranked 147th and China 176th. The three lowest-ranked countries were Syria, North Korea and Eritre.
Global Connectivity Index 2016
- A Huawei survey placed India at the 44th spot on its Global Connectivity Index 2016 that includes 50 countries. The US makes it to the top of the list while China stood at 23rd spot.
- This is Huawei’s third Global Connectivity Index report was released on April 11, 2016. India was seen at the same 44th position last year too.
- The report, measures the progress of 50 nations in investment and deployment of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) infrastructure including broadband, data centers, cloud services, big data and IoT on a score scale of 0-100. These 50 countries, account for 90% of global GDP and and 78% of the global population.
- According to the report, the 50 countries are divided into three categories namely, Starter, Adopter and Frontrunners. Among .these, India is placed in the Starter category alongside counties such as Qatar, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Venezuela and Algeria.
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