Wednesday, July 3rd, 2013

NATIONAL NEWS

• Himachal is the first smoke free state
  • Himachal Pradesh was on Tuesday declared the first “smoke-free” State in the country in compliance with Section 4 of the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act (COTPA), 2003. The State has achieved 85.42 per cent compliance with the relevant parameters.

OPINION/EDITORIALS

• Article on climate change
• Article on Snowden and freedom
• Interview on US – Euro relationship
• Article on the 13^th amendment
• Editorial on India's current economic position
• Editorial on Snowden incident

BUSINESS/ECONOMY

• India scores poorly in ease of starting business on GI index
  • India has ranked 66th   in   the Global Innovation Index (GII) 2013, an index that is published by Cornell University, INSEAD, World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) as a knowledge partner.
  • The study ranked 142 economies across the world on their innovation capacity and efficiency.
  • This year’s report casts additional light on the local dynamics of innovation, an area which has remained under-measured globally. It shows the emergence of original innovation eco-systems, and signals a needed shift from the usual tendency to try and duplicate previously successful initiatives, CII said in a statement.
  • India ranked 1st in the Central and South Asia region followed by Kazakhstan and Sri Lanka, and 11th overall in innovation efficiency ratio. (Innovation efficiency reflects the innovation output per unit of innovation input in the economy).
  • India ranked poor in areas such as political stability (rank 123), ease of starting business (rank 128) knowledge absorption (rank 122) among others. As per the report, despite the economic crisis, innovation is alive and well.