India climbs to the 40th rank in the Global Innovation Index of WIPO

The Global Innovation Index 2022 captures the innovation ecosystem performance of 132 economies and tracks the most recent global innovation trends. Switzerland – for the 12th year in a row – ranks first in the GII 2022. The United States climbs to 2nd position. Then comes Sweden, which is followed, in turn, by the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and the Republic of Korea. China moves up to 11th place, overtaking France; for now, it firmly remains the only middle-income economy within the GII top 30. No change to China’s exceptional position among middle-income economies is currently in sight unless Türkiye further progresses fast. Canada is back among the top 15 global innovators, climbing to 15th place. South East Asia, East Asia, and Oceania (SEAO) is the only region closing the gap between Northern America and Europe. Two SEAO economies are among the top 10 global innovators: the Republic of Korea (6th) and Singapore (rising to rank 7th place). Türkiye (37th) and India (40th) enter the top 40 for the first time.

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Nobel Prize for Economic Sciences 2022

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 2022 to Ben S. Bernanke (The Brookings Institution, Washington DC, USA), Douglas W. Diamond (University of Chicago, IL, USA), and Philip H. Dybvig (Washington University in St. Louis, MO, USA) "for research on banks and financial crises".

Modern banking research clarifies why we have banks, how to make them less vulnerable in crises and how bank collapses exacerbate financial crises. The foundations of this research were laid by Ben Bernanke, Douglas Diamond and Philip Dybvig in the early 1980s. Their analyses have been of great practical importance in regulating financial markets and dealing with financial crises.

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Government appoints Lt General Anil Chauhan as Chief of Defence Staff (CDS)

 The Government has decided to appoint Lt General Anil Chauhan (Retired) PVSM, UYSM, AVSM, SM, VSM as the next Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) who shall also function as Secretary to Government of India, Department of Military Affairs with effect from the date of his assumption of charge and until further orders. In a career spanning over nearly 40 years, Lt Gen Anil Chauhan had held several command, staff and instrumental appointments and had extensive experience in counter-insurgency operations in Jammu & Kashmir and North-East India.

In addition to these command appointments, the officer also tenanted important staff appointments including the charge of Director General of Military Operations. Earlier, the officer had also served as a United Nations mission to Angola. The officer superannuated from the Indian Army on 31 May 2021. Even after his retirement from the Army, he continued to contribute to national security and strategic matters. For his distinguished and illustrious service in the Army, Lt General Anil Chauhan (Retired) was awarded the Param Vishisht Seva Medal, Uttam Yudh Seva Medal, Ati Vishisht Seva Medal, Sena Medal and Vishisht Seva Medal.

36th National Games open in Ahmedabad

 The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi declared the 36th National Games open at Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. During the event, the Prime Minister also inaugurated the world-class “Swarnim Gujarat Sports University” in Desar. The Prime Minister also addressed the athletes from across the country who are taking part in the National Games.

National Games are being held in the state of Gujarat for the very first time. It will be organised from 29th September to 12th October 2022. Nearly 15,000 sportspersons, coaches, and officials from across the country will be participating in 36 sports disciplines, making it the biggest National Games ever. The sporting events will be organised in six cities of Ahmedabad, Gandhinagar, Surat, Vadodara, Rajkot and Bhavnagar. Under the leadership of the then Chief Minister and the current Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Gujarat embarked on the journey to create a robust sports infrastructure of international standards, which helped the state to prepare for the games in a very short span of time.

Madhabi Puri Buch takes over as Sebi chief

 Madhabi Puri Buch took over as the Chairperson of capital markets regulator Sebi, succeeding Ajay Tyagi who completed his five-year term. Buch, the first woman to head the important financial regulator and also the first non-bureaucrat to lead it in many years, was appointed by the government for a three-year term.

Professor Neena Gupta receives Ramanujan Prize for Young Mathematicians

The Ramanujan Prize for Young Mathematicians was awarded to Professor Neena Gupta, a mathematician of the Indian Statistical Institute in Kolkata, in a virtual ceremony on 22nd February 2022. She received the award for the year 2021 for her outstanding work in affine algebraic geometry and commutative algebra. The prize is awarded annually to a researcher from a developing country funded by the Department of Science and Technology (DST) of the Government of India in association with ICTP (International Centre for Theoretical Physics) and the International Mathematical Union (IMU). It is given to young mathematicians less than 45 years of age who have conducted outstanding research in a developing country. It is supported by DST in the memory of Srinivasa Ramanujan, a genius in pure mathematics who was essentially self-taught and made spectacular contributions to elliptic functions, continued fractions, infinite series, and analytical theory of numbers. Professor Gupta's solution for solving the Zariski cancellation problem, a fundamental problem in Algebraic Geometry, earned her the 2014 Young Scientists Award of the Indian National Science Academy (NSA). The NSA described her solution as ‘one of the best works in algebraic geometry in recent years done anywhere’. The problem was posed by one of the most eminent founders of modern Algebraic Geometry, Oscar Zariski, in 1949.

National Sports Awards 2021

 Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports announced the National Sports Awards 2021. National Sports Awards are given every year to recognize and reward excellence in sports. Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award is given for the spectacular and most outstanding performance in the field of sports by a sportsperson over a period of the previous four years. Arjuna Award for outstanding performance in Sports and Games is given for good performance over a period of the previous four years and showing qualities of leadership, sportsmanship, and a sense of discipline. Dronacharya Award for outstanding coaches in Sports and Games is given to coaches for doing outstanding and meritorious work on a consistent basis and enabling sportspersons to excel in International events. Dhyan Chand Award for Lifetime Achievement in Sports and Games is given to honour sportspersons who have contributed to sports by their performance and continue to contribute to the promotion of sports events after their retirement. Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puruskar is given to corporate entities (both in the private and public sector), sports control boards, NGOs including sports bodies at the state and national level who have played a visible role in the area of sports promotion and development. Overall top performing university in inter-university tournaments is given Maulana Abul Kalam Azad (MAKA) Trophy.

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