ODISHA

Odisha slips two places in innovation rankings

Odisha dropped to 14th position in the second edition of India Innovation Index, 2020, released by NITI Aayog on Wednesday even as Karnataka continued to occupy top spot. The state had secured 12th rank in the first edition of the index launched in October 2019.

States like Maharashtra, Telangana, Kerala, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal have performed better than Odisha in the innovation rankings.

The drop comes barely five months after the state slipped to 29th rank from 14th place in the ease of doing business rankings released by the department for promotion of industry and internal trade (DPIIT) in September last year. The innovation inputs were measured through five enabler parameters like human capital, investment, knowledge workers, business environment, business environment and safety and legal environment and two performance parameters like knowledge output and knowledge diffusion.
According to the Innovation Index, 2020, Odisha ranked 10th in human capital and 15th in investment parameter. Among other parameters, the state ranked 14th in knowledge workers, 16th in business environment and 12th in safety and legal environment. In the performance parameters, Odisha ranked 15th in knowledge output and 8th in diffusion. The state has dropped in most of the parameters compared to the last index.

The fall in Odisha’s rank is despite the government having taken a number of steps to promote innovation in higher education and technical institutes.

INTERNATIONAL

UN Released International Migration 2020 Report

The United Nations (UN) released the International Migration 2020 Highlights report. According to the report, Indian diaspora is the largest in the world. As of 2020, more than 18 million people from India are living outside India.

Other diaspora countries are Mexico, China, Russia, and Syria.

According to this report, Indian diasporas are distributed in many major countries, such as the UAE (3.5 million), Saudi Arabia (2.5 million) and the United States (2.7 million).

Some other countries that receive high numbers of immigrants from India are Oman, Australia, Kuwait, Canada, Qatar, Pakistan and the United Kingdom.

Between 2000 and 2020, the size of immigrant populations in all countries is increasing. During his tenure, India received the largest gain of nearly 10 million. India is followed closely by Syria, Venezuela, China and the Philippines.

The places where the immigrant population increased during this period were Ukraine, Pakistan, Tanzania, Armenia, India, and Ukraine. Immigration to India is for labor and family reasons.

NATIONAL

Union Ministers Rajnath Singh and Nitin Gadkari Inaugurates National Road Safety Month 2021

The first-ever National Road Safety Month (January 18-February 17) was inaugurated by Union Minister for Defence Shri Rajnath Singh and Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways & MSME Shri Nitin Gadkari.

It is the inaugural edition of the National Road Safety Month and is being held in place of National Road Safety Week, which was being observed since past few years.

The objective of the month-long programme is to build awareness about road safety and reduce road accidents in India.

It will be held till 17 February 2021.

During this period, nation-wide activities would be conducted throughout the country in association with State Govt./Union Territory administrations, NHAI, NHIDCL, OEMs and NGOs.

GI Tag for Gucchi Mushroom

Jammu and the Kashmir government sought a GI label for Gucci mushrooms. Gucchi mushrooms are expensive and good for health. The price of 500 grams of Gucchi mushrooms is 18,000 rupees. Recently, GI tags were provided to saffron in Jammu and Kashmir.

Gucchi mushroom is a fungus belonging to the Morchellaceae family. They are light yellow, with large ridges and pits on the hat. They grow on large white stems. Gucchi mushrooms are called “Thuntoo” locally.

Gucchi mushrooms prefer limestone-based soils. They also grow in acid soil. Gucci mushrooms are usually found in early spring.

They are called “May mushrooms” in North America. The fruiting time of mushrooms varies from February to July. In Canada, they only appeared after June.

Gucci mushrooms cannot be grown commercially. They grow in the coniferous forests of North Akanchar, Himalayas, Chamu and Kashmir. It takes villagers several months to collect these mushrooms, dry them and bring them to the market.

Gucchi mushrooms grow in clusters on rotting wood, humus soil and leaves of logs. They may not grow in the same place next season. This makes the collection process more cumbersome. For these reasons, Gucchi mushrooms are very expensive.

PM Modi unanimously chosen as next Chairman of Shree Somnath Trust

Prime Minister Narendra Modi was unanimously chosen as the next Chairman of Shree Somnath Trust.

Mr Modi was named to the top post during a virtual meeting of Shree Somnath Trust which was attended by the Prime Minister.

The post of chairman of the trust had fallen vacant following the death of Keshubhai Patel, former chief minister of Gujarat, in October 2020.

The Somnath temple (also known as the Deo Patan) located in Gujarat.

It is believed to be the first among the twelve jyotirlinga shrines of Shiva.

Srinagar’s first-ever snowshoe run organised to boost winter sports

A new snowshoe run and interaction programme was held in Srinagar for the first time.

The programme was held during the heavy snowfall season in the state.

The event was organised by the Snowshoe Federation of India to boost winter sports in the Kashmir region.

The game that is usually played in regions of Europe attracted athletes from various parts of Kashmir.

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