Daily Current Affairs for Competitive Exams: January 20, 2017

India Innovation Index

The World Economic Forum, NITI Aayog, the World Intellectual Property Organization and the Cornell University will work together to develop an India Innovation Index that will provide impetus to Indian states to drive the innovative spirit.

“Prime Minister Modi believes that competitive and cooperative federalism is key to India’s progress.

This index will encourage states to compete with each other and, in turn, lead to better policies for inclusive growth. Each partnering organisation will nominate a working group member to work on the index.

Highlights:

• The first ranking is expected to be released at the India Economic Summit in New Delhi between 4-6 October . 
• On this index and believe that it can move India to an innovation-driven economy and to identify and measure the grassroots issues that affect innovation capabilities,” said Viraj Mehta, Head of India and South Asia, World Economic Forum. 
• The index will be based on key pillars of innovation and sub-indices that together will assist in tailoring policies that promote inclusive growth. 
• The pillars include the strength of institutions, capacity of human capital and research, supporting infrastructure and the level of business sophistication, among others. 
• The index will measure and rank the innovation performance of all Indian states with the aim of moving India towards an innovation-driven economy. 

Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) launched at World Economic Forum (WEF) Davos

• CEPI received $460-million to develop vaccines against 3 emerging highly-contagious and fatal diseases. 
• The three diseases for which CEPI is working are Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS)-coronavirus, Lassa fever, and Nipah virus. 
• CEPI is a public-private alliance to finance and coordinate the development of new vaccines to prevent and contain infectious disease epidemics. It plans to develop vaccines by reducing time taken for it to be effective to epidemic. 
• It is funded by the Wellcome Trust, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, World Economic Forum (WEF), Governments of Norway, Japan, India (Department of Biotechnology) and Germany. 

IORA members to sign MoU for cooperation in SME sector.

• Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA)have agreed on signing a Memorandum of Understanding on MSME Cooperation among IORA member countries held in New Delhi. 
• Focus areas are exchange best practices, greater involvement of MSMEs in the global supply chain and increase their market access. 
• Promote women and youth’s economic empowerment. 
• IORA consisting of coastal states bordering the Indian Ocean. It was established in 1997 to promote cooperation in the Indian Ocean region. IORA was formerly known as the Indian Ocean Rim Initiative and Indian Ocean Rim Association for Regional Cooperation (IOR-ARC). 
• Its coordinating Secretariat is located at Ebene, Mauritius. 
• It emphasizes cooperation among representatives of Government, Business and Academia, for promoting co-operation and closer interaction among them. It is based on the principles of Open Regionalism 
• IORA has 21 members.