What's the NEWS

• Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas & Steel Shri Dharmendra Pradhan launched a scheme of SAIL to promote Voluntary Philanthropist Activities (VPA) by its employees.

Know! more about the scheme

• The scheme called "SAIL Employee Rendering Voluntarism and Initiatives for Community Engagement (SERVICE)" will promote and facilitate philanthropist activities by the employees in a structured manner.
• The dedicated interactive "SAIL SERVICE" portal for implementation of this Scheme shall act as a platform for enabling faster interaction and communication amongst the various stakeholders.
• It shall eventually be developed as a repository of knowledge management in this regard.
• Through SERVICE, employees of SAIL will come forward to perform their social duties voluntarily and contribute towards social welfare and nation building.

Prelims Factoids
EIU's Global Democracy Index: India slips 10 spots to 51st rank, Norway tops the list

Relevance IN - Prelims (about global democracy index and its findings)
What's the NEWS

• India slipped 10 places to 51st position in the 2019 Democracy Index's global ranking, according to The Economist Intelligence Unit, which cited "erosion of civil liberties" in the country as the primary cause for the downtrend.

Know! about the report findings

• India's overall score fell from 7.23 in 2018 to 6.90 in the Index that provides a snapshot of the current state of democracy worldwide for 165 independent states and two territories.

The index is based on five categories -
1. electoral process and pluralism
2. the functioning of government
3. political participation
4. political culture
5. civil liberties.
Based on their total score, the countries are classified as one of four types of regime:
1. full democracy(scores greater than 8)
2. flawed democracy - scores greater than 6 and less than or equal to 8
3. hybrid regime - scores greater than 4 and less than or equal to 6
4. authoritarian regime - scores less than or equal to 4".
Know! other findings of the report

• India was included in the "flawed democracy" category.
• China's score fell to 2.26 in the 2019 index, and the country is now ranked 153^rd, close to the bottom of the global rankings.
• Pakistan was ranked 108^th on the overall list with a score of 4.25, while Sri Lanka was at 69^th place with a score of 6.27, Bangladesh (at 80^th with 5.88 score).
• The overall list was topped by Norway, followed by Iceland and Sweden. Other countries in the top 10 include New Zealand at the fourth place, Finland (5^th), Ireland (6^th), Denmark (7th), Canada (8^th), Australia (9^th) and Switzerland (10^th).
• North Korea was at the bottom of the global ranking at 167th place.

Know! about EIU

• The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) is a British business within the Economist Group providing forecasting and advisory services through research and analysis, such as monthly country reports, five-year country economic forecasts, country risk service reports, and industry reports.

Bilateral Relations
India, Brazil to sign Strategic Action Plan
Relevance IN - Prelims (about Strategic action plan and about bilateral investment treaty) + Mains (GS II Bilateral relations)
What's the NEWS

• India and Brazil will upgrade their strategic partnership with an "action plan" and sign a Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT) when Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro visits as the Chief Guest of the Republic Day celebrations from 24-27.
• About 20 agreements set to be exchanged, are the Strategic Partnership Action Plan, along with the BIT, a Mutual Legal Assistance Agreement (MLAT) on crime, agreements on double taxation avoidance, bio-energy or ethanol production, cybersecurity, health, mining, oil and gas exploration and investment, and animal husbandry.

Know! more about the agreements

• The Strategic Partnership Action Plan will serve as an "umbrella agreement", for plans between the two countries to increase defence cooperation, technology sharing and a logistics agreement.
• The Bilateral Investment treaty will be one of the first that the Modi government will sign since 2015, when it decided to scrap all existing treaties with 83 countries, and brought in a new "Model BIT".
• Since then India has been able to sign BITs with Belarus and Kyrgyzstan, has concluded an agreement with Cambodia, and is negotiating treaties with about a dozen other countries.
• Brazil and India will also exchange a Social Security Agreement (SSA), first signed in March 2017, to allow investments in each other's pension funds, to help business processes and encourage the flow of investment.

Know! about Bilateral investment Treaties (BITs)

• BITs are agreements between two Countries (States) for the reciprocal promotion and protection of investments in each other's territories by individuals and companies situated in either State.
• The first BIT was signed by India on March 14, 1994. Since then till date the government has signed BIT with more than 83 countries.
• In 2015, India has unilaterally terminated bilateral investment treaties with more than 60 countries. There is around 50% of the total unilateral termination of BITs globally from 2010 to 2018
• India has adopted a new inward-looking Model BIT in 2016 that prioritises state interests over protection to foreign investment

Prelims Factoids
India joins WEF reskilling initiative as founding member

Relevance IN - Prelims (about WEF reskilling initiative)
What's the NEWS

• India joined as a founding government member the World Economic Forum's Reskilling Revolution, an initiative to provide one billion people with better education, skills and jobs by 2030.

Know! more about it

• The scheme aims to future-proof workers from technological change and help economies by providing new skills for the Fourth Industrial Revolution, the WEF said.
• Founding governments include Brazil, France, India, Pakistan, the Russian Federation, UAE and the US.
• Business partners include PwC, Salesforce, ManpowerGroup, InfosysNSE 1.32 %, LinkedIn, Coursera Inc. and The Adecco Group.
• The best way to foster a more cohesive and inclusive society is to provide everybody with a decent job and income. Keeping that in mind the forum is creating a public-private platform to give one billion people the skills they need in the age of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
• The scale and urgency of this transformation calls for nothing short of a reskilling revolution

Environment Conservation
One Trillion Trees Initiative

Relevance IN - Prelims (about one trillion trees initiative) +Mains (GS III Environment conservation)
What's the NEWS

• The World Economic Forum has launched 'One Trillion Trees Initiative' to grow, restore and conserve 1 trillion trees across the world by 2030. The global initiative is aimed at restoring biodiversity and help fight climate change.

Know! more about the initiative

• The one trillion trees project is also aimed at uniting governments, non-governmental organisations, businesses and individuals in mass-scale nature restoration.
• US President Donald Trump announced that the United States will join the one trillion trees initiative
• The main purpose of planting one trillion trees is to slow down climate change by removing large amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
• The process of restoring, planting and conserving one trillion trees by 2030 will provide the much-needed progress against climate, biodiversity and SGD goals.
• Planting over 1 trillion additional trees will help cool the earth and reduce atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations to where they stood a century back.

One Trillion Trees: objectives

• To unite and promote reforestation efforts worldwide.
• To mobilise funds and political support.
• To plant, restore and conserve trees and forests.
• To lock up carbon in the world's forests, grasslands and wetlands.

Know! more about 1t.org

• The 1t.org is a WEF initiative, which has been designed to support the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration 2021-2030, led by UNEP and FAO.
• It will offer a platform to connect, empower and mobilize a global reforestation community comprising governments, businesses, civil society and millions of people from across the world.
• The community will help people unleash their potential to act at an unprecedented scale and speed up the conservation and restoration efforts for one trillion trees within this decade.

Know! about WEF

• The World Economic Forum (WEF), based in Cologny-Geneva, Switzerland, is an NGO, founded in 1971.
• The WEF's mission is cited as "committed to improving the state of the world by engaging business, political, academic, and other leaders of society to shape global, regional, and industry agendas"
• It is a membership-based organization, and membership is made up of the world's largest corporations.
• The WEF hosts an annual meeting at the end of January in Davos, a mountain resort in Graubünden, in the eastern Alps region of Switzerland.
• The meeting brings together some 3,000 business leaders, international political leaders, economists, celebrities and journalists for up to five days to discuss global issues, across 500 public and private sessions.
  
  

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