Relevance IN - Prelims (about the STEM summit) + Mains (GS III awareness in the field of science and technology)
What's the NEWS

• The Department of Biotechnology organized an International Summit on Women in STEM-"Visualizing the Future: New Skylines
• The Summit was organized with the overall aim to boost the participation of women in STEM field for development of scientific career.
• The aim was to showcase women in STEM successes as real-world examples of successful women scientists, doctors and engineers demonstrating the excitement of being in the STEM fields as well as the rewards associated with it.
• Around 350 participants from different STEM field across the globe participated in the event including scientists, socialists, entrepreneurs, researchers, teachers and students.
• The summit provided a good platform for young students and researchers to interact and network with leaders in the field, to develop ideas and generate a future action plan for making career in STEM fields.

• Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), is a term used to group together these academic disciplines.
• This term is typically used when addressing education policy and curriculum choices in schools to improve competitiveness in science and technology development.

Prelims Factoids
10^th National Voters' Day to be celebrated on 25^th January 2020

Relevance IN - Prelims (about National voter day)
What's the NEWS

• The National Voters' Day (NVD) has been celebrated on January 25 every year since 2011, all across the country at over ten lakh locations across the nation, that include polling stations areas, sub divisions, divisions, district and state headquarters, to mark the Foundation day of Election Commission of India, which was established on 25^th January 1950.
• This year marks an important milestone in the history of Indian democracy as Election Commission of India (ECI) completes 70 years of its journey.

Know! more about NVD

• The main purpose of the NVD celebration is to encourage, facilitate and maximize the enrolment, especially for the new voters.
• Dedicated to the voters of the country, the Day is utilized to spread awareness among voters for promoting informed participation in the electoral process.
• New Voters are felicitated and handed over their Elector Photo Identity Card in the NVD function.
• Chief Election Commissioners and delegates from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Maldives, Mauritius, Nepal, Srilanka and Tunisia, who are coming to New Delhi to attend the 10th Annual Meeting of the Forum of the Election Management Bodies of South Asia (FEMBoSA), shall grace the occasion.
• The theme for NVD 2020 is ‘Electoral Literacy for Stronger Democracy'.

The Forum of the Election Management Bodies of South Asia (FEMBoSA)

Relevance IN - Prelims (about FEMBoSA + about Association of World Election Bodies
What's the NEWS

• Chief Election Commissioner of India, Shri Sunil Arora assumed Chairmanship of The Forum of the Election Management Bodies (EMBs) of South Asia (FEMBoSA) for the year 2020.

Know! more about FEMBoSA

• FEMBoSA was established at the 3^rd Conference of Heads of Election Management Bodies (EMBs) of SAARC Countries held at New Delhi in May, 2012.
• With its eight members, FEMBoSA represents a very large part of the democratic world and is an active regional association of EMBs.
• Annual FEMBoSA meeting is held by rotation among the members. The last (9^th) annual meeting of FEMBoSA was held in Dhaka in September 2018.
• A New Delhi Resolution was unanimously adopted at the 10th FEMBoSA Annual Meeting by the seven FEMBoSA members present at the meeting.
• The Members resolved to : Implement the Work Plan for 2020 as approved by the member EMBs in the 10^th Meeting of FEMBoSA
• An International Conference was also organised on the theme "Strengthening Institutional Capacity", where nearly 30 delegates gathered to attend the International Conference.
• On this occasion, Election Commissioners of India launched the 10^th issue of ECI's magazine - ‘VOICE International' which carries articles on the theme of "Innovative Methods of Voter Registration".

Association of World Election Bodies

• In September 2019, ECI took over as Chair of the 115 member Association of World Election Bodies for 2019-21 term.
• The Association of World Election Bodies, commonly referred to as ‘A-WEB,' was established on October 14, 2013 in Song-do, South Korea.
• A-WEB is the first global organization of election management bodies, and the membership currently consists of 115 members.
• Under the slogan of ‘Democracy to Grow for All Worldwide,' the A-WEB Secretariat provides training programs for election officials of member nations and undertakes country programs at the request of member organization, providing support during the election cycle to boost election management capacity.
• The current chairman is Sunil Arora from Republic of India.

Government Agreements
Government of India and the World Bank sign USD 210 million loan agreement for State of Maharashtra's Agribusiness and Rural Transformation Project.

Relevance IN - Prelims (about the project and its benefits) + Mains (GS III issues related to farmer's welfare)
What's the NEWS

• The Government of India, the Government of Maharashtra and the World Bank signed a loan agreement of USD 210 million to support small holder farmers participate in competitive agriculture value chains, facilitate agri-business investments, increase market access and productivity in focus commodities, and build resilience of crops to recurrent floods or droughts in the Indian state of Maharashtra.

Know! more about the project

• The USD210 million Maharashtra Agribusiness and Rural Transformation Project, will help build capacity of the nodal departments and institutions; increase private sector investments in agricultural value chains; remove constraints for producers and entrepreneurs in accessing emerging domestic and export markets; build the capacity of the state to respond to commodity-price fluctuations by providing access to timely information on markets and production trends; and enhance adoption of climate resilient production techniques in the state.
• This project in Maharashtra is a significant step towards transforming the state's rural economy through sustainable agriculture practices and empowerment of farmers by connecting them directly to the markets.
• The project will be implemented in all 36 districts of Maharashtra. Over one million farming households will directly benefit from the project.

Prelims Factoids
India slips two places on global corruption perception index
Relevance IN - Prelims (about global corruption perception Index and its findings)

What's the NEWS

• India's ranking in the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI-2019) has slipped from 78 to 80 compared to the previous year. Its score of 41 out of 100 remains the same.
• Transparency International released the report of this index during the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos. Denmark and New Zealand topped the index as they are the most honest countries.

Know! about the report findings

• India is in the 80^th position while this rank is also shared by Benin, China, Morocco, and Ghana.
• India's neighboring country Pakistan ranked 120 on the list. It shows more corruption in Pakistan.
• A total of 180 countries have been placed in public sector corruption cases in this index.
• The index uses a scale from 0 to 100, where score 0 indicates a highly corrupted country whereas number 100 indicates corruption-free country.
• In democracies like India and Australia, unfair and opaque political financing, undue influence in decision-making and lobbying by powerful corporate interest groups, has resulted in stagnation or decline in the control of corruption
• The shows corruption is more pervasive in countries where big money can flow freely into electoral campaigns and where governments listen only to the voices of wealthy or well-connected individuals
• The 2019 CPI draws on 13 surveys and expert assessments to measure public sector corruption in 180 countries and territories, giving each a score from zero (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean).
• In the Asia Pacific region, the average score is 45, after many consecutive years of an average score of 44, which "illustrates general stagnation" across the region.
• China has improved its position from 87 to 80 with a score of 41 out of 100, a two-point jump.
• Despite the presence of high performers like New Zealand (87), Singapore (85), Australia (77), Hong Kong (76) and Japan (73), the Asia Pacific region hasn't witnessed substantial progress in anti-corruption efforts or results.
• In addition, low performers like Afghanistan (16), North Korea (17) and Cambodia (20) continue to highlight serious challenges in the region
• The top ranked countries are New Zealand and Denmark, with scores of 87 each, followed by Finland (86), Singapore (85), Sweden (85) and Switzerland (85).
• The countries ranked at the bottom of the list are Somalia, South Sudan and Syria with scores of 9, 12 and 13. These countries are closely followed by Yemen (15), Venezuela (16), Sudan (16), Equatorial Guinea (16) and Afghanistan (16).
• In the last eight years, only 22 countries significantly improved their CPI scores, including Greece, Guyana and Estonia.
• In the same period, among the 21 countries that saw a significantly fall in their scores are Canada, Australia and Nicaragua.

Know! about Transparency International

• It is an international non-governmental organization which is based in Berlin, Germany, and was founded in 1993.
• Its non profit purpose is to take action to combat global corruption with civil societal anti-corruption measures and to prevent criminal activities arising from corruption.
• It publishes for example the Global Corruption Barometer and the Corruption Perceptions Index.
  
  

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