21st India-Russia Annual Summit
Russian President Vladimir Putin is scheduled to pay an official visit to New Delhi on December 6, 2021.
Important facts
- President Putin is coming to attend 21st India-Russia Annual Summit with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
- This summit will be the first face-to-face meeting between both the leaders, following their meeting of the BRICS Summit in November 2019 in Brasilia.
Importance
India-Russia Annual Summit was last held in September 2019. In 2019, PM Modi visited to Vladivostok (Russia). The Annual Summit of 2020 was postponed due to Covid-19 pandemic.
Agenda of 2021 summit
- During the 2021 Summit, both the leaders will review the state and prospects of bilateral relations.
- They will discuss ways to further strengthen the strategic relationship between both the countries.
- Summit will also provide an opportunity to exchange views on international, multilateral and regional issues of mutual interest.
- They will exchange views on topical issues on the international agenda, such as joint work within the BRICS, G20, and Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).
2+2 Ministerial dialogue
The 2+2 Ministerial dialogue will be held between both the countries on December 6, 2021. It will be held by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov & Defence Minister Sergey Shoigu with their Indian counterparts, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh.
Russian Docking Module Arrives at ISS
On November 26, 2021, a Russian cargo craft carrying a new docking module was successfully connected with the International Space Station (ISS), following a two-day space journey.
Important Points
- The new spherical module is named Prichal (Pier) was docked with the orbiting outpost.
- It comprises of six docking ports.
- The module will allow potential future expansion of Russian segment of the space station.
- It has secured to the docking port of new Russian Nauka (Science) laboratory module.
- The Soyuz rocket took off on November 24, from the Russian launch facility in Baikonur, Kazakhstan. It carried the Progress cargo ship with Prichal attached to it. After entering space, cargo ship went into orbit with the module.
- Progress cargo ship is also delivering 700 kilos of several cargoes to the space station.
- The ship is expected to undock from ISS on December 22.
First Soyuz spacecraft
The first Soyuz spacecraft is expected to dock on March 18, 2022, at the new module, with a crew of three cosmonauts namely, Denis Matveev, Oleg Artemyev, and Sergei Korsakov.
Operation
Currently, the space outpost is operated by NASA astronauts namely, Kayla Barron, Thomas Marshburn, Raja Chari, & Mark Vande Hei as well as Russian cosmonauts Anton Shkaplerov & Pyotr Dubrov and Matthias Maurer from European Space Agency.
Prichal nodal module
Prichal nodal module is a Russian spacecraft and a part of International Space Station. The module was approved in 2011 and was finally launched on November 24, 2021 onboard “Progress M-UM”. Its operations will start in 2022.
NITI Aayog report on India’s MPI
NITI Aayog published its report on India’s “Multidimensional Poverty Index” (MPI) recently.
Important Points
- Report was prepared on the basis of National Family Health Survey (NFHS) for 2015-16.
- As per NITI Aayog’s report, in year 2015-16, one in every four people in India was multidimensionally poor. It accounts that, 25.01 per cent of the population was multidimensionally poor.
Measurement
India’s national MPI was prepared using globally accepted and robust methodology developed by United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Oxford Poverty & Human Development Initiative (OPHI). The index was prepared with the aim of leveraging the monitoring mechanism and methodology of MPI in order to rigorously benchmark national and sub-national performance.
MPI of India for 2021
- MPI for 2021, Launched by UNDP and OPHI, showed that 27.9 per cent of India’s population were multidimensionally poor.
- India was ranked at 62nd position out of 109 nations on the index.
- Index was prepared on the basis of 10 indicators like adequate nutrition, lack of improved drinking water, or at least six years of schooling.
- The report considered a person spending less than Rs 47 per day in cities and spending less than Rs 32 per day in villages as poor. However, this approach of measuring MPI was abandoned by NITI Aayog.
Three dimensions
The MPI is based on three dimensions namely education, health, and standard of living. Each of the dimension is having a weighting of one-third in the index. 12 segments of these dimensions include- nutrition, antenatal care, child & adolescent mortality, school attendance, years of schooling, cooking fuel, drinking water, sanitation, housing, electricity, bank accounts and assets.
India calls on rightful place for BRICS in Global Innovation Index
Minister of Science and Technology, Dr Jitendra Singh, chaired the 9th BRICS Science and Technology Meet on November 26, 2021.
Important Points
- During the meeting, minister called for BRICS countries to come together and innovate cost-effective, sustainable, affordable, accessible, and scalable scientific solutions, because they face similar and unique challenges.
- He further called for working towards rightful place for BRICS countries, in the Global Innovation Index.
- According to him, this can be made possible by further strengthening cooperation in the fields of Science, Technology & Innovation.
Global Innovation Index (GII)
GII is an annual ranking of countries by their capacity and success in innovation. The index is published by the World Intellectual Property Organization, in association with INSEAD, Cornell University, and other organisations and institutions. It is prepared on the basis of both subjective and objective data fetched from sources like International Telecommunication Union, World Bank and World Economic Forum. It was first published in 2007 by INSEAD and World Business magazine.
Computation
GII is computed by taking the average of scores in two sub-indices namely, Innovation Input Index and Innovation Output Index. Innovation Input Index is composed of five pillars while Innovation Output Index have two pillars. Each of these pillars describe a credit of innovation. Their score is calculated by weighted average method.
