India sets aspirational target for engineering exports at USD 200 bn by __________.

Norway is ranked first in the World Press Freedom Index 2019 for the third year running while Finland (up two places) has taken second place from the Netherlands (down one at 4th). India dropped two places to be ranked 140th out of 180 countries in the global press freedom index analysis. Violence against journalists - including police violence, attacks by Maoist fighters and reprisals by criminal groups or corrupt politicians - is one of the most striking characteristics of the current state of press freedom in India.

Dearness Allowance (DA) to central government employees and Dearness Relief to pensioners has been increased from 9% to 12% with effect from January 1, 2019. This move will benefit 48.41 lakh central government employees and 62.03 lakh pensioners. The combined impact on the exchequer on account of both DA and DR would be Rs 9,168.12 crore per annum and Rs 10,696.14 crore in 2019-20 (for a period of 14 months from January 2019 to February 2020). Previously, the Cabinet had increased dearness allowance in March 2018, from 5% to 7% in accordance with the recommendations of the 7th Central Pay Commission (CPC).

Gram Samridhi Yojana, a Rs 3,000 crore scheme funded by the World Bank and the Government of India, is being worked upon by the Ministry of Food Processing Industries in order to strengthen the unorganised food processing sector concentrated in rural areas. World Bank will be giving Rs 1,500 crore and Rs 1,000 crore will be borne by the Centre while state governments will put in Rs 500 crore. The scheme will be run in Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Punjab for a five-year period in the initial phase and thereafter in other states of the country. NITI Aayog has given its approval to the scheme and now the proposal is pending with the Expenditure Finance Committee for clearance.

The 13th Conference of Parties (COP) of the Convention on the conservation of migratory species of wild animals (CMS), an environmental treaty under the aegis of United Nations Environment Programme, is going to be hosted by India during 15th to 22nd February 2020 at Gandhinagar in Gujarat. Representatives from 129 Parties and eminent conservationists and international NGOs working in the field of wildlife conservation are expected to attend the COP.

The government of India, has put a complete ban on import of solid plastic waste/scrap into the country. Import of plastic was earlier partly banned as it was prohibited in special economic zones (SEZ) but allowed by Export-Oriented units (EOUs) who would obtain it from other countries in the form of post-recycling resources .This complete prohibition has been done by amendment of Hazardous Waste (Management & Trans-boundary Movement) Rules on March 1.The rule is a part of India's aim to completely phase out single-use plastic by 2022. A study by Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) states that 10,376 tonnes (40%) out of the 25,940 tonnes of plastic waste per day remains uncollected in the country.

The Supreme Court ordered a court-monitored mediation in the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid land dispute case to arrive at a "permanent solution" to the politically and religiously sensitive issue. The five-judge constitution bench headed by CJI Ranjan Gogoi appointed a panel of 3 mediators in the title suit with Retired Justice Kalifullah chairing the court-appointed and monitored mediation process. The other two members are spiritual leader Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and senior advocate Sriram Panchu.

The Union Cabinet approved the submission of India's second Biennial Update Report (BUR) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). BUR has been prepared based on a range of studies conducted at the national level. The scope of BUR is to provide an update to India's first BUR to UNFCCC. The Five major components of Biennial Update Report (BUR) are

India-Bangladesh jointly inaugurated 4 development projects. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bangladesh counterpart Sheikh Hasina jointly unveiled e-plaques for development projects in Bangladesh through video conferencing. This was the sixth such video conference between PM Modi and Prime Minister Hasina. It includes Supply of buses and trucks; Inauguration of 36 community clinics; Inauguration of 11 water treatment plants; Extension of National Knowledge Network to Bangladesh.

The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) has released the 2019 Index of Cancer Preparedness (ICP) in which India's overall rank is 19th out of 28 countries, with a score of 64.9. Australia tops the ICP, followed by the Netherlands and Germany.

The Global Talent Competitiveness Index (GTCI) 2019 has released by INSEAD, Adecco Group and Tata Communications recently. In the GTCI 2019 India ranks 80 while Singapore takes the lead in this region. This year's report has a special focus on entrepreneurial talent - how it is being encouraged, nurtured and developed throughout the world and how this affects the relative competitiveness of different economies. The report measures levels of Global Talent Competitiveness by looking at 68 variables. The 2019 index covers 125 national economies and 114 cities (respectively 119 and 90 in 2018) across all groups of income and levels of development. In this sixth edition, Switzerland continues to lead the 2019 Global Talent Competitiveness index, while Singapore and the United States come in second and third respectively.