According to Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), what is the position of India in the world's military spender in 2018?

India submitted its Sixth National Report (NR6) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). The report was submitted online to the CBD Secretariat by the Environment Minister, Dr. Harsh Vardhan, during the inaugural session of the 13th National Meeting of the State Biodiversity Boards (SBBs) in New Delhi. With this, India is among the first five countries in the world, the first in Asia and the first among the biodiversity-rich mega diverse countries to have submitted the report. The submission of national reports is a mandatory obligation on parties to international treaties, including the CBD. The NR6 provides an update of progress in achievement of 12 National Biodiversity Targets (NBT) developed under the convention process in line with the 20 global Aichi biodiversity targets. As per report, the population of the lion has risen from 177 in 1968 to over 520 in 2015 and elephants from 12 thousand in the 1970s to 30 thousand in 2015.

The Lok Sabha passed a Bill to amend the Aadhaar and Other Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2018. The amendment will allow individuals to offer voluntarily biometric ID as a means of identity verification for obtaining services such as opening a bank account and getting a mobile phone connection. The Bill also gives a minor the option to opt out of the 12-digit identity scheme on attaining the age of 18. It provides for stiff penalties for violation of norms set for the use of Aadhaar and bans service providers from storing core biometric information and Aadhaar number of individuals who voluntarily offer it as a means of authentication.

A recent study published in PLOS Biology, an international journal dedicated to biological science, found that human impacts on species occur across 84% of the earth's surface and India ranks 16th in such impacts, with 35 species impacted on an average. Malaysia ranks first among the countries with the highest number of impacted species (125). A team of scientists led by James Allan (University of Queensland) found this when they mapped the distribution of eight human activities - including hunting and conversion of natural habitats for agriculture - in areas occupied by 5,457 threatened birds, mammals and amphibians worldwide. Using sources, including the recently-updated Human Footprint data, they found that a staggering 1,237 species are impacted by threats in more than 90% of their habitat; 395 species are affected by threats across their entire range.

India ranked at the 54th Position with a score of 47.93 out of 100 among the world's most innovative countries according to the Bloomberg 2019 Innovative Index. South Korea retained its top spot with a score of 87.38, Germany ranked second with a score of 87.30 whereas Finland has been ranked at the third spot with a score of 85.70. The Annual Bloomberg Innovation Index ranks countries by analyzing their performances using seven metrics including Research and Development spending, Manufacturing Categories and Concentration of high-tech public computers.

India will host the Under-17 Women's Football World Cup in 2020. This was announced by the President of International Football Federation (FIFA) Gianni Infantino after the council meeting in Miami, USA. This will be the second FIFA tournament India will be hosting, after the U-17 Men's World Cup in 2017.

In accordance with the 2018 global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI), India's poverty rate has shown a drastic decrease in 10 years, from 55% to 28%. The index has shown that, in the years between 2005-06 and 2015-16, 271 million people are moved out of poverty in India. Apart from the huge progress, India is still a home to the highest number of MPI poor comprising 364 million poor in 2015-16. Although the number is reduced from 635 million in 2005-06. More than half of the India's multidimensional poor (196 million) are from the four states viz. Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh while Delhi, Kerala and Goa have lowest multidimensional poverty.

India has accused the UN Security Council of "progressively" undermining the authority of the General Assembly on matters of what constitutes a threat to international peace and security and said the blame for this lies partly with the 193-member UN body for focusing on procedures rather than addressing substantive issues.

As per the report released by CISCO on 2019 Data Privacy Benchmark Study ranked India in 6th position in General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) readiness index. As per the report 65% of India organization are better prepared for GDPR making India the 6th best prepared nation to deal with the nee data privacy regulation which all organizations operating within the European Union and European Economic Area are mandated to comply with.

The Union Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD) has recently approved the establishment of a Centre for Classical Language at the Thunchath Ezhuthachan Malayalam University in Tirur, Kerala. The Ministry has communicated the decision to the Central Institute of Indian Languages, Mysuru. In view of this, the State government would be required to prepare a detailed project report and sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Ministry. The aim of the proposed centre is to study and research and other aspects of Malayalam language & will prove beneficial in implementing various projects for Malayalam language development. The centre would also assist the Malayalam University in its various initiatives.

The European Union (EU) dragged India into the World Trade Organization's (WTO) dispute settlement mechanism over the imposition of import duties on certain Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) products, including mobiles, alleging breach of global trade norms. The EU is challenging the introduction of import duties on a wide range of ICT products, for instance, mobile phones and components, base stations and integrated circuits.