• India has climbed 4 spots and has been ranked 48th by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in the Global Innovation Index 2020 rankings.
• India was at the 52nd position in 2019 and was ranked 81st in the year 2015.
• The WIPO had also accepted India as one of the leading innovation achievers of 2019 in the central and southern Asian region, as it has shown a consistent improvement in its innovation ranking for the last 5 years.

Global Innovation Index (GII)

• The GII by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) ranks global economies according to their innovation capabilities, including roughly 80 indicators, grouped into innovation inputs and outputs.

• The Union Cabinet recently approved Mission Karmayogi or National Programme for Civil Services Capacity Building (NPCSCB).

Mission Karmayogi

• The aim of Mission Karmayogi is to provide a mechanism to continuously build capacity, update the talent pool, and provide equal opportunities for personal and professional growth and esteem of government officials at all levels.
• Karmayogi seeks to shift the focus from ‘rule-specific’ to ‘role-specific’.
• It will be steered by four new bodies, and will be available for civil servants from the rank of assistant section officer to Secretary, across services.
• NPCSCB will be governed by the Prime Minister’s Human Resource Council, which will also include state Chief Ministers, Union Cabinet ministers and experts.
• This council will approve and review civil service capacity building programmes.
• Besides this, there will be a Cabinet Secretary Coordination Unit comprising of select secretaries and cadre controlling authorities.
• Also, there will be a Capacity Building Commission, which will include experts in related fields and global professionals.
• This commission will prepare and monitor annual capacity building plans and audit human resources available in the government.
• Additionally, a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) that will own and operate the digital assets and technological platform for online training
• An Integrated Government Online Training (iGOT)-Karmayogi platform will be developed for the project.

• The Sree Narayana Guru Dharma Paripalana (SNDP) Movement was an example of a regional movement born out of conflict between the depressed classes and upper castes.
• It was started by Sree Narayana Guru Swamy (1856-1928) among the Ezhavas of Kerala, who were a backward caste of toddy-tappers and were considered to be untouchables, denied education and entry into temples.
• Narayana Guru, himself from the Ezhava caste, took a stone from the Neyyar river and installed it as a Sivalinga at Aruvippuram on Sivaratri in 1888.
• It was intended to show that consecration of an idol was not the monopoly of the higher castes.
• With this he began a revolution that soon led to the removal of many discriminations in Kerala’s society.
• Sree Narayana Guru held all religions to be the same and condemned animal sacrifice besides speaking against divisiveness on the basis of caste, race or creed.
• He coined the slogan one religion, one caste, one God for mankind, which his disciple Sahadaran Ayyapan changed into “no religion, no caste, no God for mankind.

• Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi recently deliver the Special Key Note Address at the USISPF 3rd Annual Leadership Summit through video conference.
• The US-India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF) is a non-profit organization that works for the partnership between India and the U.S.
• The Theme of the 5 day Summit that began on the 31st of August is “US-India Navigating New Challenges”.
• The theme covers various subjects such as India’s potential in becoming a Global Manufacturing Hub, Opportunities in India’s Gas Market, Ease of Doing Business to attract FDI in India, Common Opportunities & Challenges in Tech Space, Indo-Pacific Economic issues, Innovation in Public Health and others.

• In view of the pandemic, Parliament has said no to Question Hour and curtailed Zero Hour. 
• Question Hour, is usually the first hour of every sitting of house.
• During this time, the members ask questions and the ministers usually give answers.
• In addition to the ministers, the questions can also be asked to the private members.
• Thus, a question may be addressed to a private member if the subject matter of the question relates to some Bill, resolution or other matter connected with the business of the House for which that member is responsible.
• The procedure in regard to such question is the same as that followed in the case of questions addressed to a minister.  

• The Supreme Court gave telecom firms 10 years to clear Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR) related dues.
• AGR is a revenue-sharing fee model between government and the telcom operators.
• The dispute between DoT and the mobile operators was mainly on the definition of AGR.
• The DoT argued that AGR includes all revenues (before discounts) from both telecom and non-telecom services.
• The companies claimed that AGR should comprise just the revenue accrued from core services and not dividend, interest income or profit on sale of any investment or fixed assets.
• The Supreme Court upheld Department of Telecommunications’ (DoT) definition of adjusted gross revenue (AGR).

• Recently, Aveek Sarkar, has been elected Chairman of Press Trust of India (PTI).
• PTI is a is the India’s premier, independent news agency.
• It is a non-profit cooperative.
• The released information, includes the mainstream media, the specialized presses, research groups, companies, and government and non-governmental organisations.
• PTI is run by a Board of Directors with the Chairmanship going by rotation at the Annual General Meeting. 
• PIB is the government news agency under under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.

• The Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, was poisoned With Chemical Nerve Agent, according to Germany.
• He was poisoned by Novichok, a chemical nerve agent.
• Novichok nerve agents banned by chemical-weapons treaty.
• In 2017, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) confirmed the full destruction of of chemical weapons possessed by Russia.
• The OPCW has the power to send inspectors to any signatory country to search for evidence of production of banned chemicals.
• It also can send experts to help countries to investigate crime scenes where chemical agents may have been used.

• Beirut, the capital of Lebanon, marked the 100th anniversary of its creation September 1, 2020.
• It is on a verge of a solid-waste crisis, said a top expert of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
• Nearly 2,750 tonnes of Ammonium Nitrate exploded in a warehouse at the port and wiped out parts of the city.
• Lebanon was under a French military administration.
• It is located on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea.
• It is bounded to the north and east by Syria, to the south by Israel.