Ranks and Reports
· Mumbai and Bengaluru are out of the global top-100 list and are currently ranking at 106 and 110, respectively in the latest edition of the QS Best Student Cities Ranking. While Mumbai lost 29 places, Bengaluru fell by 21 places in the ninth edition of the rankings brought out by global higher education analysts QS Quacquarelli Symonds. Globally, the results, which enable students to compare 115 premier educational destinations, see London retain its status as the world’s best student city for the third consecutive edition. It is followed by Munich, which rises from 4th to 2nd. Seoul, which jumps from 10th to joint-3rd, shares the bronze-medal position with Olympic hosts Tokyo.
· India is ranked 122nd on a new Global Youth Development Index 2020 measuring the condition of young people across 181 countries, released by the Commonwealth Secretariat in London. Singapore ranked topmost followed by Slovenia, Norway, Malta and Denmark. Chad, the Central African Republic, South Sudan, Afghanistan and Niger came last respectively.
· Uttar Pradesh’s Ghaziabad was adjudged the second most polluted city out of the 50 ‘most polluted cities’ in the world in 2020 by a report prepared by British company HouseFresh. Preceding Ghaziabad, the Chinese city of Hotan in Xinjiang province has been named the most polluted city with a PM2.5 of 110.2µg/m3. According to the report, Bangladesh was the most polluted country across the world in 2020, followed by Pakistan, India and Mongolia. Meanwhile, Judbury in Australia bagged the top position in the list of cities with the cleanest air with a PM2.5 level of 2.4µg/m3.
· India has ranked second in terms of crypto adoption worldwide behind Vietnam, but ahead of countries such as the US, UK, and China, according to the 2021 Global Crypto Adoption Index by blockchain data platform Chainalysis. This comes even as worldwide crypto adoption grew by 880% between June 2020 and July 2021, according to the report.
· Apple is the world’s most valuable company (USD 2,443 billion) according to the Hurun Global 500 Most Valuable Companies list 2021. The world’s top six valuable companies remained unchanged as Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet, Facebook and Tencent. Reliance Industries (USD 188 billion) ranked at 57 is the top Indian company in the list.
· Apple is the world’s most valuable company (USD 2,443 billion) according to the Hurun Global 500 Most Valuable Companies list 2021. The world’s top six valuable companies remained unchanged as Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet, Facebook and Tencent. Reliance Industries (USD 188 billion) ranked at 57 is the top Indian company in the list. As many as 12 Indian companies found a place among the Hurun Global 500 for 2021 as Wipro Ltd, Asian Paints Ltd and HCL Technologies Ltd made it to the list of 500 most valuable firms in the world, while ITC Ltd dropped out.
· Copenhagen, the capital city of Denmark, has been named as the world’s safest city from among 60 global cities, in Safe Cities Index 2021, released by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU). New Delhi and Mumbai have found a place in the index. New Delhi is placed at 48th position with a score of 56.1, while Mumbai is at 50th place with a score of 54.4. Yangon is at the bottom of the index, as least safe city, with a score of 39.5.
· India has emerged as a global manufacturing hub and effectively surpassed the United States to become the world’s second most desired manufacturing destination. This indicates the growing interest in India by manufacturers as a preferred manufacturing hub over other countries including the United States and the manufacturing giant nation, China. India’s ranking was reflected in Cushman & Wakefield’s 2021 Global Manufacturing Risk Index. The index ranks 47 countries across Europe, the Americas, and the Asia Pacific.
· NITI Aayog and Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region have launched the North Eastern Region District SDG Index Report and Dashboard 2021–22, with technical support from UNDP. The index is based on NITI Aayog’s SDG India Index. According to the report, the East Sikkim district of Sikkim has topped the North Eastern Region (NER) District SDG Index 2021-22 while the Kiphire district of Nagaland was ranked last amongst 103 districts in the ranking. Gomati, North Tripura is second, West Tripura is third in the ranking.
· Amul, Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF) has dropped two places to rank 18th in Rabobank’s 2021 Global Top 20 Dairy Companies list. Amul was placed at 16th spot in 2020. Amul has achieved an annual turnover of $5.3 billion. French-based dairy company Lactalis has topped the list as the world’s largest dairy company with a turnover of US $23.0 billion. It has unseated Switzerland-based global behemoth Nestle, which dominated the list for decades.