The UN India Business Forum and the Women Entrepreneurial Platform of NITI Aayog formed a consortium to reduce gender disparities in start­up investments by providing mentorship and networking opportunities and accelerating financial and market linkages for women entrepreneurs.
UN India­ NITI Aayog Investor Consortium for Women Entrepreneurs will bring together key ecosystem stakeholders, including venture capitalists and impact investors, international donor and funding agencies, private sector partners and state governments.
The consortium aims to strengthen women's entrepreneurship by creating an enabling ecosystem for investments.
Women entrepreneurs will be identified through key partners, including WEP, UN Women, and UNDP.
The consortium secretariat will then connect entrepreneurs with relevant members.
In "full potential" scenario when women participate in the economy, equally to men, it could add $ 2.9 trillion to India's GDP by 2025.
However, Indian women entrepreneurs continue to face challenges in accessing investors and raising capital.
IIT Bombay emerged as India's top institute in the QS World University Rankings.
Overall, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) retained pole position as the world's best university for a record-breaking seventh consecutive year.
IIT Bombay is India's best ranked institute at rank 167 followed by IISc Bengaluru and IIT Delhi.
Overall, six of the country's eight ranked IITs/ IISc improved their rank, with two (IIT-Delhi and IIT-Madras) remaining stable year on-year. IIT-Roorkee (89.5/ 100), IIT-Delhi (84.0/100), IIT Kharagpur (76.8/100), and IIT-Kanpur (75.6/100) are others with impressive score for citations per faculty.
In the QS World Best Universities Ranking, nine Indian institutions have been individually ranked in the top-500 as against six last year.
QS World University Rankings, are released by global higher education analysts QS Quacquarelli Symonds.
QS ranks the world's 1,000 best universities, which come from 85 different countries.
The government is not yet ready to sign the Hague treaty on inter­country abduction of children by parents fleeing a bad marriage.
It provides an expeditious method to return a child internationally abducted by a parent from one member country to another.
Drafted to ensure the prompt return of children who have been abducted from their country of habitual residence or wrongfully retained in a contracting state not their country of habitual residence.
Applies only to children under the age of 16.
India is not a party to the convention.
Why is India not a party to the convention yet ?
In 2016, the government had decided not to be a signatory to the treaty on the ground that it can be detrimental to the interest of the women fleeing an abusive marriage.
Committee has questioned one of the basic principles of the Hague Convention by arguing that the return of the child to his or her habitual residence may not necessarily be in the best interest of the child.
It adds that returning a child to the place of habitual residence may result in sending the child to an inharmonious set­up as well as overlook the fact that a mother is the primary caregiver of the child.
The panel has also prepared a draft law to safeguard the interest of the children, as well as those of the parents, particularly mothers.
The proposed legislation lays down nine exceptions under which a child will not be returned to the country of habitual residence.
Conditions for refusal are best interest of the child, domestic violence or mental or physical cruelty or harassment against the parent who fled with the child, the parent claiming the return of the child was not exercising the custody rights at the time of removal, and if there is a grave risk that the child would be exposed to physical or psychological harm.
The panel has also emphasised the importance of the "Indian family system" in ensuring the best interest of the child.
The report also requires the setting up of an Inter Country Parental Child Removal Disputes Resolution Authority, which will be the nodal body to decide on the custody of the child, mediate between the warring parties, as well as order the return of the child to the country of habitual residence.