Indian-American teen named ‘Time’ magazine’s first-ever ‘Kid of the Year’

A 15-year-old Indian-American girl was named the first-ever “Kid of the Year” by Time magazine for her work using technology to tackle matters such as contaminated drinking water, opioid addiction and cyberbullying. Gitanjali Rao was selected from a field of over 5,000 Americans and was interviewed by 

actor Angelina Jolie for the magazine. “Observe, brainstorm, research, build and 

communicate,” Rao told Jolie about her working process during a virtual meeting. 

Research on water quality Rao said that she was in the second or third grade when she decided to use technology to bring social change. The 15-year-old scientist said she was 10 when she told her parents that she wanted to research on carbon nanotube sensor technology at the Denver Water Quality Research Lab. App to detect cyberbullying Rao said she has developed an app to prevent cyberbullying for Google’s Chrome browser extension. The app, Kindly, detects cyberbullying at an early stage using artificial intelligence technology, she told Jolie. She added that she was working on a way to help detect bio-contaminants such as parasites in water. Rao said that she wanted her innovation to be inexpensive and accurate to help those in third-world countries.

India hosted 2020 Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Summit

Amidst a fierce stand-off between India and China, New Delhi hosted a summit of the council of heads of government of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) on November 30 with a focus on contributing to the trade and economic agenda of the influential grouping. Here is all you need to know about the SCO and relevance of India hosting its annual summit. 

What is Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) 

* The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation is a Eurasian permanent intergovernmental international organisation created in June 2001, in Shanghai, China by Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, India and China. The SCO was preceded by the Shanghai Five mechanism. 

* The SCO aims to strengthen mutual trust and neighbourliness among the member states by promoting their effective cooperation in politics, trade, the economy, research, technology and culture, as well as in education, energy, transport, tourism, environmental protection, and regional stability and security. 

* Known as the "alliance of the East", the SCO is the largest regional organisation in the world in terms of geographical coverage and population, covering three-fifths of the Eurasian continent and nearly half of the human population. SCO represents around 42 per cent of the world's population and 20 per cent of the global GDP. The SCO is seen as a counter-balance to Nato, limiting the influence of United States of America (USA) in Central Asia. 

* Other than the member states, SCO has four observer states (Afghanistan, Belarus, Iran and Mongolia) and six dialogue partners (Azerbaijan, Armenia, Cambodia, Nepal, Turkey and Sri Lanka). 

* SCO has two permanent bodies — the SCO Secretariat based in Beijing and the Executive Committee of the Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS) based in Tashkent.

* The Heads of State Council (HSC) is the supreme decision-making body in the SCO. It meets once a year and adopts decisions and guidelines on all important matters of the organisation. The SCO Heads of Government Council (HGC) meets once a year to discuss the organisation's multilateral cooperation strategy and priority areas. 

Relevance of India hosting SCO HGC meeting 

India is hosted the SCO council of heads of government meet on November 30 in the midst of the stand-off at Ladakh border with China. India was an observer state at the SCO since 2005 and was admitted as a full member of the SCO in 2017. India's membership was pushed by Russia which was aiming to counter China's growing influence in the region. However, with changes in the geopolitical realities since 2014, India aims to stay involved in the SCO to balance the growing closeness between Russia and China even as India has got closer to the US. The SCO membership allows India to expand its footprint in Central Asian region and hosting the Summit brings an opportunity for India to strengthen trade relations with Central Asian countries which are energy-rich nations. Given India's commitment to countering terrorism, the SCO also provides India a platform to raise cross-border terrorism sourced in Pakistan.

China hydropower company plans first downstream dam on Brahmaputra

China’s media reported that authorities have given the go-ahead for a Chinese hydropower 

company to construct the first downstream dam on the lower reaches of the Brahmaputra 

river, or Yarlung Zangbo as it is known in Tibet, marking a new phase in China’s 

hydropower exploitation of the river with potential ramifications for India. 

A report in the Chinese media said the State-owned hydropower company POWERCHINA 

had last month signed “a strategic cooperation agreement” with the Tibet Autonomous 

Region (TAR) government to “implement hydropower exploitation in the downstream of 

the Yarlung Zangbo River” as part of the new Five-Year Plan (2021-2025). 

Previous dams 

China in 2015 operationalised its first hydropower project at Zangmu in Tibet, while three 

other dams at Dagu, Jiexu and Jiacha are being developed, all on the upper and middle 

reaches of the river. The report said this will be the first time the downstream sections of 

the river will be tapped. 

Possible location 

The report did not mention the location of POWERCHINA’s planned downstream project, 

but offcials talked about the particular potential offered at the “Great Bend” of the 

Brahmaputra and at the Yarlung Zangbo Grand Canyon in Medog County, where the river 

falls spectacularly over a 2,000 metre-drop and turns sharply to flow across the border into 

Arunachal Pradesh. 

Chinese officials said this 50-km section alone offered the potential of developing 70 

million kWh “which equals more than three Three Gorges power stations”. They also said 

said “the 60-million kWh hydropower exploitation at the downstream of the Yarlung 

Zangbo River could provide 300 billion kWh of clean, renewable and zero-carbon 

electricity annually” and the project “will play a significant role in realising China’s goal of 

reaching a carbon emissions peak before 2030 and carbon neutrality in 2060”.

Concerns of India 

India has expressed concerns to China over the four dams on the upper and middle 

reaches, though Indian officials have said the dams are not likely to impact the quantity of 

the Brahmaputra’s flows in India greatly because they are only storing water for power 

generation and the Brahmaputra is not entirely dependent on upstream flows with an 

estimated 35% of its basin is in India.