{Article} IRA: Countries Patent Application in 2012

• China’s patent office received more applications than any other country’s in 2011 (exceeding those to America and Japan), according to the World Intellectual Property Organisation, a UN body which follows 125 patent offices. 
• The strong growth of industrial design applications in 2011 is a further incremental effect of the Chinese applications, which again gets the high step of the podium, while the China’s State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) became the largest patent office in the world, as measured by the number of applications received for patents, utility models, trademarks and industrial designs.
• Globally filings rose by 7.8% last year, breaking the 2 million mark. 
• Growth was over 7% for the second year running, thanks largely to another surge in China (which has accounted for 72% of the world’s patent-filing growth between 2009 and 2011; America contributed 16%).
• Almost 1m patents were granted in 2011; Japan approved the most. But America has the most patents in force: more than 2.1m, out of an estimated 7.9m worldwide.
• The IP office of India has also seen considerable increases over the past few years. In fact, India surpassed Japan in 2010 and the Republic of Korea in 2011.
• Source: Click here for more Details

{Education} Article: North Korea successfully launched an Unha-3 rocket into space

• On Dec 12th Kim Jong Un, leader of North Korea's tin-pot regime, caught his own people and the rest of the world off-guard by successfully launching an Unha-3 rocket into space and possibly putting a rudimentary satellite into orbit. Experts said the same technology it takes to put a 100kg satellite into orbit could be the first step towards firing an intercontinental ballistic missile with an equivalent payload at America, provided that North Korea could also master re-entry and accuracy.
• The timing, just before the first anniversary of the death of his rocket-loving father, Kim Jong Il, appeared to be aimed primarily at solidifying the young Mr Kim’s leadership, as well as bolstering his popularity among his oppressed subjects. 
• Beforehand, news of the proposed launch was censored in North Korea, possibly because of the embarrassment that ensued in April, when a previous Unha-3 rocket flopped in front of the world’s media.
• The U.S. described the launch as “a provocative action”, while Japan’s Foreign Minister said the government had officially protested the launch to the DPRK and had called for the UNSC to take a tough stand. Also, while Beijing had earlier expressed concern over the North’s actions, China “believes the Security Council’s response should be cautious and moderate, protect the overall peaceful and stable situation on the Korean peninsula, and avoid an escalation of the situation”.
• North Korea’s launch of a rocket has put India’s plans to send an officials and businessmen delegation to Pyongyang (assessed whether talk of economic reforms in the reclusive nation was for real) in March next year in the deep freeze. New Delhi would prefer to stay away from North Korea for the time being as the rocket launch violates U.N. Security Council Resolution 1874. There have been reports about North Korea undertaking agrarian reforms as well as wanting to attract investments. Some Indian officials witnessed the conditions in the North Korean country-side when they recently accompanied a U.N. team for the food aid programme. India contributed $1 million to the cause and was likely to allocate a similar amount around the time when the delegation was to visit North Korea.
• The Unha or Eunha is a North Korean expendable carrier rocket, which experts say utilises the same delivery system as the Taepodong-2 long-range ballistic missile. Its earlier attempt of launching Unha1,2,&3 was a big failure.

{Education} Article: India's rank in UHNWI, Quality of Living and City Infrasture

Ultra high net worth individuals (UHNWIs) are individuals or families who have, by one definition, at least US$30 million in investable assets, or with a disposable income of more than US$20 million. The exact dividing lines depend on how a bank wishes to segment its market; for example, the term "very high net worth individuals" can refer to those with assets between $5 million and $50 million, with ultra high net worth individuals only those with above $50 million.

{Education} InfoGraphic: IMF GDP forecast for BRIC & EURO

{Education} Article: North Korea rocket launch

• North Korea is apparently readying her second rocket launch of 2012, attempting to ping satellites in to orbit using ballistic missiles. 
• Island neighbour Japan is a trifle nervous about it and is readying Patriot missiles to islands close to the areas where the three rocket stages are expected to crash land.
• There’s a fair amount of such military posturing and space activity going on in that part of the world, which goes some way to explaining this, this and this.

{Education} Article: Japanese installation of 2nd Missile Defence Radar

• In the First InfoGraphic, we look at how the Japanese is installing its second missile defence radar, most likely to counter China’s growing military power.
• Then we analyse the new American tiltrotor aircraft, the MV-22 Osprey, which Tokyo has declared safe for deployment. 

{Education} Article: Transparency International's Corruption Perception Index 2012

• India's image on tackling corruption has not improved with Transparency International's Corruption Perception Index (wiki link included)  placing it at 94th rank out of 176 nations this year.
• Though India was ranked at 95th position last year, the international watchdog said it has started evaluating the positions through a different formula beginning this year and hence this cannot be compared to last year's ranking.
• However, the last year's rank of 95 would be 96 if it is calculated using the new methodology which implies there was a "slight improvement" in the index.
• This year, India has a score of 36 out of 100 on a scale from 0 (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean) which is a result of an average of 10 studies including World Bank's Country Performance and Institutional Assessment and Global Insight Country Risk Ratings.
• India was ranked 72 among 180 countries for the first time in 2007 and since then the country's rankings have been showing a decline. While India was placed at 87 in 2010, the position was 95 in 2011.
• This year, India is ranked below neighbouring countries like Sri Lanka (79) and China (80), while Afghanistan, Iran, Nepal, Pakistan and Bangladesh fared much worse than India when it came to corruption in public sector undertakings.
• Denmark is placed at the top spot with a score of 90 while Finland and New Zealand follow very closely. Countries that occupy the bottom ranks in the index are Myanmar, Sudan Afghanistan, Somalia and North Korea.

Transparency International's Corruption Perception Index

{Education} IRA: Japanese Prime Ministers since 2000

Last week, Yoshihiko Noda became the longest serving Japanese prime minister since Junichiro Koizumi stepped down in 2006 after five years in office.

Click on image to expand:

{Education} IRA: Terrorist attacks mapped around the world

Key Findings:

• Of total 158 countries the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP) cover in their inaugural global terrorism index, only 31 have had no attacks in the ten years to 2011. 
• Yet although attacks are distributed widely around the world, the majority are concentrated in just a handful of countries.
• From 2002 to 2011, North America was the region least likely to suffer from terrorism
• While more terrorist attacks are being recorded, the number of fatalities has declined by 25% since 2007.
• Iraq ranks first based on a five-year weighted average of the number of incidents, deaths, injuries and estimated property damage. It has suffered from the most attacks, including 11 of the world's worst 20. Indeed, Iraqis comprised one third of deaths from terrorism between 2002 and 2011. But while the number of incidents there have climbed since 2007, deaths have actually declined. 
• Other terrorist hotspots include Pakistan, Afghanistan and India. 
• The worst attack over the period was in Nepal, where 518 people died and 216 were injured. If there is any small cause for comfort, it is that terrorist incidents have plateaued since their peak in 2008.
• For more detail on the 500 biggest incidents see IEP's map here.

{Education} IRA: South Stream Gazprom pipeline

The 50 per cent Russian-owned Gazprom has launched its 2,380km gas pipeline, which starts its journey under the Black Sea and will bypass the Ukraine in order to deliver more reliable gas services to Western Europe.

{Education} Analysis: An examination of 31 nations founded or reconstituted since 1990

• Not all new countries are really new. Some are born almost fully formed and others have to start from nothing. South Sudan is the most extreme example of that. 
• An examination of more than a dozen key indicators in the 31 nations founded or reconstituted since 1990 shows just how steep a climb South Sudan faces. 
• The above graphic shows the progress made by new countries using 6 key indicators (GDP per capita, life expectancy, under 5 mortality, press freedom, corruption perception, and debt as percentage of GDP).

{Education} Article: Global gold demand

• The World Gold Council said that global gold demand in 2013 should be led by strength in Chinese demand and a recovery in India.
• Chinese gold demand is likely to grow around 10% in 2013 from about 800 tonnes this year, as the world's second-largest economy is expected to pick up pace, helping the precious metal continue its bull run into its 13th year.
• Referring to a nearly 30% fall in Indian demand in the first half of this year (hurt by a slowing economy and record-high gold prices in local currency terms), it gave the positive projection for Indian gold sector and said that the demand should rebound after falling about 20-25 percent in 2012 to 750-800 tonnes.
• It also cited other drivers for his projections for higher demand in 2013, including robust Western investment demand due to lingering global financial problems and purchases by central banks.
• Global gold demand is likely to fall by around 5 to 7 percent in 2012 to around 4,100 tonnes, it added.
• "Looking at data we have on imports into India and also premiums in Mumbai, demand's been very strong so far in Q4 in India, I think actually stronger than in China," it said, adding that gold purchases before the Lunar New Year will help boost China's demand in the fourth quarter.
• Gold has been up around 10 percent so far this year at about $1,730 an ounce.

{Education} Infographic: Laos approves Mekong River dam

• Laos – the long, skinny Asian country squashed between Vietnam to the right and Thailand to the left – has given the go-ahead for the construction of a massive dam on the Mekong River. 
• Laos plans to harness the power of the river to generate electricity, which in turn it can sell to its neighbours.
• The problem is that those same neighbours are already unhappy about the potential disruption the dam might cause to their fishing and rice production. 
• The Mekong snakes hundreds of miles all the way from China, through Laos, into Cambodia and out to the sea, with close to 60 million people reliant on the Mekong for their way of life. Not to mention the critically endangered giant catfish. That’s one freakin’ big catfish.

{Infographic} South Korea’s multi-billion dollar warplane deal

• As if China’s stealth fighter developments wasn’t enough Far East military action for one day, let’s give the South Koreans a hand as they roll out their $7.2 billion contract for 60 next-gen fighter jets. 
• Someone, somewhere is getting immensely wealthy from all this national insecurity, but it’s not us, that’s for darn sure. Oh well!

{Infographic} China’s new J31 stealth fighter

{Infographic} UK drone force in Afghanistan to be doubled

{IRA} The Gaza conflict in numbers

• After seven days of fighting between Hamas, the Palestinian Islamists who run Gaza, and Israel, a ceasefire, brokered by Egypt, is expected by the evening of November 20th. 
• Israel has not yet confirmed the ceasefire but has put plans for a ground invasion on hold. 
• Diplomatic efforts to bring an end to the bloodshed are intensifying. 

1. Ban Ki-moon, the UN's secretary-general, arrived in Israel on November 20th after meeting the head of the Arab League, Nabil al-Arabi, in Cairo. 
2. Hillary Clinton, America's secretary of state, is also set to arrive in Israel. 

• A ceasefire may bring an end to the violence, in which over 100 Palestinians and three Israelis have died since November 14th, but the challenge for both sides will be whether they can translate a renewed informal understanding into something more lasting.

Oil and gas dependency in 2035

{IRA} Banana Dispute

{Infographic} US Presidential Election - 2012