GS-III

‘Muslim women may go to Haj without Mehram’ A large number of Muslim women may to go to Haj without ‘Mehram’ (male companion) next year, Minority Affairs Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said on Sunday. He explained that the Haj Committee has received more than 2,23,000 applications for 2019, including 47 …

Discharge of drug-containing effluents can cause drug resistance By studying nine different pharmaceutical active compounds in Yamuna river, researchers have now pointed out that it can “possibly cause chronic toxicity” to aquatic life and to humans who use this water for drinking purposes. As our body does not use the …

The Andaman Islands are well-known for stunning beaches and now, the Sentinelese. Less-known are the colourful sea snakes – banded sea kraits – that also share these beaches. Now, a four-year study has helped shed more light on the mysterious terrestrial life of these amphibious snakes. Banded sea kraits hunt …

Astronomers have observed sunspots on the surface of the Sun for nearly 400 years. It is known that sunspots follow a cyclic pattern of growing in number and disappearing in approximately 11 years, known as the sunspot cycle or the Sun’s activity cycle. We are currently in the 24th sunspot …

The Northeast Frontier Railway Construction Organisation has put in place tall piers near Manipur’s Noney for the tallest railway bridge in the world. The bridge, across the valley of river Ijai, is part of the 111 km Jiribam-Tupul-Imphal project. Once completed, it will have a pier height of 141 m. …

More than a month after unknown predators began killing livestock in six districts of Manipur, experts roped in from Dehradun’s Wildlife Institute of India (WII) identified stray and domesticated dogs as the culprits. But the mystery of the nocturnal attacks was far from solved in some parts bordering Myanmar; the …

Ex-Generals call for indigenisation Lieutenant-General Vijay Oberoi (Retd.) said on Saturday that despite major advancements in the field, India was still banking on imported information warfare techniques, which could be fatal. He was speaking at a discussion on “Information warfare: the new face of war” at the Military Literature Festival …

Following a deficit monsoon, Gujarat is staring at an acute water crisis as the 204 dams and reservoirs that supply water for drinking and irrigation to various parts of the State are drying up even before the winter ends. Kutch, parts of Saurashtra and north Gujarat are likely to face …

With a collection of coaches, locos and other memorabilia, the Railway Museum in Howrah is a delight for train enthusiasts A locomotive carrying coal from East Pakistan crossed over to the Indian territory when the war with Pakistan broke out in 1971. The single-coach, green-coloured locomotive, with clear markings in …

Health Canada opens risk assessment draft flagging health risks linked to talcum powder use for public comments The debate over whether talcum powder poses serious health risks is in the spotlight again. A risk assessment draft on talc published by Health Canada, the country’s public health department, states that talcum …

A majority of the 40.7 lakh people excluded from the draft don’t know how to find a place on the list A majority of those excluded from the complete draft of the updated National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam have no clue how to go about getting back on …

The liquidity stress affecting non-banking finance companies and housing finance companies since September 2018 has abated significantly, and the Indian markets have performed better than several developed markets despite high global volatility this year, the chief of India’s stock market regulator Ajay Tyagi said on Friday. The Securities Exchange Board …

Trade deficit rises to $50 bn compared with $32.5 bn a year ago: RBI Current account deficit (CA) widened to 2.9% of GDP for the July-September quarter due to higher trade deficit compared with 1.1% during the same period of the previous year, the Reserve Bank of India said on …

Fresh flows into liquid schemes, recovery in stock markets boost AUM in November Despite stock market volatility, assets under management (AUM) of mutual funds (MFs) in November increased 8% to Rs. 24.03 lakh crore from Rs. 22.23 lakh crore reported in October. This was primarily on account of fresh fund …

Translocated hyena dies in Guwahati zoo A male hyena, which was recently translocated from Jharkhand to Assam State Zoo, died here following brief illness caused by stress and infection, an official said Friday. The hyena, which arrived on November 26 from Bhagwan Birsa Biological Park in Ranchi, slipped into coma …

For the first time, the country’s civil aviation exhibition will be subsumed into the upcoming edition of Aero India to be held from February 20 to 24, 2019, a defence official said on Friday. So far, Aero India has been defence-oriented while a separate civil aviation exhibition is held in …

As many as 384 tigers have been killed by poachers in India in the last 10 years, according to the reply to a question under the Right to Information Act. Between 2008 and 2018 (till November), 961 persons have been arrested for allegedly poaching tigers. The information was given by …

NTCA panel slams planning, operation The committee constituted by the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) to enquire into the death of tiger T-1 (the official name of the tigress known as Avni) in Pandharkawada on November 2, has concluded that the dart shot to immobilise the big cat had been …

The Chairman of the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes, Nand Kumar Sai, has said the Centre may like to revisit its decision to lift the Restricted Area Permit (RAP) system from 29 islands of Andaman and Nicobar, after the death of U.S. citizen John Allen Chau. Mr. Sai, who is …

India, the third-highest contributor, is projected to see emissions rise by 6.3% from 2017: study Global carbon emissions are set to hit an all-time high of 37.1 billion tonnes of CO2 in 2018, according to researchers at the University of East Anglia (UEA) and the Global Carbon Project. India, the …