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A successful training launch of a Medium-Range Ballistic Missile, Agni-1 was carried out by the Strategic Forces Command from APJ Abdul Kalam Island, Odisha recently. Agni-1 ballistic missile The word “Agni” means fire. The medium-range Agni-1 ballistic missile has a strike range of over 700 kilometres and weighs around 12,000 kilograms. It is also capable of …

Karnataka and Tamil Nadu clashed over Mekedatu project What is the Mekedatu project? The Mekedatu dam project is located in Ramanagaram district about 100 km south of Bengaluru (Karnataka), close to where the Cauvery enters Tamil Nadu. Mekedatu is a multipurpose balancing reservoir project focussing on the generation of electricity and supply of drinking water in the …

Encroachment pushes Himalayan brown bears into Kashmir’s villages The Himalayan brown bear is also known as the Himalayan red bear, isabelline bear or Dzu-The. It is a subspecies of the brown bear occurring in the western Himalayas. It is the largest mammal in the region. It is omnivorous and hibernates in dens during the winter. Distribution The Himalayan brown bear occurs in the western Himalayas from northeastern Pakistan …

SEBI floated a consultation paper mandating additional disclosure norms from high-risk foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) that have either concentrated single group exposures and/ or significant overall holdings in their India equity investment portfolio. There is a need for additional disclosures for certain types of FPIs in order to have greater investor protection, and …

Cabinet approves City Investments to Innovate, Integrate and Sustain 2.0 (CITIIS 2.0) from 2023 to 2027 What is CITIIS 2.0? CITIIS 2.0 is a program conceived by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) in partnership with: the French Development Agency (AFD), Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW), the European Union (EU), and National Institute …

Cabinet approves Constitution and Empowerment of an Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC) for Facilitation of “World’s Largest Grain Storage Plan in Cooperative Sector” The Union Cabinet approved the constitution and empowerment of an Inter Ministerial Committee (IMC) for facilitation of the World’s Largest Grain Storage Plan in Cooperative Sector by convergence of various schemes of various ministries: the Ministry …

Recently, Hvaldimir, the beluga whale, was spotted off the Swedish coast. It is speculated that the beluga was supposedly Russia’s newest spy. The beluga whale is an Arctic and sub-Arctic cetacean. It is one of two members of the family Monodontidae, along with the narwhal, and the only member of the genus Delphinapterus. It is also known as the white …

China launched a spacecraft – Shenzou-16 carrying three astronauts, including its first civilian, to its Tiangong space station. The three astronauts will replace the crew of Shenzhou-15 aboard the Tiangong space station. The new crew will stay there for the next five months. It will carry out “large-scale in-orbit tests and experiments in various fields as planned. They are …

India is considering cutting its import tax on solar panels by half and is seeking a rollback in goods and services taxes on the devices. The decision is aimed to make up for the shortfall in local output amid rising demand for renewable energy. Government plans to cut the import tax on solar panels from 40% …

India will unveil 18 new petaFLOP supercomputers for weather forecasting in 2023. Presently India gives forecasts with a 12-kilometre resolution. The new supercomputer will improve it to six-kilometre resolution. The ministry of Earth Sciences aims to achieve one-kilometre resolution forecasts. The new supercomputer is expected to improve weather forecasts at …