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Recently, after Russia invaded Ukraine, the US imposed sanctions on Russia including a ban on transfer of technology and on Russian banks. Following this, the Russian space agency Roscosmos held that the State Corporation will not cooperate with Germany on joint experiments in the Russian segment of the International Space Station (ISS).  Russia’s role in maintaining the …

US and other members of the Group of Seven (G7) will revoke Russia’s “Permanent Normal Trade Relations (Pntr)” status to punish Russia for war over Ukraine. The move would pave the way for the US to impose tariffs on a wide range of Russian goods, heightening pressure on an economy on the brink of deep recession A recession is …

Recently, a leftover piece of a spacecraft flying (of Chang’e 5-T1 – a lunar mission of China) through space reportedly hit the surface of the moon creating a new crater that may be around 65 feet wide. This is the first recorded unintentional case of space junk hitting the moon. The speed, trajectory, and time …

A study published recently says that a significant part of the Amazon rainforest has been heading towards a tipping point since the early 2000s. It may be losing its ability to bounce back from extreme events such as drought or fire, threatening to become a dry savanna-like ecosystem. In this study, researchers analyzed 30 years of …

Recently, the Chief Justice of India  concerns about the lack of women among High Court judges. He made this remark while addressing an event on the occasion of the International Day of Women Judges (10th March). International Day of Women Judges United Nations General Assembly Resolution 75/274 designated 10th March the International Day of Women Judges in 2021. India was among …

v Recently, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has pitched for protective measures to preserve Ukraine’s endangered cultural heritage in light of Russia’s invasion over Ukraine. v To avoid deliberate or accidental damages, the agency is marking cultural sites and monuments in Ukraine with the distinctive “Blue Shield” emblem of the 1954 Hague Convention …

Recently, the Union Cabinet has approved the setting up National Land Monetization Corporation (NLMC) as a wholly owned Government of India company. The Finance Minister had announced plans to set up a special purpose vehicle for this purpose in the Union Budget 2021-22. In August, 2021, the government of India launched the National Monetisation Pipeline (NMP). …

Recently, the Minister of Finance presented the Union Budget2022-23. This section deals with proposals related to ‘PM GatiShakti’. PM GatiShakti National Master Plan for Multi-Modal Connectivity, launched in October 2021, is an initiative aimed at coordinated planning and execution of infrastructure projects. The objective is to bring down logistics costs. GatiShakti is a digital …

The Covid-19 pandemic has greatly affected the education sector. But even before the pandemic, the lack of an adequate number of universities led to limited options for aspiring students. This created a need to reform the way in which we impart higher education. The surge of digital technologies provided a whole new …

The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) recently held a discussion on “protection of the basic human rights of refugees and asylum seekers in India”. Many participants raised the issue of India not having a specific law for refugees and asylum-seekers. The discussion noted that, though India has not signed the United Nations Refugee Convention, …

Recently, in its Budget 2022-23, the Government of India announced that its central bank will issue a digital currency as early as 2022-23. It is one crucial decision that most major economies are refusing to make in a hurry. The arguments in favor of digital rupee claim that an electronic representation of India’s legal …

Recently, the Finance Minister, in her Budget 2022 announced a 30% tax on income from virtual digital assets. Additionally, she also proposed a Tax Deduction at Source (TDS) on payment made in relation to the transfer of virtual digital assets at 1% above a monetary threshold. A person (deductor) who is liable to make payment of specified …

Recently, the government launched a nation-wide campaign called KanyaShikshaPraveshUtsav on the eve of the International Women’s Day (8th March). The aim of the campaign is to bring back four lakh out-of-school adolescent girls in the 11-14 years age group into the education system. The project aims to work on a complete system for out-of-school girls by building on …

Recently, Chandra’s Atmospheric Composition Explorer-2 (CHACE-2), a payload onboard Chandrayaan-2, has made the first-of-its-kind discovery on the distribution of one of the noble gases, Argon-40. India launched Chandrayaan-2, its second lunar exploration mission after Chandrayaan-1, from Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota in July 2019. Chandrayaan-2 Mission Chandrayaan-2 is an integrated 3-in-1 spacecraft consisting of an Orbiter of the Moon, …

Recently, the Finance Minister launched the E-bill Processing system on the occasion of 46th Civil Accounts Day (1st March). It was announced in the Union Budget 2022 to use the technology for facilitating the financial inclusion drive in India. The “Civil Accounts Day” is observed every year to mark the anniversary of the inception of the Indian Civil Accounts …

The National Supercomputing Mission (NSM) has deployed PARAM Ganga-a High-Performance Computational (HPC) facility at IIT Roorkee, with a supercomputing capacity of 1.66 Petaflops. Earlier, the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bengaluru installed the supercomputer ‘ParamPravega’. It has been established by the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) under the approach of NSM. The basic idea behind building a …

Amid the deepening crisis in Ukraine, the Indian Air Force (IAF) has decided to postpone its firepower demonstration, Exercise Vayu Shakti. The exercise was scheduled in the Pokhran ranges in Rajasthan. The last edition of Vayu Shakti was held in February 2019. What is Ex Vayu Shakti? It is a triennial exercise once every three year. It …

The Ninth Edition of India – Sri Lanka Bilateral Maritime Exercise SLINEX (Sri Lanka–India Naval Exercise) is being conducted at Visakhapatnam. The 8th edition of SLINEX was conducted off Trincomalee, Sri Lanka in October 2020. The exercise is being conducted in two phases, the Harbour Phase at Visakhapatnam followed by the Sea Phase in the Bay of Bengal The Harbour …

A team of scientists from the Botanical Survey of India (BSI) has discovered a new gin berry species named Glycosmis albicarpa from the Kanyakumari Wildlife Sanctuary in Tamil Nadu. BSI, established in 1890, is the apex research organisation under the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEFCC) for carrying out taxonomic and floristic studies on wild plant resources of the country. …

Recently, Maharashtra Governor was criticised for allegedly mocking 19th century social reformers Savitribai and Jyotirao Phule for “getting married at a young age”. Mahatma Jyotirao and Savitribai Phule stand out as an extraordinary couple in the social and educational history of India. They spearheaded path-breaking work towards female education and empowerment, and towards ending caste- and gender-based discrimination. …