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India’s External Affairs Minister is in Cape Town, South Africa, to attend a meeting of the foreign ministers of BRICS. The foreign ministers’ meeting will finalise the agenda for the 15th BRICS summit scheduled to be held in South Africa this year. The theme of BRICS 2023 is: “BRICS and Africa: Partnership for Mutually Accelerated Growth, Sustainable Development, …

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 …

India will host the annual summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in the virtual format in July. The last SCO summit took place in the Uzbek city of Samarkand that was attended by all top leaders of the grouping ie Modi, Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin. India had assumed the rotating chairmanship of the SCO at …

According to Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Annual Report 2022-23, India’s growth momentum is likely to be sustained in 2023-24. Highlights of the RBI annual Report: According to RBI, in the atmosphere of easing inflationary pressures, Indian economy will be supported by: Sound macroeconomic policies Softer commodity prices A robust financial sector …

An Indian Navy MiG-29K fighter jet made the maiden night landing on the indigenous aircraft carrier INS Vikrant. It is an important step towards the warship becoming fully operational along with its air wing. The Mikoyan MiG-29K is a Russian all-weather carrier-based multirole fighter aircraft developed in the late 1980s. INS Vikrant (IAC-1) is the first …

Kohinoor left Indian shores in the early 1850s and is currently embedded in the crown of the British monarch. The retrieval of Kohinoor is a contentious since it was surrendered by Maharaja Dalip Singh as part of the 1849 peace treaty with the British. Under the provisions of the Antiquities and Art Treasure Act, 1972 the …

India and Indonesia have completed a joint feasibility study on the development of strategically valuable Sabang port. Sabang port is roughly 700 km from the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. It is located in the Aceh, province of Indonesia. The successful development of Sabang Port would allow India easier access to the Malacca …

China plans to place astronauts on the moon before 2030 and expand the country’s orbiting space station. China’s latest announcement came against the backdrop of rivalry with the US for reaching new milestones in outer space. The US aims to put astronauts back on the lunar surface by the end of 2025 as part of …

Jammu and Kashmir gets its first full-fledged Jambu Zoo in a naturally green landscape at Khanpur Nagrota. Details: Khanpur Nagrota is located in the foothills of Shivalik along the Jammu-Srinagar national highway on the outskirts of Jammu city. Initially the Zoo will have 27 species of rare animals and birds brought from different …

In continuation of the declining trend that has been observed since June last year, India’s exports and imports continue to shrink across many nations for most items. Details: The imports have declined more than the exports thus narrowing the trade deficit. While the decline in exports was widespread, affecting most of the major …

According to the Agricultural Ministry, India will achieve foodgrain production of 3305.34 Lakh Metric Tonnes (LMT) in the current agricultural year According to the third advance estimates of production of major crops, government is estimating record production of rice, wheat, maize, soybean, rapeseed and mustard, and sugarcane. The total foodgrain production is likely to …