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Elon Musk’s SpaceX is about to take its most daring leap yet with a round-the-world test flight of its mammoth Starship. SpaceX Space is a rocket company founded by Elon Musk. It was created with the mission of taking humans to Mars. Headquarters: Hawthorne, California. It was founded in 2002 by Elon Musk with the stated goal of …

The Caste System is not merely a division of labour. It is also a division of labourers. Civilised society undoubtedly needs division of labour. But in no civilised society is division of labour accompanied by this unnatural division of labourers into watertight compartments it is a hierarchy in which the …

Kerala celebrates Vishu with traditional zeal Key details: Vishu is celebrated in Kerala to mark the start of the Malayalam new year. The word “Vishu” in Sanskrit means “equal” and hence it celebrates the spring equinox, when day and night are nearly equal. Vishu Kani: Vishu Kani is an assortment of auspicious items. It is …

Finland joins NATO. NATO is the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It’s a military and political alliance that was founded in 1949 in response to the actions of the Soviet Union. In 1955, the Warsaw Pact was formed by the Soviet Union and seven Eastern bloc nations as a collective defense treaty in response to NATO. Members: There were 12 founding members of the alliance …

Indian courts are jammed with cases and are seeing pendency increase by the day and they are also functioning with fewer judges than the sanctioned number, the India Justice Report (IJR), 2022 said. The India Justice Report is a collaborative effort undertaken in partnership with DAKSH, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, Common Cause, Centre for Social Justice, Vidhi Centre for …

Despite attempts to create an egalitarian and modern society, the caste system remains a prominent feature of Indian society. Historically, castes, which are often associated with certain occupations, were arranged in a hierarchy, with some castes considered superior to others and thus accorded more power and privileges than others. This system of social stratification and power relations has been a …

The United Nations 2023 Water Conference held recently was the first such meeting in 46 years. What is the Water Conference? The UN 2023 Water Conference is formally known as the 2023 Conference for the Midterm Comprehensive Review of Implementation of the UN Decade for Action on Water and Sanitation (2018-2028). It was held …

The 10th edition of exercise SLINEX-23 is scheduled at Colombo. Key details: It is a bilateral maritime exercise between India-Sri Lanka. The exercise is being conducted in two phases: the Harbour Phase a Sea Phase. Indian Navy is being represented by INS Kiltan, an indigenous Kamorta class ASW corvette and INS Savitri, an Offshore Patrol Vessel. The previous edition of SLINEX was conducted …

After the Chinese government released a list of “standardised” names of 11 places in Arunachal Pradesh, the Indian authorities rejected the move “outright”. China’s Ministry of Civil Affairs put out names of 11 places in Arunachal Pradesh in Chinese, Tibetan and pinyin characters which includes: two land areas, two residential areas, five mountain peaks and two rivers. Is this the …

Vice President greets the nation on the eve of Mahavir Jayanti Mahavir Jayanti is an important religious festivals in Jainism. It celebrates the birth of Lord Mahavir, the twenty-fourth and last. Birth of Lord Mahavira: Mahavir was born in the year 599 BCE in Kundagram (which is today’s Kundalpur in Muzaffarpur district of Bihar). He was born in a …

Continuing the military-to-military engagement, the Air Forces of India and the U.S. are set to conduct the Cope India exercise at the Kalaikunda airbase in West Bengal, with Japan as an observer. The exercise will see intense air manoeuvres aimed at improving interoperability, a defence source said. The Japanese Air Self Defence Force …

Italian, French and Norwegian researchers are in Norway’s Svalbard archipelago to preserve crucial ice records for analysing past environmental conditions. Scientists camped in the Arctic are set to start drilling to save samples of ancient ice for analysis before the frozen layers melt away due to climate change. They will extract ice in a series of tubes from as far …

A video of a group of men performing the traditional dance of Indian ‘garba’ under the stunning northern lights in Alaska has gone viral. What are ‘Auroras’? Auroras are a natural phenomenon caused by magnetic storms initiated by the Sun’s activity such as solar flares and coronal mass ejections. They are visible as bright lights in the sky and are …

The famous Banarasi Paan and Banarasi Langda mango are the two latest products to have got the Geographical Indication (GI) tag. As many as 33 products were granted GI certification on a single day by the GI Registry, Chennai. Among them 10 products belong to Uttar Pradesh, including three from Varanasi. As of now, UP has 45 GI goods, …

India and Malaysia have agreed to settle trade in the Indian rupee which indicates that India is willing to take concrete steps towards de-dollarisation of its international trade.  Key details: The Union Bank of India has become the first bank in India to operationalise this option by opening a Special Rupee Vostro Account through …

Bandipur completes 50 years as Project Tiger reserve. It was on April 1, 1973, that the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi launched Project Tiger, the flagship conservation programme to arrest the big cat’s dwindling population. There were 12 tigers in Bandipur when Project Tiger was launched and now the number of tigers utilising the park is 173 while the number …

Nagaraja Thira’ was performed recently at the Sree Muchilottu temple at Kuthiravattom in Kozhikode. ‘Thira’, like Theyyam, is a dance that is part of a religious ritual performed in the temples of Kerala. While the person participating in Theyyam is considered god, the person taking part in ‘Thira’ is considered as possessed by god This art form …

The government will expand the definition of “political risk” under the export guarantee scheme. To cover any fresh imposition of non-tariff barriers by importing nations after a shipment has left Indian shores. The Export Credit Guarantee Corporation (ECGC) indemnifies exporters for: losses when buyers turn insolvent or default on payments, political risks like war and sudden import restrictions or promulgations of laws or decrees But it does …

Chile is keen to partner with India on tapping into the lithium value chain by extending technical expertise in exploiting the newly established “inferred” lithium resources of 5.9 million tonnes in Salal-Haimana area of Reasi district in Jammu and Kashmir. Key details: The ‘inferred’ reserves of 5.9 mn tonnes in J&K’s Reasi are …

The Eravikulam National Park (ENP) in Kerala has a new attraction — a fernarium set up inside the park. This is the first time such a fern collection is being set up in the hill station. Key details: That ferns are the ecological indicator of healthy forests. The climatic condition inside the ENP is …