SilverLine : Kerala Despite the protests taking place across Kerala against SilverLine, the CPI(M)-led government remains firm on implementing the project. SilverLine is a semi high-speed railway project connecting the state’s northern and southern ends at a cost of over Rs 63,000 crore. The proposed 529.45-km line will link Thiruvananthapuram in the south to Kasaragod […]
Category: Current Affairs
What are Bomb Cyclone and Bombogenesi
Bomb Cyclone: The US East Coast is bracing itself for a “bomb cyclone” (Nor’easter) that is on course to to barrel in from the mid-Atlantic. Bombogenesis is the technical term. ‘Bomb cyclone’ is a shortened version of it, better for social media.” It is a mid-latitude cyclone that intensifies rapidly. It has low pressure at […]
Budget Session 2022
Budget: The Budget Session of Parliament has begun and is scheduled to conclude on April 8. First, President Ram Nath Kovind will address both Houses in the Central Hall. The Economic Survey 2021-22 will be laid by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitaraman in Lok Sabha on January 31. The Budget will be presented by her on […]
Bad Bank Received all Regulatory Approvals
Bad Bank: A key proposal announced in this year’s (2021) Budget, a bad bank to deal with stressed assets in the loss-laden banking system, has received all regulatory approvals. Setting up of NARCL, the proposed bad bank for taking over stressed assets of lenders, was announced in the Budget for 2021-22. The plan is to […]
India’s Forex Reserves: January 2022
Forex Reserves: According to recent data from Reserve bank of india (RBI), India’s Foreign Exchange (Forex) reserves posted a decline of USD 678 million during the week ended 21st January 2022 to reach USD 634.287 billion. The slip in the reserves was on account of a drop in the Foreign Currency Assets (FCA), a vital […]
Nord Stream Pipeline
Nord Stream Pipeline: The US has said it will stop the Nord Stream if Russia attacks Ukraine. However, European countries, led by Germany, seemed reluctant initially to impose sanctions on the Nord Stream due to its importance though it has now said sanctions are not off the table. Nord Stream, the longest subsea pipeline, is […]
ASEAN Digital Ministers Meeting 2022
Second ASEAN Digital Ministers Meeting: 2nd ASEAN Digital Ministers’ (ADGMIN) Meeting with India virtually, where two sides finalized India-ASEAN Digital work plan 2022 for future collaboration in the field. ADGMIN is an annual meeting of telecom ministers of 10 ASEAN (Association of South-East Asian Nations) countries and dialogue partner countries—Australia, Canada, China, EU, India, Japan, […]
NeoCov: Important Points
NeoCov: NeoCoV is a bat coronavirus that was first identified in 2011. It was identified in a species of bats known as Neoromicia, which is where the name NeoCoV was derived from. Commonly known as aloe bats, this species is distributed in the Afro-Malagasy region. NeoCoV shares an 85% similarity to MERS-CoV in the genome […]
India, Philippines Ink Deal For BrahMos Missiles
India, Philippines Ink Deal For BrahMos Missiles: Philippines has signed a $374.96-million deal with BrahMos Aerospace Private Ltd. for the supply of shore-based anti-ship variant of the BrahMos supersonic cruise missile. This is the first export order for the missile, a joint product of India and Russia. BrahMos is a joint venture between DRDO (Defence […]
What Is Gain-Of-Function Research?
What Is Gain-Of-Function Research? The term ‘gain of function research’ has recently cropped up in the debate about the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic. ‘Gain of function’ is a field of research focused on growing generations of microorganisms, under conditions that cause mutations in a virus. These experiments are termed ‘gain of function’ because they […]
