Published on: April 27, 2023
Snippets : 26 April 2023
Snippets : 26 April 2023
- Bengaluru experienced a ‘Zero Shadow Day’, when vertical objects appear to cast no shadow. This was because the sun was at its zenith, and so the shadow was directly under the object. Uttarayan (movement of the Sun from south to north from winter solstice to summer solstice) and Dakshinayan (back from north to south) happen because Earth’s rotation axis is tilted at an angle of roughly 23.5° to the axis of revolution around the Sun.
- National Quantum Mission received cabinet approval at a total cost of Rs. 6003.65 crores, to scale up scientific and industrial R&D, for accelerating Quantum Technology-led economic growth and leverage India into a leading nation in the area. The mission will be implemented by the Department of Science & Technology (DST) under the Ministry of Science & Technology from 2023 to 2031.
- Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the first phase of the Kochi Water Metro — a first of its kind public boat service in India integrated with a metro rail network.
- Chief Justice of India (CJI) D.Y. Chandrachud announced that the Supreme Court has created a special webpage for the Kesavananda Bharati case in which a 13-judge Bench, the largest constituted in the court’s history, through a wafer-thin majority of 7:6, held that Parliament cannot amend the “Basic Structure” of the Constitution.
- In a first, reports emerged that LockBit ransom ware was found to be targeting Mac devices. Cybercriminals have developed new ransom ware encryptors designed to target macOS devices, making this the first major ransomware operation(LockBit ransomware) to specifically target Apple computers. The new encryptors target both older Macs and newer ones running on Apple Silicon.
- The European Parliament, the legislative body of the 27-country block European Union, has approved the world’s first set of comprehensive rules to bring largely unregulated cryptocurrency markets under the ambit of regulation by government authorities. The regulation, called the Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA), will come into force after formal approval by member states.
- Malaria is all set to become a notifiable disease across India, with Bihar, Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Meghalaya too in the process of putting the vector-borne disease in the category. This will then require by law that cases be reported to government authorities. Currently, malaria is a notifiable disease in 33 States and Union Territories in India.
- The Wagner group: The Wagner group is a Russian paramilitary organisation headed by Yevgeny Prigozhin. Though it has been reportedly engaged in counter-militancy operations in Africa, its involvement is believed to have a more extensive scope covering political, economic and military fields. There have also been reports of the group supplying arms and weapons, and training regional forces in fighting jihadist threats. Despite its involvement in the Russia-Ukraine war, the Wagner group’s presence in Africa has continued. By siding with the domestic actors in a civil war situation, the group’s actions have impacted the democratic process in Africa.Additionally, the West has been raising concerns over human rights violations and abuse of civilians related to the Wagner group’s presence in Africa.
- Operation Kaveri : India has started Operation Kaveri to evacuate its nationals from conflict-torn Sudan. Nearly 3,000 Indians are stuck in various parts of Sudan, including the national capital, Khartoum, and distant provinces such as Darfur.Operation Kaveri gets under way to bring back our citizens stranded in Sudan. Committed to assist all our brethren in Sudan, India had earlier stationed two C-130J heavy-lift aircraft in Jeddah and sent INS Sumedha to Port.
- Nagorno-Karabakh: Nagorno-Karabakh, known as Artsakh by Armenians, is a landlocked mountainous area in the South Caucasus. It was claimed by both Azerbaijan and Armenia after the fall of the Russian Empire in 1917 and has remained a point of tension ever since.The territory is internationally recognised as part of oil-rich Azerbaijan, but its inhabitants are predominantly ethnic Armenians and have their own government which has enjoyed close links to the government in neighbouring Armenia but has not been officially recognised by it or other U.N. member states.
