World Bank
Category: International
- David Malpass, a senior U.S. treasury official in President Donald Trump’s administration, was unanimously chosen as the president of the World Bank.
- Since the bank’s creation, all of its heads have been Americans, following an unwritten rule that also ensures European leadership at the top of its sister institution, the International Monetary Fund.
Jumping Spiders
Category: Ecology / Geography
- A group of jumping spiders that mostly occur in Eurasia and Africa, has been spotted for the first time in Kerala’s Illithodu forests.
- The spider belongs to the genus Habrocestum is a species new to science.
- The spider has a single long spine on the underside of both its first legs.
- The discovery lends support to the continental drift theory that suggests that the world’s continents were one large, contiguous landmass where these creatures thrived millions of years ago.
Hayabusa 2
Category: Sc & tech
- A Japanese spacecraft, Hayabusa2, launched an explosive device at an asteroid, aiming to blast a crater in the surface and scoop up material that could shed light on how the solar system evolved.
- Hayabusa2 successfully released the so-called “small carry-on impactor” — a cone-shaped device capped with a copper bottom — as scheduled, as the probe hovered just 500 metres above the asteroid Ryugu.
Neelakurinji
Category: Ecology
- Next season, the ‘neelakurinji’ blossoms may not carpet the hillocks on the western side of the Western Ghats in a ravishing purple.
- Wildlife experts say the recent large-scale wildfires on the grasslands where Neelakurinji (Strobilanthes kunthiiana) blossomed widely last year after a period of 12 years could have wiped out all the seeds of the endemic flowers from the area.
- Neelakurinji seeds are sensitive without a hard cover and are unlikely to survive a massive fire.
- As a habitat, the Western Ghats is known for its rare collection of flora and fauna. There are some rare orchids in the area and even a flash of fire could destroy the seeds.
- The grasslands are important agents for protecting the biodiversity, both for plants and animal species.
India’s Imports
Category: Economy
- India’s imports from China stood at $60 billion during the April-January period of 2018-19 fiscal, a deceleration of 5% over the corresponding period a year ago.
- India’s trade deficit with China also eased to $46 billion in April-January 2019 from $53 billion in the same period a year ago.
- India has seen a major breakthrough in its exports to China during the last few months, whereas imports of Chinese products in India are decelerating.
GDP
Category: Economy
- India is expected to become the third-largest economy in the world by 2030 with the gross domestic product (GDP) touching $10 trillion, helped by consumption and investment growth.
- Currently, the size of the economy is about $2.9 trillion.
- 2011 Census showed that 21.9% of India’s population lived below the poverty line.
Superflares
Category: Sc & tech
- In 1962, a meteorite weighing 21 kg was found at Efremovka, now in Kazakhstan. By analysing a piece of this meteorite and studying the relative abundances of isotopes of lithium, beryllium and boron, two researchers have envisaged how the Sun behaved in its infancy. Then, they deduce,
- The Sun could let off superflares which were a million times stronger than the strongest recorded solar flare.
- Such superflares must have taken place 4.5 billion years ago, when the Sun was barely forming.
- Among the first-formed solids of the solar system were the calcium aluminium-rich inclusions (CAI). The CAIs are nearly 4.567 billion years old.
- They become the refractory components within meteorites with irregular shape and are predominantly composed of oxides and silicates of calcium and aluminium.
- These were pushed to large distances measuring up to a few times the Earth-Sun distance (which is equal to one astronomical unit).
- These primordial solids were cooked by the superflares and moved to this distance in short times in the order of a year.
