Dhanush
Category: Defence & security
- The Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) handed over the first batch of six Dhanush artillery guns to the Army.
- Dhanush is the indigenously upgraded version of the Swedish Bofors gun procured in the 1980s.
- Indigenisation to the extent of about 81%, has already been achieved. By the end of 2019, the indigenisation level of the gun will go up to 91%.
- Dhanush has a range of 36 km.
Higher Education Rankings
Category: Social sector
- The Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (IIT-Madras) has topped the Centre’s ranking of higher education institutions.
- The rankings are published annually since 2016.
- They are based on multiple parameters, including teaching, learning and resources; research and professional practice; graduation outcomes; outreach and inclusivity; and the perception of the public, academics and employers.
Mitra Shakti
Category: International
- Sri Lanka has sought enhanced military training from India.
- Currently, over 60% of Sri Lanka’s military personnel pursue their young officers’ course, junior and senior command courses in India.
- Meanwhile, ‘Exercise Mitra Shakti’, the sixth edition of the joint military training exercise between the Indian Army and the Sri Lankan Army, concluded in Badulla district, in Sri Lanka’s Central Province.
- The two-week programme is part of an initiative that began in 2013 as part of military diplomacy between India and Sri Lanka.
World Bank
Category: Economy
- India’s GDP growth is expected to accelerate moderately to 7.5% in fiscal year 2019-20, according to the World Bank.
- The GDP growth will be driven by continued investment strengthening — particularly private — improved export performance and resilient consumption.
- The real GDP growth is estimated at 7.2% in 2018-19.
Currency Chests
Category: Economy
- The Reserve Bank of India came out with guidelines for banks to set up new currency chests, which include minimum area of 1,500 square feet for strong room.
- Area of the strong room/ vault of at least 1,500 sq ft. For those situated in hilly/ inaccessible places, the strong room/ vault area of at least 600 sq ft.
- Besides, the new chests should have a processing capacity of 6.6 lakh pieces of banknotes per day. For those situated in the hilly/ inaccessible places, capacity of 2.1 lakh pieces of banknotes per day.
- Earlier, a RBI appointed committee had recommended that the apex bank should encourage banks to open large currency chests with modern facilities and Chest Balance Limit (CBL) of at least Rs 1,000 crore.
- As per the RBI’s annual report of 2017-18, the currency management infrastructure consists of a network of 19 issue offices of the Reserve Bank, 3,975 currency chest and 3,654 small coin depots of commercial, co-operative and regional rural banks spread across the country.
Anolis
Category: Sc & tech
- Scientists have been altering the genes of mice, pigs, goats, chickens and butterflies for quite some time.
- But even as Crispr, a transfor mative gene-editing tool, made seemingly impossible genetic alterations possible, reptiles had remained untouched.
- That changed with the birth of a nearly transparent Anolis lizard, the first gene-edited reptile.
- The scientists could have altered a variety of genes, but they focused on the mutation that codes for albinism in large part because that tweak is visual. Producing an albino lizard would show their gene editing was successful.
