RBI
Category: Economy
- Reserve Bank of India decided to transfer an interim surplus (dividend) of ₹28,000 crore to the government.
- This is second consecutive year that the central bank has transferred interim surplus to the government.
- The Centre has earned a total of ₹68,000 crore as dividend from the RBI for the 2018-19 fiscal.
- The accounting year of the RBI runs from July to June.
- Last year, RBI had transferred ₹10,000 crore as interim surplus.
- The government had been putting pressure on the central bank to transfer more funds from the contingency reserves.
- A panel, headed by former RBI Governor Bimal Jalan, had been formed to review the economic capital framework of the bank.
Ship-building
Category: Economy
- To incentivise ship-building activity in the country, the Ministry of Shipping has revised its guidelines for chartering of ships by providing Right of First Refusal ( RoFR) to ships built in India.
- Henceforth, whenever a tendering process is undertaken to charter a vessel, a bidder offering a ship built in India will be given the first priority to match the L1 quote.
- It is expected that this priority given to ships built in India will raise the demand for such vessels, providing them with additional market access and business support.
- The existing licensing conditions have been reviewed in consonance with the Government of India’s policy of promoting the ‘Make In India’ initiative.
- The RoFR would be exercised only in case the vessel being offered for charter by the lowest bidder (L1) has been built outside India.
Stem cells
Category: Science & technology
- Japanese researchers will carry out an unprecedented trial using human-induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS) to treat spinal cord injuries.
- The trial has the potential to develop into any cell in the body to treat patients with serious spinal cord injuries.
- Researchers will transplant two million iPS cells into the spines of the patients, who will be monitored for a year.
- There are more than 1,00,000 patients in Japan who are paralysed due to spinal cord injuries but there is no effective treatment.
- Earlier, researchers had transplanted iPS cells into the brain of a patient in a bid to cure Parkinson’s disease.
- Parkinson’s disease is a chronic, degenerative neurological disorder that affects the body’s motor system, often causing shaking and other difficulties in movement.
- iPS cells are created by stimulating mature, already specialised, cells back into a juvenile state — basically cloning without the need for an embryo.
Beresheet
Category: Science & technology
- Israel will launch the first private spacecraft to land on the moon this week.
- The spacecraft is dubbed Beresheet, or Genesis.
Killer T cells
Category: Science & technology
- Scientists said they had discovered immune cells that can fight all known flu viruses.
- It could lead to a universal, one-shot vaccine against the killer disease.
- “killer T cells” — found in over half the world’s population — had shown to be effective in fighting all common flu varieties.
