CURRENT AFFAIRS

The earthquake followed by a severe aftershock of almost equal magnitude in southeastern Turkey and Syria devastated several towns with tragic consequences.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) convened an urgent meeting after central African nation Equatorial Guinea confirmed its first outbreak of the highly infectious Marburg virus disease, or MVD.

During the parliamentary session External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar released details of the government’s projects on border infrastructure and connectivity.

India and the United States agreed to advance space collaboration in several areas, under the ‘initiative on critical and emerging technology’ umbrella, including human space exploration and commercial space partnership.

In the Union Budget for 2023-24, the government has set a disinvestment target of ₹51,000 crore, down nearly 21% from the budget estimate for the current year and just ₹1,000 crore more than the revised estimate which is the lowest target in seven years.

The 2023-2024 Union Budget depicts the Union government’s long-term vision of a technology-driven, knowledge-based economy that banks on citizen engagement, youth empowerment, employment generation, and creating a robust macroeconomic environment.

In 2022, Indian start-ups including Byju’s, Ola, Unacademy, Vedantu, Chargebee, WhiteHat Jr, Udaan and CityMall and at the global level, Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, Microsoft, Twitter and Apple, among others, announced lay-offs.

CAR T-cell therapy for treatment of any cancer currently holds the attention of many researchers worldwide.

Over the last decades, Nordic countries have been at the forefront of developing new green technologies and solutions such as hydrogen, offshore wind, batteries and carbon capture and storage.

The stagnant allocations in the Budget for health, education and nutrition reflects the failure of our political leadership, since Independence, in understanding the centrality of universal education and health to growth.