INTERNATIONAL
- IMF scales down India’s growth projection for current fiscal to 7.3%
- The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has moderately scaled down India’s economic growth projection to 7.3 per cent for the current financial year from its earlier forecast of 7.4 per cent.
- Despite this, the country will remain the fastest-growing large economy as the nearest competitor China’s growth is pegged at 6.6 per cent, 6.3 per cent and 6.1 per cent for 2018, 2019 and 2020, respectively.
- Google launched its 1st drone delivery service in Australia
- Wing, one of the many companies belonging to Alphabet (Google parent) made its first delivery in Canberra, Australia after getting approval from the Australia’s Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA).
- The drones will deliver food and drinks as well as medication directly to clients’ homes.
- Wing was testing drone delivery in Australia since 2014 and delivered medicines, chocolate to 3,000 homes in the last 18 months.
- Wing is now preparing to launch a trial service in Helsinki, Finland.
- April 10: World Homoeopathy Day
- The World Homoeopathy Day2019 is observed across the world on April 10, 2019 to commemorate the birth anniversary of the founder of Homoeopathy, Dr. Christian FriedrichSamuel Hahnemann.
- The week following the birth date of Hahnemann, that is, 10 April – 16 Aprilis observed as the World Homeopathic Awareness Week.
- This year it is 263rd birth anniversary of founder of Homoeopathy.
NATIONAL
- ‘Desi Bofors’ Dhanush inducted in Army in bid to modernise artillery
- In an important step towards upgrading the combat power of the artillery, the Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) handed over the first six Dhanush 155 millimetre (mm) artillery guns to the army.
- This is part of an order for 114 guns being delivered by the OFB’s Gun Carriage Factory, Jabalpur.
- The Dhanush is also called the “Desi Bofors”, having been developed from blueprints supplied by Bofors in the 1980s, when India bought 400 Swedish FH-77B howitzers.
- Dream11 became Indias first billion-dollar gaming Startup
- Mumbai-basedDream11 has become India’s first gaming unicorn or billion-dollar startup with an investment from Steadview Capital.
- Apart from Steadview Capital, Kalaari Capital, Think Investments, Multiples Equity and Tencent investments collectively put Dream11’s total evaluation beyond $1 billion.
- The investment by Hong Kong and London-based Steadview Capital comes about eight months after Dream 11 sealed a $100 million equity financing round led by Tencent, which is world’s fifth-largest internet company.
- Decolourisation of River Periyar
- The River Periyar in Kerala is again witnessing the decolourisation. The decolourisation of River Periyar which provides drinking water to Kochi city.
- The pollution control Board (PCB) has attributed the change in colour to the poor quality of water as a result of eutrophication.
- River Periyar is an artificial reservoir created by Mullaperiyar Dam across the river
- Periyar is the longest river and the river with the largest discharge potential in the Indian state of Kerala. The Periyar is of utmost significance to the economy of Kerala
- It generates a significant proportion of Kerala’s electrical power via the Idukki Dam and flows along a region of industrial and commercial activity. The river also provides water for irrigation and domestic use throughout its course besides supporting a rich fishery. The river has been named as the “Lifeline of Kerala”. 25% of Kerala’s industries are along the banks of river Periyar
Gk bit : Eutrophication
- Eutrophication is when a body of water becomes overly enriched with minerals and nutrients which induce excessive growth of plants and algae
- This process may result in oxygen depletion of the water body. One example is an “algal bloom” or a great increase of phytoplankton in a water body as a response to increased levels of nutrients.
- Eutrophication is often induced by the discharge of nitrate or phosphate-containing detergents, fertilizers, or sewage into an aquatic system