In 1817, Dr. James Parkinson was the first person to discover the first case of Parkinson's Disease. In 1997, European Association for Parkinson's Disease announced that April 11 will be observed as World Parkinson's Day every year. The World Health Organisation also co-sponsored the event.
World Parkinson's Disease Day aims to support people with Parkinson's disease and their caregivers, who often face severe difficulties in managing the Parkinson's disease's physical, emotional, and social effects.
Fintech firm PhonePe said it has partnered with Nepal's digital wallet service eSewa and the Hotel Association of Nepal (HAN) Pokhara to promote digital payments through UPI on the Himalayan country's payment processor Fonepay Network. The partnership is a part of the Fewa New Year Festival which will be held from April 11-14 in Nepal.
Frequent weather shocks caused by climate change pose challenges for the monetary policy as well as downside risks to economic growth, a Reserve Bank report said.
Global average temperatures are on a rise, with accompanying increase in extreme weather events, and the economic and social impact of global warming is becoming increasingly evident, said RBI's Monetary Policy.
The report said that climate change has increased the frequency and ferocity of weather shocks, posing challenges for monetary policy. In the absence of any climate mitigation policies, the long-term output will be lower by around 9 per cent by 2050 vis-à-vis a no climate change scenario with full pass-through of the physical risks of climate change to the economy.
World Trade Organization revised downwards its projection for merchandise trade volume growth to 2.6% for 2024 from 3.3% estimated in October.
However, the multilateral trade body, in its latest bi-annual ‘Global Trade Outlook and Statistics’, said after a contraction of 1.2% in 2023, demand for traded goods will rebound in 2024.
In October last year, it had projected merchandise trade volume to grow 0.8 per cent in 2023.
According to the report, India’s rank among leading merchandise exporters (excluding intra-EU trade) improved by a notch to 13 in 2023 from the preceding year, though its share remained unchanged at 2.2 per cent.
India’s rank among leading exporters of commercial services (excluding intra-EU trade) remained unchanged at 5 in 2023 from the preceding year, with its share remaining the same at 5.4 per cent.
However, India’s rank dropped a notch to 6 among major importers of commercial services. Its share declined to 4.2 per cent from 4.8 per cent in the preceding year.
As many as 69 Indian universities have made it to the latest ‘QS World University Rankings’ with a total of 424 entries across 55 subjects, a 19.4 per cent jump from the previous year’s 355.
With this, India became the 2nd most represented country in Asia after China whose 101 institutions were on the list compiled by global higher education experts QS Quacquarelli Symonds.
The Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) emerged as the highest ranked Indian university in the list. Under the subject of Development Studies, JNU was ranked 20th in the QS World University Rankings. IIM Ahmedabad grabbed the next best rank of 22nd in the subject of Business & Management Studies. IIM Bangalore stood first in Accounting & Finance subject.
The Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay (IITB) secured 25th rank in the subject of Engineering-Mineral & Mining. Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (IITM) secured 29th spot in Petroleum Engineering.
A total of 69 Indian universities made it to the rankings with 424 entries across all subjects. It was 19.4 per cent higher than the previous year’s 355 entries.
HDFC Bank opened a branch at Kavaratti Island in Lakshadweep, making it the only private sector bank to have a branch in the Union Territory. HDFC Bank has branches in the cold climes of Kashmir, the southern tip of Kanyakumari and now the island of Lakshadweep - a prominent tourist place.As of December 31, 2023, the HDFC Bank's distribution network was at 8,091 branches.
Khanij Bidesh India Limited (KABIL) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research - Institute of Minerals and Materials Technology (CSIR-IMMT) for Technical & Knowledge cooperation for Critical Minerals.
Under the MoU, KABIL will leverage the technical expertise and services of CSIR-IMMT to undertake various projects, including the design and analysis of metallurgical test work-plans, development and review of process flowsheets, and the selection of process technologies for mineral processing, beneficiation, and metal extraction.
KABIL is a JV company of three Indian public sector undertakings - National Aluminium Company Limited (NALCO), Hindustan Copper Limited (HCL) and Mineral Exploration and Consultancy Limited (MECL), under the aegis of Ministry of Mines, Government of India.
Simon Harris became Ireland's youngest ever prime minister, succeeding party colleague Leo Varadkar with less than a year to boost the coalition government's bid to halt a first electoral victory by left-wing Sinn Fein. He would become the 16th person to lead the country
The Gujarat Council on Science and Technology (GUJCOST) has been designated as the Nodal Centre for the ‘Space Science and Technology Awareness Training (START)‘ programme by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). The START programme, a brainchild of ISRO, offers an introductory-level online training platform.
Encompassing a vast spectrum of space science research areas, including planetary exploration, astronomy, heliophysics, atmospheric science, and microgravity research. This initiative promises to ignite the curiosity of aspiring scientists and engineers. The inaugural online programme is themed “Exploration of Solar System,”.
India's Chandrayaan-3 mission team was recently awarded the prestigious 2024 John L. 'Jack' Swigert Jr. Award for Space Exploration, acknowledging their efforts to elevate the standards of space exploration. With the successful Chandrayaan-3 mission in August last year, India became the first country to land on the south pole of the moon.
Comprising both the lander (Vikram) and the rover (Pragyan), India's lunar mission, Chandrayaan-3, successfully touched down on the southern pole of the Moon at 6:04 pm on August 23. With this achievement, India joined the ranks of the US, China, and the former Soviet Union as the fourth nation to demonstrate the capability of soft landing on the lunar surface.
John L ‘Jack’ Swigert Jr. Award for Space Exploration is an honour bestowed by the United States' National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa) in recognition of outstanding contributions to space exploration. It is named after John L. ‘Jack’ Swigert Jr., an American astronaut who flew on the Apollo 13 mission in 1970.
Kamindu Mendis claims the ICC Men’s Player of the Month award after his historic efforts at the crease helped Sri Lanka comfortably win the first Test in their ICC World Test Championship showdown against Bangladesh.
England’s Maia Bouchier wins the ICC Women’s Player of the Month prize thanks to a sparkling series of scores in New Zealand as the tourists secured a win.
Nobel prize-winning physicist Peter Higgs, who proposed the existence of the so-called “god particle” that helped explain how matter formed after the Big Bang, has died at age 94. Higgs won the 2013 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work, alongside Francois Englert of Belgium, who independently came up with the same theory.
