CURRENT AFFAIRS

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.

The rise in terror-related strikes in the relatively peaceful Jammu division, especially in the border districts of Rajouri and Poonch, become a cause of concern.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) recently forecast that global trade would slow down from 5.4% in 2022 to 2.4% in 2023.