GUJARAT
- Two world-class stadiums to come up
- In June 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi passed on the mantle of the Gujarat Cricket Association (GCA) to BJP president Amit Shah. Since that day, Shah had begun executing his plans to transform the Lok Sabha constituency he wished to fight from into a world class sports city.
- The Rs 1,100 crore Motera stadium is finally taking shape as world’s largest cricketing temple which will have a direct metro connect and a seating capacity for 1.1 lakh spectators. The Motera stadium is in Sabarmati ward, which also has the first station of India’s first bullet train.
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 Day 2019 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 April is 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-based Dream11 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
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