Priti Patel awarded with ‘Pravasi Bharatiya Samman’
Priti Patel, Britain’s senior-most Indian-origin minister has received the ‘Pravasi Bharatiya Samman’ that is the highest honour conferred on overseas Indians and Patel has been awarded for her “exceptional contribution to national and international politics, her role in strengthening UK-India relations.
NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson created new spacewalking record
American astronaut Peggy Whitson (doctorate in biochemistry and served as the first female space station commander in 2008) made history when she floated outside the International Space Station (ISS). She broke the record for the most spacewalks by a woman. Whitson at the age of 57, is making her eighth career spacewalk, surpassing the record of seven previously held by American Sunita Williams.
El Salvador becomes first country in the world to ban metals mining
- El Salvador became the first country in the world to ban metals mining nationwide.
- The new law, supported by 70 lawmakers, bans all exploration, extraction, and processing of metals both in open pits and mines.
Sima Kamil becomes first woman to lead a major Pakistani bank
United Bank Limited (UBL) has appointed Sima Kamil as the new president and chief executive officer (CEO) of the bank.She will take charge on June 1, 2017 by replacing outgoing CEO Wajahat Hussain. She is the first woman to head a major commercial bank in Pakistan.
China’s GDP growth target at 25 Year Low
- As per report by state-run news agency Zinhua, China’s GDP growth target for this year to a 25-year low of 6.5 percent which is down from last year’s actual GDP growth of 6.7 per cent, indicating the continuation of an economic slowdown.
- The previous low was a 6 per cent target for gross national product growth in 1992.
1.4 Million suffering from severe malnutrition and Famine
- According to UN children's agency, almost 1.4 million children suffering from severe malnutrition could die in 2017 from famine in Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen.
- In Yemen, where war has been raging for nearly two years, 462,000 children are suffering from acute malnutrition while 450,000 children are severely malnourished in northeast Nigeria.
- While drought in Somalia has left 185,000 children on the brink of famine and figure is expected to reach 270,000 as per UNICEF.
- In South Sudan, over 270,000 children are malnourished and a famine has just been declared in parts of Unity State in the north of the country, where 20,000 children live.
Oldest fossil ever found in Canada
- The microscopic bacteria were found in rock formations in Quebec, Canada and before this, the oldest microfossils reported were found in Western Australia that was dated at 3.4 billion years ago.
- Thus this discovery has proved that the oldest fossil ever discovered on Earth shows that organisms were thriving 4.2 billion years ago, hundreds of millions of years earlier.
World’s first cyber crime university course
- Australia has announced to offer the world’s first university course to train intelligence analysts to fight cyber crime.
- The measure is made to attempts to catch the organised crime and militant groups are using technology such as the “dark web” and cryptocurrencies to make their payments hard to trace.
‘Most Popular Tourism Destination Award’ declared
- Sri Lanka for the second consecutive year won the “Most Popular Tourism Destination Award” at the Guangzhou International Travel Fair (GITF) in China.
- China has been Sri Lanka’s second largest source market for tourism since 2014.
7 new Earth-like exoplanets discovered
- Astronomers of NASA have discovered seven Earth-sized planets orbiting a star called TRAPPIST-1. Three of them are in the habitable zone the happy place where liquid water can exist on the surface of rocky planets, as it’s not too hot or cold.
- The three planets in the habitable zone, also known as the Goldilocks Zone, are called TRAPPIST-1e, f, and g. Exoplanet “e” is about the same size as Earth and even gets around the same amount of star light as we do.
- The star, known as TRAPPIST-1, is a small, dim celestial body in the constellation Aquarius.
- TRAPPIST-1 is named for the Transiting Planets And Planetesimals Small Telescope (TRAPPIST) in Chile. The latest discovery is from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope.
