** India extends billion dollar credit line to Sri Lanka

Assistance comes after $ 1.4 billion support since January 2022

India on Thursday extended a $1 billion credit facility to Sri Lanka to assist the island nation through its worst foreign exchange crisis and enable it to procure food, medicines and other essential items. 

An agreement to this effect was signed between the State Bank of India and the Government of Sri Lanka on Thursday, during a visit of the country’s Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa to New Delhi. 

** DRDO constructs multi-storey building in 45 days; to house R&D facilities for AMCA project

India’s premier defence research institute DRDO has built a multi-storey facility for flight control system at Aeronautical Development Establishment in Bengaluru in record 45 days using in-house technology, officials said on March 17.

The seven-storey building, with a plinth area of 1.3 lakh square feet, will house research and development facilities for the development of a fifth-generation medium weight deep penetration fighter jet for the Indian Air Force (IAF).

“The DRDO has completed the construction of a multi-storey infrastructure for flight control system at ADE Bengaluru with hybrid technology consisting of conventional, pre-engineered and precast methodology in record 45 days,” said one of the officials.

** Cochin Shipyard to build Beagle class dredger for DCI

It consolidates the nation’s ‘Make in India’ mission, says Union Minister

The Dredging Corporation of India (DCI) signed a ship building agreement with the Cochin Shipyard Limited (CSL) in New Delhi on Thursday.

As per the agreement, the Cochin Shipyard would build the first-of-its-kind Beagle-12 trailing suction hopper dredger of 12,000 cubic-metre capacity for the DCI.

The agreement was signed in the presence of Sarbananda Sonowal, Union Minister of Ports, Shipping & Waterways and Ayush; Shripad Naik, Minister of State for Ports, Shipping and Waterways; Marten Vande Berg, Ambassador of Netherlands; and Sanjeev Ranjan, Secretary, Ports, Shipping and Waterways.

** Scientist, team get ₹9 cr. grant for skin research

An international team of scientists led by Tamal Das, faculty member at Tata Institute of Fundamental Research-Hyderabad, have received ₹9 crore grant from Human Frontier Science Program to investigate how single layer of skin cells develops into multi-layered epidermal tissue in a growing embryo, forming the skin and lining the organs in the body.

The research would start soon. Mr Das is the principal investigator of the project. His collaborators are Friedhelm Serwane of University of Munich, Germany, and Dapeng Bi of Northeastern University, USA.

** India’s solar capacity: Milestones and challenges

How far has India progressed on its goal to achieve 500 GW of renewable energy by 2030? What are some of the obstacles that the domestic solar industry faces?

The story so far: India added a record 10 Gigawatt (GW) of solar energy to its cumulative installed capacity in 2021. This has been the highest 12-month capacity addition, recording nearly a 200% year-on-year growth.

India has now surpassed 50 GW of cumulative installed solar capacity, as on 28 February 2022. This is a milestone in India’s journey towards generating 500 GW from renewable energy by 2030, of which 300 GW is expected to come from solar power.

India’s capacity additions rank the country fifth in solar power deployment, contributing nearly 6.5% to the global cumulative capacity of 709.68 GW.

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** Bafta 2022 honours Lata Mangeshkar and Dilip Kumar

Lata Mangeshkar and Dilip Kumar were remembered as “singer” and “actor”, respectively, in the in-memoriam section of the Bafta film awards held on Sunday night at the Royal Albert Hall in London.

When Lata died on February 7, The Guardian called her “the nightingale of Bollywood”.

After Dilip Kumar passed away, aged 98, on July 7, 2021, The Times, London, described him as “Bollywood’s answer to Marlon Brando” and “a towering figure in Hindi cinema and a meticulously dedicated method actor”.

** IIT Kanpur-incubated start-up’s composting machine converts waste to manure in 10 days

Taking a step towards sustainable and efficient waste management, Agnys Waste Management Private Limited, a start-up incubated at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur, has developed an automatic composting machine that can convert waste to manure in just 10-20 days.

The start-up has named the machine BHOOMI which is an acronym for Bio-composting of horticulture & organic waste into manure indigenously.

** Army institutes Chair at USI in Gen Rawat’s memory

On the eve of General Bipin Rawat’s birthday, the army on Tuesday dedicated a chair of excellence in the late chief of defence staff (CDS)’s memory at the United Service Institution of India (USI), the country’s oldest think tank founded in 1870, the army said in a statement. Rawat, who was killed in a helicopter crash last December, would have turned 64 on Wednesday.

The aim of the Chair will be to conduct research on strategic issues pertaining to the armed forces, officials said

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** More than 22,500 Indians brought from Russia-hit Ukraine, says Jaishankar

Russia-Ukraine war: External affairs minister S Jaishankar told Rajya Sabha that the evacuation efforts were undertaken at a time when artillery shelling and airstrikes on Ukrainian cities were underway. 

** Rohit Sharma-led India scripts spectacular Asian record with SL whitewash

With the unbeaten run at home, Rohit-led Team India scripted a spectacular Asian record, but fell short of the world.

Rohit Sharma couldn’t have asked for a better start to his captaincy career as he maintained his unbeaten record on home soil, across formats, with a sensational 2-0 series whitewash against Sri Lanka following a 238-run win in the Bengaluru pink-ball Test.

And with the unbeaten run, Rohit-led Team India scripted a spectacular Asian record, but fell short of the world record owing to the team’s result in the Test series against New Zealand. 

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