Author: Manish Tripathi

The Ministry of External Affairs stated that the India-Japan summit was agreed to be held on 19th March 2022. The MEA confirmed the news on Thursday, 17th March 2022. Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi invited Prime Minister Kishida to Delhi NCR. Thirteen summits have been held between the two nations in the past.   The Agenda of the Summit The relations between India and Japan have always been well. They have never been adversaries. The first Japan-India association was set up back in 1903. Over the years, the two nations have maintained their relations over various fields of mutual interests.…

India’s external debt According to the finance ministry, India’s external debt rose modestly by 2.1 per cent year-on-year to USD 570 billion as of March-end 2021, notwithstanding the COVID-19 pandemic. The external debt to GDP ratio increased marginally to 21.1 per cent from 20.6 per cent as of end-March 2020. However, the reserves to external debt ratio increased to 101.2 per cent from 85.6 per cent during the same period, thereby consolidating the country’s position as a net creditor to the world, as per the status report on India’s external debt released by the ministry. The sovereign debt at USD…

A study by Edtech and skill development company ImaginXP has found that 33% of educated youth in India are unemployed due to a lack of future skills – for most of them, despite getting a degree. India’s skill development quotient needs a desperate upheaval and strategies, and it is also a focus area as per the new National Education Policy (NEP). India’s ed-tech and skill development company, ImaginXP, recently conducted a survey showing that 33% of educated youth in India are unemployed due to a lack of future-ready skills, despite getting a degree. The Survey Report The survey for the…

In a bid to go completely paperless and keep board results secure and tamper-proof, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has introduced ‘Blockchain’ technology. To create the ‘Academic (Blockchain) Documents’ software, CBSE collaborated with the Centre of Excellence for Blockchain Technology of National Informatics Centre under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY).  What is blockchain? Blockchain is a shared, immutable ledger that facilitates recording transactions and tracking assets in a business network. An investment can be tangible (a house, car, cash, land) or intangible (intellectual property, patents, copyrights, branding). Virtually anything of value can be tracked and traded on a blockchain network, reducing…

The research started in 2019 shows 32% of teen girls said that when they felt bad about their bodies, Instagram made them feel worse. Teens also blame Instagram for anxiety and depression increases, and the research also showed 6% of users in the United States with suicidal thoughts traced it back to Instagram. Instagram says it’s looking at new ways to discourage users from focusing on their physical appearance after The Wall Street Journal revealed that Facebook researchers have repeatedly found that the photo-sharing platform is toxic for teen girls. The newspaper reported on Tuesday that researchers at Facebook, which…

A day after controversy erupted, the United Kingdom, on Wednesday, 22 September, updated its travel guidelines to include Serum Institute of India (SII)- manufactured Covishield in its list of recognized vaccines. “Formulations of the four listed vaccines, such as AstraZeneca Covishield, AstraZeneca Vaxzervria and Modern Takeda, qualify as approved vaccines,” the updated UK guidelines said. However, India does not feature in a list of countries mentioned by the UK where vaccination from the relevant public health body would count as an individual being or getting vaccinated. So, Indians travelling to Britain have to self-isolate and book and take Covid-19 tests before moving…

The most impressive Tenet gets people simultaneously walking in opposite directions and cars seemingly in reverse in our timelines, which makes for one hell of a ride but not even a great car chase on screen. The Protagonist (John David Washington) — yes, the central character is called just that in the film — participates in an undercover operation at a Kyiv opera house. The procedure is shot to pieces, and he gets captured. He later commits suicide by chewing on a cyanide tablet. But he’s not dead. The whole thing was a test of his loyalty, it seems. He’s…

India has yet to respond to the announcement of the Australia-UK-USA (AUKUS) trilateral security pact. The main objective of this security trilateral, meant to help balance out China in the region. The QUAD has made it clear that it is not a security grouping; however, this trilateral defence pact will complement the diplomatic outfit. The QUAD and AUKUS will run parallelly going forward, but there may be an opportunity for them to merge in the foreseeable future.  What is the QUAD? A) Formation of QUAD  Since its establishment in 2007, the representatives for the four-member nations have met periodically. Japanese…

The Tomorrow War is one of the most derivative sci-fi movies ever made. Even its title is borrowed from better sci-fi properties. ‘The Forever War’ is a classic sci-fi novel by Joe Haldeman, features a time-travelling soldier trying to kill bug-like alien invaders. The Tomorrow War stars Chris Pratt as a time-travelling former soldier trying to defeat bug-like foreign invaders. The alien invaders in The Tomorrow War have a strong resemblance to the bug-like foreign invaders from Starship Troopers. They also compare the xenomorphs in the ‘Alien’ movies. The time jumps in the film are like the time jumps in…

The fourth wave of infections is rapidly approaching the levels of Israel’s worst days of the pandemic last winter. The standard rate of confirmed new virus cases has doubled over the previous two weeks, making Israel a rising hot spot on the international charts. Israel was the first country on the planet to fully vaccinate most of its citizens against the deadly COVID-19 virus. Now it has one of the world’s highest daily infection rates — an average of almost 7,500 confirmed cases are being reported in a day, double what it was two weeks ago. Today, in Israel, Almost…