Thursday, May 27, 2010

27th May Current Affairs

Science and Technology

  1. STEREO Spacecraft from NASA: STEREO (Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory) is a solar observation mission. Two nearly identical spacecraft were launched into orbits that cause them to respectively pull further ahead of and fall gradually behind the Earth. This will enable stereoscopic imaging of the Sun and solar phenomena, such as coronal mass ejections.
  2. Biodiversity hotspot:A biogeographic region with a reservior of biodiversity that is under threat from humans. India hosts three biodiversity hotspots: the Western Ghats, the Eastern Himalayas, and the hilly ranges that straddle the India-Myanmar border
  3. Who coined the term Biodiversity hotspot?: Norman Myers in two articles in “The Environmentalist”
  4. The Alaotra Grebe (Tachybaptus rufolavatus), also known as Delacour's Little Grebe or Rusty Grebe, was a grebe endemic to Lake Alaotra and surrounding lakes in Madagascar. The last sighting (which may have been a hybrid with the Little Grebe) was in 1985 and the species was confirmed extinct in 2010

    The grebe was a bird of about 10 inches (25 cm) in length. Its ability to fly is believed to have been affected by its small wings.

General Awareness:

  1. Countries which have not signed NPT:India, Pakistan, North Korea and Israel
    Countries which have not signed CTBT:India, North Korea and Pakistan
  2. Kazakhstan has emerged as the world's biggest supplier of uranium
  3. Jessica Watson - youngest to sail around the world solo
  4. Jordan Romero - youngest ever to reach Everest : He broke Temba Tseri's record
  5. Arjun Vajpayee - youngest Indian to reach Everest
  6. Peter Hebler - first person to climb Everest without oxygen

Business:

  1. Apple overtakes Microsoft as largest tech company
  2. 'Store Your Cells' in Mumbai- first dental stem cell bank in India. Dental stem cells are easy to obtain and can be stored for as long as required
  3. China signs $10-billion 'oil-for-loan' deal with Brazil: Asia's largest crude refiner, China's state-owned Sinopec and China Development Bank (CDB) have signed a $10-billion 'oil-for-loan' trilateral agreement with Brazilian oil giant, Petrobras . Under this agreement the state-owned China Development Bank would lend $10-billion at low-interest rates to the Brazilian state-run oil company in return for a guaranteed supply of 7 million metric tonnes of crude oil in 2010, to Sinopec
  4. Disinvestment of PSUs:
    The government has targeted to mop up Rs.40,000 crore through divestment during the current fiscal and among the major PSUs that are to be lined up for stake sale are
    - Coal India Ltd.,
    - Indian Oil Corporation,
    - MMTC,
    - RINL,
    - Shipping Corporation,
    - Hindustan Copper,
    - Power Grid Corporation and
    - Manganese Ore India Ltd.
  5. Pakistan and Iran signed a deal for the construction of a pipeline that would allow Iranian gas to be pumped into Balochistan and Sindh. The pipeline will begin from Iran's Assalouyeh Energy Zone in the South and stretch over 1,100 km through the country before it enters Pakistan. The initial capacity of the pipeline will be 22 billion cubic meters of natural gas per annum. It is expected to be later raised to 55 billion cubic metres.
  6. IBM is buying AT&T’s Sterling Commerce unit, which makes software that helps businesses buy and sell to each other, for $1.4 billion .The deal would be IBM’s largest acquisition since it bought business software maker Cognos in 2008.
at

1 comment: