5 June 2024, The Hindu
The site of a major political earthquake
Page 12
Prelims syllabus: Current events of national and international importance
- In a moment that mirrors the two times when the dominant party of the country tasted political defeat (the Congress in 1977 and 1989), the stormy winds of change have emerged from the Hindi heartland in 2024.
- While the Narendra Modi-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) might scrape past an absolute defeat, its all-conquering political warship also seems to have ruptured over the choppy political waters of the Gangetic plain.
- Out of the 225 odd seats that form part of the Hindi heartland, the NDA has been restricted to 149 seats, a loss of 31 seats. The INDIA bloc, meanwhile, touched 74 seats.
Indian IT firms saw deal recovery, says BNP Paribas
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GS 3: General awareness in the fields of IT, Space, Computers, Robotics, Nanotechnology, bio-technology
- Deal wins, largely driven by banking, financial services and insurance verticals, by IT services companies saw a recovery in May, reported BNP Paribas India.
- Commenting on the deal win trend, Kumar Rakesh, Analyst – IT & Auto at BNP Paribas said, ‘‘Deal wins certainly saw a recovery in May, largely driven by the BFSI segment.
- Overall we see deal wins by tech firms started showing some signs of recovery in the last month.
- “For instance, in the June quarter, Infosys is likely to see revenue contributions starting from some of the mega deals it signed last year.
- In May, it also reported the highest monthly number of deal wins, followed by ACN and Capgemini.
- Infosys’ deal with Telstra (TME) and HPE’s deal with Commercial bank of Dubai (BFSI) were the deal highlights for May 2024, according to Rakesh.
‘May palm oil imports reach 4-month high on price drop’
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GS 3: Indian Economy (international trade)
- India's palm oil imports rose by 12.4% in May from the previous month to reach the highest level in four months as the recent correction in prices led to higher purchases, five dealers told Reuters.
- Higher palm oil purchases by India, the world's biggest importer of vegetable oils, could support the benchmark Malaysian palm oil futures that fell to their lowest level in more than three months in May.
The bacteria that write new genes to cope with infections
Page 24
GS 3: General awareness in the fields of IT, Space, Computers, Robotics, Nanotechnology, bio-technology
- Amid the unprecedented challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic, a once obscure enzyme found itself in the spotlight: reverse transcriptase.
- As laboratories worldwide rushed to develop reliable diagnostic tests, techniques using the enzyme became the gold standard to detect the SARS-2 virus, and a cornerstone of molecular diagnostics.
- This remarkable enzyme didn’t only facilitate rapid and accurate testing; along with another powerful approach — genome-sequencing — it also helped track the virus’s spread, paving the way for surveillance, better public healthcare, and vaccine development.
