India-US looking to co-develop small air launch UAVs: Pentagon

  • India and the US have identified small air launch unmanned aerial vehicles and a lightweight small arms technology project along with aircraft maintenance for defence collaboration, a top Pentagon official has said.
  • On drones, the discussions are mainly between the US Air Force Research Laboratory and India’s Defence Research and Development Organisation.

Tropical cyclone slams Mozambique

  • Tropical cyclone Idai battered central Mozambique on March 15 killing at least 19 people and cutting off more than half a million people in one of the country’s largest cities Beira.
  • Local officials said that this week’s heavy rains had already claimed 66 lives, injured 111 and displaced 17,000 people.

Trump Dismisses White Nationalism Threat after NZ Shooting

  • US President Donald Trump on Friday dismissed concerns that the massacre by an apparent white supremacist in New Zealand indicates a dangerous trend.
  • “I don’t really. I think it’s a small group of people that have very, very serious problems, I guess,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.    

Nobel Peace Prize nomination for student climate campaigner Greta

  • Students worldwide are skipping class on Friday to take to the streets to protest their governments’ failure to take sufficient action against global warming.
  • The coordinated ‘school strikes’, being held from the South Pacific to the edge of the Arctic Circle, were inspired by 16-year-old Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, who began holding solitary demonstrations outside the Swedish parliament last year.

India trade deficit narrows to 17-month low in February

  • India’s trade deficit narrowed to a 17-month low of $9.6 billion in February as merchandise imports fell on the back of lower crude oil prices.
  • Exports growth was relatively tepid at 2.44% in February, while imports contracted 5.41% in dollar terms, according to data by Commerce ministry.

Breakthrough solar-powered device harvests water from thin air

  • In a “breakthrough”, scientists have developed a novel solar-powered harvesting system that absorbs moisture from the air and converts it into clean, usable water.
  • The technology, described in the journal Advanced Materials, could be used in disaster situations, water crises or poverty-stricken areas and developing countries.