current affairs 17 May 2022

India won its maiden Thomas Cup title, beating 14-time champion Indonesia 3-0.

India won its maiden Thomas Cup title on 15th May 2022 and defeated 14-time champion Indonesia 3-0 in the final in Bangkok.
India got the win with World Championships medallist Lakshya Sen, Kidambi Srikanth and the world number 8 doubles duo of Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy producing memorable performances.
Indonesia are in fact the most decorated country in the Thomas Cup.
Indian men had previously reached the Thomas Cup semis in 1952, 1955, and 1979. India is only the sixth country to win the Thomas Cup.

Officially recorded remittance flows to low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) are expected to increase by 4.2 percent in 2022 to reach $630 billion.
This follows an almost record recovery of 8.6 percent in 2021, according to the World Bank’s latest Migration and Development Brief released today.
Remittances to Ukraine, which is the largest recipient in Europe and Central Asia, are expected to rise by over 20 percent in 2022.
The top five recipient countries for remittances in 2021 were India, Mexico (replacing China), China, the Philippines, and Egypt.
India topped the list in the world receiving USD 89 billion in remittance followed by Mexico at USD 54 billion, and China at USD 53 billion last year.
Among economies where remittance inflows stand at very high shares of GDP are Lebanon (54 percent), Tonga (44 percent), Tajikistan (34 percent), Kyrgyz Republic (33 percent), and Samoa (32 percent).

The India-Bangladesh joint committee meeting on peaceful uses of nuclear energy was held in Dhaka on 11-12 May 2022.
Both sides stated their desire for collaboration in societal applications of radiation technologies in areas such as cancer care, nuclear medicine and food preservation.
The Bangladesh side expressed appreciation for the services being rendered by the Indian experts currently deployed at the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant.
Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant will be a 2.4 GWe nuclear power plant in Bangladesh.
The nuclear power plant is being constructed at Rooppur on the bank of the river Padma.
In 2018, India, Bangladesh and Russia signed an agreement to allow Indian firms in construction and installation works in the non-critical category for the Rooppur nuclear power plant project in northwest Bangladesh.

A team of Australian researchers have identified a biochemical marker in the blood that could help identify newborn babies at risk for sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).
Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) is the unexplained death, usually during sleep, of a seemingly healthy baby less than a year old.
SIDS is sometimes known as crib death because the infants often die in their cribs.
In their study, babies who died of SIDS had lower levels of an enzyme called butyrylcholinesterase (BChE) shortly after birth, the researchers said.
BChE plays a major role in the brain’s arousal pathway, and low levels would reduce a sleeping infant’s ability to wake up or respond to its environment.

A Bengaluru-based venture Pravaig has produced a rugged tactical battery that it is now planning to sell to the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) forces in Europe.
The heavy-duty power bank — Pravaig Field Pack — is portable and weighs 14 kilograms.
It is of great utility to the digitally connected modern military and special forces personnel who have to operate in high-risk zones such as Ukraine and Libya, while using gadgets that require constant power back-up.
A powerful tactical battery can be used even to operate larger military equipment such as drones and it can even help coordinate tactical operations which involves multiple weapons systems.
This supply marks a major shift in the defence landscape of India, from users to developers, from importers to exporters.
As illustrated by the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, digital coordination is now part of the battlefield readiness of modern soldiers and special forces personnel.