1) Shangri-La Dialogue: It is a Track One inter-governmental security forum held annually by an independent think tank, the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) which is attended by defence ministers, permanent heads of ministries and military chiefs of 28 Asia-Pacific states.
- Originally known as the Asia Security Summit, it was initiated in 2002.
- The forum gets its name from the Shangri La Hotel in Singapore where it is held.
- While primarily an inter-governmental meeting, the summit is also attended by legislators, academic experts, business delegates, think tank analysts, media and other NGO personnel.
2) Fattah Missile: Iran claimed that it had created a hyper-sonic missile capable of travelling at 15 times the speed of sound.
- The new missile – called ‘Fattah,’ means ‘Conqueror’ in Farsi.
- The said missile can acquire a speed of 5 times the speed of light and has a range of over 1400 Kms. It can travel at speeds of up to Mach 5.
3) Prepaid Payment Instrument (PPI): These are instruments that facilitate the purchase of goods and services, conduct of financial services and enable remittance facilities, among others, against the money stored in them. PPIs can be issued as cards or wallets.
- There are two types of PPIs – small PPIs and full-KYC (know your customer) PPIs.
- Further, small PPIs are categorized as – PPIs up to Rs 10,000 (with cash loading facility) and PPIs up to Rs 10,000 (with no cash loading facility).
- The cash loading of PPIs is limited to Rs 50,000 per month subject to the overall limit of the PPI. it can be issued by banks and non-banks after obtaining approval from the RBI.
- PPIs can only be used in Indian rupees.
4) Commission of Railway Safety: CRS is a government body that acts as the railway safety authority in the country.
- It deals with matters related to safety of rail travel and operations, among some other statutory functions – inspectorial, investigatory, and advisory – as laid down in the Railways Act, 1989. It is Headquartered in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh.
- It is under the administrative control of the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) instead of the Ministry of Railways.
- The reason behind this is to keep the CRS insulated from the influence of the country’s railway establishment and prevent conflicts of interest.
5) Kakhovka Dam: Kakhovka dam in southern Ukraine was collapsed recently, causing extensive flooding
- The dam is built on Ukraine’s Dnipro River.
- Dnipro River – It separates Ukraine into two parts — east and west.
- It flows north to south connecting the capital, Kiev, to the Black Sea.
- Water from the reservoir supplies water to the Crimean peninsula to the south, which was annexed by Russia in 2014, as well as the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, Europe’s largest, to the north.
