News Flash (9th May 2020): Top 10 Stories Of The Day

1. CBSE will conduct Class 10, 12 board exams from July 1 to 15: HRD Minister

The pending CBSE class 10 and 12 board examinations will be held from 1st July to 15th July 15, announced the HRD ministry. “The students have been impatiently waiting for the schedule for pending exams. It has been decided today that the CBSE exams will be conducted from July 1 to 15,” said the HRD minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank. The CBSE exams for 12 subjects of class 12th will be conducted across the country, while the CBSE exams for standard 10th will be held only in north-east Delhi. 

2. Google Lens enables users to paste handwritten notes to laptops

Google’s image recognition tool Google Lens has added a unique feature  “Copy to Computer”  that aims at helping users convert and transfer their handwritten notes from their notebooks to their computers or laptop seamlessly. Till now, Google Lens enabled its users to copy and paste text from their paper notes and documents to their smartphones, but now this feature is extended for all the laptop and computer operators. To use this feature, users need to have the updated version of Google Chrome and Google lens. 

3. Human urine can help make concrete on Moon: Study

 The European Space Agency recently released a study in which the researchers have said that human urine could one day become a useful ingredient in making concrete to be used on the Moon. They further said, urea, the main organic compound present in human urine, would make the mixture for a “lunar concrete” more malleable before it takes a sturdy final form. “Lunar concrete’s” main ingredient is a powdery soil found on the surface of the Moon known as lunar regolith. The urea, which can break down hydrogen bonds and reduce the thickness of fluid mixtures, would hold only the necessary amount of water in the recipe. The agency in one of its statements said that “Thanks to future lunar inhabitants, the 1.5 litres (3.2 pints) of liquid waste a person generates each day could become a promising by-product for space exploration.”

4. MS Dhoni reads the game strategically slightly better than Ponting

Former Australia batsman Michael Hussey believes that Mahendra Singh Dhoni holds the strong ability to strategically read the game better than Australia’s captain Ricky Ponting. Hussey says this as he has been fortunate enough to work under both the cricketers. While Hussey has been a part of the Australia squad which won three ICC tournaments under the captainship of Ponting, he also played a key role in MS Dhoni’s CSK’s IPL matches. “MS is a lot calmer. A lot more measured. And I would say he strategically reads the game slightly better than Ricky. Ricky was a good tactician as well. Fantastic, but the way MS makes some moves out there in the field, I’ll be sort of thinking “where’s he going with this?” Inevitably it might work. How did this come from? He just backs his gut feel. Two different captains but both very effective in their own ways” said Hussey.

5. Ratan Tata invests in Generic Aadhar, a startup run by an 18-yr-old boy

Chairman of Tata Sons, Ratan Tata, in a move to encourage and support a young mind has invested an undisclosed amount in 18-year-old entrepreneur Arjun Deshpande’s pharma startup Generic Aadhaar. The Thane-based startup, founded in the year 2018, sources generic drugs directly from the producers and provides it to the retailers, with the main aim of cutting the middlemen and thus keeping the prices low. The startup is said to generate annual revenue of Rs 6 crore.

6. University exams for final year college students only, others to be promoted: Maha govt

The Maharashtra government has announced that all final year university students in the state, will have to take exams, ones the COVID-19 times get a little better. Other university college students will be promoted to higher classes without the need of taking any exams. “All university students in Maharashtra, except those in the final year, will be promoted to the next class without examination due to COVID-19 lockdown. The final year examinations will be held in July,” said Uday Samant, the Maharashtra State Higher and Technical Education Minister. If in case the rates of COVID-19 cases don’t fall down even after the lockdown period ends, the decision of conducting examination for final year students will be once again reviewed. 

7. Aarogya Setu world’s 7th most downloaded app in April

India’s Covid-19 tracking app, Aarogya Setu, has now become one of the world’s top 10 most downloaded apps with it reaching the 9 crore user milestone within weeks. According to Sensor Tower’s April numbers, the app secured the 7th position in the “Top Apps Worldwide for April 2020 by Downloads” list, by beating and pushing down other more popular apps like Google Meet, Microsoft Teams and even the streaming app, Netflix. The top six apps currently are  Zoom, TikTok, Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, and Messenger. Apart from this, Aarogya Setu has also achieved the 5th position in the top ‘Google Play Downloads’ list.

8. Highest resolution images of Jupiter gained by scientists

For the first time ever, Astronomers have captured some of the highest resolution images of planet Jupiter from the ground by using a technique known as “lucky imaging”. The images were captured with the help of Gemini North telescope on Hawaii’s Maunakea. This technique enables the removal of the blurring effect while looking through Earth’s turbulent atmosphere. 

9. Brazil man complaining of severe backache finds out he has 3 kidneys

In a rare incident, a 38-year-old Brazilian man was found to have three kidneys after he approached a doctor complaining of severe lower backache. The doctors were taken by a surprise when they detected the presence of a third kidney in his CT scan. The doctors, however, did not feel any need to prescribe the man any special medicines or care as all his other organs including his kidneys were functioning well. 

10. Meme shared by Mumbai Police on Elon Musk baby’s name, people asked to decode

The Mumbai Police has shared a  meme on its official Twitter handle related to the name of Elon Musk’s newborn child ‘X Æ A-12’. The police tweeted, “*Æ b 8 (with a House emoji)…Crack this #lockdown mandate.” This meme of theirs gained a favourable response from twitter users. While some attempted to decode the meme thinking the named indicated, “ae baith ghar”, while some others said that it’s “all be at home”.