Daily Current Affairs and GK | 9 January 2025

Topic: Corporate and Company

1. A $3 billion investment in India announced by Microsoft, along with plans to train 10 million individuals in AI skills.

• On January 7, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella announced a $3 billion investment to enhance the company's cloud and AI infrastructure in India.
• He said the company has made its biggest expansion ever by investing an additional $3 billion to expand its Azure capabilities in India.
• The efforts being made by Microsoft to expand its regional footprint across India were appreciated, and the company's mission to empower individuals and organisations in the country was reiterated.
• On January 6, Nadella met PM Narendra Modi, where they discussed a variety of topics, including advancements in technology and artificial intelligence.
• On December 30, Nadella also visited Hyderabad, where he met Telangana Chief Minister K Revanth Reddy and Cabinet ministers D Sridhar Babu and Uttam Kumar Reddy.
• Microsoft was one of the first technology companies to establish a presence in Hyderabad, and over the years it has grown its employee base in the city to 10,000.

Topic: Defence

2. India and US to jointly build interoperable sonobuoys for Navy.

• India and the US announced cooperation on co-production of US sonobuoys for Undersea Domain Awareness (UDA) for the Indian Navy.
• This is a high-end technology that enables tracking of submarines in deep seas and oceans.
• This is the latest step in a series of cooperation measures between the two countries, as both countries are concerned by the rapid expansion of China's naval presence in the Indian Ocean region.
• Ultra Maritime (UM) and Bharat Dynamics Limited (BDL) are advancing discussions to enhance undersea domain awareness through a unique partnership focused on the co-production of U.S. sonobuoys, supporting both U.S. and Indian defense industries.
• Under the U.S.-India ICET initiative launched in May 2022, Ultra Maritime and BDL will develop advanced sonobuoy technologies optimized for the Indian Ocean, enabling wide-area exploration with customized multi-static active solutions.
• They will jointly supply and manufacture sonobuoys for the Indian Navy as per US Navy standards, with production to be split between the US and India as per 'Make in India' principles.

Topic: Science and Technology

3. IIT Madras launched Asia’s largest Shallow Wave Basin Research facility.

• Asia's largest Shallow Wave Basin Research Facility has been launched by IIT Madras at its Thaiyur campus to meet both research and industrial needs.
• It will fulfil India’s growing technical and research needs in coastal and marine engineering.
• It has been developed under the National Technology Centre for Ports, Waterways, and Coasts (NTCPWC).
• This facility will resolve challenges related to Indian ports, waterways, and coastal engineering.
• This facility will be used for testing the effects of 3D waves on structures for helping harbour, offshore, coastal, and inland waterways projects.
• It will also help in the study of sediment transport, wave impact loading, and structural stability in the face of climate change.

Topic: Environment and Ecology

4. Banded Royal butterfly has been discovered in Tripura.

• The Banded Royal butterfly (Rachana jalindra indra), a rare butterfly species, has been discovered in Tripura.
• It has been found in the Sepahijala Wildlife Sanctuary in Sepahijala district.
• Animesh Das of the research team said that the butterfly was first sighted on May 5, 2021.
• The species have been protected under Schedule II of the Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972.
• This butterfly has three subspecies in India.
• The study shows that previous works had not documented Tripura’s Rachana jalindra indra.