The United States and Japan have agreed to establish a facility in Japan for the final assembly and inspection of AIM-120 AMRAAM missiles. The initiative is part of Operation Supercharge, aimed at strengthening defence cooperation and enhancing military readiness. AIM-120 AMRAAM stands for Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile. It is an American-developed, active radar-guided, beyond-visual-range (BVR) missile. The missile was originally developed by Hughes and is now produced by Raytheon, a subsidiary of RTX Corporation. It became operational in 1991 and is used by several modern fighter aircraft, including the F-35.

NASA’s BioSentinel mission is recently in the news because its yeast experiment failed to produce growth after travelling beyond the Moon. The yeast cells probably expired before launch, preventing scientists from studying DNA repair in deep space. However, the spacecraft continues to collect valuable data on deep-space radiation. NASA launched BioSentinel on 16 November 2022 aboard Artemis I, the first flight of its Space Launch System (SLS) rocket. It was one of 10 CubeSats deployed during the Artemis I mission.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the Bharat Bovine Breeding and Research Centre (BBBRC) at Bhildi in Banaskantha district of Gujarat. The centre has been established at a cost of ₹325 crore to improve indigenous cattle breeds and enhance milk production. The centre is spread across 127 acres and has been established by Banas Dairy with technical guidance from the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB). It has received support under the Central Government’s Rashtriya Gokul Mission. The facility will use advanced breeding technologies such as In-Vitro Fertilisation (IVF) and embryo transfer. It aims to produce approximately 25,000 high-quality embryos annually. The centre will focus on indigenous cattle breeds such as Kankrej, Gir, Sahiwal and Tharparkar.

The Bay of Bengal produces roughly four times as many cyclones as the Arabian Sea, a ratio of 4:1. The Bay lies in the northeastern Indian Ocean between the Indian subcontinent and the Indochinese peninsula. Major river systems, including the Ganges, Brahmaputra, Godavari and Mahanadi, flow into it; the Arabian Sea lies west of India.

The World Bank released its October 2026 Poverty and Equity Brief report, highlighting India’s significant progress in poverty reduction. According to the report, India lifted approximately 496 million people out of poverty between 2011 and 2023. India’s extreme poverty rate declined from 27.1% in 2011 to 2.6% in 2023. The population living below the lower-middle-income poverty threshold of $4.20 per day (2021 PPP) decreased from 57.7% to 16.1% during the same period. The report attributed this progress to increased consumption, employment growth, particularly among women, and expanded social transfers, including food subsidies. Around 57% of India’s poor population remains concentrated in the geographical belt extending from Uttar Pradesh to West Bengal.