Why in news?

• A team of geologists have discovered a crater named “Yilan Crater”, in northwest of Yilan in Heilongjiang Province of China.
• Prior to 2020, only one impact crater “Xiuyan Crater” was discovered in Liaoning province, despite China’s large land area.
• Then, in 2021, Yilan crater was discovered in heavily forested Lesser Xing’an mountain range. The local residents knew it as “Quanshan,” or “circular mountain ridge.”

Characteristics of Yilan crater

• Yilan crater is slightly larger than Xiuyan and spans about 1.85 kilometers.
• Thus, it is the largest crater on Earth under 100,000 years old. Carbon-14 dating sediments suggests that, this crater was formed between 46,000 and 53,000 years ago.
• Meteor or Barringer crater in Arizona is also around 50,000 years old. However, its diameter is 1.2 kilometers.

Why in news?

• Para-archer, Pooja Jatyan has scripted history as she became the first Indian to win a silver in an individual section of the Para World Championships in Dubai, UAE.
• She lost to Italy’s Patrilli Vincenza in the final to be content with the silver medal.
• India has won 2 Silver medals for the first time in the Para Archery World Championship.
• The compound mixed pair of Shyam Sundar Swamy and Jyoti Baliyan had earlier opened India’s account by winning a silver medal.

Why in news?

• Japan and India have renewed the Bilateral Swap Arrangement (BSA) the size of which is up to USD 75 billion. The BSA is a two-way arrangement where both authorities can swap their local currencies in exchange for the US Dollar.
• The interest rate charged in this case is fixed at the time of signing the agreement and hence it reduces the risk caused due to fluctuations in the exchange rate.
• The actual Bilateral Swap Arrangement (BSA) was signed between the Bank of Japan and the Reserve Bank of India in 2018.

What does BSA between India and Japan mean?

• It means that Japan and India can borrow money from each other in either their currency i.e Indian Rupee or Japanese Yen or US Dollar. This can be further explained as mentioned below:
• When India wants to borrow money from Japan it can borrow in US Dollars or Japanese Yen up to the limit of $75 billion.
• When Japan wants to borrow money from India it can borrow in US Dollars or Indian Rupees up to the limit of $75 billion.
• The countries will pay interest on the amount actually borrowed at an interest rate fixed at the time of borrowing the money.

Why in news?

• The University Grants Commission (UGC)has appointed educationist and research scientist Professor Bhushan Patwardhan as chairman, of the executive committee of the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC), Bengaluru. The position was vacant after Prof Jagadish Kumar was appointed as chairman of UGC.
• Prof Patwardhan is currently a national research professor designated by the Ministry of Ayush, Government of India, and a distinguished professor at the Interdisciplinary School of Health Sciences, Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU).

About the National Assessment and Accreditation Council

• NAAC is an autonomous body established by the UGC on September 5, 1994, with Prof Ram Reddy as founding chairman and Prof Arun Nigavekar as its first director.
• NAAC undertakes assessment and accreditation of higher educational institutions (HEI) such as colleges, universities, or other recognized institutions to assess the quality status of these institutions.
• NAAC grades are based on predefined criteria of assessment of quality and performance denoting Very good (A), Good (B), Satisfactory(C), and Unsatisfactory (D) levels respectively. NAAC accreditation is a globally accepted indicator of the credibility and quality of the institution and has bearing on the academic, financial, and perceptual benefits.

Why in news?

• The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) has approved the appointment of Madhabi Puri Buch as the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) chairperson for an initial period of three years from 1st March 2022.
• She will be the 1st woman to head the SEBI, securities market regulator and she is also the 1st person from the private sector to head SEBI and also 1st non-IAS to be appointed as the SEBI chairman.
• She will be the 10^th chair of the board.
• She succeeds Ajay Tyagi, who served as a chairman for 5 years. His tenure ends on 28th February 2022.
• Her tenure as a whole-time member of SEBI ended in October 2021.

About Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI):

• Establishment – 12th April 1992 (In accordance with SEBI Act, 1992) and headquartered at Mumbai, Maharashtra.

Why in news?

• The renowned Indian physicist and Emeritus Professor at the Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Pune, Prof Deepak Dhar will be conferred the prestigious Boltzmann Medal 2022 for contribution in the field of statistical physics.
• He became the first Indian to be awarded the Boltzmann Medal. He will share the medal with John J Hopfield of Princeton University.
• The medal presentation ceremony will be held during the StatPhys28 conference in August 2022 in Tokyo, Japan.

About the prize

• The Boltzmann Medal (or Boltzmann Award) is named after the physicist Ludwig Boltzmann and awarded to physicists for contributing new results in statistical mechanics and it was instituted in 1975.
• The Boltzmann Medal is given every three years by the C3 Commission on Statistical Physics of the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP).
• John J Hopfield is an American scientist, who is known for his invention of an associative neural network in 1982

About Prof Deepak Dhar:

• He is known for his research on statistical physics and stochastic processes.
• He is an elected fellow of – the Indian Academy of Sciences, the Indian National Science Academy, and the National Academy of Sciences and also The World Academy of Sciences.
• Award – ‘Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize’ (1991) by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR).

Why in news?

• The lawsuit demands that Russia be held accountable for distorting the concept of genocide to justify aggression.
• International Court of Justice is principal judicial organ of United Nations established in June 1945 by Charter of UN.
• Seat of the Court is at the Peace Palace in The Hague (Netherlands).
• It is composed of 15 judges, who are elected for terms of office of nine years by United Nations General Assembly and Security Council.
• Judge Dalveer Bhandari from India is among present members.
• Its official languages are English and French.

Why in news?

• United States and European nations recently agreed to block select Russian banks from SWIFT.
• Founded in 1973, SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication), a non-listed Belgium-based firm, is actually a cooperative of banks.
• It doesn’t handle any transfers of funds itself but its messaging system provides banks the means to communicate rapidly, securely and inexpensively.
• Banks use the SWIFT system to send standardised messages about transfers of sums between themselves, transfers of sums for clients, and buy and sell orders for assets.
• This measure will ensure that Russian financial institutions are disconnected from the international financial system and harm their ability to operate globally.

Why in news?

• It is a data-wiper malware that has been detected in computers in Ukraine.
• When downloaded, it can erase all the data on a device it targets, in a manner that data becomes irretrievable.
• Malware is collective name for a number of malicious software variants, including viruses, ransomware and spyware.

Why in news?

• In tennis, Rafael Nadal (Spain)beat British number one Cameron Norrie 6-4 6-4 to win the singles title of Mexican Open 2022 (also known as Acapulco title).
• This is the 91st ATP title of his career and the third title of the season.
• This is the fourth time that Rafael Nadal has won the Mexican Open title, after winning the previous ones in 2005, 2013 and 2020. Men’s double title winners are Feliciano Lopez (Spain) and Stefanos Tsitsipas (Greece).