Hermes 900
Indian Army and Navy will receive Hermes-900, also known as Drishti-10 drones, to boost their surveillance capabilities.
- Next generation multi-role, Medium Altitude Long Endurance (MALE) unmanned aerial system.
- Features over-the-horizon, persistent multi-mission, multipayload capabilities with class leading payload carrying capacity of 350 kgs.
- Capable of performing missions for area dominance, persistent Intelligence, Surveillance, Target acquisition, and Reconnaissance (ISTAR).
- Can also perform ground support and maritime patrol missions, and offers the capability for integrated multi-platform, multisensor operation.
Orangutan
Malaysia plans to gift Orangutans to major palm oil-importing nations with aim to boost its credentials as a conserver of biodiversity.
- Great apes native to Sumatra (Pongo abelii, Pongo tapanuliensis) and Borneo (Pongo pygmaeus) in Southeast Asia.
- Only great ape found outside of Africa.
- Habitat – Live in tropical forests and prefer forest in river valleys and floodplains of their respective islands. Reproductive rate is extremely low which makes their populations highly vulnerable.
- Protection Status – All 3 species are Critically Endangered in IUCN Red List.
Oleander Flower
Kerala banned the use of oleander flowers in temple offerings after death of two women due to accidental poisoning from the flower.
- Rapidly growing evergreen, rounded shrub or small tree native to Europe and Asia.
- Also known as – Arali and kanaveeram in Kerala.
- All parts of the plant are highly toxic as it contains cardiac glycosides (a type of chemical) including nerioside and oleandroside.
Neural Processing Unit (NPU)
Global Tech-giant Apple has unveiled M4 chip which is a 16-core Neural Engine, termed as NPU.
- It is a dedicated processor designed specifically for accelerating neural network processes.
- Neural network – A type of machine learning algorithm that mimics human brain for data processing.
- NPUs are optimized for handling complex mathematical computations integral to artificial neural networks.