Kathmandu: On Thursday, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar expressed his happiness at being back in Nepal and looked forward to his upcoming activities there. He was in the nation for two days, co-chairing the seventh Nepal-India Joint Commission meeting with his Nepalese counterpart.

In 2024, this is Jaishankar’s first trip overseas.

Jaishankar and his Nepalese counterpart, N P Saud, will co-chair a meeting of the India-Nepal Joint Commission.

Saud gave Jaishankar a hearty greeting upon arriving at Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA).

Jaishankar was met at the airport by senior officials, including Foreign Secretary Sewa Lamsal of Nepal.

“I’m glad to be making my first trip back to Nepal in 2024. Anticipating the interactions in the upcoming 48 hours,” Jaishankar wrote on X.

The India-Nepal Joint Commission was founded in 1987 and offers a forum for both countries to examine every facet of their bilateral cooperation.

Nepal is India’s top priority partner in line with its ‘Neighbourhood First’ policy. High-level exchanges between two friendly and close neighbors have long been customary, according to the Ministry of External Affairs in New Delhi.

Amrit Bahadur Rai, a spokesman for Nepal’s Foreign Ministry, stated that “the entire gamut of Nepal-India relations will be reviewed” during the Joint Commission meeting.

Prior to the visit, Rai told PTI that the primary goals of the bilateral meeting would be to “maximise benefits for both the countries through enhanced partnership between them” and “strengthen Nepal-India relations in the days ahead.”

According to the Foreign Ministry, Jaishankar will pay President Ramchandra Paudel and Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal “Prachanda” a courtesy call during his visit.

According to sources in the Foreign Ministry, he is also expected to meet with prominent political figures in Nepal.

In honor of Jaishankar and the rest of his delegation, Saud will also throw a banquet.

Before concluding his tour to India, Jaishankar will also open the Tribhuvan University Library in Kirtipur on Friday and oversee other post-earthquake construction projects being carried out in Kathmandu with Indian aid.

Following Prachanda’s third term as prime minister in December 2022, this is Jaishankar’s first official visit to Nepal.

As per the decision made by the leaders of both nations in June of last year, it is anticipated that both parties will sign an agreement on the details that would enable Nepal to export 10,000 megawatts of power to India in the next ten years.

When ‘Prachanda’ visited New Delhi in June 2023, the two sides inked a number of significant agreements, one of which called for raising the city’s import of power from the neighboring nation from 450 megawatts to 10,000 MW over the course of the next ten years.

Given India’s broader strategic interests in the area, Nepal is significant, and the presidents of the two nations have frequently mentioned their long-standing “Roti Beti” friendship.

Sikkim, West Bengal, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, and Uttarakhand are the five Indian states with whom Nepal shares a border spanning over 1,850 kilometers.

In the midst of the ongoing fight in the Gaza Strip with Hamas, Israel has released a post-war plan for the area. Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant reportedly made suggestions for Gaza’s future administration after Israel and Hamas’ battle is concluded, according to a BBC report. He claimed that under the plan’s suggested structure, Hamas would lose control of the area and there would be minimal Palestinian sovereignty over the land. He also added—quoted by the BBC—that Israel would continue to maintain total security control.

The health ministry, which is controlled by Hamas, reports that numerous individuals have died in the last 24 hours as the war in Gaza continues.

A “four corner” strategy is proposed, in which Israel maintains overall security control over Gaza. He declared that following the extensive damage brought about by Israeli bombardment, the responsibility for reconstructing the region would fall to a multinational force.

According to the idea, Palestinians would be in charge of administering the land, and Egypt, a neighbor, would also have an undefined role to play.

Israeli Defense Minister Gallant was cited by the BBC as saying, “Gaza residents are Palestinian, therefore Palestinian bodies will be in charge, with the condition that there will be no hostile actions or threats against the State of Israel.”

The report claims that certain far-right members of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s administration have stated that Palestinian citizens should be urged to leave Gaza for exile since Jewish settlements will be established there again, despite the fact that other nations in the region and some of Israel’s allies have rejected the idea as “extremist” and “unworkable.”

According to experts, Galant’s suggestions may be considered more realistic than those put out by some of his cabinet colleagues. To date, Netanyahu has not discussed administering Gaza in any detail in public.

Nevertheless, Galant’s strategy also delineated the Israeli military’s objectives for the subsequent stage of the conflict in Gaza. He continued by saying that Israeli forces would operate in the northern part of the Gaza Strip with greater precision, including air and ground strikes, raids, and tunnel demolition.

He declared that efforts to locate Hamas leaders and free Israeli captives held in the south will not stop on the part of the Israeli forces.

As quickly as South African paralympian star Oscar Pistorius gained notoriety—from being called the “definition of global inspiration” to being on the cover of Time magazine with the headlines “Man, Superman, Gunman”—he fell from grace.

The double amputee, who went by the moniker “Blade Runner” due to his prosthetic limbs, was out on parole on Friday following an eight-year prison sentence for the shockingly publicized killing of his lover.

Until the end of his prison term in 2029, Pistorius will be subject to parole restrictions and will not be considered a free man. This includes counseling sessions on gender-based violence and therapy on anger control.

Let’s look back at the events that transpired on that terrible Valentine’s Day night in 2013—from being a global icon in front of thousands of cheering fans during the 2012 Olympics to hearing jeers and heckling when he was released from prison.

Oscar Pistorius: Who Is He?

Pistorius, who was born in Johannesburg in 1986, had a difficult upbringing. Pistorius’s parents divorced when he was only six years old. Seven years later, his mother passed away.

At the age of eleven months, Pistorius’s parents made the decision to amputate his legs because he was born without calf bones. However, Pistorius continued to pursue a variety of activities, including contact sports like rugby.

A knee fracture put a stop to his rugby career. But this didn’t stop him from enjoying athletics, and after recovering, he developed a passion for jogging.

After that, Pistorius became a paralympic force to be reckoned with, and there was no turning back.

Oscar Pistorius (L) of South Africa and Albert Bravo (V) of Venezuela compete in the men’s 400-meter semi-final at the Olympic Stadium on August 5, 2012, during the London 2012 Olympic Games. (Image: Reuters)

At the 2004 Paralympics in Athens, Pistorius made headlines when he smashed the world record in the 200 meters. He won the 100-, 200-, and 400-meter sprint events at the 2008 Beijing Paralympic Games four years later.

In 2012, Pistorius made history by becoming the first double amputee to compete in both the Olympics and Paralympics, defying expectations and accusations that his carbon-fibre prosthesis or blades provided him an advantage.

Despite not taking home a gold, he went on to become a global champion and advocate for athletes with disabilities.

The Murder That Rocked the World of Sports

A few months later, the Olympian was involved in his 29-year-old girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp’s murder. For three months, Steenkamp—a successful model and law graduate—had been seeing Pistorius.

Pistorius shot Steenkamp four times in the morning on February 14, 2013, through a bathroom door at his Pretoria home. The athlete allegedly did it out of rage after the couple got into a heated dispute, according to the prosecution. Pistorius, however, refuted the accusations, claiming he had mistook her for an intruder.

Pistorius said that after realizing his error, he used a bat to smash through the bathroom door and carried Steenkamp downstairs to get assistance. But she passed away in his arms.

Following a trial that attracted international attention, Pistorius was found guilty of manslaughter in 2014 and given a five-year prison sentence. Steenkamp’s family moved a higher court, and the conviction was increased to murder as a result of the moderate sentencing. Six years in prison was added to the original sentence.

Pistorius was compelled to sell his homes in order to keep paying for his attorneys at this time because the same sponsors who had fought to get him on board began to dump him.

The state government claimed the punishment was “unduly lenient” and that Pistorius had not demonstrated “genuine remorse,” therefore the Supreme Court enhanced his prison sentence to 13 years and five months in 2017. CNN reported on this development.

According to a provision that permits parole for prisoners who have completed half of their sentence and demonstrated good behavior, Pistorius became eligible for parole in March 2023. Eventually, on January 5, 2024, he was freed.

India’s GDP expanded by 7.2% in 2022–2023 and 8.7% in 2022–2022. (Symbolic)

With support from government expenditure and a rebound in manufacturing, India’s GDP is predicted to grow 7.3% in the current fiscal year that ends in March, the fastest rate among the major world countries, the National Statistics Office said on Friday.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) increased its growth projection last month to 7% from an earlier estimate of 6.5%, and these are the first advance estimates of the yearly gross domestic product.

The National Statistical Office (NSO) stated in a statement, “These are early projections for 2023/24,” adding that future modifications would depend on factors such as better data coverage, actual tax receipts, and state subsidy spending.

India’s GDP expanded by 7.2% in 2022–2023 and 8.7% in 2022–2022.

Manufacturing, which makes up roughly 17% of the GDP, is predicted to grow 6.5% year over year in 2023–2024, up from 1.3% the year before, while data indicated that building output would increase by 10.7%, up from 10% the year before.

However, the rise in farm output, which accounts for 15% of GDP, was observed to have slowed down to 1.8% in the current fiscal year from 4% in the previous one, which had an effect on salaries in rural areas.

After expanding 7.8% year over year in the previous quarter, India’s economy grew by 7.6% year over year in the September quarter, quicker than anticipated. This led several private economists to raise their annual projections.

S&P Global Ratings predicts that, among other things, India’s major economy will continue to grow at the quickest rate over the next three years, and that it would surpass Germany and Japan to become the third largest in the world by 2030.

On February 1, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will deliver the interim annual budget. It is anticipated that she will reduce the fiscal deficit from 5.9% of GDP in the current fiscal year and increase spending on infrastructure, aided by increased tax receipts.

Legendary South African Allan Donald praised Mohammed Siraj as a revelation following the pacer’s significant contribution to India’s victory in the Cape Town Test.

In the second Test at Newlands, Cape Town, against South Africa, Siraj gave an outstanding effort. With his superb bowling, which was marked by accurate length and line, he amassed career-best figures of 6–15 and destroyed the South African batting order for a pitiful 55 runs.

Siraj’s nine-over performance was crucial to India’s first-day domination and helped them to a historic victory. After seven attempts, his efforts were crucial in earning India’s maiden Test victory at Newlands, and he was named Player of the contest for the contest.

In an interview with Sportstar, Donald expressed his admiration for Siraj’s mindset and enormous heart, saying the Indian pacer never backs down.

“Yes, without a doubt. I’ve been very careful to watch India develop some young quicks, and Mohammed Siraj, who recently took six wickets for fifteen in the first test innings in Cape Town, is a revelation.”

“I thought it was impressive to watch how Siraj sprinted every single ball while I was in Bangladesh and during the Test series that India played in Dhaka. He has such a positive attitude, in my opinion. He has an enormous heart and amazing skill.”

We discuss this white line fever all the time, and this person, in my opinion, never goes backward.

Siraj and Bumrah’s collaboration is simply magnificent: Siraj

Donald continued, praising Siraj and Bumrah’s partnership as “absolutely sublime” following their respective six-wicket hauls in the Cape Town Test.

“And I believe that when they collaborate with Jasprit Bumrah, the two of them are simply amazing. I’m confident that more and more will emerge from India. Many are still knocking on doors and sitting at home. It’s amazing,” remarked Donald.

Erosion is a contemporary threat to the Great Wall of China, an engineering marvel and a representation of the tenacity of ancient people. But a surprising defender of this unique structure is emerging: a natural phenomena called biocrusts. An unexpected ally in the preservation of this landmark structure has come to light through a new study published in “Science Advances.”

The Great Wall’s ‘living skin’

A “living skin” of microorganisms and microscopic plants called biocrusts covers the Great Wall’s soil surfaces. These biocrusts are more than simply a surface layer; they are integral to the wall’s ability to withstand natural deterioration.
Researchers have found that 67% of the Great Wall’s examined portions are coated in biocrusts, a layer of living things that includes mosses, lichens, and cyanobacteria. The wall’s erodibility is decreased and its mechanical stability is greatly increased by these biocrusts. Sections covered with biocrust demonstrated increases in compressive strength, penetration resistance, shear strength, and aggregate stability of 37 to 321%, whereas porosity, water-holding capacity, erodibility, and salinity decreased by 2 to 48% when compared to bare rammed earth.

The Great Wall, which is 8851.8 kilometers long and primarily traverses dryland areas, was primarily constructed using rammed earth, which leaves it vulnerable to environmental problems including wind erosion and rainfall scouring.The significance of biocrusts in safeguarding this historical landmark cannot be overstated, as just 5.8% of its whole length remains intact. These biocrusts not only cover a large area of the wall, but their protective qualities also differ according to the characteristics of the biocrust, the climate, and the kind of building.

Biocrusts versus contemporary historic buildings

According to earlier research, biocrusts—especially lichen and moss—may be harmful to contemporary heritage stone constructions, which is why they were removed from several sections of the Great Wall. For earthen markers, though, the results of this new study paint a different picture. Communities of moss and cyanobacteria do not pose a hazard; rather, they enhance the stability and resilience to erosion of the Great Wall.

A thorough investigation

The Great Wall was constructed during the Ming Dynasty, and the research team looked at samples from more than 300 miles of it. They discovered that biocrusts cover more than two thirds of this area. The researchers found that the biocrust-covered samples were up to three times stronger when comparing the stability and strength of the biocrust-layered samples to those without.

The nature of biocrusts and their function

Algae, moss, lichen, cyanobacteria, and fungi comprise biocrusts. They make up around 12% of the Earth’s surface and have a major role in controlling the fixation of carbon and nitrogen, retaining more water in the soil, and stabilizing it. Their thick biomass blocks soil pores and absorbs nutrients to lessen the damage caused by salt, functioning as an anti-infiltration barrier. The network created by these secretions and structural layers collects soil particles, strengthening and stabilizing the Great Wall against erosion.

The role of biocrusts in protection

The protective role of a biocrust is influenced by structural kinds, biocrust types, and climate conditions. Sections of the Great Wall covered in biocrust had higher compressive strength, penetration resistance, shear strength, and aggregate stability, while lower porosity, water-holding capacity, erodibility, and salinity when compared to bare rammed earth.

Although it is classified as an eating problem, Night Eating Syndrome is closely related to sleeplessness. A pattern of frequent episodes of eating throughout the night or waking up during the night to eat is what is known as “night eating syndrome (NES),” according to Dr. Nikhil Kulkarni, a consultant in internal medicine at S.L. Raheja Hospital in Mahim. Individuals who have NES frequently eat most of their daily caloric intake after dinner or when they wake up at least once in the middle of the night to eat.”

We will examine the causes, signs, and available treatments for Night-Eating Syndrome in this post.