NASA's Mars rover Perseverance, the most advanced astrobiology lab ever sent to another world, streaked through the Martian atmosphere on Thursday and landed safely inside a vast crater, the first stop on a search for traces of ancient microbial life on the Red Planet. This rover took off from the earth about 7 months ago.

NASA has achieved this feat under the leadership of Indian-American scientist Dr Swati Mohan.

For the first time, China on Friday honoured its four soldiers killed who during clashes with Indian Army troops at Galwan Valley In June 2020, Chinese state media said.

Chen Hongjun, Chen Xiangrong, Xiao Siyuan and Wang Zhuoran died during what Chinese state media described as a "fierce struggle" against "foreign troops" that violated an agreement and crossed into the Chinese side.

The construction arm of L&T has bagged a contract from the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) for civil work at the main plant of Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant's units 5&6 (KNPP 5&6 – 2X1000 MWe) .

While the company did not disclose the value of the order, it generally classifies as significant, if the value is in the range of around Rs 1,000-2,500 crore.

Shares of Repco Home Finance and PNB Housing Finance rallied by up to 18 per cent, hitting their respective 52-week highs on the BSE in intra-day trade on Thursday, in an otherwise weak market, amid heavy volumes.

LIC Housing Finance, GIC Housing Finance and Can Fin Homes were among other housing finance companies (HFCs) that too hit their respective 52-week highs in intra-day trade today as they gained between 4 per cent and 5 per cent.

India's homegrown digital financial services platform Paytm on Thursday announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary Paytm Money has opened Futures & Options trading for all. It aims to empower the masses with F&O trading as an important wealth management product.

The company said that it received an overwhelming response for F&O trading on its platform with over 1 lakh requests for its Early Access Program.

Italy's competition watchdog has fined social networking giant Facebook seven million euros ($8.45 million) for failing to comply with a previous order related to improper use of its subscribers' data.

After an investigation, the Italian Competition Authority (AGCM) said on Wednesday that it had found that Facebook Inc. and its subsidiary Facebook Ireland Ltd. did not implement a 2018 order requiring them to dismiss an incorrect practice in the use of users' data, nor did they publish a corrective declaration requested by the watchdog, Xinhua news agency reported.

US Vice President Kamala Harris and her family will uphold the highest ethical standards, her spokesperson said, asserting that it is the policy of the White House that her name should not be used in connection with any commercial activity.

The statement comes following media reports that the White House has asked Meena Harris, niece of the vice president, to stop using her aunt to boost her brand.

All international travellers coming/transiting from flights originating from the United Kingdom, Europe and the Middle East will be required to declare their travel history of past 14 days, the Central government said in its standard operating procedure (SOP) on Wednesday.

According to the guidelines issued by the Centre for international arrivals, from February 23, the passengers will have to submit a self-declaration form (SDF) for COVID on the online Air Suvidha portal before the scheduled travel.

Bharti Airtel on Wednesday initiated the first step to unlock the value ofits digital businesses by setting up a special committee of its boardof directors.

Airtel said the committee would evaluate various options for the re-organisation of businesses and shareholding structure of the company and its various subsidiaries to achieve the required flexibility and sharper focus on digital and non-telecom businesses. This, it said, would enable any unlocking of enhanced value for its stakeholders.

Convalescent plasma (plasma-derived therapy) from Covid-19 patients and products derived from it have failed to get a thumbs up from the expert panel advising the Indian drug regulator on Covid vaccines and drugs.

The subject expert committee (SEC) noted recently that clinical trials on convalescent plasma in Mumbai’s Wock­hardt Hospitals and on hyperimmune globulins by Intas Pharmaceuticals (Intas) have not shown any remarkable difference in efficacy between the treatment and control arms.

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