Novak Djokovic has not taken the COVID vaccine. Therefore, the Australian Government considers the Serbian player as a threat to the country. This is why the top ranked tennis player was deported from Australia.

What happened?

Australian Open is one of the four important tournaments of the Grand Slam. It was to start on January 17, 2022. And Novak was to play on Day 1. Unfortunately a day before the game, the Australian court deported Novak for not taking COVID vaccine. The 34 – year old player is one of the most high – profile COVID vaccine sceptics in the world. Sceptics are persons who are doubtful about a thing or situation.

Why did Australian Government deport Novak?

According to Australian Government, Novak has huge fan followers. On one side, he poses threat to the country as he is not vaccinated. On the other hand, his attitude towards vaccine will foster anti – vaccination sentiment among his huge fans not only in Australia but also in the other parts of the world.

How did Novak enter Australian soil despite strict regulations?

The Australian Government allows only vaccinated people to enter into the country. Novak is from Serbia. He entered Australia by seeking medical exemption from Victorian state. Later, he was detained for not taking vaccine. The visa of the unvaccinated player was cancelled on health and good order grounds.

How will this affect Novak?

Australia Open is one of the most important Grand slam tournaments. The other three Grand Slam tournaments are US Open, French Open, and Wimbledon.  Not everyone can participate in these tournaments. It is conducted among the top rank holders in the world. The ranks are assigned based on the winning ratio of these players. If a player wins more number of Grand Slam matches, his rank moves up. Right now Novak is in the top most position. Not playing the Australian Open will affect his ranking.

LEAP is the new start up programme of Flipkart. It is also called Leap Ahead. It aims to help the start ups in India. Under this LEAP programme, Flipkart is to implement two programmes. They are FLIN and FLA. FLIN is Flipkart Leap Innovation Network. FLA is Flipkart Leap Ahead.

About LEAP

It will invest in start ups focusing on cutting edge technologies. Also, it will invest in startups that are working on innovative technologies that are of priority to the company. The selected start ups will work with the tech and product teams of Flipkart.

The programme will identify start ups in fintech, logistics, supply chain, alternate commerce, agritech, social health tech, B2B and edtech.

Part of 100 million USD plan

The LEAP programme is a part of the seed – stage investment of Flipkart. In 2021, Flipkart announced 100 million USD as seed fund for the Indian start ups. LEAP is a part of this investment plan of Flipkart.

Work Done so far

In July 2021, Flipkart selected 8 startups under the programme. These start ups participated in a 16 – week training like programme conducted by Flipkart. They attended workshops, one – to – one mentor sessions and classes from industrial experts to speed up the development of startups in the country.

Features of the programme

• Equity based investment up to 500,000 USD
• Customised curriculum created by experts from industries
• Mentorship from senior Flipkart experts who are well versed in subject matters
• Better connect with Flipkart ecosystem
• Develop core product solution

A group of hundred billionaires have submitted a plea to the World Economic Forum. The title of the plea is “Make us Pay more tax”

What did the millionaires do?

A group of millionaires and billionaires have issued a plea. The group calls themselves as “Patriotic Millionaires”. They are of the view that the ultra wealthy are not contributing their share towards the global recovery from the pandemic. This is because of unfair tax system. According to them, they have witnessed wealth gain while the rest of the world suffered in different angles. And so they want to pay a fair share of their earnings to the global recovery.

What is the plea about?

The “Make us pay more tax” plea suggests to make a deal with the big companies. These companies will have to pay a minimum tax of 15% of their annual turnover. In most of the countries the rich need not pay annual taxes on assets such as stocks, artworks or real estates. This is because; these assets are taxed only when they are sold.

Why the plea?

The world went into one of its worst recession since World War II. And on the other hand, the millionaires became billionaires and the billionaires accumulated more and more wealth.  The fortune of the top ten billionaires increased at the rate of 15,000 USD per second! Also, their wealth increased to 1.5 trillion USD.

What is the plan?

Taxing the millionaires earning 5 million USD per year at 2% and taxing billionaires at 5% will bring in 2.52 trillion USD. This is enough to lift 2.3 billion people out of poverty. Also, this amount is sufficient to guarantee social protection and health care.

The deep sea scientists have found an icefish breeding colony in the Weddell sea of Antarctica. The scientific name of the icefish is Neopagrtopsis ionah.

About the discovery

The species was discovered in February 2021. However, their breeding nests were discovered recently.

About the Ice Fish

The blood of the ice fish is transparent in colour. They do not have red blood cells. They do not have haemoglobin to transport oxygen. It is an evolutionary adaptation. It is not a happy evolution. They absorb oxygen through their skin. They have huge hearts. They were found at a depth of 90 metres to 200 metres.

About the ice fish nests

• The nests were a foot wide. Each nest had more than thousand eggs. The males guard the nests from the predators such as starfish until the eggs hatch. The males also clean the nests now and then. They use their elongated jaw to clean the nests. Each nest is guarded by a single male ice fish.
• Currently there are 60 million active nests. They are spread over 92 sqaure miles in the Antarctic sea.
• This is the largest fish breeding colony discovered in the world.
• These nests held a fish biomass of 60,000 tonnes.
• The size of the nests is more than three – quarters a metre.

Unique Warm waters

The ice fish nests were found in a warm patch of water. This was unique and strange to the scientists. The temperature of the water here was 35 degrees Fahrenheit.

Abandoned nests

Around 31 miles from the current breeding spot, the scientists discovered another patch of nests. Those nests were abandoned. They are now occupied by corals and sponges.

Weddell sea

It is located in the southern ocean. More than 10,000 square kilometres of ice in the Weddell sea disappeared in 2002.  The sea has the clearest water.

The asteroid 1994 PC1 is to pass by earth on January 18, 2022. It will pass by at a distance of 1.2 million miles. This is five times the distance between moon and the earth. Therefore, the asteroid will not cause any harm to the earth. It is also known by the name “7482”. Its length is more than one kilometer. That is, 3,450 feet. Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world is 2,722 feet.

About the asteroid

Travelling speed of the asteroid is 45,000 miles per hour. It is a stony asteroid. It is put under the category of potentially hazardous asteroid and also under the near – earth object category.

Orbit

It orbits around the sun at 0.9 to 1.8 AU. It takes an ecliptic orbit. According to light curve analysis, the rotation period of the asteroid is 2.599 hours. Light curve is tracking the light intensity of a celestial body.

First Observation

It was first discovered by Goldstone radar in 1997. The Goldstone observatory is located in Mojave desert. It belongs to NASA. It mainly tracks the space missions of NASA.

Characteristics

It is a S – type asteroid. These asteroids are made of siliceous minerals, that is, mainly silica. Around 17% of the asteroids in the solar system are S – type asteroids. The most common are the C – type, that is, the carbonaceous.