Byju clears the pending payment of $2234 million to the global private investment firm Blackstone. They were linked to its deal to acquire the brick-and-mortar coaching chain Aakash Institute last year. As we know that Byju acquired the Aakash Institute last year in the amount of $950 million in April 2021. The amount of payment to Blackstone was delayed of about 38% as it is a stake held by Blackstone. 

The timeline for the payment was in June, but it was extended to August this year.  Byju Raveendran explained the procedures as they have to meet the guidelines set by the RBO so he clear the payment by the end of September. 

Byju is one of the most valued startups, but they also had been facing criticism for the delay in furnishing their audited financials for the years 2020-21. On September 14, with the gap of 18 months, the Bengaluru-based startup said that the revenue from the operation of financial year 21 had been readjusted to Rs 2,280 crore and the losses had ballooned to Rs 4,588 crore from Rs 262 crore in the previous financial year. 

The company claimed that its unaudited financial results show a revenue record of Rs 10,000 crore. Significant growth in revenue compared to the financial year 2020, but because of the revenue recognition changes, it is getting pushed to the next year. 

FAQ

•  What is the pending amount?

Ans. $234 million 

• When did the Aakash acquisition take place?

Ans. 2021 

• At which amount did Byju take over Aakash?

Ans. $950 million

Power lines have been downed and houses have been washed into the sea as Storm Fiona battered Canada’s coastline. A woman is missing after being washed out to sea. Fiona went from a hurricane to a tropical storm. The police said that this kind of weather event is very rare in Canada and the police said that the storm was like nothing we have ever seen. 

The military has been deployed to Nova Scotia, which helps with the clean-up operation. A total of five provinces are experiencing torrential rain and winds of up to 160km\h. With the widespread flooding and hundreds of thousands of people left without power. Prime Minister Trudeau says that the military will be deployed to Nova Scotia. He said that “if there is anything the federal government can do to help, we will be there.”

He also added that he will no longer travel to Japan to attend the funeral of former PM Shinzo Abe to deal with the storm’s aftermath. Tropical storm warnings have been issued for the Atlantic provinces of Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and parts of Quebec. 

The population of 4,067 on the southwest tip of Newfoundland, the intense flooding saw some homes and office buildings washed out to sea, a local journalist told all this. The whole area is in an emergency state. 

FAQ

• At which place is one woman missing after being washed out in the sea?

Ans. Newfoundland 

• When was Fiona the hurricane?

Ans. Friday 

• What is the speed of the rain and winds experienced by the five provinces?

Ans. 160km\h

A judge has ruled that a near-total ban on abortion dating from 1864 must be enforced in Arizona. The judge lifted an injunction and barred enforcement of a law that allows abortion to save the life of the mother. This US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and determined there was a constitutional right to abortion. 

US states have been deciding if or when to allow the procedure. The law predates the state’s funding and includes a two to five-year prison sentence for anyone who helps someone with an abortion. At first, it was blocked in 1973, but after the supreme court’s historic Roe v Wade ruling, and Judge Kellie Johnson of Pima County Superior Court lifted the injunction on Friday. 

The President of Planned Parenthood Arizona, Brittany Forteno, said that she could not overstate how cruel the decision was. No archaic law should dictate our reproductive freedom, a lady added. And Roe v. Wade was overturned in June and did not automatically make abortion illegal. But it gave individual states the power to impose their own bans. 

Complicating the situation, Arizona, the Republic-led state, passed legislation banning abortion 15 weeks earlier this year. It could be brought into effect that Roe v Wade was overturned. Now it is unclear whether the 15-week ban or the near-total ban will take precedence. 

FAQ

• After how many weeks, abortion be banned?

Ans. 15 weeks

• Who is the president of Planned Parenthood Arizona?

Ans. Brittany Fonteno 

• When was the Supreme Court’s historic Roe v. Wade ruling?

Ans. 1973

As a spin-off of space technology, the Indian Space Research Organisation said on Friday that it has developed very smart and intelligent artificial limbs. They will be commercialized very soon and are expected to be cheaper by about 10 times. They will also benefit above-knee amputees by walking with a very comfortable gait, ISRO said. 

These microprocessor knees offer more extended capabilities for the amputee than the rest offered by the passive limbs, which do not use microprocessors. Thus, for about 1.6 kg, MPK enabled an amputee to walk about 100 meters in the corridor for minimum support. Efforts to improvise the performance are already underway. 

Let us tell you that these smart MPKs are developed by the ISRO Vikram Sarabhai Centre (VSSC) and under an MOU with NILD, Pt. Deendayal Upadhyaya National Institute for Personals with Physical Disabilities and Artificial Limb Manufacturing Corporation of India. 

The MPK consists of a microprocessor, hydraulic damper, load and knee angle sensors, composite knee-case, Li-ion battery, electrical harness, and a lot more. This microprocessor detects the state of gait based on the sensor data and controls the software to estimate the real-time damping needed to attain the desired gait. All this is achieved by changing the stiffness of the system as achieved by a hydraulic damper operated by a DC motor. 

Walking parameters specific to amputees can be set using PC-based software to improve one’s comfort, and the interface plots the parameters in real-time during walking. 

FAQ

• What is the new invention of the ISRO?

Ans. Microprocessor-controlled smart limbs

• What is the other name of the smart microprocessor-controlled smart limbs?

Ans. MPKs

• What is the weight of the MPKs?

Ans. 1.6 kg

On Thursday, Japan announced that it would lift tough COVID restrictions on foreign tourists and reopen its borders after two and a half years. Speaking at the New York Stock Exchange, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said that the pandemic had interrupted the free flow of people, capital, and goods that helped the nation to flourish. 

From October 11 to 11, Japan will relax border control measures to be on par with the US and will resume visa-free travel and individual travel. These are the words of Kishida as he is in the city for the United Nations General Assembly. Japan, like China, has been a holdout in continuing tough restrictions on visitors. But Japan and China never imposed a strict lockdown during the crisis. 

Visitors who come to Japan will enjoy a week yet it has plummeted so low against the dollar that the finance ministry intervened in the currency market. For the first time since 1998, all of this happened on Thursday. The return visa-waiver program was suspended in March 2020 to restore the ease of access that saw a record of 31.9 million foreign visitors to the country in 2019. Since June, Japan has allowed tourists to visit in groups accompanied by guides, a requirement that was further relaxed to include self-guided package tours as well.

FAQ

• When was the return of the visa-waiver program suspended?

Ans. March 2020

• When did the currency market intervene?

Ans. Thursday since 1998

• When will Japan relax border control measures?

Ans. October 11