News in Short

• India’s largest bank State Bank of India (SBI) reduced its Marginal Cost of funds based Lending Rate (MCLR) by 15 basis points (bps) across all tenors.
• With this move, the benchmark lending rate will come down to 7.25 per cent per annum from 7.40 per cent per annum with effect from May 10. This is the twelfth consecutive reduction in the MCLR, the public sector banking behemoth said in a statement.
• The move will benefit those customers of SBI who have their loans linked to its MCLR – which changes each time the bank makes changes in its benchmark rate.

• Veda Nilayam’ in Poes Garden, which served as the residence of former Chief Minister Jayalalithaa for over 40 years, may become State government property in a few months.
• Invoking Section 19 (1) of the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, the Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act of 2013 and Rule 16 of government rules, Chennai Collector issued a declaration that the acquisition of the property is needed for a “public purpose”.
• If Veda Nilayam is converted into a memorial, it will be the second memorial in Chennai for a former Chief Minister, the other being the Kamaraj memorial house on Tirumalai Pillai Road in T. Nagar.

• Engineers have built and successfully tested what is known as a rotating detonation engine, which generates thrust via a self-sustaining wave of detonations that travel around a circular channel.
• As this engine requires far less fuel than the combustion engines currently used to power rockets, it could eventually mean a more efficient and much lighter means of getting our ships into space.
• The idea of the rotating detonation engine goes back to the 1950s. It consists of a ring-shaped - annular - thrust chamber created by two cylinders of different diameters stacked inside one another, creating a gap in between.

• India will launch the Vande Bharat Mission, with Air India flights ferrying out passengers stranded in India. On the return journey, these flights will bring back Indians, stuck overseas.
• The Mission is claimed to be the biggest repatriation exercise ever. Air India subsidiary, Air India Express, will also operate flights, mainly to the Middle-East.
• The first Air India  flight will take off from Delhi at 11.15 pm, on May 7, to Singapore. The next day, on May 8, flights will leave for Dhaka, London, Riyadh and San Francisco. These will be operated from Mumbai and Delhi.

• A major toxic gas leak at a chemical plant in Visakhapatnam in the early hours of Thursday killed at least eight people and caused illness to hundreds in about 20 villages in a five kilometre range around it.
• The plant, which is owned by the South Korean company LG Corp, had recently reopened after coronavirus lockdown restrictions were eased, with the gas leak occurring during the process of re-starting operations.
• The gas has been identified as Styrene, a flammable liquid that is used to make a variety of industrial products, including polystyrene, fiberglass, rubber, and latex.