News in Short

• Crisis-ridden Sri Lanka said it was defaulting on its external debt of around $51 billion pending a bailout from the IMF.
• An estimated $8.6 billion in debt payments fall due this year and rapidly falling reserves raise questions about Sri Lanka’s ability to pay even a part of this sum.
• Sri Lanka had about $2.3 billion of foreign reserves in February. The country also faces a test of global investor confidence later this month.

• The defence minister and external affairs minister of India and United States held the 2+2 meeting in Washington DC.
• The discussion ranged from variety of issues including Covid-19 response, Russia’s war in Ukraine and also Indo-Russia trade.
• U.S. and India discussed ways of mitigating the negative impact of the Ukraine situation on food  and energy supplies.

• A new study by researchers at the Bengaluru-based Indian Institute of Science (IISc) has found microplastics in fish, causing growth defects.
• Using a technique called Raman spectroscopy, the team detected microplastics, which are minute pieces of plastic often invisible to the naked eye.
• Microplastics are found in several household and industrial products, and chemicals containing the cyclohexyl group, such as cyclohexyl isocyanate, are commonly used in agriculture and the pharmaceutical industry.

• French President Emmanuel Macron and far-right nationalist Marine Le Pen are heading for another winner-takes-all runoff in the country’s Presidential election.
• Macron won by a landslide five years ago but he is bracing for a far tougher runoff battle on April 24 against his political opposition.
• The projections showed both Mr. Macron and Ms. Le Pen on course to improve their 2017 first-round showings, highlighting how French politics have become increasingly polarised.

• The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) designated Mohiuddin Aurangzeb Alamgir, a key conspirator of the 2019 terror attack on a CRPF convoy at Pulwama, as a ‘terrorist’ under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).
• Alamgir alias Mujahid Bhai is a senior member of banned terror outfit JeM and is a resident of Bahawalpur in Pakistan.
• It is said thatAlamgir looks after JeM’s fund collection activities from Pakistani nationals and routes the said fund to Kashmir in India.
• Alamgir has been involved in facilitating infiltration of Afghan cadres and coordinating terror attacks on Indian security forces in Jammu and Kashmir.