28-06-23 Daily-Haryana-HPSC Current Affairs

Indias national highway (NH) network has increased by 59% in the past nine years to touch 1. 49 lakh km and nearly one-third of the NHs are four lane or more compared to 20% in 2014, Unionroad transportand highways minister Nitin Gadkari said on Tuesday. The government also has set the target not to have a single NH that is less than two lanes by 2030.

The government said the high pace of road construction, including the NHs, in the past nine years has put India in position to have the second largest road network after the United States. The current road network of India isaround 64 lakh km, which includes NHs, state highways, municipal and rural roads, both paved and unpaved.

As per the governments Basic Road Statistics report of 2018-19, India has a road network of 63. 32 lakh km on March 31, 2019, which was the second largest in the world after the US (66. 46 lakh km). Sources said the government is working on the plan to expand the NH network to 1. 85 lakh km by 2030 and 2. 37 lakh km by 2047 and the target is to see that nearly two-third of the NH network is four lane and above for faster movement of peopleand cargo.

The government approved a bill to set up theNational Research Foundation, a new funding agency to bolster the country’s research competence, Union minister Anurag Thakur said.

He said theNational Research Foundation Billwill be brought inParliamentand the Science and Engineering Research Board Act, 2008 will be repealed.

The NRF will be governed by a governing board consisting of 15 to 25 eminent researchers and professionals. The governing board will be headed by the prime minister, he noted.

Indias future unicorns are currently worth $57 billion, according to research by Hurun Research Institute. It has identified 147 startups that could turn unicorns soon. Out of these, 30 are headquartered overseas, most of them in the US, but operate largely out of India.

The research firm said that these potential unicorns come from 25 cities and, on average, are about eight years old. Bengaluru was the leader with 53 future unicorns headquartered there. With a cumulative valuation of $19.9 billion, Bengaluru serves as the home to 12 Gazelles and 41 Cheetahs. The institute defines a Gazelle as a startup that would become a unicorn in the next three years. Cheetahs are startups that would become unicorns in the next five years. As many as 70% of the total future unicorns in the Hurun index are from Bengaluru, Mumbai and Delhi-NCR.

The report said the vast majority are selling software & services, and only 20% are selling physical products. About 37% are selling to businesses, while 63% are consumer-facing. Future unicorns were seen disrupting financial services, healthcare, business management solutions and education, Hurun said in its report.

Hurun has noted thate-commerceand fintech lead the pack, with 21 startups each, followed closely by SaaS with 20. Together, fintech, e-commerce, SaaS, healthtech, AI and consumer goods make up more than half of the featured companies in the index.

China is on course to achieve its five percent target foreconomic growthin 2023 set by Beijing earlier this year, premier Li Qiang said.

China is grappling with a slowing post-Covid recovery, with a number of lacklustre indicators in recent weeks signalling the rebound is running out of steam.

Beijing’s central bank last week cut two key interest rates in a bid to counter the slowdown in the world’s second-largest economy.

Reports this month have suggested Beijing is lining up a tranche of measures targeting multiple areas of the economy, particularly the real estate sector, which makes up a huge portion ofgross domestic product.