# Operation Kaveri

• The government on Monday launched “Operation Kaveri” to evacuate close to 3000 Indian citizens stranded in Sudan.
• Foreign minister S. Jaishankar said about 500 Indians had reached Port Sudan and that the government is working to bring them home in Ships and aircrafts.
• India had on Sunday stationed two super Hercules C-190J aircraft in Jeddah, across the red Sea in Saudi Arabia.
• According to diplomatic sources, five Indian nationals were among the 388 people who were evacuated by France in a military aircraft earlier on Monday.

# Global military spend

• India has been overtaken by Russia in the last one year, but it is still the world’s fourth largest military spender.
• China continued to spend almost four times and the US more than 10 Times the defense budget of India.
• The global defense spending grew for the eighth consecutive year to reach an all time high in 2022.
• The total global military expenditure rose 3.7% in real terms to reach $2240 billion in 2022.
• The top four military spenders are the US ($877 billion), China ($292 billion), Russia ($86.4 billion) and India ($81.4 billion).

# Covid patent

• India has emerged as one of the top 10 patent filers globally in three different categories – Therapeutics, vaccines as well as traditional medicines related to Covid.
• India ranked fourth among therapeutic patent filers, with 195 applications, according to data culled from the Covid ‘Patent landscape’ report by the World intellectual property organization (WIPO).
• Under traditional medicines – those made from herbs, animals or natural resources – India stood second with 59 filers, following China’s 341 applications.

# UK

• The UK charity raising funds to build Britain’s first dedicated Jagannath temple has received a pledge of £25 million towards temple construction from an Odia entrepreneur.
• This is one of the largest philanthropic donations given to a temple outside India.