FOOTPRINTS

What happens when Russia – the second most powerful country on Earth, goes on war with its neighboring country, Ukraine? Let’s find out by comparing the military strength of both these countries. Ukraine , a country with a population of 41.48 million and a power index rank of 22 , versus Russia , a country with a population of 146.17 million and number 2 on the power index rank. Ukraine has active personnel of 2,55,000 , and a reserve personnel of 2,50,000 , whereas, Russia has active personnel of 1 million , and reserve personnel of 2 million . Both the country’s military expenditure also varies by large numbers. Ukraine spends $5.4 Billion (i.e., 3% of its total GDP). Russia spends around $61.7 billion (i.e., 4.3% of its GDP). Moving on to military equipment, Ukraine has around 2,105 tanks , in which 1,300 are T64. Russia having 12,270 tanks , ranks number 1 in the world, with almost half of them are T72, T72A and T72B type tanks. In terms of armored fighting vehicles, Ukraine h...

  Dr. Michiaki Takahashi, Japanese virologist who developed the first vaccine against chickenpox. Takahashi’s vaccine has since been administered to millions of children around the world, as an effective measure, to prevent severe cases of the contagious viral disease, and its transmission.     Michiaki Takahashi, was born on 17 February, 1928, in Osaka, Japan. He earned his medical degree, from Osaka University,  and joined the Research Institute for Microbial Disease, Osaka University, in 1959.  After studying measles and polio viruses, Dr. Takahashi, accepted a research fellowship in 1963, at Baylor College in the United States. It was during this time, that his son developed a serious bout of chickenpox, leading him to turn his expertise, toward combating the highly transmissible illness.  Dr. Takahashi returned to Japan in 1965, and began culturing live, but weakened chickenpox viruses, in animal and human tissue. After just five short years of d...

An oil production ship, capable of storing 2 million barrels of oil, exploded off the coast of Nigeria. A Floating Production, Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessel, called the Trinity Spirit , exploded at the Ukpokiti oil field, off Nigeria’s coast.  This was confirmed by the owner of SEPCOL, that a fire engulfed the FPSO Trinity Spirit during the early hours of 2nd of February 2022. There were 10 crew members onboard the vessel prior to the incident. “The cause of the incident is currently being investigated” said SEPCOL.