Table of Contents:
A. GS1 Related:
B. GS2 Related:
1. India runs out of life-saving HIV drug for children
2. Attacks on Indians put MEA under pressure
3. ‘Widow has right to property’
C. GS3 Related:
1. Small businesses lobby for rules to increase liquidity
2. A.P. govt. wants INS Viraat turned into luxury hotel
3. Centre launches survey on Gangetic dolphins
4. Endangered barn owl rescued
5. Dry Kolleru turns birds away
D. GS4 Related:
E. Important Editorials : A Quick Glance
1. Curtain Raiser Press Conference on ‘Destination North East-2017’
F. Concepts-in-News: Related Concepts to Revise/Learn
G. BILLS/ACTS/SCHEMES/ORGS IN NEWS
H. Fun with Practice Questions 🙂
I. Archives
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Useful News Articles for UPSC Current Affairs
A. GS1 Related
Nothing here for today!!!
B. GS2 Related
1. India runs out of life-saving HIV drug for children
2. Attacks on Indians put MEA under pressure
3. ‘Widow has right to property’
Category: Social Issues
Topic: Health – Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services
Key Points:
- Desperate over withdrawal of a life saving drug, children living with HIV (CLHIV) have written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for help.
- Cipla, sole manufacturer of Lopinavir syrup, stopped production of the drug after govt. failed to clear dues
- The pharmaceutical company Cipla has in various forums cited delay in payments by the national programme for the HIV medicines by several years and even non-payment of its dues in many cases.
Concerns
- Profits on child doses of HIV medicines are small and delayed payments are having a chilling effect on the ability of the National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) to convince the company to participate in the bids it invited annually.
- Stocks of Lopinavir syrup — a child friendly HIV drug — ran out after Cipla, the sole manufacturer of the drug, stopped manufacturing
- An emergency tender has been placed and the State AIDS Control Societies (SACS) and State Governments are instructed to purchase from local markets
- However, since the syrup has gone out of production, they are not available in retail markets
- Cipla meanwhile has asked for guarantees of payment from HIV patients and said that it will not move from its stand until either Global Fund or the Indian government settles the bills.
2. Attacks on Indians put MEA under pressure
Category: International Relations
Topic: Indian diaspora
Key Points:
- Hate crimes are allegedly on the rise because of the anti-immigration rhetoric of the Trump administration.
- The shooting of a Sikh U.S. citizen in Washington, was the third attack on a person of Indian origin in the past two weeks
- there is a suspicion of this being a hate crime, similar to the killing of an Indian engineer in a bar in Kansas in February
Way forward
- There is a need to prevent such incidents and protect Indian community.
- The problem is of intolerance and hate is not something that can be easily fixed
3. ‘Widow has right to property’
Category: Indian Polity
Topic: Indian Constitution – Fundamental Rights
Key Points:
- A Delhi court has held that a widow has the right to enjoy the property bought by her husband in her name in the manner she wants, and her daughter and son-in-law cannot lay claim to it.
- The court ruled in favoure of a 65-year-old woman who challenged the refusal of her daughter and son-in-law to vacate a portion of the house.
C. GS3 Related
1. Small businesses lobby for rules to increase liquidity
2. A.P. govt. wants INS Viraat turned into luxury hotel
3. Centre launches survey on Gangetic dolphins
4. Endangered barn owl rescued
5. Dry Kolleru turns birds away
Category: Indian Economy
Topic: Mobilization of resources
Key Points:
- SEBI had framed the guidelines for the SME segment intentionally keeping the minimum trading lot at 1 lakh to keep out retail investors since the view was that SMEs carry higher risk compared to companies on the main board.
- Market participants are now looking at ways to increase the liquidity to attract more institutional and retail investors in the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) segment.
- One of the main issues being proposed is lowering the tr Themes adding lot size post listing, which is currently pegged at 1 lakh.
- Investors would find it more convenient to deal in SME stocks in small lots which will also reduce pressure on market makers
Minimum lot size refers to the minimum amount that an investor has to put in to trade in the shares of a company.
2. A.P. govt. wants INS Viraat turned into luxury hotel
Category: Internal Security
Topic: Defense – Various Security forces and agencies and their mandate
Key Points:
- The Defence Ministry is yet to take a decision on the proposal from the Government of Andhra Pradesh (A.P.) to convert it into an entertainment hub in Visakhapatnam through a joint venture with the Government of India.
- The intention is to take forward the legacy of INS Viraat by making it a world-class project on the lines of other global projects like USS Alabama, USS Constellation, and HMS Belfast.
- INS Viraat is the world’s oldest aircraft carrier in service..
3. Centre launches survey on Gangetic dolphins
Category: Environment and Ecology
Topic: Conservation
Key Points:
- The Centre has launched the first ever across-the-river survey in the Ganga to determine the population of aquatic life
- The first leg of the census was launched on March 1 from Narora in Uttar Pradesh to Bijnor (covering distance of nearly 165 km) to establish the number of the national aquatic animal.
- The authority is conducting the survey through Wildlife Institute of India (WII),, under the Namami Gange programme
- Apart from number of dolphins, number of ghariyals and turtles in the river will also be ascertained after summer sets in fully.
- All the surveys carried out in Ganga previously were conducted in bits and pieces or were rapid. This is for the first time a comprehensive and scientific study is being conducted.
4. Endangered barn owl rescued
Category: Environment and Ecology
Topic: Conservation
Key Points:
- The Bhitarkanika National Park officials have rescued an endangered barn owl, a scheduled animal under the Wildlife Act, from a place of worship at a village in Odisha’s Kendrapara district.
- The residents thought the bird was sacred and brought luck and prosperity for the village.
- The barn, owl which had whitish patches over its body, was a protected species under schedule 3 of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972.
5. Dry Kolleru turns birds away
Category: Environment and Ecology
Topic: Conservation
Key Points:
- With the onset of summer, a major portion of the Kolleru Lake has dried up.
- The lake is home for thousands of birds during the wintering season, especially spot-billed pelicans and painted storks, which arrive from different places.
- Many birds are migrating to the nearby tanks, fields in search of food.
- Many villages of fisherfolk and more than 50 other villages in the West Godavari and Krishna districts are likely to suffer as the lake has dried up.
- As Kolleru has dried up completely, there is no fishing activity , also boating is not possible
- Water is being pumped into the sanctuary from the Polaraju drain to maintain some water for the winged visitors.
D. GS4 Related
Nothing here for today!!!
E. Important Editorials: A Quick Glance
The Hindu
1. Saving the Ghats
2. Elusive reconciliation
Category: Environment and Ecology
Topic: Conservation
Key Points:
- The Western Ghats play an irreplaceable role in mediating the monsoon over the country and the forests harbour a rich biodiversity that has not even been fully studied
- New species continue to emerge each year in an area that has endemic plants and animals.
- Scientist Norman Myers wrote nearly two decades ago, only 6.8% of primary vegetation out of the original 182,500 sq km remains in the Western Ghats and Sri Lanka taken together.
- There is a need to urgently determine how much of the Western Ghats is ecologically sensitive
- The ecologically sensitive nature of the forests stretching 1,600 km along the western coast as a global biodiversity hotspot was emphasised by the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel headed by Madhav Gadgil, while for conservation purposes, the Kasturirangan Committee identified only a third of the total area.
- Both expert groups have encountered resistance from State governments and industries, although they mutually differ in their recommendations.
- The hesitation shown by the Central government in deciding upon full legal protection for Western Ghats in their totality is a major disappointment.
- These fragile mountainous forests should be protected from unsustainable exploitation in the interests of present and future generations, while presenting sustainable ways of living to the communities that inhabit these landscapes.
- The issue is being framed as one of development-versus-conservation.
- The weak effort at forging a consensus between the centre and states
Way forward
- Speedy resolution on how much of the Western Ghats can be demarcated as ecologically sensitive.
- A framework should be evolved under which scientific evidence and public concerns are debated democratically and the baseline for ESAs arrived at through wider and more open consultation with people at all levels, imbuing the process with scientific insights.
- Concerns like are other areas free to be exploited for industrial activity, including mining and deforestation should be addressed.
- Several options to spare sensitive areas such as community-led ecological tourism and agro-ecological farming should be explored.
2. Elusive reconciliation
Category: International Relations
Topic: India and its neighbourhood relations
Key Points:
- United Nations report released last week on the progress of reconciliation efforts by the Sri Lankan government.
- The government has made some slow progress in addressing the issue of reconciliation.
- Compared to the previous regime of Mahinda Rajapaksa, the Sirisena administration has reached out to Tamils and initiated constitutional and legal reforms.
- Reconciliation efforts undertaken inlcude-passing enabling legislation to establish an Office of Missing Persons.
Concerns
- Delay in addressing allegations of war crimes and in meeting other promises.
- The report warns the government that the lack of accountability threatens the momentum towards lasting peace.
- It also alleges that cases of excessive use of force, torture and arbitrary arrests still continue in Sri Lanka.
- On key issues such as establishing a hybrid judicial mechanism with domestic and foreign judges and returning the military-occupied lands to Tamil civilians in the north and east, there has been no tangible progress.
- The government may be wary of taking quick decisions for fear of giving some leeway to Sinhala nationalist factions
Way forward
- Colombo must do much more to address the concerns of the Tamil minority.
- The government should start addressing the core issues, keeping reconciliation and the future of Sri Lanka in mind.
PIB
1. Curtain Raiser Press Conference on ‘Destination North East-2017’
Category: Indian Economy
Topic: Development and employment
Key Points:
- Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER) chaired the curtain raiser press conference on ‘Destination North East 2017’.
- The objective of Destination North East, 2017 is to showcase North East as a potential destination for investment and highlight the rich cultural heritage, traditions and customs of the region.
- The main theme of this year’s festival is to highlight the use of appropriate technologies in all sectors of development for NER.
- The ‘3 H’ Mission, that is Horticulture, Handicraft and Handlooms, are the focus of Destination North East 2017.
F. Concepts-in-News: Related Concepts to Revise/Learn
- Srilankan 13th amendement
- Medium and small scale industries
- Biodiversity hotspots
G. BILLS/ACTS/SCHEMES/ORGS IN NEWS
| BILLS/ACTS/SCHEMES/ORGANISATIONS IN NEWS | Links to Refer |
| Wildlife Protection Act,1972 | http://envfor.nic.in/legis/wildlife/wildlife1.html |
H. Fun with Practice Questions 🙂
Question 1: The Palk Strait is located between _________.
- Srilanka and Maldives
- India and Srilanka
- Malaysia and Singapore
- None of the above
Question 2:Which of the following statements are true with respect to
Wildlife Protection Act,1972?
1] Schedule I and part II of Schedule II provide absolute protection .
2] Schedule Vl includes the animals which may be hunted.
- 1 Only
- 2 Only
- Both 1 and 2
- None of the above
Question 3: Which of the following industries are reserved for MSME
sector?
1] Fire works
2] Agarbatties
3] Glass bangles
Which of the above statements is/are correct?
- 1 Only
- 2 Only
- All of the above
- None of the above
Question 4: Which of the following animals is our national aquatic animal?
- Gangetic Gharial
- Gangetic Dolphin
- Olive Ridley Turtle
- Dugong
Question 5: The term 'biodiversity hotspot' was coined by ________.
- Dr.Salim Ali
- Norman Myers
- Norman Barlaug
- None of the above
Check Your Answers
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