28 Mar 2021: UPSC Exam Comprehensive News Analysis

CNA 28th March 2021:- Download PDF Here

TABLE OF CONTENTS

A. GS 1 Related
POST-INDEPENDENCE INDIA
1. Amid Bangladesh liberation anniversary, role of India, U.S. in 1971 in spotlight
GEOGRAPHY
1. Linking the East with the West
B. GS 2 Related
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
1. China, Iran sign a 25-year ‘strategic pact’
HEALTH
1. Will intranasal vaccine give sterilising immunity?
C. GS 3 Related
D. GS 4 Related
E. Editorials
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
1. The Afghan endgame
SOCIAL ISSUES
1. Permanent commission for women in Army
F. Prelims Facts
1. Kerry to visit India in April ahead of Biden’s climate meet
2. New species of red algae seen in west, south east Indian coast
3. Currents on Enceladus
4. Bearers of tradition
5. For a brighter future
6. Amphan impact looms over remote Ghoramara
G. Tidbits
1. India sends 2 lakh doses of vaccine to UNPKF
2. Divestment goal achievable; LIC IPO to fetch ₹1 lakh cr.: CEA
3. Better judicial infra needed: Justice Ramana
H. UPSC Prelims Practice Questions
I. UPSC Mains Practice Questions

Category: GEOGRAPHY

1. Linking the East with the West

Context:

• The grounding of a container ship in the Suez Canal has blocked off traffic along the critical shipping lane.
  • The 193-km-long Suez Canal across Egypt’s Isthmus of Suez connects the Mediterranean Sea in the north and the Red Sea in south.
  • The man-made channel has been a critical artery for global trade since 1869

Background:

Construction of Suez Canal:

• In the mid-19th century, French diplomat and engineer Ferdinand de Lesseps won permission from Egypt’s Ottoman-appointed ruler to start building the canal.
• In 1858, Universal Suez Ship Canal Company was formed to execute the project and construction work began a year later. Britain, which controlled the route around the African continent, continued to oppose the project as a new waterway would hurt its interests. But in 1869, the canal was officially opened for traffic.
• The Egyptian government, straddled with financial problems, sold its stake in the canal to London in 1875. Since then, France and Britain operated the canal, until Egypt’s socialist President Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalised the Suez canal in 1956.

Suez crisis:

• Three months after Nasser nationalised the canal, Israeli troops attacked the Egyptian Sinai. French and British troops joined in later. The plan was to retake control of the canal and remove Nasser. By March 1957, the invading troops were fully withdrawn and Egypt’s authority over the canal was recognised. The Suez crisis marked Great Britain’s dwindling influence in West Asia, a region it controlled since the fall of the Ottoman Empire, and the arrival of the U.S. as the new great power in the region.
• The canal was closed again during the 1967 war. It would be reopened only in 1975 after Egyptian-Israeli relations started warming following the 1973 Yom Kippur War.

Details:

• About 19,000 ships passed through the Suez Canal in 2020 carrying 1.2 billion tonnes of cargo. As much as 13% of all maritime trade, from oil to automobiles, pass through the canal every year.
• A delay in reopening the channel will have a huge impact on export businesses, commodities, ship and cargo companies and even Egypt’s national economy.

Category: HEALTH

1. Will intranasal vaccine give sterilising immunity?

For information on this topic refer to the following article

UPSC Comprehensive News Analysis of 24th Jan

Category: SOCIAL ISSUES

1. Permanent commission for women in Army

This issue has been covered previously in the following articles:

UPSC Comprehensive News Analysis of 18th Feb 2021

UPSC Comprehensive News Analysis of 06th Mar 2021

2. New species of red algae seen in west, south east Indian coast

• Two new species of seaweed named Hypnea indica and Hypnea bullata have been discovered by a group of marine biologists.
• While Hypnea indica was discovered Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu, and Somnath Pathan and Sivrajpur in Gujarat, Hypnea bullata was discovered from Kanyakumari and Diu island of Daman and Diu.
• The seaweeds are part of the genus Hypnea or red seaweeds. The genus Hypnea consists of calcareous, erect, branched red seaweeds.
• They grow in the intertidal regions of the coast, namely the area that is submerged during the high tide and exposed during low tides.
• Species of Hypnea contain the biomolecule carrageenan, which is widely used in the food industry.
• Several recent studies have shown that algae with calcareous mineral deposits are prone for the damage from ocean acidification – an aftermath of climate change. As carbon dioxide in the atmosphere gets dissolved in ocean waters, the seawater becomes more acidic. Algae like Hypnea cannot survive in acidic seawater.
• The study also reports one other species of Hypnea for the first time in Indian coasts, Hypnea nidifica.

3. Currents on Enceladus

• Enceladus is one of Saturn’s moon.
• Cassini spacecraft has previously sampled water from Enceladus’s Polar Regions.
  • The Cassini–Huygens space-research mission, commonly called Cassini, involved a collaboration between NASA, the European Space Agency, and the Italian Space Agency to send a space probe to study the planet Saturn and its system, including its rings and natural satellites.

4. Bearers of tradition

• Bhagoriya festival is celebrated by the tribal people of the Indian states Madhya Pradesh & Maharashtra. The Bhangoriya Festival is celebrated by the local tribes includes Bhil, Bhilala, Pateliya etc.
• Bhagoriya Festival has an agricultural significance attached to it, it coincides with the end of harvesting of crops. People celebrate it to mark the completion of harvesting.

5. For a brighter future

• The annual tradition of shutting down electric lights for one hour was started by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and it is now known as ‘Earth Hour’.
• This year Earth Hour was held on March 27, 2021.
• The aim was to encourage individuals, communities, and businesses to turn off all non-essential lights for an entire hour. The goal of this activity is to spread awareness about sustainability and climate change.

6. Amphan impact looms over remote Ghoramara

• Ghoramara island bore the brunt of the Amphan Cyclone.
• The island is located where the Hooghly river meets the Bay of Bengal. Ghoramara island lies near Sagar Island, which has a population of two lakh people and is the biggest island of the Sunderban archipelago. Sagar also hosts the annual Gangasagar pilgrimage.

2. Divestment goal achievable; LIC IPO to fetch ₹1 lakh cr.: CEA

• Chief Economic Adviser (CEA) K. V. Subramanian has asserted that the disinvestment target of ₹1.75 lakh crore for 2021-22 as being achievable given that the proposed initial public offering (IPO) by LIC itself could garner ₹1 lakh crore for the government.
• With regard to LIC’s IPO, the Centre has already had amendments in the LIC Act passed through Finance Bill 2021 in Parliament.

3. Better judicial infra needed: Justice Ramana

• Supreme Court judge, Justice N.V. Ramana, has called for the need to establish a National Judicial Infrastructure Corporation to drastically improve judicial infrastructure across the country.
• The proposed corporation could bring the much-needed “uniformity and standardisation” which could “revolutionise” judicial infrastructure. An efficient “judicial infrastructure” would help ensure free access to justice for the ordinary citizens.

Q1. The World Sustainable Development Summit is organised by which of the following?

Q2. Which of the following statement/s is/are correct with respect to the newly discovered 
Hypnea indica and Hypnea bullata species?

Q3. The Bhagoriya festival is associated with which of the following states?

Q4. Enceladus is a natural satellite of which of the following planets?

Read the previous CNA here.

CNA 28th March 2021:- Download PDF Here