DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS 14 MARCH 2021

1. BURKHA BAN

Sri Lanka will soon ban the burkha or face veil, a Cabinet Minister said, as he announced the Rajapaksa administration’s latest policy decision impacting the minority Muslim community.

About:

The authorities would henceforth use the Prevention of Terrorism (PTA) law — that human rights defenders have termed “draconian” — to deal with religious extremism, with wide-ranging powers to detain suspects for up to two years, to “deradicalize” them.
According to the minister, the burkha affects their national security as it is a symbol of their religious extremism. This dress came into Sri Lanka only recently.
While the Minister had signed documents outlawing the burkha, the move awaits Cabinet approval. Over 1,000 madrasas would be shut.
Following the Islamic State-inspired Easter terror bombings in Sri Lanka in April 2019, attributed to a local Islamist radical network, the government temporarily banned the face veil using emergency laws.

Important Info :

Burial rights

The announcement on the burkha ban comes after a year-long controversy over the government’s policy of mandatory cremation of COVID-19 victims, based on unsubstantiated claims that the bodies would contaminate ground water.
The government reversed its decision recently, amid persistent calls for burial rights from Muslims, who make up about 10% of the 21-million population, as well as international bodies including the U.N.

Source : The Hindu

2. BAMBOOSA BAMBOS

The “gregarious flowering of bamboo” inside the Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary (WWS) may pose a threat to wildlife in the Nilgiri biosphere, a major tiger and elephant habitat.

About:

Bamboosa bambos is a monocarpic (flowering only once) plant belonging to the Poaceae family (grass family), and its flowering cycle varies from 40 to 60 years.
Bamboosa bambos is also known as the giant thorny bamboo, Indian thorny bamboo, spiny bamboo, or thorny bamboo.
It is a species of clumping bamboo native to southern Asia.
It is a tall, bright-green coloured spiny bamboo species, which grows in thickets consisting of a large number of heavily branched, closely growing culms.

Recent development

The bamboo groves in the Wayanad forest are the mainstay of herbivores in the Nilgiri biosphere during summer.
With the advent of the season, migration of wild animals starts from the adjacent sanctuaries in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu to Wayanad due to shortage of fodder and water.
The gregarious flowering may adversely affect migration, especially by elephants, wild gaur, and other lower herbivores owing to the mass destruction of bamboo groves after the flowering.

Important Info :

The Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary is an animal sanctuary in Wayanad, Kerala, India.

Source : The Hindu

3. PLACES OF WORSHIP (SPECIAL PROVISION) ACT, 1991

The CPI(M) Polit Bureau called the Supreme Court notice to the government seeking a response on the PIL petition filed by advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay challenging the Places of Worship (Special Provision) Act, 1991, “unfortunate”.

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The Act mandates that the character of all religious places of worship should be maintained as it was on August 15, 1947, and no suit or proceedings shall lie in a court of law with respect to the character of places of worship.
This effectively barred courts from entertaining cases which raise disputes over places of worship that existed as of August 15, 1947.
While invoking this exemption, the Supreme Court in the 2019 Ayodhya verdict reaffirmed that similar such cases cannot be entertained with respect to other sites in view of this Act.

Source : The Hindu

4. HONG KONG

The National People’s Congress (NPC) of China, the ceremonial legislature in Beijing, on March 11 approved what it called “a decision on improving Hong Kong’s electoral system”.

How does the new NPC amendment change Hong Kong’s political system?

This paves the way for sweeping changes in how Hong Kong, the Special Administrative Region (SAR) that has been ruled under the “one country, two systems” model since its return to China in 1997, chooses its leaders.
The NPC amendment essentially gives Beijing-appointed politicians greater power in running the HKSAR’s politics.
Now, the size of the Legislative Council will be expanded to 90, with the additional 20 members joining the 35 others who are nominated, thus reducing the share of directly elected representatives.
The amendment also bestows greater power on a newly expanded Election Committee of 1,500 nominated members, up from 1,200 previously.
The most controversial change is the setting up of a new “candidate qualification review committee”, which “shall be responsible for reviewing and confirming” the qualifications of candidates for Election Committee members, the Chief Executive, and Legislative Council members.

Source : The Hindu

5. MARTIAN BLUEBERRIES

According to a recent research paper, Martian ‘blueberries’ find a parallel on Earth.

About:

In 2004, NASA’s Mars exploration rover ‘Opportunity’ found several small spheres on the planet, informally named Martian blueberries.
Opportunity’s spectrometers studied the mineralogy and noted they were made of iron oxide compounds called haematites.
This caused excitement, as the presence of haematites suggests that there was water present on Mars. Haematite is known to form in oxidising environments.

Important Info :

Recent development

A recent paper by a scientist from the Planetary Sciences Division of Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad which studied haematite concretions in Kutch notes that the ‘blueberries’ in India and Mars share similar characteristics.
The team has been studying the Jhuran formation in Gujarat which is between 145 and 201 million years old. Detailed investigations of the haematite concretions in this area revealed that they resemble the ones on Mars.

Source : The Hindu

6. WATER QUALITY TESTING FRAMEWORK

Citizens can now get the water quality in their taps tested at reasonable rates, as part of a monitoring framework rolled out by the Centre’s flagship Jal Jeevan Mission.

About:

The “drinking water quality testing, monitoring and surveillance framework and guidelines” released mandate a network of National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL) accredited labs to be set up in every State, district and block over the next year.
At the panchayat level, teams of women in the village water and sanitation committees will be given field testing kits.
State governments can include private players as part of the network, but the Centre has capped tariffs to ensure that they remain within the reach of the common man.
A package for all the 16 water quality parameters would cost ₹600. Turnaround time for chemical tests should not be more than 24 hours, while testing for the biological contaminants will produce results within 48 hours.
All results of testing will be fed into the Water Quality Information Management System (WQMIS), a portal developed with the support of the Indian Council of Medical Research.

Source : The Hindu

7. ZO PEOPLE

A Mizoram-based group representing the Zo indigenous people of India, Bangladesh and Myanmar has petitioned President Ram Nath Kovind and Prime Minister Narendra Modi to impose sanctions on military-ruled Myanmar.

About:

The Zo Reunification Organisation (ZORO) comprising the Chin-Kuki-Mizo-Zomi group of people has also asked the Centre not to turn away the Myanmar nationals who crossed over to escape the military regime and provide them shelter on humanitarian grounds.
These four States – Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur and Mizoram – share a 1,643 km border with Myanmar and people on either side are ethnically related.
The Mizo people of Mizoram and the Kuki-Zomi communities in Manipur have a strong kinship with the Chins across the border.

Important Info :

The Zo people are an ethnic group of India, Bangladesh and Myanmar.
Various names have been used for the Zo peoples, but the individual groups generally acknowledge descent from ancestral Zo. Among the more prominent names given to this group are "Chin" and "Zomi “generally in Myanmar, and "Mizo" ,"Zomi “and "Kuki", generally in India.
In north-eastern India, they are present in: Nagaland, Mizoram, Manipur and Assam.

Source : The Hindu

8. AT1 BONDS

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has slapped restrictions on mutual fund (MF) investments in additional tier-1 (AT1) bonds.

What are AT1 bonds?

AT1 Bonds stand for additional tier-1 bonds.
These are unsecured bonds which have perpetual tenure. In other words, the bonds have no maturity date.
They have call option, which can be used by the banks to buy these bonds back from investors.
These bonds are typically used by banks to bolster their core or tier-1 capital.
AT1 bonds are subordinate to all other debt and only senior to common equity.
Mutual funds (MFs) are among the largest investors in perpetual debt instruments, and hold over Rs 35,000 crore of the outstanding additional tier-I bond issuances of Rs 90,000 crore.

What action has been taken by the Sebi recently?

In a recent circular, the Sebi told mutual funds to value these perpetual bonds as a 100-year instrument. This essentially means MFs have to make the assumption that these bonds would be redeemed in 100 years.
The regulator also asked MFs to limit the ownership of the bonds at 10 per cent of the assets of a scheme.

Important Info :

Reason for SEBI action

According to the Sebi, these instruments could be riskier than other debt instruments.
The Sebi has probably made this decision after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) allowed a write-off of Rs 8,400 crore on AT1 bonds issued by Yes Bank Ltd after it was rescued by State Bank of India (SBI).

Source : Indian Express

9. SEABUCKTHORN

The Himachal Pradesh government has decided to start planting seabuckthorn in the cold desert areas of the state this year.

About:

Seabuckthorn is a shrub which produces an orange-yellow coloured edible berry.
In India, it is found above the tree line in the Himalayan region, generally in dry areas such as the cold deserts of Ladakh and Spiti.
In Himachal Pradesh, it is locally called chharma and grows in the wild in Lahaul and Spiti and parts of Kinnaur. Around 15,000 hectares in Himachal, Ladakh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh are covered by this plant.

Important Info :

Ecological, medicinal and economic benefits

Seabuckthorn has been widely used for treating stomach, heart and skin problems. Its fruit and leaves are rich in vitamins, carotenoids and omega fatty acids, among other substances, and it can help troops in acclimatising to high-altitude.
Besides being an important source of fuelwood and fodder, seabuckthorn is a soil-binding plant which prevents soil-erosion, checks siltation in rivers and helps preserve floral biodiversity.
Seabuckthorn also has commercial value, as it is used in making juices, jams, nutritional capsules etc.

Source : Indian Express

10. GLOBAL CENTRE FOR TRADITIONAL MEDICINE

The World Health Organisation announced that it will set up a Global Centre for Traditional Medicine in India.

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This new centre will support WHO's efforts to implement the WHO traditional medicine strategy 2014-2023 which aims to support countries in developing policies and action plans to strengthen the role of traditional medicine as part of their journey to universal health coverage.

Source : All India Radio

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DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS 14 MARCH 2021

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