21 MARCH 2022 DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS | UPSC CDS CAPF AFCAT NDA SSB

1. VEDANTHANGAL BIRD SANCTUARY

The Environment Ministry’s Expert Appraisal Committee has recommended grant of environment clearance for Sun Pharmaceuticals Industries Ltd.’s expansion project in Tamil Nadu’s Madurantakam taluk, around 3.7 km from the Vedanthangal Bird Sanctuary.

About:

Vedanthangal Bird Sanctuary is a 74-acre protected area located in the Madurantakam taluk of the Chengalpattu District in the state of Tamil Nadu.
Vedanthangal is home to migratory birds such as pintail, garganey, grey wagtail, blue-winged teal, common sandpiper and the like.
Vedanthangal is the oldest water bird sanctuary in the country. Vedanthangal in Tamil language means 'hamlet of the hunter'.

Source : The Hindu

2. CYCLONE ASANI

People living in coastal areas of Andaman and Nicobar Islands were evacuated to safety as the archipelago experienced heavy rain and strong winds due to Cyclone Asani on Sunday.

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The depression over the southeast Bay of Bengal intensified first into a deep depression and later into a cyclonic storm.
Shipping services between the islands and those connecting Chennai and Visakhapatnam have been stopped and fishermen have been warned not to venture into the sea as the year’s first cyclonic storm neared the archipelago.
A total of 68 National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) personnel have been deployed in Port Blair, and 25 each in Diglipur, Rangat and Hutbay areas.
The system is expected to move towards the Bangladesh-Myanmar coasts.

Source : The Hindu

3. REGIONAL COMPREHENSIVE ECONOMIC PARTNERSHIP (RCEP)

Japan has still not given up hope that India might reconsider joining the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) from which it opted out in 2019, a senior Japanese official said.

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This indicated that India-Japan collaborations in other countries may be impacted if India continues to stay out.
The RCEP “Rules of Origin” clause could also make it more difficult for products that have an Indian component to be sold easily among the 15-member grouping countries in future.

RCEP

The 15-nation RCEP is the world’s largest trade deal and includes China, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand and 10 members of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), and represents about 30% of global GDP and population.
It came into force on January 1, 2022.
India was a founding member at the negotiations that began in 2012, but PM Modi announced his government was walking out of the agreement in 2019, after being unable to resolve concerns on dumping from China and allowing Indian services free access in the region.
Since then, Japan and Australia, two countries that continue to convene the trilateral trade dialogue they started during RCEP negotiations with India, have said that they would welcome India back to the agreement if it decides to re-join, which was accepted by the RCEP grouping as well.

Source : The Hindu

4. CHEETAH INTRODUCTION PLAN

The cheetah, which became extinct in India after Independence, is all set to return with the Union Government launching an action plan.

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According to the plan, about 50 of these big cats will be introduced in the next five years, from the Africa savannas, home to cheetahs, an endangered species.
According to the Government, Kuno national park in Madhya Pradesh is ready to receive the cheetahs.
The cheetahs are to be provided by the Cheetah Conservation Fund, an NGO, and not the Namibian government. Three to five cheetahs are expected to be part of the first group of cats and these are expected to arrive as early as May 2022 and released in the wild by August 15.
It is recorded that the last cheetahs were shot in India in 1947, but there are credible reports of sightings of the cat till about 1967.

Supreme court verdict of 2013

The 2013 order of the Supreme Court quashed plans to introduce African cheetahs in India and more specifically at Kuno national park in Madhya Pradesh.
African cheetahs are not required to perform the role of the top predator in these habitats when the site (Kuno) that they have identified already has a resident population of leopards, transient tigers and is also the site for the translocation of Asiatic lions as ordered by the Supreme Court

Source : The Hindu

5. BOMA CAPTURING TECHNIQUE

An uncommon experiment with Africa’s Boma technique undertaken at Keoladeo National Park in Rajasthan’s Bharatpur district for capturing and translocating spotted deer is set to improve the prey base in Mukundara Hills Tiger Reserve, situated 450 km away.

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The move will lead to herbivores populating the forests ahead of the proposed shifting of two tigers to Mukundara.
The Boma capturing technique, which is popular in Africa, involves luring of animals into an enclosure by chasing them through a funnel-like fencing.
The funnel tapers into an animal selection-cum-loading chute, supported with grass mats and green net to make it opaque for animals, which are then herded into a large vehicle for transport to another location.
This old technique was earlier utilised to capture wild elephants for training and service.
Following its adoption in Madhya Pradesh in recent years, Boma has been put to practice for the first time in Rajasthan for sending the ungulates to the prey-deficient Mukundara reserve as the kills for tigers and leopards.

Do you know?

The National Tiger Conservation Authority’s (NTCA) technical committee has approved a proposal to shift two tigers from Ranthambhore National Park to Mukundara, which lost two tigers and two cubs in 2020 and is now left with an eight-year-old tigress.
The reserve, spread across 759 sq. km area, was created with the portions of Darrah, Chambal and Jawahar Sagar wildlife sanctuaries in south-eastern Rajasthan.

Source : The Hindu

6. ARCTIC REGION

India aspires to have a permanent presence with more research and satellite ground stations in the Arctic region, suggests a perusal of its Arctic Policy document officially unveiled last week.

Arctic Council

Eight nations — Canada, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Iceland, Russia, Sweden and the United States — make up the Arctic Council.
India has the status of ‘Observer’ member — 12 other countries have such a status — in the Arctic Council and participates in several meetings that are mostly themed around research. Beyond science, India also expects business opportunities.

Significance

Arctic weather influences the Indian monsoon and hence has been of interest to Indian researchers for decades.
Climate change and the melting of ice caps imply changes to the Arctic weather.

Activities by India

India has had a research base in the region since 2008 and also has two observatories.
India now has a single station, Himadri, in Ny-Alesund, Svalbard, a Norwegian archipelago, where research personnel are usually present for 180 days. India is in the process of procuring an ice-breaker research vessel that can navigate the region.
India has sent 13 expeditions to the Arctic since 2007 and runs 23 active science projects.

Source : The Hindu

7. ASSAM ACCORD

Last week, the Assam government informed the Assembly that nearly 1.44 lakh illegal foreigners had been identified in the state until January 31 this year based on the 1985 Assam Accord, and around 30,000 of them had been deported to their country of origin.

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The government added that definitions of phrases mentioned in the Accord such as ‘Axomiya janagan’ (Assamese people), ‘khilonjia’ (indigenous) and ‘adi basinda’ (original inhabitants) were yet to be determined.
The Assam Accord was signed in 1985 by the Centre and the Assam government with the All Assam Student Union (AASU) and the All Assam Gana Sangram Parishad, which had spearheaded the 1979-85 Assam Movement against migration from Bangladesh.
The Accord set March 24, 1971 as a cut-off. Anyone who had come to Assam before midnight on that date would be an Indian citizen, while those who had come after would be dealt with as foreigners. The same cut-off was used in updating the National Register of Citizens (NRC).
Clause 6 of the Assam Accord, promises “constitutional, legislative and administrative safeguards to protect, preserve and promote the cultural, social, linguistic identity and heritage of the Assamese people”, but doesn’t provide clear cut definitions to identify who would be the “Assamese people”.

Source : Indian Express

8. FORMALDEHYDE

Damien Hirst, the United Kingdom’s richest living artist according to the 2020 Sunday Times’ Rich List, has produced some of the most controversial artworks of recent years, which includes the much-debated series of formaldehyde sculptures with dead animals.

About:

Formaldehyde (systematic name methanal) is a naturally occurring organic compound with the formula CH2O (H−CHO).
The pure compound is a pungent-smelling colorless gas that polymerises spontaneously into paraformaldehyde, hence it is stored as an aqueous solution (formalin).
It is the simplest of the aldehydes (R−CHO). The common name of this substance comes from its similarity and relation to formic acid.
Formaldehyde is an important precursor to many other materials and chemical compounds. It is mainly used in the production of industrial resins, e.g., for particle board and coatings.

Source : Indian Express

9. TAX FREE MOVIE

With The Kashmir Files emerging as a crowd-puller and receiving political support, several states, including Haryana, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Goa, Karnataka, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh, and Uttarakhand, have declared the movie tax-free.

About:

There are no fixed criteria for a film to claim or enjoy tax exemption.
As a general rule, when a film deals with a socially-relevant and inspiring subject, state governments may at times exempt it from tax with the intention of making it accessible to a wider audience.
In the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime, two slabs were introduced — 12 per cent GST on tickets costing less than Rs 100, and 18 per cent on more expensive tickets.
The revenue is shared between the central and state governments. So when a state declares a film tax free now, only the SGST component is waived, while the CGST continues to be levied. Depending on the ticket price, the exemption could be 6 per cent or 9 per cent.
Filmmakers look at a tax free tag as an endorsement from the government, and a boost to the film’s image and publicity, even if it does not make a huge difference to the money that the film makes.

Source : Indian Express

10. WORLD SPARROW DAY

Every year March 20 is observed as World Sparrow Day to raise awareness about the bird.

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The first World Sparrow Day was celebrated in 2010 in different parts of the world.
The theme for this year is “Monitor the Sparrows & other common birds".
The World Sparrow Day secretariat is urging people to monitor sparrows and other common birds this year using the Common Bird Monitoring of India, a citizen science initiative of Nature Forever Society.
Nature Forever Society is a non-government organisation (NGO) run by Mohammed Dilawar, who's an internationally acclaimed conservationist.

Threats

The need for marking this day was felt due to the tremendous decrease in its population.
The house sparrow is on the verge of extinction. Increased use of pesticides, change in the pattern of buildings and gardens missing from the houses have become the main factors why the number of sparrows has declined sharply in the past few years.
Also, the radiation from the mobile and the TV towers has also been a cause of the death of sparrows. Birds navigate by sensing the earth's magnetic fields and mobile radiations are known to disturb them and interfere with birds' ability to move around.

Source : LiveMint

21 MARCH 2022 DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS | UPSC CDS CAPF AFCAT NDA SSB

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