INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY
International Women's Day 2021 is being celebrated on 8th of March with theme #ChooseToChallenge. It indicates that a "challenged world is an alert world, and from challenge comes change".
About:
- Date: International Women's Day (IWD) is celebrated on March 8 every year.
- History:
- IWD has occurred for well over a century, with the first IWD gathering in 1911 supported by over a million people in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland.
- Prior to this the Socialist Party of America, United Kingdom's Suffragists and Suffragettes, and further groups campaigned for women's equality.
- IWD has occurred for well over a century, with the first IWD gathering in 1911 supported by over a million people in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland.
- Organized by: IWD is not country, group or organization specific. IWD belongs to all groups collectively everywhere.
- Objective: It is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. The day also marks a call to action for accelerating gender parity.
CHINESE DAM ON BRAHMAPUTRA
A draft of China’s new Five-Year Plan (2021-2025), which is set to be formally approved on March 11, 2021, has given the green light for the first dams to be built on the lower reaches of Yarlung Zangbo river, as the Brahmaputra is known in Tibet before it flows into India.
About:
- The draft outline of the new Five-Year Plan (FYP) for 2025 and “long range objectives through the year 2035” specifically mentions the building of hydropower bases on the lower reaches of the river as among the priority energy projects to be undertaken in the next five years.
- The lower reaches refer to the sections of the river in Tibet before it flows into India.
- The inclusion of the projects in the draft plan suggests the authorities have given the go-ahead to begin tapping the lower reaches for the first time, which marks a new chapter in the hydropower exploitation of the river.
- Other major projects include the construction of coastal nuclear power plants and power transmission channels.
- The project is also listed along with the Sichuan-Tibet railway and the national water network.
M.T. SWARNA KRISHNA
Union Minister Mansukh Mandaviya has flagged off an all-woman crew onboard Shipping Corporation of India (SCI) vessel m.t. Swarna Krishna, the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways said.
About:
- It is the first time in maritime history that a ship is being sailed by only women officers
- T. SWARNA KRISHNA is a Oil Products Tanker that was built in 2010 and is being operated by Shipping Corporation of India (SCI).
SANAʽA
A Saudi-led military coalition mounted air strikes on Yemen’s Houthi-controlled capital Sana’a after it intercepted 10 drones launched by the Iran-backed rebels.
About:
- Sanaa also spelled Sanaʽa or Sana, is the largest city in Yemen.
- Under the Yemeni constitution, Sanaʽa is the capital of the country, although the seat of the Yemeni government moved to Aden, the former capital of South Yemen in the aftermath of the Houthi occupation.
- Aden was declared as the temporary capital by President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi in March 2015.
- It is located next to the Sarawat Mountains of Jabal An-Nabi Shu'ayb and Jabal Tiyal, considered to be the highest mountains in the country and amongst the highest in the region.
- The Old City of Sanaʽa, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, has a distinctive architectural character, most notably expressed in its multi-storey buildings decorated with geometric patterns.
AIRBAGS
The Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has issued a Gazette notification regarding mandatory provision of an airbag for passengers seated on the front seat of a vehicle, next to the driver.
About:
- The Ministry has mandated that “Vehicles manufactured on and after the April 1, 2021, in the case of new models, and August 31, 2021, in the case of existing models, shall be fitted with airbags for the person occupying the front seat, other than the driver.”
- This has been mandated as an important safety feature and is also based on suggestions of the Supreme Court Committee on Road Safety.”
- The latest mandate is for all existing models in the M1 category — passenger motor vehicles having not more than eight seats in addition to the driver’s.
What are airbags?
- An airbag pops up as a protective cushion between the passenger and the car’s dashboard during a collision.
- In moderate to severe frontal crashes, front airbags are designed to inflate in order to prevent a person’s head and chest from contacting hard structures in the vehicle.
ALI BOUMENDJEL
In a move aimed at improving its relations with former colony Algeria, France has admitted that its soldiers tortured and killed the Algerian lawyer and freedom fighter Ali Boumendjel, whose death in 1957 had until now been covered up as a suicide.
About:
- 37 years old at the time of his death, Boumendjel was an Algerian nationalist and independence activist when the North African country was under French colonial rule.
- In 1957, French troops detained and placed him under solitary confinement during the Battle of Algiers, a part of the eight-year-long Algerian War of Independence. To pass off his death as suicide, Boumendjel was thrown from the sixth floor of a building after he was killed.
- The conflict lasted until 1962, and ended with it 132 years of French domination.
- Significance of the admission: Algeria, which celebrates sixty years of independence from France next year, welcomed the admission
STUDENTS ISLAMIC MOVEMENT OF INDIA (SIMI)
Over 19 years after they were arrested, the court of the Chief Judicial Magistrate of Surat has acquitted all 127 persons accused of “promoting a banned organisation”, the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) in 2001.
About:
- The Students' Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) is a banned terrorist organisation that was formed in Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh in April 1977.
- The stated mission of SIMI is the ‘liberation of India’ by converting it to an Islamic land. It has declared Jihad against India, the aim of which is to establish Dar-ul-Islam (land of Islam) by either forcefully converting everyone to Islam or by violence.
- The Indian government describes it as a terrorist organisation, and banned it in 2001, shortly after the 9/11 attacks. In February 2019, the Government of India extended ban on SIMI for a period of five more years starting February 1, 2019 under Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
CALM2
In Australia, Leading scientists and medical experts are calling for the pardon of convicted child killer Kathleen Folbigg after a recent study showed that her victims — four of her children — may have died of natural causes.
About:
- Medical experts have argued that her children died due to a rare genetic defect. They inherited a genetic mutation from their mother called CALM2.
- CALM-2 mutations are known to cause sudden death due to cardiac arrest.
- Calmodulin 2 is a protein that in humans is encoded by the CALM2 gene. Mutations in CALM2 are associated to cardiac arrhythmias.
SINGORGARH FORT
The President of India Ram Nath Kovind laid the foundation stone for the conservation works of Singorgarh Fort in Madhya Pradesh. The President also inaugurated the newly carved Jabalpur Circle of Archaeological Survey of India.
About:
- Singorgarh Fort is located in Singrampur village of Damoh district in Madhya Pradesh.
- It is a hill-fort of Gondwana Kingdom, spread over the hills of a forested area.
- Before coming in hand of Gond rulers, Singorgarh fort was under Chandel rulers in 1308. It was Gond ruler Sangram shah who conquered the Singorgarh fort in early period of 16th century.
- It is presently in a ruined condition with no caretaker
AGROFORESTRY IN THE SILK SECTOR
The Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare signed a MoU with the Central Silk Board on a convergence model for the implementation of Agroforestry in the silk sector under the ongoing Sub-Mission on Agroforestry (SMAF) Scheme.
About:
- This initiative in sericulture sector is especially targeted for augmentation of sericulture host plants e.g. Mulberry, Asan, Arjuna, Som, Soalu, Kesseru, BadaKesseru, Phanat, etc. to be cultivated both as block plantations and border or peripheral plantations on farmlands.
- The Central Silk Board (CSB) is a Statutory Body, established during 1948. It functions under the administrative control of the Ministry of Textiles, having head quarter at Bengaluru.
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