Today's Current Affairs 29th March 2023

INTERNATIONAL

Africa Announces Its Second Marburg Outbreak in Tanzania This Year

On March 21, health officials announced a Marburg outbreak after the continent's first outbreak on February 25 reported by the World Health Organization. Marburg virus, a hemorrhagic fever virus, is often referred to as the 'cousin' of ebola which caused around 11,325 deaths from 2014 to 2016 in West Africa. According to the WHO, Equatorial Guinea's Ministry of Health and Social Welfare announced the mortality of several people with probable hemorrhagic fever on February 7, 2023. Real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) testing on one sample yielded affirmative results for the Marburg virus on February 12, 2023, at the Institute Pasteur in Dakar, Senegal.

Tanzania's national public health laboratory has declared that the outbreak first reported last week was caused by Marburg, according to Ummy Mwalimu, the country's health minister. One of the instances involves a household of five, and at least 161 individuals in close contact are being watched.

"We are working with the government to rapidly scale up control measures to halt the spread of the virus and end the outbreak as soon as possible," says WHO’s regional director for Africa Matshidiso Moeti in a statement.

NATIONAL

India welcomes four cubs - born to Cheetah translocated from Namibia

Happy news from the world of wildlife! India has been blessed with four cheetah cubs. Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav on Wednesday, March 29 shared that four cubs have been born to one of the cheetahs translocated to India on September 17, 2022. Cheetah Siyaya delivered the four cubs at Kuno National Park

The Union Environment Minister called the occasion a ‘momentous event’ in our wildlife conservation history during Amrit Kaal. Further, the Union Minister also congratulated the entire team of Project Cheetah for their relentless efforts in bringing back cheetahs to India and for their efforts in correcting an ecological wrong done in the past.

It is noteworthy that cheetah got extinct from India about 70 years ago. The wild cat was declared extinct from India in 1952.

Government of India launches National Rabies Control Programme (NRCP) for prevention and control of Rabies

Ministry of Health & Family Welfare and Ministry of Fisheries Animal Husbandry & Dairying, Government of India jointly launched ‘National Action Plan For Dog Mediated Rabies Elimination (NAPRE) from India by 2030’. The stray dog population control and management of the stray dogs is the mandate of the local bodies. The Central Government has framed the Animal Birth Control (Dogs) Rules, 2023 which is to be implemented by the local authority to control the population of stray dogs. The main focus of the rules is on anti-rabies vaccination of stray dogs and neutering of stray dogs as means of population stabilization.

Further, as per the directions of the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India in its interim orders dated 18.11.2015 & 9.3.2016 in SLP No.691 of 2009, AWBI Vs P.E.S.T & Ors directed all the State Governments to implement the ABC (Dogs) Rules, 2001 diligently to control the stray dog population, to constitute the State Level Monitoring Committee & District Level Monitoring Committee to address the issues related to stray dogs in the respective local bodies. Accordingly, the Animal Welfare Board of India has also forwarded a revised module to all the State Governments regarding the proper implementation of the Animal Birth Control programme. In addition, the Animal Welfare Board of India has issued following advisories / guidelines for proper implementation of the Animal Birth Control Rules.

Odisha's historic Gandhamardan Hills declared as biodiversity heritage site

Odisha's Gandhamardan Hill range, known as the "ayurvedic paradise," has been designated a "biodiversity heritage site." The hill system that spans both Bargarh and Bolangir districts was designated a biodiversity heritage site by the Department of Forestry, Environment, and Climate Change. Gandhamardan is home to 1,200 plant species, 500 animal species, and several varieties of trees, shrubs, herbs, and medicinal plant species. The tag will aid in the long-term protection, conservation, and management of the species that are classified as endangered and endemic.After the Mahendragiri Hills in Gajapati and the Mandasaru Hills in the Kandhamal district, this is the third such hill to get the designation of a biological heritage site.

According to a notification from the state forest and environment department, the designation was made in accordance with Rule 20(2) of the 2012 Odisha Biodiversity Regulations and Section 37 of the Biodiversity Act.

APPOINTMENTS & RESIGNATIONS

NDTV Appoints Former SEBI Chairman UK Sinha And Business Leader Dipali Goenka As Independent Directors

In line with the Adani Group's objective to ensure NDTV's independence and professionalism, U.K. Sinha and Dipali Goenka have been appointed Independent Directors of NDTV for a period of two years effective March 27, 2023, based on the recommendations of the Nomination and Remuneration Committee, and subject to the approval of shareholders and Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. U.K. Sinha has also been designated as Non-Executive Chairperson of NDTV.

SUMMIT'S & MOU's

Ministry of External Affairs orgainses seminar on - Seven Decades of the Constitution of India

The Union Minister of State for External Affairs, Meenakshi Lekhi, inaugurated the seminar on ‘Seven Decades of the Constitution of India’ on March 28.

The Ministry of External Affairs organised the Seminar on the occasion of Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav in collaboration with the Parliamentary Research and Training Institute for Democracies (PRIDE) at the Parliament Library Building. The Seminar was also organised in the context of India’s Presidency of the Asian-African Legal Consultative Organisation (AALCO).

The Seminar covered the following themes :

1 - Seven decades of the Indian Constitution

2 - Indian Constitution and Human Rights

3 - Indian Constitution and Internationalism

Justice Ranjan Gogoi, Member of Parliament (Rajya Sabha) and former Chief Justice of India; Justice Arun Mishra, Chairperson of National Human Rights Commission and former Supreme Court Judge; and Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel, Chairperson of National Green Tribunal and former Supreme Court judge, were the speakers at the Seminar.

India To Host SCO National Security Advisors Meet Today; 29 March

As the current chair of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), India will today host the meeting of National Security Advisors (NSA) and top officials in New Delhi. Pakistan and China are likely to attend the SCO-NSA meeting virtually.

National Security Adviser Ajit Doval will make opening remarks at the meeting, The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) is an intergovernmental organization established in 2001 and it comprises eight member states, namely, India, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

In 2022, India assumed the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Chairship for 2023. Secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, Nikolai Patrushev, will attend the annual meeting of the secretaries of security councils of SCO member states in New Delhi on Wednesday,

India became a full member of SCO on June 9 in 2017. There are four Observer States viz Afghanistan, Belarus, Iran and Mongolia and six dialogue partners - Armenia, Azerbaijan, Cambodia, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Turkey.

The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) is a major regional powerhouse that was established over two decades ago with the aim of promoting economic, political, and military cooperation among its member nations. The eight-member countries of SCO represent around 42 per cent of the world's total population and 25 per cent of the global GDP.

AWARDS & RECOGNITION

Aaliya Mir Becomes The First Woman From J&K To Receive Wildlife Conservation Award

Jammu and Kashmir’s only female wildlife rescuer, Aaliya Mir who works as a project manager with Wildlife SOS, a non-governmental organisation established in 1995 to protect and conserve India’s natural heritage, forests and wildlife, has been awarded by the administration for her work and conservation efforts.

Aaliya, a wildlife conservationist has become the first woman from J&K to be felicitated with an award for her conservation efforts in the region.

Despite having rescued Asiatic black bears, Himalayan brown bears, birds, leopards and other mammals, Aaliya is best known for her work with snakes.

Over the years, she has rescued snakes from the most unlikely places like kitchens, lawns, gardens and toilets of residences, government buildings and offices, school and university premises, and from tyres and engines of vehicles.

NGO from Assam honoured with Children’s Champion Award

Students’ Welfare Mission, an NGO from Assam’s Pathsala which has been working for special and autistic children, has been conferred with the Children’s Champion Award 2023 here.  Instituted by the Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights last year to recognise individuals and institutions that have championed the cause of children across education, justice, health, nutrition, sports and artistic expression categories, the Mission, which is popularly known as Tapoban, has been awarded in the health and nutrition category,

The awards were handed out by Justice P S Narasimha of the Supreme Court, Chief Justice of the Odisha High Court S Muralidhar and Delhi Education Minister Atishi Marlena at a function held here on Saturday.  Founder president of the Mission, Kumud Kalita, received the award that carries Rs 75,000, a certificate and a plaque.  A jury comprising eminent and accomplished individuals decided to confer the Children’s Champion Award on the NGO in health and nutrition category for their “consistent efforts to provide quality care to the children with special needs”, the release said.

The NGO is the only organisation from the Northeast to be selected for the award.  The DCPCR received altogether 1,100 nominations from organisations and individuals across the country.  Set up in 2005, Tapoban has been working for the specially-abled children providing speech therapy, physiotherapy and occupational therapy, music and other skills besides awareness

BANKING AND ECONOMY

NPCI recommends additional charges for merchant transactions via UPI

A recent circular issued by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has suggested that Prepaid Payment Instrument (PPI) charges be applied from April 1 for merchant transactions made using the Unified Payments Interface (UPI).

NPCI, UPI's governing body, will review the stated pricing on or before September 30, 2023.

According to the NPCI circular, using PPIs on UPI will attract interchange at 1.1 percent of the transaction value for transactions worth over Rs 2,000.

Once the additional charges come into effect, the PPI issuer will be paying around 15 basis points as a wallet-loading service charge to the remitter bank. No interchange in terms of peer-to-peer (P2P) or peer-to-peer-merchant (P2PM) transactions between the bank account and the PPI wallet will apply.

World Bank approves USD 363 million loan to Karnataka for rural water supply programme

The World Bank has approved a USD 363 million loan to Karnataka, to provide a clean drinking water supply to two million rural households in the state through a piped water connection in their homes.

According to a World Bank statement, the Karnataka Sustainable Rural Water Supply Program will support the Government of Karnataka's ambition to provide functioning tap water connections to every rural household in the state.