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Union Cooperation Minister Amit Shah on Saturday inaugurated an umbrella organisation for urban cooperative banks (UCB) — the National Urban Cooperative Finance and Development Corporation Limited (NUCFDC).
Mr. Shah stated that the organisation was a necessity of the time, and marked a new beginning for self-regulation. It is necessary that we upgrade ourselves and adhere to all the regulations of the RBI.
If we fail to do so, we will not be able to sustain the competition in the times to come,” he said. He highlighted a major role of the organisation is to prepare small banks for compliance with the Banking Regulation Act.
Centre, TIPRA Motha, Tripura govt. sign tripartite agreement (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 2, Governance)
The Government of India, the government of Tripura, and the Tipraha Indigenous Progressive Regional Alliance (TIPRA) signed a tripartite agreement to address the issues faced by the indigenous people of Tripura, who make up 33% of the population.
The agreement contains the formation of a joint working committee to resolve issues related to the “history, land rights, political rights, economic development, identity, culture, and language” of the indigenous people of the State.
TIPRA, also known as TIPRA Motha, has agreed to refrain from any form of protest until a solution is reached in a timely manner.
The agreement was signed by TIPRA founder and royal scion Pradyot Bikram Manikya Deb Barma, party President Bijoy Kumar Hrangkhawl and Leader of the Opposition in the State Assembly Animesh Debbarma on behalf of their party.
Chief Secretary J.K. Sinha and Additional Secretary (NE) of the Ministry of Home Affairs Piyush Goyal represented the Tripura government and the Central government respectively in the agreement.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Tripura Chief Minister Dr. Manik Saha, and two tribal Ministers of his Cabinet — Bikash Debbarma and Sukla Charan Noatia were present at the signing event.
Mating calls of endangered hangul indicate record uptick in population (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 3, Environment)
Kashmir’s highly shy and sensitive animal, hangul, which is listed as a critically endangered indigenous species of deer, has reported one of the healthiest rutting or mating seasons in the previous autumn.
Experts suggested the roars or calls made by hanguls during rutting indicate that their number will cross 300 this spring, the first time in more than three decades.
“The calls recorded by the wildlife staff during the rutting season in October last year were healthy compared to previous years.
In fact, the Dachigam National Park, home to hangul, was closed between September 25 to October 18 for visitors to allow unhindered rutting,” Rashid Naqash, Regional Wildlife Warden.
Science
A case for life-saving modern contraception (Page no. 12)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Technology)
The article on high-risk pregnancies astutely drew public attention to a matter of great concern to the obstetrics and gynaecology community, but often overlooked by the rest of the country.
India has great strides in decreasing maternal mortality — from an MMR of 130/100,000 live births in 2016-2018 to a MMR of 97/100,000 in2018-2020— by ensuring an increase in institutionalised deliveries and antenatal care and improving women’s access to reproductive healthcare services. However, India still has a long way to go.
While we celebrate our achievements, we must confront the challenges that persist, ensuring that every pregnancy is safe, and every woman is assured of the best possible care.
Managing our resources with Artificial Intelligence (Page no. 12)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Technology)
These days, the term Artificial Intelligence (AI) seems to be everywhere. The public has come to view it with mixed perceptions.
On one side, it is a problem-solver: AI has helped in monitoring heart problems and eye conditions and offered treatment options; AI predicts protein structure and aids in the development of new drug molecules.
Likewise, it predicts cyclones, monsoon strengths, etc.On the dark side are fears that jobs may be lost to thinking machines that work 24/7 and do not need a Diwali vacation, and may intrude on your privacy and misuse your data. But nobody doubts that AI will help us in addressing large-scale problems that require the analysis of huge data.
As India’s development gathers momentum, we are faced with the eventuality of resource limitations. We may need much more than we have.
This is especially true of water—every year we see floods in parts of the country and drought in others. Engineers have long dreamt of building links between our rivers to mitigate these problems. But uncertainties over the effects of such large-scale changes have stalled many initiatives.
FAQ
What will Gaganyaan change for India? (Page no. 13)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Technology)
On February 27, Prime Minister Narendra Modi publicised the final shortlist of candidates to be astronauts on board the maiden human spaceflight mission — called Gaganyaan — of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).
Assuming two important test flights this year and the next are successful, the first crewed flight of the mission is scheduled for 2025.
Gaganyaan is the name of the ISRO mission to send Indian astronauts to low-earth orbit for a short duration, onboard an Indian launch vehicle.
Technically, it is a demonstration mission: it will test various technologies required for human spaceflight, which remains the most complicated form of spaceflight, and demonstrate India’s familiarity with their production, qualification, and use.
Last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi “directed” ISRO to have an indigenous space station by 2035 and land an Indian on the moon by 2040.
While its most recent missions have reinforced ISRO’s reputation as a reliable launch provider also capable of flying sophisticated interplanetary missions, including Chandrayaan-3, the two new goals are technologically even more ambitious.
The resolutions against Centre’s border plan (Page no. 13)
(GS Paper 2, Governance)
The Mizoram Assembly on February 28 and the Nagaland Assembly on March 1 adopted a resolution to oppose the Centre’s decision to fence the 1,643 km long porous India-Myanmar border and scrap the Free Movement Regime (FMR) agreement that allows cross-border movement up to 16 km without travel documents.
At an official event in Guwahati on January 20, Home Minister Amit Shah said the Centre has decided to fence the India-Myanmar border and scrap the FMR implemented in 2018 as part of India’s Act East policy for cultural, business, and terrestrial connectivity to Southeast Asia and beyond.
The Centre decided to suspend the FMR ostensibly to thwart illegal migration of people, the smuggling of drugs, arms and ammunition, and the cross-border movement of extremists.
The decision was influenced by the Manipur government’s push — after the ethnic violence between the Meiteis and the Kuki-Zo people began on May 3, 2023 — for fencing the border to stop Myanmar nationals from settling in the State illegally.
Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur welcomed the Centre’s decision but Mizoram and Nagaland, the other two States bordering Myanmar, opposed it because of the ethnic composition along the border “imposed by the British rulers” and their age-old social, cultural, and trade links.
Why did the SC penalise Patanjali? (Page no. 13)
(GS Paper 2, Judiciary)
On February 27, the Supreme Court restrained Patanjali Ayurved from discrediting allopathy in its campaigns, and from advertising products that claim to cure chronic conditions. Patanjali’s ads present its products to people as a ‘permanent relief’, which is “misleading” and “a violation of the law”, the Bench remarked, citing provisions of the Drugs and Magic Remedies (Objectionable Advertisements) Act, 1954 (DMR&OA) and its Rules.
The Bench also issued a contempt notice against Patanjali Ayurved (co-founded by yoga guru Baba Ramdev) and Managing Director Acharya Balkrishna for failing to adhere to directions passed last November.
The Indian Medical Association (IMA) in 2022 filed a petition in response to a Patanjali advert titled: “Save yourself and the country from the misconceptions spread by pharma and medical industry.”
The petition presented two grievances — that the company is denigrating allopathy through a “continuous, systematic, and unabated spread of misinformation”, while making exaggerated claims about its drugs which are purportedly based on “scientific, evidence-based medicines”.
In December 2022, Nepal’s drug regulator blacklisted Patanjali’s Divya Pharmacy for failing to comply with WHO’s drug manufacturing standards.