Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 09 March 2021

::NATIONAL::

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has reiterated through a gazette notification that Overseas Citizens of India (OCI) cardholders can lay claim to “only NRI (Non Resident Indian) quota seats” in educational institutions based on all-India entrance tests such as National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET), Joint Entrance Examination (Mains), Joint Entrance Examination (Advanced) or other such all-India professional tests.

Key highlights:

The notification also reproduced a part of the guidelines issued by the Ministry on November 15, 2019 regarding benefits to OCI cardholders, which said that OCIs are not entitled to undertake any “missionary, mountaineering, journalism and tabligh activities” without prior permission of the Government of India. The notification provides legal teeth to the guidelines.
The notification says that the OCI cardholder shall be required to obtain a “special permission or a special permit” from the competent authority or the Foreigners Regional Registration Officer (FRRO) or the Indian Mission “to undertake research, Missionary or Tabligh or Mountaineering or Journalistic activities, undertake internship in any foreign diplomatic missions or foreign Government organisations in India or employment in any foreign diplomatic missions in India and visit any place which falls within the Protected or Restricted or prohibited areas as notified by the Central Government or competent authority”.

About:

OCI citizens are of Indian origin but they are foreign passport holders and are not citizens of India. India does not allow dual citizenship but provides certain benefits under Section 7B(I) of the Citizenship Act, 1955 to the OCIs.

Indian Medicines Pharmaceutical Corporation Limited (IMPCL) will sell products on Government e-Market (GeM) portal.
The IMPCL and GeM has finalised a deal in this regard and now the Ayurvedic and Unani medicines of IMPCL will figure on the GeM portal to hundreds of government sector buyers.
This will facilitate quick procurement of these medicines by Central and State Government institutions for their healthcare programmes.
It will also help to streamline the procurement and distribution of Ayurvedic and Unani medicines by State Units.

Ali Boumendjel

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.

Who was Ali Boumendjel?

At the time of his death, he was 37 years old.
Boumendjel was an Algerian nationalist and independence activist when the North African country was under French colonial rule.
An active opponent of French colonialism, Boumendjel acted as an intermediary between moderates and revolutionaries fighting for the country’s freedom.
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 blood-soaked conflict, which was marked by torture, custodial deaths and forced disappearances, lasted until 1962, and ended with it 132 years of French domination.

A Saudi-led military coalition mounted air strikes on Yemen’s Houthi-controlled capital Sanaa on Sunday after it intercepted 10 drones launched by the Iran-backed rebels.

About:

Sanaa also called Sana’a or Sana, is the largest city in Yemen.
Under the Yemeni constitution, Sana’a 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.
The Old City of Sana’a, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, has a distinctive architectural character, most notably expressed in its multi-storey buildings decorated with geometric patterns.

Spate of attacks:

The Houthis have stepped up attacks on Saudi Arabia in recent weeks, while they escalate an offensive in Yemen to seize the government’s last northern stronghold of Marib.
The escalation comes even after the U.S. last month delisted the Houthis as terrorists and stepped up efforts to de-escalate the six-year conflict.
The removal of the Houthis from the list of terrorist groups has been interpreted in a hostile way by the militia.
The coalition added that their “victories” in Marib had prompted the rebels to step up attacks on the kingdom.
On Saturday, Yemeni government sources said fierce fighting between pro-government forces and the rebels in oil-rich Marib had left at least 90 combatants on the two sides dead over the span of 24 hours.

The latest data on ITRs showed a 9.8 per cent contraction in filings of ITR-1 offline and 4.5 per cent contraction in filings of ITR-1 online for FY20.
ITR-1 Sahaj can be filed by a resident individual, who is not included in the Hindu Undivided Family (HUF), having an income of up to Rs 50 lakh.
Total income includes income from salary or pension, income from one house property, income from other sources such as interest from a bank account (excluding winnings from lottery and income from racehorses, income taxable under section 115BBDA, or income of nature referred to in section 115BBE) and where agricultural income is up to Rs 5,000.

High-income earners:

The ITRs filed by high-income earners also showed a decline. A 3.5 per cent decline was recorded in FY20 for the filings of ITR-2, which is filed by individuals and HUFs having an income of more than Rs 50 lakh.
An individual having income from salaries, more than one house property, capital gains and income from other sources, having income from sources outside India and holding assets outside India can file ITR-2, though the income should not be from profits and gains of business or profession.

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.
Medical experts claim that their children have died as a result of a viral infection.
They inherited a mutation from their mother named CALM2.
CALM-2 mutations are known to cause sudden death from heart attack.
It is generated by the CALM2 gene. CALM2 mutation is associated with heart disease.