Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 29 March 2022

::NATIONAL::

State governments can declare any religious or linguistic community, including Hindus, as a minority within the said state, the Centre has told the Supreme Court.

About:

The submission was made in response to a plea filed by advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay that sought directions for framing of guidelines identifying minorities at the state level contending that Hindus are in a minority in 10 states and are not able to avail the benefits of schemes meant for minorities.
The Ministry of Minority Affairs submitted that matters concerning whether followers of Hinduism, Judaism, Bahaism can establish and administer educational institutions of their choice in the said states and those related to their identification as minority within the state may be considered at state level.
The validity of section 2(f) of the National Commission for Minority Education Institution Act, 2004 alleging that it gives unbridled power to the Centre and termed it “manifestly arbitrary, irrational, and offending”.
Section 2(f) of NCMEI Act empowers the Centre to identify and notify minority communities in India.
It is submitted that the State governments can also declare a religious or linguistic community as a minority community within the said state.

Section 144 has been imposed in Bodhan town in Telangana after protests turned violent over the installation of a statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji at Ambedkar junction in the town by the Shiv Sena and BJP workers.

About:

Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) of 1973 authorises the Executive Magistrate of any state or territory to issue an order to prohibit the assembly of four or more people in an area. According to the law, every member of such ‘unlawful assembly’ can be booked for engaging in rioting.
Section 144 is imposed in urgent cases of nuisance or apprehended danger of some event that has the potential to cause trouble or damage to human life or property. Section 144 of CrPC generally prohibits public gathering. Section 144 has been used in the past to impose restrictions as a means to prevent protests that can lead to unrest or riots. The orders to impose Section 144 have been conferred to Executive Magistrate when there is an emergency situation.
Section 144 also restricts carrying any sort of weapon in that area where it has been imposed and people can be detained for violating it. The maximum punishment for such an act is three years.
According to the order under this section, there shall be no movement of public and all educational institutions shall also remain closed and there will be a complete bar on holding any kind of public meetings or rallies during the period of operation of this order.

Australia's Great Barrier Reef is suffering a “mass bleaching event” as coral comes under heat stress from warmer seas.

Key findings:

An aerial survey showed coral bleaching at multiple reefs, confirming a mass bleaching event, the fourth since 2016.
Coral suffered despite the cooling effect of the La Nina weather phenomenon which is currently influencing Australia's climate.
Scientists say climate change leading to warmer waters is one of the main drivers of coral bleaching.
It occurs when corals expel algae living in their tissues, draining them of their vibrant colours.
Though bleached corals are under stress, they can still recover if conditions become more moderate.
Weather patterns over the next couple of weeks continue to remain critical in determining the overall extent and severity of coral bleaching across the Marine Park.

The World Air Quality report informed that, Bangladesh was the most polluted country in the world in 2021.
The report has been published by the Swiss-based air quality technology company IQAir.

Key highlights of the report:

In terms of particulate matter in the air, Bangladesh recorded an average PM2.5 level of 76.9 micrograms per cubic metre in 2021 against the World Health Organisation (WHO) recommended maximum permissible level of 5 micrograms per cubic metre.
Earlier, in 2018, 2019 and 2020 also Bangladesh was found to be the most polluted country in the world. However, the PM2.5 level has shown a decline in Bangladesh from 77.1 micrograms per cubic metre in 2020 which was even higher at 83.3 in 2019 and 97.1 in 2018.
The data reveals that not a single country in the world managed to meet the WHO’s air quality standard in 2021. All over the world, 93 cities reported PM 2.5 levels at 10 times the recommended level.

Ministry of Finance notified that loss arising from transfer of a virtual digital asset (VDA) will not be allowed to be set off against the income arising from another VDA.

About:

VDA has been defined to mean any information or code or number or token generated through cryptographic means or otherwise. And which can be transferred, stored or traded electronically.
VDA also specifically includes non-fungible token (NFT), or any other token of similar nature.
It also said that the cost of mining will not be treated as cost of acquisition in case of VDA.
Mining is the process of generating crypto tokens.

It is a new water management and policy centre that was inaugurated recently at IIT Madras.
IIT Madras is collaborating with IIT Dharwad around the broad theme of ‘Data Science for Water Security and Agriculture Sustenance’.

About:

AquaMAP aims at providing solutions for complex and challenging water problems by designing smart and optimal water management practices and implementing them in the field (in villages and towns).

Key activities of Aqua MAP include:

Identify grand challenges in water/wastewater management.
Set up of a state-of-the-art Hydro-Informatics Laboratory.
Water and soil quality analysis: Creation of a digital twin of the Village for environmental management.
Waste management for Clean and Healthy Village.