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Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 30 March 2021

::NATIONAL::

The Opposition in Bihar has called a statewide bandh on March 26 to protest the passed of the Bihar Special Armed Police Bill, 2021 by the state assembly.

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It aims to develop the Bihar Military Police into a well-trained and fully equipped armed police force with multi-domain expertise to cater to the development needs and the larger interest of the state.
At present, the Bihar Military Police is entrusted with the security of the Mahabodhi Temple in Gaya, the Darbhanga airport, and other industrial and commercial establishments.
The new Bill renames the Bihar Military Police as the Bihar Special Armed Police, and gives the force more teeth, on the lines of the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), so it can better secure the commercial and industrial assets of the state.
The mandate of the force will be the “maintenance of public order, combating extremism, ensuring the better protection and security of specified establishments in such manner as may be notified and perform such other duties, as may be notified.”
The Bill allows the Special Armed Police officers to carry out searches and arrests without a warrant.
This is on par with CISF, which can arrest people, including on suspicion, “without any order from a magistrate and without a warrant”, according to The Central Industrial Security Force Act, 1968.

National Aquifer Mapping And Management program(NAQUIM)was initiated in 2012 as a part of theGround Water Management andRegulation scheme.

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India and Bangladesh signed 5 MoUs in the fields of Disaster Management, trade, NCC, ICT and setting up of sports facilities.
They discussed bilateral issues covering areas of commerce and trade, water resources, security and defence, power and energy among others.
Foundation stone was laid for infrastructure development for power evacuation facilities from the Rooppur Nuclear power plant.
The Bangladesh leg of the Banagabandhu-Bapu Digital Exhibition was inaugurated by the two Prime Ministers. It will be taken to other parts of the world including the UN.

India abstained from voting on a resolution in the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) that makes a wide-ranging and damaging commentary on the human rights situation in Sri Lanka.

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Resolution 46/L1 has decided, among other things, to “strengthen” the Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights “to collect, consolidate, analyse, and preserve information and evidence and develop possible strategies for future accountability processes for gross violations of human rights or serious violations of international humanitarian law in Sri Lanka.
It refers to “persistent” lack of accountability for rights abuses committed through the years by “all parties” in Sri Lanka, including the LTTE.
Most seriously, it expresses a lack of confidence in the ability of the present government in Colombo to address the shortcomings.
Among the 14 countries that abstained were Japan, Indonesia, Bahrain and Nepal. Among the 11 that voted against were China, Cuba, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Russia, and Venezuela.

The corporate affairs ministry has announced companies will have to disclose any holding or dealings in cryptocurrencies or virtual currencies in their financial statements filed with the Registrar of Companies.

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All companies will now have to disclose in their statutory financial filings to the RoC any profit or loss on transactions involving cryptocurrency.
The amount of cryptocurrency held on the reporting date, and any deposits or advances received from anyone for the purpose of investing in cryptocurrencies or virtual currencies.
The government’s new bill – Cryptocurrency and Regulation of Official Digital Currency Bill, 2021 — aims to prohibit all private cryptocurrencies while setting the stage to roll out the legal framework for an “official digital currency”.
The Centre will take a calibrated approach to cryptocurrencies and will not close the window on experimentation with cryptocurrencies.

According to International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), African elephants are under threat due to poaching and habitat loss.

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African elephants are the largest land animals on Earth.They are slightly larger than their Asian cousins and can be identified by their larger ears. (Asian elephants have smaller, rounded ears.)
There are two species of African elephant.
Savanna elephants are larger animals that roam the plains of sub-Saharan Africa.
Forest elephants are smaller animals that live in the forests of Central and West Africa.
Savanna elephants are now endangered and the forest elephants are critically endangered.