These current affairs are written in a easy to remember format and are useful for competitive exams like - UPSC Civil Services, UPPSC, BPSC, MPPPSC, State PSCs and other competitive examinations.
Paracel Islands - South China Sea
The archipelago includes about 130 small coral islands and reefs distributed over a maritime area of around 15,000 square km.
The islands are claimed by China, Taiwan and Vietnam, which require either permission or advance notification before a military vessel passes through.
Hundreds of other islands, reefs and atolls in there source-rich waterway are contested by Brunei, China, Malaysia and the Philippines, with China claiming rights to resources within its so-called nine-dash line, or most of the region.
On July 12, 2016, the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague ruled that China had no historic title over the South China Sea, a ruling that Beijing said it would ignore.
International Relations
National Archives of India
The records of the freedom movement and freedom fighters would be digitised in the coming year as a part of the Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav.
The National Archives of India (NAI) is a repository of the non-current records of the Government of India and holds them in trust for the use of administrators and scholars.
It was originally established as the Imperial Record Department in 1891, in Calcutta, the capital of British India.
NAI is now situated at the intersection of Janpath and Rajpath, in Delhi.
It functions as an Attached Office of the Department of Culture under the Ministry of Culture, Government of India.
Abhilekh patal is an online portal to access National Archives of India's reference media and its digitized collections via the internet. It is a work in progress.
Social Issues
Uttar Pradesh Population (Control, Stabilisation and Welfare) Bill, 2021
The Uttar Pradesh State Law Commission has prepared a proposed draft Bill for population control, under which a two-child norm will be implemented and promoted.
After the law comes into force, a person with more than two children will be debarred from several benefits such as government-sponsored welfare schemes and from contesting elections to the local authority or any body of the local self-government.
Ration card units will be limited to four persons.
A person contravening the law will also become ineligible to apply for State government jobs and barred from promotion in government services and any kind of subsidy.
Several incentives have been provided to people, including public servants, if they adopt the norm by undergoing voluntary sterilisation.
A public servant or common citizen who adopts a one-child norm will receive additional benefits for a single child - such as free health care facility and insurance coverage, preference in admission in all education institutions (IIM, AIMS etc), free education, scholarship and preference in government jobs.
A BPL couple who have only one child and undergoes voluntary sterilisation, shall be eligible for payment of a one-time Rs 80,000 if the single child is a boy and Rs 1 lakh if it is a girl.
Polity
Ashadhi Bij, the Kutchi New Year
PM Modi has greeted the people on the auspicious occasion of Ashadhi Bij, the Kutchi New Year.
Ashadhi Bij falls on the second day of Shukla paksha of Ashada month of Hindu calendar.
The festival is associated with the beginning of rains in the Kutch region of Gujarat.
During Ashadhi Bij, the moisture in the atmosphere is checked to predict which crop would do best in the coming monsoon.
Art & Culture
International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA)
The International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA) released a framework for setting up and operating an international trade finance services platform (ITFS) to provide trade finance services at international financial services centres (IFSCs).
The framework will enable exporters and importers to avail various types of trade finance facilities at competitive terms, for their international trade transactions through a dedicated electronic platform ITFS.
Read More: IFSCA
Economy
India's first cryptogamic garden
India's first cryptogamic garden housing nearly 50 species of lichens, ferns and fungi was inaugurated in Chakrata, Dehradun district (Uttarakhand).
What are cryptograms ?
Cryptogamae means "hidden reproduction" referring to the fact that no seed, no flowers are produced. Thus, cryptogams represent the non-seed bearing plants.Algae, bryophytes (moss, liverworts), lichens, ferns and fungi are the best-known groups of cryptogams that require moist conditions to survive.
Bryophytes are the simplest and primitive land plants that occupy an intermediate position between algae and pteridophytes.
Lichens are a complex life form that is a symbiotic partnership of two separate organisms, a fungus and an algae.
Ferns are the largest living group of primitive vascular plants while fungi is a kingdom of usually multicellular eukaryotic organisms that are heterotrophs.
Environment