DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS 01ST APRIL 2021 - Shiksha IAS
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Best IAS Coaching in Bangalore Daily Current Affairs 01st April 2021
Shiksha IAS https://iasshiksha.com/daily-current-affair/daily-current-affairs-01st-april-2021/
DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS 01ST APRIL 2021
Posted on April 2, 2021 by admin
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Best IAS Coaching in Bangalore Daily Current Affairs 01st April 2021
Shiksha IAS https://iasshiksha.com/daily-current-affair/daily-current-affairs-01st-april-2021/
NASA’s Curiosity Mars Rover in news
Nasa Curiosity Rover recently provided a pair of panoramas using its Mastcam on March 4,
2021, the 3,049th Martian day of the mission. NASA's Curiosity rover used two cameras to
create a selfie in front of "Mont Mercou," a rock formation that stands 20 feet tall. At the start
of March, NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover began approaching an impressive rock formation that
scientists dubbed “Mont Mercou,” a nickname taken from a mountain in France. Standing
about 20 feet (6 meters) tall, the outcrop is captured in all its majesty in a new selfie, as
well as in a pair of panoramas that offer a 3D view. The selfie shows Curiosity in front of Mont
Mercou with a new drill hole nearby at a rock sample nicknamed “Nontron” – the mission’s 30th
sample to date.
France’s Mont Mercou is located near the village of Nontron in the southeast of the country.
The team chose Nontron-related nicknames for this part of the Red Planet because Mars
orbiters detected nontronite, a type of clay mineral found close to Nontron, in the region.
Surface missions assign nicknames to landmarks to provide the mission’s team members a
common way to refer to rocks, soils, and other geologic features of interest.
About NASA Curiosity Rover:
Part of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory mission, Curiosity is the largest and most capable
rover ever sent to Mars. It was launched on November 26, 2011. It's launch vehicle was Atlas
V-451.
Curiosity set out to answer the question: Did Mars ever have the right environmental conditions
to support small life forms called microbes? Early in its mission, Curiosity's scientific tools
found chemical and mineral evidence of past habitable environments on Mars. It continues to
explore the rock record from a time when Mars could have been home to microbial life.
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Best IAS Coaching in Bangalore Daily Current Affairs 01st April 2021
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NASA's Curiosity missions objective is to explore Gale Crater and acquires rock, soil, and air
samples for onboard analysis.
Gale Crater formed when a meteor hit Mars in its early history, about 3.5 to 3.8 billion years
ago. The meteor impact punched a hole in the terrain. The explosion ejected rocks and soil
that landed around the crater. Scientists chose Gale Crater as the landing site for Curiosity
because it has many signs that water was present over its history. Water is a key ingredient
of life as we know it.
The car-size rover is about as tall as a basketball player and uses a 7 foot-long arm to place
tools close to rocks selected for study. Curiosity's large size allows it to carry an advanced kit
of 10 science instruments. It has tools including 17 cameras, a laser to vaporize and study small
pinpoint spots of rocks at a distance, and a drill to collect powdered rock samples. It hunts for
special rocks that formed in water and/or have signs of organics.
Comprehensive Economic Cooperation and Partnership Agreement
between India and Mauritius
The commerce ministry of India recently announced that the Comprehensive Economic
Cooperation and Partnership Agreement between India and Mauritius which is a kind of free
trade agreement would come into effect from April 1.
This agreement between India and Mauritius covers 310 export items for India, including food
and beverages, agricultural products, textile and textile articles, base metals, electricals and
electronic item, plastics and chemicals, and wood.
It said that Mauritius will benefit from preferential market access into India for its 615 products,
including frozen fish, speciality sugar, biscuits, fresh fruits, juices, mineral water, beer, alcoholic
drinks, soaps, bags, medical and surgical equipment, and apparel.
The fact that this is the first trade agreement that India has signed with any African country,
shows how special Mauritius is for India. India is excited about the tremendous opportunities
CECPA opens up for boosting two-way trade in goods and services as well as investments,
which is urgently needed in our post-Covid economies.
India and Mauritius signed a $100 million Defence Line of Credit agreement on Monday. It was
a part of several understandings, including the Comprehensive Economic Cooperation and
Partnership Agreement (CECPA). Mauritius will get preferential access for export of 40,000
tonnes of sugar into India at an early time frame.
India's new projects in Mauritius:
India has ambitious plans and several new projects that will commence soon according to external
Page: 3Best IAS Coaching in Bangalore Daily Current Affairs 01st April 2021
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affairs ministry of india. This includes :
India’s first Solar Energy plant at Mauritius,
A new Civil Service College,
A Forensics Laboratory,
Anew Library and Archives,
A Renal Transplant Unit in the Jawaharlal Nehru Hospital,
New Mediclinics and Area Health Centres and a project to replace water supply pipes.
NHRC directives regarding polavaram irrigation project
The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has recently directed East Godavari Collector
to initiate action within eight weeks on the alleged demolition of 16 houses of the Polavaram
irrigation project evacuees at Seetaram village without settling the Resettlement and
Rehabilitation (R&R) package . Rights Watch Andhra Pradesh has lodged this case in NHRC.
NHRC is considered the vanguard of Human Rights protection in the country. Development
and related displacement issues violate Human Rights of the people. Therefore NHRC finds a
crucial role to protect human rights.
Polavaram Irrigation Project (PIP) was declared as National Project under Section 90 of Andhra
Pradesh Re-organisation Act-2014, is being implemented through an Authority constituted by
Ministry of Jal Shakti. The works of Rehabilitation and Resettlement (R & R) are being carried
out by the State Govt. The State Govt. has set up district level grievance cell for sorting out
grievances of displaced people, if any. Commissioner (R & R), Govt. of Andhra Pradesh is the
Appellate Authority at State level to dispose off any appeal against the decision(s) of district
level grievance cell.
There are 1,05,601 Project Displaced Families (PDFs) due to Polavaram Project and R & R works
in respect of 3922 PDFs have been completed as reported by the State Government.
The Water Resources Projects are planned, funded, executed and maintained by the
concerned State Governments themselves as per their own resources and priority. The land
acquisition (LA) and Rehabilitation and Resettlement (R & R) works of such projects are also
carried out by the concerned State Governments. In order to supplement their efforts,
Government of India provides technical and financial assistance to encourage sustainable
development and efficient management of water resources through various schemes and
programmes.
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Pakistan lifts ban on Indian Exports
Pakistan has decided to lift its ban of Cotton and Sugar imports from India. India –Pakistan trade
was always impacted by its political relations. Indian goods exports to Pakistan fell by 16% in
2016-17 in comparison to 2015-16 because of Uri attack and the Indian Army’s surgical strikes
on militant launch pads in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir in 2016.
The trade between two countries grew marginally because of continuous tension. Indian
exports hardly rose to 6% in 2017-18 and then to around 7% in 2018-19. However Indian imports
are very less in volume from Pakistan but that showed slight increase of 7.5% in 2017-18 in
comparison to 2016-17. Around 1% increase in import to Pakistan was seen in 2019.
India has trade surplus with Pakistan. Pakistan was among India’s top 50 trade partners in
2018-19, but was removed from the list in 2019-20. It had been expected that a trade ban
between both the countries would impact Pakistan more, because it depended heavily on
India for major raw materials for its textiles and pharmaceuticals industries.
In 2018-19, cotton and organic chemicals accounted for around half of Pakistan’s imports from
India. Other major products that were imported to Pakistan from India that year included
plastic, tanning/dyeing extracts, and nuclear reactors, boilers, machinery, and mechanical
appliances.
After the ban, imports fell drastically to $1 million to $2 million between April 2020 and January
2021, while cotton imports stopped completely. The only increase was seen in pharmaceutical
products to ensure sufficient supplies of medicines during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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India’s major imports from Pakistan in 2018-19 were mineral fuels and oils, edible fruits and nut,
salt, sulphur, stone and plastering materials, ores, slag and ash and raw hides and leather.
India imported these products in higher volumes from other countries such as Saudi Arabia,
US, UAE, Chile and Italy.
Reason for trade ban
The constitutional changes made in Jammu and Kashmir by revoking article 370 was said to be
the fall out of Pakistan. However, the primary reason for freezing trade was the 200 per cent
tariff thrust by New Delhi on Pakistani imports earlier that year after India quashed Pakistan’s
Most Favoured Nation (MFN) status as a consequence of the Pulwama terrorist attack. Trade
between both the nations suffered greatly.
Reason for lifting the ban
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The Pakistani decision to lift the ban on cotton imports comes because of a shortage in raw
material for Pakistan’s textile sector. Textile industry has suffered due to low domestic yields of
cotton and also, imports from countries like the US and Brazil are costlier and take much time
to arrive.
The decision on lifting ban on sugar was dominated by high domestic prices. The increase in
imports of sugar was an initiative “to stabilize the market prices”. Sugar prices are low in India
than in Pakistan.
It is expected that by lifting the ban, trade will re-open between India and Pakistan.
India-Bahrain High Joint Commission meeting
On March 31, 2021 The meeting of the India-Bahrain High Joint Commission (HJC) which is a
Senior Officials Meeting (SOM) was held in virtual mode. Both sides highlighted their strong
bilateral ties spanning a wide range of areas and which was also reflected in the excellent
cooperation between the two countries in handling Covid-19 situation.
Both sides also reviewed their cooperation in different areas, including oil and gas, trade and
investment, defence and security, food security, healthcare, renewable energy, space, IT,
human resource, education and culture.
The third India-Bahrain High Joint Commission will be held in New Delhi on April 7, 2021. The
meeting will be co-chaired by Dr. S. Jaishankar, Minister of External Affairs of India and H.E. Dr.
Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Bahrain.
Bahrain’s leadership has already appreciated the contribution of the Indian community to the
development of the kingdom and the assistance provided by India during the Covid pandemic
through the supply of medicines, medical equipment and medical professionals.
Both the countries have also expressed satisfaction on the operationalisation of Air Bubble
arrangement between them.
India Bahrain relations:
India and Bahrain enjoy excellent bilateral relations characterized by cordial political, economic
and cultural contacts. Our bilateral Trade and commercial exchanges go back to about 5,000
years ago tracing their origins to the period of Dilmun Civilization in Bahrain to the era of Indus
valley civilization in India. Presence of atleast 3 lakhs 50 thousands indian nationals who
comprise a third of Bahrain's total population of 1.4 million is an important pillar of the bilateral
relations between India and Bahrain.
The current annual bilateral trade between India and Bahrain is 753.60 million dollars.
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51st Dada Saheb Phalke Award
In News
Dada Saheb Phalke award 2019 has been conferred on Superstar Rajnikanth.
About
Rajnikanth made his debut in Kollywood in 1975 K Balachander’s Apoorva Ragangal. In 2018 the
award was given to Amitabh Bachchan.
Dada Saheb Phalke Award is the highest award of Indian Cinema that was introduced in the
year 1969. It is presented annually at the National Film Awards Ceremony by the Directorate of
Film Festivals, an organisation of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.
Phalke (1870–1944), who is popularly known as and often regarded as "the father of Indian
cinema", was an Indian filmmaker who directed India's first full-length feature film, Raja
Harishchandra (1913).
The first recipient of the award was actress Devika Rani, (widely acknowledged as ‘first lady of
Indian Cinema’) who was honoured at the 17th National Film Awards in 1969.
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