- Use dictionary meaning of forest, Supreme Court tells Centre
- The Supreme Court directed that the expression forest will continue to have a broad and all encompassing meaning for the time being and include 1.97 lakh square kilometre of undeclared forest lands.
- The order was passed on the petitions challenging the amendments introduced in 2023 to the Forest Conservation Act 1980.
- The petitions argued that the amendment had circumscribed or substantially diluted the definition of forest to two categories – declared forests and land reported as forests in government records after 1980.
- The court directed the government to revert to the dictionary meaning of forest as upheld by it in a 1996 decision.
- ‘Deemed forests’ refer to areas that are not formally classified as forests by central or state authorities in official records. The Supreme Court’s T N Godavarman Thirumulpad Case (1996) embraced an expansive interpretation of forests.
2. Elephant tracking in Idukki forests gets easier as new AI camera beams live images on social media
- The Forest Department has installed an artificial intelligence enabled surveillance camera system in Idukki Forest to provide imagery of herds of wild elephants reaching the famed water hole there.
- Live images from the spot will be made available to tourists through a telegram channel. Images will be available within 30 seconds to one minute of it being clicked.
3. The recent report on local fin tech players
- The Standing Committee on communications and information technology has raised concerns about the dominance of fintech apps owned by foreign entities in the Indian ecosystem and recommended that local players will be promoted.
- It mentioned that the unified payments interface commanded a 73.5% share of the total digital payments in terms of volume in the present financial year. However, its share in terms of value was only 6.67% in the same period.
- It noted that it will be more feasible for regulatory bodies such as the Reserve Bank of India and the national payments corporation of India to control local apps as compared to foreign apps.
- The committee observed that Fintech companies were also being used for money laundering. The fraud to sales ratio has largely remained around 0.0015%.
- UPI is a system that powers multiple bank accounts into a single mobile application (of any participating bank), merging several banking features, seamless fund routing & merchant payments into one hood. UPI is currently the biggest among the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) operated systems.
4. Political Deadlock in Northern Ireland
- Northern Ireland has finally developed a new government this month after a hiatus between the two main parties since the 2022 elections to the Stormont Assembly.
- The Democratic Unionist Party was a signatory to Britain’s withdrawal agreement with the European Union. The party has hence boycotted Stormont Institutions since the 2022 regional elections.
- The 2023 Windsor Framework addressed concerns over the uk withdrawal protocol and simplified the paperwork required to send goods to Great Britain from Northern Ireland. The Windsor Framework is a post-Brexit legal agreement between the European Union and the United Kingdom which adjusts the operation of the Northern Ireland Protocol. The Framework was announced on 27 February 2023, formally adopted by both parties on 24 March 2023.
5. No aadhaar number cancelled, says UIDAI
- The unique identification authority of India said that to keep the aadhaar database updated intimations are being issued to aadhaar number holders from time to time, but no number has been cancelled.
- Aadhaar is used to avail of numerous subsidies and benefits and services.
- The authorities said that to maintain the accuracy of the aadhaar database the authority had initiated an exercise for update of documents and aadhar information.
- Aadhaar is a 12-digit individual identification number issued by the Unique Identification Authority of India on behalf of the Government of India. The number serves as proof of identity and address, anywhere in India
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India is set to launch its first ever HEMS service in Uttatakhand.
HEMS: Helicopter Emergency Medical Services. It was announced by Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia. It motive to enhance Healthcare Accessibility Particularly in Remote and Mountainous Regions
