- CAA rules allow dual citizenship: pleas in SC
- The rules of the citizenship amendment act do not require foreign applicants to effectively renounce the citizenship of their native country creating a possibility for dual citizenship which is directly violated of the citizenship act, petitioners have argued in the Supreme Court.
- Section nine of the citizenship act of 1955 and article nine of the constitution both clearly and explicitly prohibits the acquisition of dual citizenship.
- Petitioners say rules overlook the fact that effective renunciation of citizenship is a prerequisite for citizenship in cases where the nationality of another country is clearly attributable to the applicant.
- According to article 9 of the Indian Constitution, no person shall be a citizen of India by virtue of article 5, or be deemed to be a citizen of India by virtue of article 6 or article 8, if he has voluntarily acquired the citizenship of any foreign State.
2. States offer thousands of hectares of degraded forest land for green credits
- Weeks after the union environment ministry announced the rules for its green credit programme, 10 states have identified parcels of degraded forest land that will be available for individual and groups to earn and trade green credits.
- Madhya Pradesh alone accounted for up to 40% of the forest land made available.
- Under the scheme, registered and approved entities can pay to finance deforestation projects in specific tracts of degraded forest and wasteland.
- The actual afforestation will be carried out by state first departments.
- Two years after planting, each planted tree could be worth one green credit.
- An evaluation will be carried out by the International Council of Forestry Research and education which is an autonomous body of the Environment Ministry.
- These green credits can then be used by companies which have diverted forest land for non-forest purposes and raised thousands of trees to offset some of their obligations under India’s compensatory afforestation laws.
- In 1986 the Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education or ICFRE was formed as an umbrella organisation for taking care of forestry research, education and extension needs of the country. Finally on 1st June 1991, the ICFRE was declared an autonomous Council under the then Ministry of Environment and Forests and registered as a Society under the Societies Registration Act, 1860.
3. Influenza AH5N1 detected in dairy cows in six states in the US
- Avian influenza is a highly contagious viral infection that primarily affects birds.
- In rare instances the viruses can infect mammals from birds causing spillovers, and in recent years several such instances of spillovers spanning over 200 species have been noted, the most recent being polar bears in Antarctica.
- Close contact with infected animals could mean the virus could spill over infecting humans and this comes with a significantly large fatality rate.
- A multistate outbreak of H5N1 in dairy cows was detected in the US.
- This is the first time that H5N1 has been detected in cattle. It raises concerns about potential transmission routes.
- So far 800 sporadic human H5N1 cases have been reported from over 20 countries with a case fatality ratio of 53%.
- Avian influenza or bird flu refers to the disease caused by infection with avian influenza Type A viruses.H5N1, a subtype of avian influenza, has the potential to infect other mammals such as minks, ferrets, seals, domestic cats, and others through contact with infected birds, their faeces, or infected bird carcasses.
4. Traders rue underpriced onion exports to the UAE
- Amid an extended ban on onion exports, farmers and traders are miffed that some shipments allowed by the government to markets such as the UAE have been sold at a pittance, even as global prices have soared.
- This has yielded windfall profits for selected importers.
- Fearing a domestic shortage of the politically sensitive crop the government had imposed a ban on its export in December. However, it had kept the window open for exports to countries in response to requests received through diplomatic channels.
- Windfall gain (or windfall profit) is an unexpected gain in income which could be due to winning a lottery, unforeseen inheritance or shortage of supply. Windfall gains are transitory in nature.
5. What is the technology behind manufacturing a semiconductor chip?
- The Tata Group has partnered with Taiwan’s power chip semiconductor manufacturing corporation to set up a 300mm wafer fabrication plant in Gujarat.
- It will rule out its first 28mm chip in 2026.
- As semiconductor has properties between a conductor and an insulator. In its purest form a semiconductor is a very weak conductor of electricity.
- Its electrical properties can be changed by adding small amounts of certain substances called dopants.
- The most popular form it can function is as an electronic switch. A typical semiconductor chip can have millions and billions of these interconnected switches that work together to perform various logical and computational operations.
- In semiconductor production, doping is the intentional introduction of impurities into an intrinsic (undoped) semiconductor for the purpose of modulating its electrical, optical and structural properties. The doped material is referred to as an extrinsic semiconductor
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- Chennai Metro Rail has been awarded the Vishwakarma Award by the Construction Industry Development Council
- BioAsia Conference 2024 was held in Hyderabad.
