25th March, 2023 Current Affairs

Sakshi Education

NATIONAL

Guillotine Parliamentary Procedure

With the ongoing verbal battle and sloganeering between the ruling party and the opposition in the Indian Parliament, the Budget session is facing a potential washout. As a result, the Speaker is expected to use the guillotine procedure to ensure the passage of financial bills. In this article, we will explore the Guillotine Parliamentary Procedure and its significance in the Indian Parliament.
The Guillotine Parliamentary Procedure is a process used in Parliament or state assemblies to group together and expedite the passage of financial business. During the Budget session, the procedure is used to save time when all the clauses of a measure cannot be discussed in the allotted time.
Each Bill is allotted a specific amount of time for consideration in Parliament. A Bill is usually composed of several clauses. Once the allotted time to discuss the clauses of the Bill is over, the Speaker of the House rolls out guillotine closure. The undiscussed clauses of a bill or resolution are placed for vote alongside the discussed portions.

INTERNATIONAL
US military carries out multiple air strikes in Syria

The U.S. military carried out multiple air strikes in Syria on Thursday night against Iran-aligned groups that it blamed for a drone attack that killed an American contractor and injured five American troops. Both the attack on U.S. personnel and the retaliation were disclosed by the Pentagon late on Thursday. The military said the U.S. intelligence community assessed that the one-way attack drone was Iranian in origin.
Although, U.S. forces stationed in Syria have been targeted by drones before fatalities are extremely rare.
U.S. Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin said the retaliatory strikes were carried out at the direction of President Joe Biden and targeted facilities used by groups affiliated with Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a group that monitors the war in Syria, said the U.S. strikes had left eight pro-Iranian fighters dead in Syria.

UK King Charles III's state visit to Paris postponed amid mass protest against pension reforms

United Kingdom King Charles III's state visit to Paris has been postponed amid the mass protest against the unpopular pension reforms.
The King had been scheduled to arrive in France on Sunday on his first state visit as monarch, before heading to Germany on Wednesday.
This decision was taken by the French and British governments, after a telephone exchange between the President of the Republic and the King. According to the French president's office, this State visit will be rescheduled as soon as possible.

Armenian PM announced to be peace treaty between Armenia and Azerbaijan based on joint official statements

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on announced that there will be a peace treaty between Armenia and Azerbaijan based on joint official statements adopted at the highest level. Armenia and Azerbaijan, both ex-Soviet states, have been engaged in two wars since their independence.
The two Caucasus neighbours have fought two wars for control of Azerbaijan’s Armenian-populated enclave that have claimed tens of thousands of lives.
Internationally-mediated peace talks between the countries have since produced little result.
Last month, Russia blamed Armenia for a breakdown in peace talks with Azerbaijan, in the latest sign of friction between Moscow and Yerevan over the conflict.

US and Canada reached agreement to turn away asylum seekers at unofficial border crossings

The US and Canada have reached an agreement to turn away asylum seekers at unofficial border crossings. US President Joe Biden and Canadian PM Justin Trudeau are expected to announce the deal today.
The accord is expected to allow officials on both sides of the border to turn back such asylum seekers heading in either direction. The move is part of efforts to limit an influx of migrants at Roxham Road.
The deal is an amendment to the 2004 Safe Third Country Agreement between the two sides, which requires migrants to make an asylum claim in the first "safe" country they reach, whether it is the US or Canada. The new arrangement would close a loophole in the Safe Third Country Agreement that prevented Canada from turning away those crossing the border at unofficial crossing points.

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SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
Asteroid Ryugu and the Theory of Panspermia

A team of researchers has made a groundbreaking discovery that could lend further support to the theory of panspermia, which suggests that life on Earth may have originated from outer space. The researchers have found building blocks of RNA in just 10 milligrams of materials from the asteroid Ryugu.
Ryugu is a C-type asteroid, meaning it contains a high amount of carbon. This makes it a prime candidate for research into the origins of life, as carbon is a fundamental building block of life as we know it. The asteroid was visited by the Japanese spacecraft Hayabusa2, which collected samples from the asteroid’s surface and returned them to Earth for analysis.
The team of researchers analyzed the Ryugu samples using state-of-the-art analytical techniques. They found that the samples contained adenine and guanine, which are two of the four building blocks of RNA. RNA, or ribonucleic acid, is a molecule that plays a crucial role in the transfer of genetic information within cells.
The discovery of adenine and guanine in the Ryugu samples is significant, as it suggests that these building blocks of RNA may have been delivered to Earth by asteroids or comets. This could support the theory of panspermia, which suggests that life on Earth may have originated from microorganisms or other forms of life that were carried to our planet on asteroids or comets.

WHO calls for intensified actions to eradicate Tuberculosis in South East Asia region

On World Tuberculosis Day, the World Health Organisation has called for intensified actions to eradicate the disease in the South East Asia region which bears the world's highest TB burden. WHO Regional Director for South-East Asia, Dr. Poonam Khetrapal Singh highlighted the urgent need for countries to uptake new WHO recommendations and innovations, better address social and economic determinants, and improve multisectoral collaboration.
In 2021, the Region accounted for more than 45 per cent of global TB incidence and more than half of global TB deaths.
According to the WHO official release, the COVID-19 crisis has exacerbated key social and economic determinants of TB such as poverty and under-nutrition, pushing tens of millions more people in the Region into extreme poverty. It is estimated that across the Region, the overall impact of the crisis could lead to over seven million additional TB cases and 1.5 million additional TB deaths between 2022 and 2026.
In 2022, budget allocations for TB programmes in the Region reached a cumulative total of nearly 1.4 US billion dollars, almost 60 per cent from domestic resources.

SPORTS

India's Rudrankksh Balasaheb Patil wins bronze medal in 10m Air Rifle event of ISSF World Cup Shooting Championship

India's Rudranksh Patil won a bronze medal in the 10m Air Rifle event by scoring 262.2 points in the 8th ISSF World Cup Shooting Championship at the Madhya Pradesh State Shooting Academy of Excellence in Bhopal. This is Rudraksh's second medal in this World Cup.
He won a bronze medal in the mixed event yesterday, playing with his partner Narmada Raju. India's Hriday Hazarika finished sixth with a score of 208.7. India finished second with a total of five medals, one gold, one silver and three bronze. China is still at the top with a total of eight medals.

AWARDS

Argentine-American Mathematician Luis Caffarelli Wins 2023 Abel Prize

The Abel Prize, named after Norwegian mathematician Niels Henrik Abel, is considered one of the highest honors in mathematics. The prize is conferred every year by the King of Norway and is awarded to one or more outstanding mathematicians. This year, the Abel Prize was awarded to Argentine-American mathematician Luis Caffarelli for his groundbreaking contributions to several areas of mathematics.
Luis Caffarelli is a distinguished mathematician who was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1948. He obtained his undergraduate degree from the University of Buenos Aires in 1971 and his PhD from the University of Chicago in 1974. After completing his PhD, Caffarelli went on to hold academic positions at several universities, including the University of Texas at Austin, the University of Chicago, and the University of Minnesota. Since 2010, he has been a professor of mathematics at the University of Texas at Austin.

Published date : 25 Mar 2023 05:29PM