Why in news?

• The Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC)has designed and installed a supercomputer named “PARAM Ganga”, at IIT Roorkee, under Phase II of National Supercomputing Mission (NSM). PARAM Ganga has a supercomputing capacity of 66 Petaflops.

About National Supercomputing Mission (NSM)

• NSM is a joint initiative of the Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeiTY) and the Department of Science and Technology (DST).
• The mission is implemented by the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) and the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore.
• The NSM Mission aims to build and deploy 24 facilities with cumulative compute power of more than 64 Petaflops.
• Till date 11 systems have been deployed by C-DAC at IISc, IITs, IISER Pune, JNCASR, NABI-Mohali and C-DAC under NSM Phase-1 and Phase-2 with a cumulative computing power of more than 20 Petaflops.

Why in news?

• Haryana government has announced Matrushakti Udaymita Scheme to provide support to women entrepreneurs, on International Women’s Day.
• Under the scheme, the women whose family annual income is less than 5 lakh rupees based on Parivar Pehchan Patra (PPP) verified data, will be provided access to soft loans by financial institutions to the extent of 3 lakh rupees.
• Subsequently, the interest subvention of 7% will also be provided for three years through the Haryana Women Development Corporation.

Why in news?

• The Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, M. K. Stalin inaugurated India’s largest floating solar power plant constructed at a cost of Rs 150.4 crore.
• The floating plant is established in Southern Petrochemicals Industries Corporation Limited (SPIC) factory at Thoothukudi in Tamil Nadu to provide clean energy.
• The floating power plant has the capacity to produce 42 million units of electricity per annum.
• The solar power plant is owned by Greenam Energy, a wholly-owned subsidiary of AM International.
• lt is the SPIC’s part of Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) progress, to produce renewable energy.
• The 48-acre floating solar power plant has been set up on a large water reservoir that spans 62-acres. The solar arrays are placed on floating structures on a water body.
• The plant provides the energy to the SPIC and Greenstar fertilisers factories.
• The 25.3 MegaWatt Direct Current / 22 MegaWatt Alternate Current floating solar power plant project aligns with their strategy to implement new-age green and sustainable technology.
• The solar panels on the water reduce the evaporation upto 60 percent.

Why in news?

• On 7 March 2022, the Chief Minister (CM) of Chhattisgarh in Raipur launched the ‘Kaushalya Matritva Yojana’ by handing cheques of Rs 5,000 each to five women beneficiaries for the safe motherhood practices.
• It aims to help women financially for the nutrition of themselves and their child after pregnancy. It will also prevent female foeticide.
• Under this scheme, financial assistance of Rs 5000 will be provided to women for bringing up their second girl child.
• The entire expenditure of this scheme will be borne by the Chhattisgarh government.

Why in news?

• The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) released a booklet titled “BE(A)WARE”.
• It provides information on the common modus operandi used by fraudsters and precautions to be taken while carrying out various financial transactions.
• The booklet will enhance public awareness about financial frauds perpetrated on innocent customers.
• It also provides safeguards against commonly used fraudulent techniques like SIM swaps, phishing links, lottery, fake loan websites and digital apps etc.
• According to the Ombudsman Offices & Consumer Education and Protection Cells (CEPCs) of RBI, sharing of confidential information by the customers, knowingly or unknowingly is one of the major causes leading to the financial frauds in India.

Why in news?

• A controversy erupted after Maharashtra governor’s remarks on Savitribai and Jyotirao Phule.
• Their contributions:
• They stand out as an extraordinary couple in the social and educational history of India.
• Started a school for girls, Shudras and Ati-Shudras in Poona (1848)
• Opened a care centre for pregnant widows (1853) to have safe deliveries and to end the practice of infanticide owing to social norms.
• The Balhatya Pratibandhak Griha was started in their own house in Pune.
• Established Satyashodhak Samaj (The Truth-Seeker’s Society) in 1873,that advocated for social changes that went against prevalent traditions like inter-caste marriages, eradication of child marriages, and widow remarriage etc.

Why in news?

• FM has justified the 2% equalisation levy (EL) imposed by India on the supply of services by multinational enterprises (MNEs), saying it is a sovereign right to tax revenues earned from operations in the country.
• Tech giants and e-commerce firms have been asking India to withdraw the 2% EL on non-resident companies.
• Equalisation Levy was conceptualized in 2015, as an interim measure, as one of the three measures to tackle the emerging issue from digital transactions proposed by the OECD in Pillar 1 action plan of Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) project.
• The equalization levy is aimed at taxing foreign companies which have a significant local client base in India but are billing them through their offshore units, effectively escaping the country’s tax system.
• BEPS refers to tax planning strategies used by multinational enterprises that exploit gaps and mismatches in tax rules to avoid paying tax.
• Subsequently OECD/G20 inclusive framework on BEPS provides a solution for global tax consists of two pillars:
• Pillar One: Applied to about 100 biggest and most profitable MNEs (global turnover above 20 bilion euros and profitability above 10%), it reallocates part of their profits to places where they sell products or provide services.
• Pillar Two: Applied to larger MNEs, i.e., companies with over EUR 750 million of annual revenue, it subjects them to the global minimum corporate tax of 15% from 2023.

Why in news?

• Preliminary findings of a study by Wildlife Institute of India (WII) suggest that the density of tigers in the Sunderbans may have reached the carrying capacity of the mangrove forests.
• All-India Tiger report (2018) put the carrying capacity in the Sunderbans “at around 4 tigers” per 100 sq km while the ongoing WII study indicates a density of 3-5 tigers.
• Carrying capacity can be defined as a species’ average population size in a particular habitat. The species population size is limited by environmental factors like adequate food, shelter, water, and mates.
• It is also an important basis for the measurement and management of human sustainable development.
• Steps required
• New perimeter of defining the peak density of forest should be revised, amidst the increase in human interference for livelihood due to CoVID -19.
• Sustainable land uses to minimize damage and adequate incentives to promote acceptance of wildlife.
• Functional connections between reserves so that tigers can have healthy intermixing of populations.
• New management strategies of wildlife should be decentralized at the local level.

About Sunderban

• It is the world’s largest mangrove delta which is home to Royal Bengal Tigers is spread across 10,000 sq km.
• More than 4,000 sq km is in West Bengal and the rest in Bangladesh.
• It is a biosphere reserve, national park and tiger reserve.
• It was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987.

Why in news?

• T Raja Kumar, a Singaporean, has been named president of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the world’s anti-money laundering and anti-terrorism financing agency. His appointment is for a set two-year term, which begins on July 1. During the FATF plenary, he was chosen to succeed Dr Marcus Pleyer of Germany.
• Mr Raja’s nomination marks the first time Singapore has assumed the president of the organization.
• Mr Raja is a senior advisor at MHA and has been the leader of Singapore’s FATF mission since January 1, 2015. Since July 2018, he has also been a member of the steering group, which advises the FATF president.
• The FATF is an intergovernmental organisation set up by the G7 in 1989to prevent and combat money laundering, terrorism, and proliferation finance.

Why in news?

• 19-year-old Priyanka Nutakki has secured her final WGM-norm at MPL’s forty-seventh National Women Chess Championship. She became India’s twenty-third Woman Grandmaster. She is from Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh.
• Priyanka Nutakki scored her first WGM-norm in January 2019 and crossed the 2300 rating criteria in the next two months. However, much like a lot of players, the Covid-19 pandemic delayed her title hopes.
• Priyanka braved the odds, resumed playing over-the-board tournaments in October 2021 at Chess Mood Open. In her third over-the-board tournament of the year, she scored her second WGM and maiden IM-norm at the 7th Sunway Sitges Open 2021.