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National:

1. The State Forest Department of West Bengal through Central Government will apply to
Ramsar Convention Secretariat to include Sunderbans in Ramsar list. West Bengal
government has given its approval to State Forest Department to apply for coveted Ramsar Site
recognition under Ramsar Convention. There are currently 26 sites in India recognised as
Ramsar wetland sites of international importance, including East Kolkata Wetlands in West
Bengal. Sunderban Reserve Forest is spread across 4,260 sq. km. with over 2,000 sq. km. of
mangrove forests and creeks making it ideal site of wetland. Once it is conferred Ramsar site
status, Sundarbans Reserve Forest will be largest protected wetland in the country.
2. Bengaluru Smart City is testing prototype of an intelligent traffic management solution in
collaboration with the Electronics City Township Authority (ELCITA) to improve traffic
management in the city. It involves capturing video streams from several cameras and
processing them using artificial intelligence. This will help in automation of traffic management
tasks such as vehicle detection, traffic density estimation and control of traffic lights for real-time
performance.
3. Diu Smart City has become first city in India to run on 100% renewable energy during
daytime. Diu was importing 73% of its power from Gujarat until last year. But now it has adopted
two-pronged approach to reduce dependence on Gujarat for power requirements through
renewable energy. With this, it has set new benchmark for other cities to become clean and
green.
4. The Justice Rajesh Bindal committee has submitted on legal issues related to inter
country removal & retention of children its report to Ministry of Women and Child
Development (WCD). The recommendations of Committee includes government should
establish ‘Inter Country Parental Child Removal Disputes Resolution Authority (ICPCRDRA)’ and
stressed upon need for mediation as first step. The authority will be chaired by retired High Court
Judge and shall have members from Legal and Social sector background along with
representatives from key Ministries. It will envisaged to provide one window solution in cases of
inter country removal and retention of children.
5. A six-decade-old protected area permit (PAP) regime to allow foreign tourists to access
border areas of Nagaland, Mizoram and Manipur has relaxed by Ministry of Home Affairs
(MHA) for five years with effect from April 1, 2018 with protected area permit (PAP). The
protected areas currently include whole of Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Manipur, Nagaland and
Sikkim, besides parts of Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Rajasthan and Jammu and Kashmir.
Some parts of Sikkim fall under protected area regime while others under restricted area regime.
6. Chennai based Geographical Indication Registry has awarded Geographical Indication (GI)
Tag to two more craft forms from Telangana viz. Adilabad dokra and Warangal
Dhurries. Adilabad Dokra is an ancient bell metal craft and Warangal Dhurries is a popular
traditional cotton rug. Adilabad Dokra is a form of ancient bell metal craft practiced by Woj
community native to Adilabad district of Telangana. They use ancient casting technique
called cire perdue (lost wax casting technique), a technique wherein duplicate metal sculpture is
cast from an original sculpture. Warangal Dhurries is a popular traditional thick cotton rug in
which weavers create beautiful patterns and dye them using vegetable colours, which are
washed in flowing water after the printing process.
7. The Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958 (AFSPA) was completely removed from
Meghalaya and some areas of Arunachal Pradesh with effect from April 1, 2018. Till
September 2017, 40 percent of Meghalaya was under AFSPA including the 20 km stretch of the
state’s 884.9 km border with Assam. However, AFSPA has been restricted to eight police stations
of Arunachal Pradesh bordering Assam and three districts adjoining Myanmar namely Tirap,
Longding and Changlang.
8. The Supreme Court of India on April 23, 2018 sought a response from the Central
Government on pleas challenging the Indian Penal Code’s Section 377, which criminalises
homosexuality.
The response was sought by a 3-judge bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra, Justice A M
Khanwilkar and Justice D Y Chandrachud on a plea by hotelier and LGBT activist Kesav Suri.
The bench tagged Suri's plea with an earlier pending challenge to Section 377. Following this,
senior counsel Mukul Rohatgi urged the court to ask the government to respond to the plea.
9. A group of 50 alumni from the prestigious Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) across the
country have quit their jobs to form a political party to fight for the rights of Scheduled
Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes. The group, which is waiting for an
approval from the Election Commission, has named their outfit "Bahujan Azad Party". The party
members, however, do not aim for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. The group, which includes
members mostly from the SC, ST and OBC communities, feels that the backward classes have
not received their due in terms of education and employment. All set with a poster which has
pictures of B R Ambedkar, Subhas Chandra Bose and A P J Abdul Kalam, among others, the
party has already begun a social media campaign.

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