Must Read News Articles – March 18, 2018

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Society related issues:

Promoting torture in India(The Hindu Opinion)

After all, talented professionals have sharpened their skills of custodial torture

Breaking the silence(The Hindu Opinion)

According to UN data, 66% of Indian girls are unaware of menstruation before their first period. For 23% to 28% of girls in rural India, periods, together with a lack of private spaces and facilities are a major reason for their being out of school.


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International relations:

Pak. withholds envoy’s return(The Hindu)

India issued another note verbale to Pakistan on the continued harassment of Indian High Commission officials, including two incidents on Saturday. According to the note — India’s second formal protest in two days — Indian diplomats had been subjected to ‘aggressive surveillance and harassment’, as the month-old diplomatic spat intensified.

Indian Constitution and Polity:

The runaway locomotive of EVMs(The Hindu)

It happened in December 1841 near Reading, England. A Great Western Railway luggage train travelling from London Paddington to Bristol Temple Meads station had just entered Sonning Cutting.

Situating plurality in an egalitarian frame(The Hindu)

India’s own diversity is among the richest: countless culinary habits, dress, customs and musical traditions; more than 200 different dialects and languages; religious and doctrinal diversity, the ritual-oriented Vedic practices, the teachings of Buddha, Mahavira, Zarathustra, the Torah, and Guru Nanak, the religiosity in the Puranas, Islam, Syriac-Christianity, the great varieties of animism and atheism.


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Economy:

Ahead of 2019, Congress fixes focus on farmers(The Hindu)

Promises panel on farm labour welfare, guarantee social security for elderlyTo re-examine GST rate on agricultural equipment to bring down input costsLauds Karnataka for setting up agricultural prices commissionPromises to revamp methodology tofix MSP, include more crops

Notice to Bengal over GI tag for ‘Rosogolla’(The Hindu)

The Geographical Indication (GI) Registry has issued a notice to the West Bengal State Food Processing and Horticulture Development Corporation, asking why the GI recognition given to ‘Banglar Rosogolla’ not be withdrawn.

‘Ease of doing business improves in West Bengal’(The Hindu)

West Bengal was now more conducive to doing business, offering satisfactory environment even as concerns remained over the acquisition of land for large projects, according to a survey.

Science and Technology:

A knowledge hub for medicinal plants(The Hindu)

The use of Indian medicinal plants for drug discovery and therapeutics just received a boost.

New understanding of mental health(The Hindu)

Mental health issues could show up in the physiology of the brain, according to a study published recently in Science .

IIT Kanpur researchers find why babies need to move in the womb(The Hindu)

Formation of joints in the developing embryo and their maintenance after birth is sensitive to mechanical movement. Now, researchers at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur have deciphered the molecular mechanism underlying this phenomenon.

No sign of new neurons in adult humans, says study(The Hindu)

The human brain may not be as pliant as was believed, a recent study shows. In this study, bound to provoke argument, researchers observe that the latest neurons form in the brain when the subject is about 13 years old and no later. This finding, published in Nature, contradicts earlier experiments, according to which neurons in the hippocampal region of the brain could be formed even late in adulthood.

IIT Guwahati develops superhydrophobic coating that mimics lotus leaves or rose petals(The Hindu)

A polymeric coating that is extremely water-repelling (superhydrophobic) and will allow water to roll off from the surface like in the case of a lotus leaf or stick to the surface as in the case of rose petals has been synthesised by a two-member team from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Guwahati.

Novel nanoparticles to help cell imaging(The Hindu)

New fluorescent nanoparticles created from simple biomolecules can now help light up cancer cells for better imaging.

Vitamin B12 supplements may reduce diabetes risk(The Hindu)

Researchers from CSIR-Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), Hyderabad along with scientists from Pune, Singapore and UK studied the molecular pathway to understand how B12 supplements are associated with Type 2 diabetes and its associated genes.

Maharashtra’s two potentially endangered endemic shrubs(The Hindu)

Crotolaria species (ripe fruits of which are used by children as rattles) are small shrubs bearing bright yellow blooms and are common across the Indian countryside. But Indian botanists have just discovered two rattlepod species — woody and multi-bracted rattlepods — that survive only in the hill tracts of Maharashtra.


Yesterday’s current affairs material by Forum IAS


7 PM Editorial:  War against tuberculosis in India: an overview

 9 PM Current affairs brief:

10 PM Current affairs MCQS

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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