Citizens backed by various Non-Governmental Organisations across the North-Eastern States are protesting against the government’s bid to reintroduce the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill.

The proposed legislation was cleared by the Lok Sabha in January, 2019 but not tabled in the Rajya Sabha.

WHAT IS THE CITIZENSHIP AMENDMENT BILL 2016?

It seeks to allow illegal migrants from certain minority communities in Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan eligible for Indian citizenship by amending the Citizenship Act of 1955.
It seeks to grant citizenship to people from minority communities — Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians —after 6 years of stay in India even if they do not possess any proper document. The current requirement is 12 years of stay.
The Bill provides that the registration of Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) cardholders may be canceled if they violate any law.
The Bill, however, does not extend to illegal Muslim migrants. It also does not talk about other minority communities in the three neighboring countries, such as Jews, Bahais, etc.

United Nations General Assembly (UNGA)

Popularly known as the parliament of the world, where all the 193 UN member states are represented, the UNGA is the deliberative, policymaking and representative organ of the UN.

Roles and functions:

Takes a decision on important matters such as peace and security, discusses various global issues and budgetary matters.
Decides on matters such as the admission of new members.
Decisions are taken through a vote. Admission of new members and budgetary matters require a two-thirds majority, while the decision on other issues are taken by a simple majority.
Each sovereign state gets one vote and the votes are not binding on the membership, except in budgetary matters.
The Assembly has no binding votes or veto powers like the UN Security Council.
The UNGA can express world opinion, promote international cooperation in various fields and make recommendations to the UNSC and elect the Security Council’s non-permanent members.

Which countries are not a part of UNGA?

Among the world’s 196 countries, 193 are UN member states and three nations- Palestine, the Vatican City and Taiwan are not a part of the international organization as their country status is not recognized globally due to political and religious reasons.

United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in its Trade and Development Report 2019 has recommended the adoption of a unitary taxation system for the Multi-National Enterprises (MNEs).

About the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD):

UNCTAD is a permanent intergovernmental body established by the United NationsGeneral Assembly in 1964.
It is part of the UN Secretariat.
It reports to the UN General Assembly and the Economic and Social Council, but has its own membership, leadership, and budget.
It is also a part of the United Nations Development Group.
It supports developing countries to access the benefits of a globalized economy more fairly and effectively. Along with other UN departments and agencies, it also measures the progress made in the Sustainable Development Goals, as set out in Agenda 2030.

Reports published by UNCTAD are:
Trade and Development Report
World Investment Report
Technology and Innovation Report
Digital Economy Report

Goldschmidtite
It is a new mineral that has been discovered recently inside a diamond unearthed from a mine in South Africa.
It has been found in Earth’s Mantle (A part of Interior of the Earth) which covers 80% of earth’s volume.
Composition: It has high concentrations of niobium, potassium and the rare earth elements lanthanum and cerium.
Features: The found single grain is dark green in color and opaque.
Nomenclature: The mineral has been named after the Norwegian scientist Victor Moritz Goldschmidt, who is considered as the founder of Modern Geochemistry.

2018 UPSC Prelims

General relativity’s light-bending effect proved valuable for much more than affirming Einstein’s theory. By bending light, masses act like a lens; such “gravitational lensing” alters the apparent position of a distant object, creating multiple images of it, or (if the images overlap) appearing to brighten it.

Einstein succeeded in showing that matter and spacetime mutually interact to mimic Newton’s naïve idea that masses attract each other. Gravity, said Einstein, actually moved matter along the curving pathways embodied in spacetime — paths imprinted by mass and energy themselves.