ForumIAS announcing GS Foundation Program for UPSC CSE 2025-26 from 19 April. Click Here for more information.
ForumIAS Answer Writing Focus Group (AWFG) for Mains 2024 commencing from 24th June 2024. The Entrance Test for the program will be held on 28th April 2024 at 9 AM. To know more about the program visit: https://forumias.com/blog/awfg2024
GS 2
Shashi Tharoor gives Doklam report to Sushma Swaraj
Chairman of the Standing Committee on External Affairs Shashi Tharoor on Friday met External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj to resolve the stand-off over the panel’s report on the Doklam crisis.
Tight-fisted neighbour? Indian aid to SAARC nations falls
Going by government data, assistance fell from ₹5,928.6 crore for 2013-14 to ₹3,483.6 crore for 2017-18; but Maldives has been an outlier, despite the dip in ties
North Karnataka, reeling under neglect
Thirteen districts of north Karnataka recently raised a fresh cry for a separate State, pointing out that Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy’s budgetary allocations favoured only the southern districts.
GS 3
‘Ban on e-cigarettes to reduce safer choices for smokers’
The Council for Harm Reduced Alternatives (CHRA), a national tobacco harm reduction organisation, and the Association of Vapers India (AVI), an advocacy group that represents e-cigarette users, have warned the Central and State governments about the consequences of banning e-cigarettes.
Genetic ‘barcodes’ reveal three frogs unreported in India
Barcodes are not used in supermarkets alone. Each species can be recognised by its unique genetic ‘barcode’ and using this method, a team of scientists has identified three frog species not recorded in India before.
Centre to spend ₹10,000 crore on Northeast
Over 400 projects to be implemented; 8,621 unconnected villages in the region to get special attention
Mnangagwa, Zimbabwe’s new hope
Zimbabwe’s newly elected President, Emerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa of the Zanu-PF party, has seldom shrunk from the rough and tumble of realpolitik.
Why are the Marathas so restive?
Maratha Reservation