Must Read News Articles – February 17th, 2019

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Iran to promote Chabahar as curbs will hit main port

With U.S. sanctions threatening Iran’s main port of Bandar Abbas, the Iranian government is planning to promote the Chabahar port being developed by India in a major conference on February 26, highlighting the potential of the Indian Ocean port beyond India-Afghan trade alone.

The lowdown on National Security Act

The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), which collects and analyses crime data in the country, does not include cases under the NSA in its data as no FIRs are registered.

Should the state leave religion alone?

The Sabarimala judgment and its aftermath have brought the issue of state intervention in religion back to the table: should governments leave religion alone, instead of interfering in it? Much depends on what one means by religion.

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The last of the elusive pangolins

Obsession for its supposedly medicinal scales in China is believed to have made the ant-eating Chinese Pangolin, one of two species found in South Asia, extinct in India.

Why the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi scheme will be hard to implement

States have been implementing the Digital India Land Records Modernisation Programme for more than a decade. While several States claim to have completed computerisation of their land records, others have not even begun the process.

In Maharashtra, protecting a sanctuary

An environment clearance to the Mumbai-Ahmedabad high-speed train corridor has put the spotlight on the Thane Creek Flamingo Sanctuary (TCFS) in Mumbai.

The need to go beyond anglophone models

The main point of a democracy is to enable the maximum number of citizens to be and feel represented

Great Indian hornbills can adapt to modified habitat: study

Amid a changing environment, with natural homes of birds getting depleted as natural forests make way for plantations and other such modified terrain, comes the good news of how the great Indian hornbill (Buceros bicornis) adapts to such change.

Mariculture is as important for India as agriculture

The most efficient use of photosynthesis is actually not by land plants but by micro and macro algae, such as seaweeds. These are the champions, contributing to about 50% of all photosynthesis in the world. And many of them, notably those with dark green, red and brown colour, are edible.

Decoding how leptospirosis bacteria interact with human proteins

Leptospirosis is one of the emerging zoonotic diseases and causes almost 60,000 deaths every year as there is currently no preventive vaccine for humans. The researchers studied the proteome (entire protein set) of Leptospira interrogans — the most vulnerable species — and the proteome of human beings.