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- The world observed Water Day on 22th march On the occasion, best Ice Stupas built in more than a dozen villages in Ladakh region awarded in Leh district; Ladakh is creating awareness on water conservation through Ice Stupas.
- On World Water Day, Leh has taken upon itself a unique task of preserving water through artificial glaciers.
- The day is important because fresh water resources are being depleted and are a huge threat to sustainable development. Clearly preserving fresh water is of vital importance.
- The 6th Sustainable Development Goal is crystal clear it says water for all by 2030. The UN reports that billions of people are still living without safe water in their households, schools, workplaces, farms and factories struggling to survive and thrive.
- The most marginalized groups are women, children, refugees, indigenous peoples, and disabled people who are often overlooked, and sometimes face discrimination. But the bigger issue is about tackling the water crisis.
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- Scientists have studied how fish adapt to rapid changes in the surrounding freshwater environment to understand how the marine life may respond to climate change.
- Freshwater biodiversity is rapidly declining worldwide, and nature-based solutions which increase the resilience of ecological communities are becoming increasingly important in helping communities prepare for the unavoidable effects of climate change.
- Researchers from Tallinn University of Technology in Estonia and Universidade de Lisboa in Portugal varied the water current and depth in a simulated river with obstacles, and found that fish were able to rapidly adapt to the changes when alone and also when in groups.
- "The findings suggest that cues initiated by obstacles in the flow can be detected by fish to find energetically-beneficial places in the flow even under extreme and rapid environmental change," said Jeffrey Tuhtan, a researchers at Tallinn University of Technology.
- The concept of observing fish in simulated rivers as individuals or in groups is not unusual, but the effects of rapid environmental variations, such as quickly changing water depths due to hydropower plant operations or a flash flood remain largely unknown.
- Hydropower operations and the uncertainty caused by climate change mean we need to begin to look at the compound effects of rapid changes, from 'the fish's perspective'," said Maria Joao Costa, a research biologist at the University of Lisbon.
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- India has lifted South Asian Football Federation SAFF Women's Championship fifth time in a row. Keeping its winning streak India defeated host Nepal in the final by 3-1 in Biratnagar on 22th march evening.
- The pace of the match was intense from the very beginning as both sides pressed hard from the first whistle.
- India's Dalmia Chhibber scored first goal of the match in 26th minute. In 33rd minute Nepal's Sabitra Bhandari equalized the Indian lead.
- The second half began with India creating majority of the opportunities. Dangmei Grace scored second goal for India in 63rd minute. Anju Tamang took Indian lead to decisive three in 76th minute.
- India's Indumathi Kathiresan and Sabitra Tamang of Nepal remained top scorer of the tournament, both scored four goal each.
- This is India's 23rd straight victory in the championship since inception of the tournament in 2010.
- India has clinched all five editions of SAFF championship.
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- India has been one of the fastest growing large economies in the world, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said, asserting that the country has carried out several key reforms in the last five years.
- Responding to a question on India's economic development in the last five years at a fortnightly news conference, IMF communications director Gerry Rice Thursday said, "India has of course been one of the world's fastest growing large economies of late, with growth averaging about seven per cent over the past five years."
- "Important reforms have been implemented and we feel more reforms are needed to sustain this high growth, including to harness the demographic dividend opportunity, which India has," he said.
- Details about the Indian economy would be revealed in the upcoming World Economic Outlook (WEO) survey report to be released by the IMF ahead of the annual spring meeting with the World Bank next month, he said.
- This report would be the first under Indian American economist Gita Gopinath, who is now IMF's chief economist.
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- he UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC)has passed by consensus a resolution to grant Sri Lanka another two years to fulfill its promises made in 2015 for post-war transitional justice and accountability.
- The resolution was co-sponsored by Sri Lanka and moved by the UK, Canada and Germany at the UNHRC 40th session in Geneva 21th march night.
- During the interactive dialogue on Wednesday, UNHRC chief Michelle Bachelet expressed concern over Sri Lanka's slow progress in establishing transitional justice mechanisms to address the accountability and called on Sri Lanka to implement a detailed, comprehensive strategy for the transitional process with a fixed timeline.
- She was critical of the progress, proposing that her organisation open an office in Colombo to push for progress.
- Srilankan Foreign Affairs Minister Tilak Marapana delivering a response statement said Sri Lanka is committed to pursue the process of Truth, Justice, Reparations and Guarantees of non- recurrence.
- Sri Lanka has co- sponsored a resolution in 2015 to address all the transitional justice pillars in aftermath of decades long conflict but the progress on it has been slow.
- The decision by the Council to reprieve Sri Lanka came despite criticism of the government’s record of keeping promises it had made to the war-affected people in the country and the international community.
- An independent research foundation noted that Sri Lanka has fulfilled only 6 of the 36 promises it made to the international committee four years ago.
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