World Cities Culture Forum

Recently Bengaluru became the 1st Indian city to join World Cities Culture Forum

• The World Cities Culture Forum (WCCF) was founded in 2012 by Justine Simons OBE, London’s Deputy Mayor for Culture & the Creative Industries.
• The WCCF provides a way for policy makers in 38 key cities to share research and intelligence, and explore the vital role of culture in their future prosperity.
• It provides a platform for city leaders to share knowledge and experience, and to develop innovative solutions to the challenges of urban life.
• The World Cities Culture Report is published every 3 years and is the most comprehensive dataset and case study research on cities and culture.
• Bengaluru is the only Indian city in the forum.
• The other WCCF cities are New York, London, Paris, Tokyo, Dubai, etc.
• “World Cities Culture Forum Summit 2022” was held at Helsinki, Capital of Finland.

Snowball Earth glaciation

• Snowball Earth glaciation is thick sheets of ice that covered the Earth for an extended period between 700 to 500 million years ago.
• It is one of the major glacial events in Earth’s history.
• Snowball Earth glaciation is followed by Second Great Oxygenation Event.
• Second Great Oxygenation Event resulted in increase in the amount of oxygen in the Earth’s atmosphere which eventually led to the evolution of complex life forms.

Corporate Debt Market Development Fund (CDMDF)

SEBI has recently created framework for CDMDF to protect the investors investing in mutual funds

• The CDMDF aids to help stabilize the Indian corporate bond market in times of stress.
• Corporate bonds are debt security which is issued by a corporation and issued to bondholders/investors.
• CDMDF is an Alternative Investment Fund (AIF) under Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI).
• The mutual funds will have to contribute 25 basis points (bps) of the specified debt asset under management to the CDMDF.
• The initial contribution of mutual funds to CDMDF will be based on Asset Under Management of the specified Mutual Fund schemes as of last December-end.
• The CDMDF will purchase investment grade corporate bonds from fund houses in distress to help them meet redemption requests.
• CDMDF shall purchase listed corporate debt securities from the specified debt-oriented Mutual Fund schemes.
• The fund aims to avert Franklin Templeton-type debt fund crisis.
• Franklin Templeton debt fund crisis occurred aftermath of the covid-19, since it couldn't sell most of its underlying lower-rated securities.

Geography of Niger

Recently a group of military mutineers in Niger announced that they had overthrown the country's democratically elected president, Mohamed Bazoum

• Niger, officially called Republic of Niger is a land locked country in western Africa.
• The country is located above the equator and tropic of cancer passes through it.
• The tropic of cancer passes through 16 countries including India.
• Niger is the third longest river in Africa that originates in Guinea highlands of Guinea, a costal country in Africa.

Yamuna floodplains

 The recent heavy rains in northern India have caused devastation in the floodplains of Delhi

Floodplains

• A floodplain is an area adjacent to a river or a stream that's subject to inundation whenever the river swells up, such as during the rainy season.
• It is part of the riverine ecosystem and disturbance with it has the potential of adverse ecological effects.
• Floodplains have a distinct ecological role in the region they are located in.
• Floodplains have dazzling arrays of biodiversity.
• Humans have settled around floodplains since ancient times as the area has fertile soil that supports agriculture, provides riverine transportation and has availability of drinking water for housing and businesses.
• Floodplains are inseparable from the river channel.

Yamuna floodplains

• Yamuna is a lifeline to 5 States and its floodplains are a charging point.
• The Yamuna floodplain was designated as a protected area free from construction in the Delhi Masterplan of 1962.
• The Central Ground Water Authority in 2000 also notified the floodplains as ‘protected’ for groundwater management.
• The floodplains are two km wide on each side of the river.
• The floodplain along Yamuna’s 22 km run in Delhi, designated as ‘Zone O’ by the Delhi Development Authority.
• Zone O supports a large variety of nature-based livelihoods with a low ecological footprint.
• Most residents migrated from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Haryana, Jharkhand, West Bengal and Rajasthan live on the Yamuna flood plains.
• Muslim-dominated Batla House area, a part of the floodplains that falls under no-construction zones.
• The National Green Tribunal (NGT) in 2016 imposed a blanket ban on agriculture-related activities till “Yamuna is restored and made pollution free.