• After 90 years, the bamboo has legally ceased to be a tree.
• The government amended the Indian Forest Act and removed the bamboo — taxonomically a grass — from a list of plants that also included palms, skumps, brush-wood and canes.
• In doing so, the government hoped to promote cultivation of bamboo in non-forest areas to achieve the “twin objectives” of increasing the income of farmers and also increasing the green cover of the country.
• Bamboo grown in the forest areas would continue to be governed by the 222provisions of the Indian Forest Act.
• The amendment was cleared as an ordinance and is therefore yet to get parliamentary backing.
• India has the largest area under bamboo cultivation and is the second richest in terms of bamboo genetic resources after China.

• Commerce and industry minister to fight an uphill battle in December at ministerial meeting of WTO as US is opposing the use of “development” in the initial draft declaration.
• It will come as a setback given India’s thrust on putting the Doha Development Round at the forefront of talks and efforts to get developed countries to reduce subsidies.

• The World Trade Organization (WTO) is an intergovernmental organization that regulates international trade.
• The WTO officially commenced on 1 January 1995 under the Marrakesh Agreement, signed by 123 nations on 15 April 1994, replacing the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT)
• It is the largest international economic organization in the world.
• The WTO has 164 members and 22 observer governments.
• The highest decision-making body of the WTO is the Ministerial Conference, which usually meets every two years.
• Uruguay Round-eighth GATT round- It was the biggest negotiating mandate on trade ever agreed. The talks were going to extend the trading system into several new areas.
• Marrakesh Agreement- The Final Act concluding the Uruguay Round and officially establishing the WTO regime was signed 15 April 1994, during the ministerial meeting at Marrakesh, Morocco, and hence is known as the Marrakesh Agreement.
• Doha Round- launched at the fourth ministerial conference in Doha, Qatar in November 2001. This was to be an ambitious effort to make globalization more inclusive and help the world's poor, particularly by slashing barriers and subsidies in farming.

• Scientists studying the seismic activity triggered at the Koyna-Warna reservoirs- have observed that the epicentre of earthquakes recorded in the recent decades are shifting towards the southern direction, and are concentrated around the Warna reservoir.
• It is located near Karad in Maharashtra.
• Six decades ago, a powerful earthquake measuring 6.6 on the Richter Scale had struck the area near the Koyna reservoir, causing massive damage in the locality.
• Apart from Koyna reservoir, there are only three other seismically-active reservoirs in the world — located in China, Zimbabwe and Greece — which have recorded earthquakes stronger than 5 on the Richter Scale.

• The Koyna River is a tributary of the Krishna River which originates in Mahableshwar, Satara district, western Maharashtra, India.

• It is right bank tributary of the Krishna River.

• The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) has classified different regions in the country into zones II to V, taking into consideration earthquake records, tectonic activities and damage caused.
• Zone II is considered the least seismically active, while Zone V is the most active. Zone IV and V fall under “severe” to “very severe” categories respectively.
• Zone V includes the entire northeastern region, parts of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarkhand, the Rann of Kutch in Gujarat, parts of north Bihar and the Andaman and Nicobar archipelago.

• It is a point of origin of an earthquake inside the earth.

• It is Point on the earth’s surface which is vertically above the focus.

• The Swachh Iconic Places (SIP) is an initiative under the Swachh Bharat Mission.
• It is a special clean-up initiative focused on select iconic heritage, spiritual and cultural places in the country.
• The initiative is being coordinated by the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation in association with the Ministry of Urban Development, Ministry of Culture, Ministry of Tourism and the concerned State governments.
• Under Phase 1 of this initiative, the following iconic places were being covered for an intensive clean-up-
  Ajmer Sharif Dargah 
  2. CST Mumbai  
  3. Golden Temple,
  4. Kamakhya Temple
  5. Maikarnika Ghat 
  6. Meenakshi Temple
  7. Shri Mata Vaishno Devi
  8. Shree Jagannath Temple
  9. The Taj Mahal and 
  10. Tirupati Temple.

• 10 New Iconic sites identified under Phase II of Swachh Iconic Places (SIP) project under Swachh Bharat Mission are: 
  1.Gangotri
  2. Yamunotri
  3. Mahakaleshwar Temple
  4. Charminar
  5. Church and Convent of St. Francis of Assissi
  6. Kalady
  7. Gomateshwar
  8. Baijnath Dham
  9. Gaya Tirth and 
  10. Somnath temple.

• The Swachh Bharat Mission was launched on 2 October 2014 at the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.
• The mission was divided into two parts — urban and rural.
• The Swachh Bharat Mission Urban is managed by the Ministry of Urban Development, while the Swachh Bharat Mission Gramin (Rural) is led by the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation.

• A certificate of residency issued by a gram panchayat is not a document of citizenship and is “meaningless” unless supported by some other valid record to make a claim for inclusion in the National Register of Citizenship (NRC), the Supreme Court said recently.
• Out of a total of 3.29 crore claims made so far for inclusion in the NRC which is being prepared in Assam to identify illegal migrants.
• The draft NRC is required to be published on or before December 31.

• The unique scheme under the title “North East Rural Livelihood Project” is being supported by the World Bank and will primarily benefit the tribal and the lower socioeconomic groups, including women, in the North-Eastern Region (NER).
• To begin with, four states, - Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura, will be taken up for helping the tribal and even the non-tribal lower groups living in remote areas.
• The project is aimed at assisting over 10,000 Self Help Groups (SHGs) and benefit about three lakh poor households.

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