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Haiderpur Wetland

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The Union Environment Ministry has recently directed Uttar Pradesh to immediately stop the further draining of the Haiderpur wetland and ensure that dewatering the protected Ramsar site for farming needs takes place only when migratory birds are not nesting at the location.

About Haiderpur wetland:

  • It is a human-made wetland that was formed in 1984 by the construction of the Madhya Ganga Barrage on a floodplain of the River Ganga.
  • Location: Muzaffarnagar-Bijnor border in Uttar Pradesh.
  • It is located within the boundaries of Hastinapur Wildlife Sanctuary.
  • This provides habitat for various animal and plant species, including around 30 species of plants, 300 species of birds (102 waterbirds), 40 fish and more than ten mammal species.
  • It supports more than 15 globally threatened species, such as the critically endangered gharial and the endangered hog deer, black-bellied tern, steppe eagle, Indian skimmer and gold mahseer.
  • It has been recognised as the 47th Ramsar site of India in 2021.

About Ramsar Convention (Convention on Wetlands of International Importance):

  • It is an intergovernmental treaty that provides the framework for the conservation and wise use of wetlands and their resources.
  • The Convention was adopted in the Iranian city of Ramsar in 1971 and came into force in 1975.
  • It is the only global treaty that focuses specifically on wetlands.
  • One key instrument of the Convention is its List of Wetlands of International Importance (the “Ramsar List”).


Machu Picchu

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The iconic tourist site Machu Picchu in Peru was shut down recently, due to the ongoing anti-government protests that are spreading throughout the South American nation.

About Machu Picchu:

  • It is a 15th-century Inca site.
  • Location: Machu Picchu is located 50 miles (80 km) northwest of Cuzco, Peru, in the Cordillera de Vilcabamba of the Andes Mountains.
  • Machu Picchu is believed to have been built by Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui, the ninth ruler of the Inca, in the mid-1400s.
  • It is made up of temples, palaces, terraces, monuments, complexes and walls.
  • The city is divided into a lower and upper part, separating the farming from residential areas, with a large square between the two.
  • Machu Picchu was abandoned when the Inca Empire was conquered by the Spaniards in the sixteenth century.
  • Machu Picchu was rediscovered in 1911 by the American explorer Hiram Bingham.
  • It was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1983.

What is the Inca Civilization?

  • Inca Civilization flourished in ancient Peru between c. 1400 and 1533 CE.
  • It is the largest empire ever seen in the Americas and the largest in the world at that time.
  • Inca society was highly stratified.
  • The emperor ruled with the aid of an aristocratic bureaucracy.
  • Inca technology and architecture were highly developed.
  • Their economy was based on agriculture.
  • The Inca religion combined features of animism, fetishism, and the worship of nature gods.
  • The Inca language Quechua is still spoken by around eight million people in the world.
  • The descendants of the Inca are the present-day Quechua-speaking peasants of the Andes, who constitute around 45 percent of the population of Peru.


Gold Exchange Traded Funds (Gold ETFs)

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Inflow in Gold Exchange Traded Funds (Gold ETFs) plunged by 90% to ₹459 crore in 2022 due to rising prices of yellow metal, increasing interest rate structure coupled with inflationary pressure, data with Association of Mutual Funds in India (Amfi) showed.

About Gold Exchange Traded Funds (Gold ETFs):

  • They are commodity-based exchange-traded funds with an underlying asset as gold.
  • They are passive investment instruments that are based on gold prices and invest in gold bullion.
  • Gold ETFs are units representing physical gold which may be in paper or dematerialised form.
  • One Gold ETF unit is equal to 1 gram of gold and is backed by physical gold of very high purity.
  • Gold ETFs combine the flexibility of stock investment and the simplicity of gold investments.
  • They are listed and traded on the National Stock Exchange of India (NSE) and Bombay Stock Exchange Ltd. (BSE) like a stock of any company.
  • It can be bought and sold continuously at market prices.
  • There is a complete transparency on the holdings of a Gold ETF due to its direct gold pricing.
  • ETFs have much lower expenses as compared to physical gold investments.

What is an Exchange Traded Fund (ETF)?

  • An ETF is a collection of investments such as equities or bonds.
  • It is a basket of securities that trades on an exchange just like a stock does.
  • ETF share prices fluctuate all day as the ETF is bought and sold, which is different from mutual funds, which only trade once a day after the market closes.
  • ETFs can contain all types of investments, including stocks, commodities, or bonds
  • They have cheaper fees than other types of funds. 

What is Passive Investment?

  • It is an investment strategy wherein investors buy securities that mirror stock market indexes and hold them long-term.
  • It is a strategy that focuses on replicating the index performance as opposed to daily buying and selling.
  • Passive investing seeks to avoid the management fees and high transaction costs that frequent trading can cause.