• International Day of Forests is celebrated every year on 21 March to raise awareness of the importance of all types of forests.
• The theme for International Day of Forests 2020 is “Forests and Biodiversity”.

• Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change has released draft EIA notification.
• It proposes an update to Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) notification of 2006.
• The current EIA specifies a “minimum of 30 days” for people to respond. The draft EIA notification gives a “minimum of 20 days” of notice period.
• It also requires that the public-hearing process be wrapped up in 40 days, as opposed to the existing norm of 45 days.

• Indian Oil Corporation Limited has become 1st company to begin supply of BS-VI fuel across its 28,000 petrol pumps.
• The Government of India has set 01st April 2020 as the deadline to start the supply of BS-VI emission compliant fuels.
• BS (Bharat Satge)-VI grade fuel is the world’s cleanest fuel containing just 10 parts per million of sulphur.

Right to Protein, a national-level public health initiative, has launched India’s first ‘Protein Day’ to raise awareness about the health benefits of protein.

• The theme for this year’s Protein Day is ‘Protein Mein Kya Hai?’ asking citizens to be mindful about their protein consumption.
• Many countries recognize 27th February as the Protein Day and from this year, India has also joined this movement.

• The Union Ministry of Food Processing Industries has launched Market Intelligence and Early Warning System (MIEWS) Portal for Monitoring prices of TOP Crops (Tomato, Onion and Potato) and generating alerts.
• MIEWS portal would help in planning and timely intervention for price stabilization.

• Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) has become the first single-use plastic-free airport in India.

• The Indian Navy Hydrographic Survey Ship, INS Jamuna is on a deployment to carry out Joint Hydrographic Survey off the South – West coast of Sri Lanka. The ship has undertaken several survey activities as part of the Foreign Cooperation Survey alongwith the Sri Lanka Navy hydrographers.

• It is an initiative by Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) for the easy upkeep and migration of bee boxes having live bee colonies.
• ‘Apiary on wheels’ will make the migration easy, the maintenance easy, easy feeding of bees and it will also help the bees to sustain even in extreme summers.

• An Artificial Intelligence-based police officer called “Ella” has made its place in the New Zealand Police force.
• Ella is a virtual assistant with a face. Basically, it is like Apple’s Siri or Amazon’s Alexa but with a human like Face.

• The government of India has announced all medical devices sold in the country would be treated as “drugs” with effect from 1 April 2020.
• All devices will be regulated under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act of 1940. Currently, 23 medical devices have been classified as drugs.