Current Affairs in Short: 11 March 2021

Karnataka reports first case of South Africa variant of COVID-19

•Karnataka on March 10, 2021 detected the first case of infection from the South Africa variant of coronavirus. 
•A total of 64 international passengers traveling from the United Kingdom tested positive during RT-PCR tests recently and 26 of their primary contacts also tested positive during RT-PCR tests. 
•As per results, one among those tested positive for the South Africa variant of COVID-19. The COVID-19 mutation was discovered in South Africa and announced in December 2020. Prior to that, another mutated strain of the coronavirus had emerged in the United Kingdom in September 2020. 

IOC President Thomas Bach re-elected until 2025

•International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach was re-elected for an additional four-year term on March 10, 2021. 
•Prior to that, Bach had assured that the Tokyo Olympics will definitely take place, but the question still remained on how it will be going ahead in a safe fashion.
•Tokyo Olympics is scheduled to take place from July 23-August 8, 2021. The Games were postponed last year due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
•The IOC President said that Tokyo remained the best prepared Olympic city ever and at this moment, they have no reason to doubt that the Opening Ceremony will take place on 23rd July.
•He also added that many athletes have already been vaccinated and by the time the Games come, many more would be vaccinated and people can expect safe Olympics this year.

Anurag Thakur promoted as captain in Territorial Army

•Minister of State for Finance and Corporate Affairs Anurag Thakur on March 10, 2021 became the first serving union minister to be promoted as Captain in the Territorial Army as a regular commissioned officer.
•Thakur was promoted to the rank of Captain at 124 Infantry Battalion Territorial Army (Sikh). Speaking on the same, Thakur said that it is an honour and pride to be part of the Territorial Army and a part of 124 Sikh Regiment. 
•He also stated that this is the third generation from his family who is serving in the armed forces and he said it is an honour to be part of both army and the Parliament. 
•He further stated that he comes from a constituency and state where people from every third house serve in the army. •He added saying that the first army officer to be honoured by the Param Vir Chakra was from Himachal Pradesh only.

India to file an appeal in Cairn arbitration case

•India is likely to file an appeal in the Cairn arbitration award case relating to the tax dispute concerning the British oil firm.
•As per sources, Cairn Energy set up "a tax abusive structure" and did not pay taxes anywhere in the world on the gains that it made in India.
•If enforcement proceedings are initiated, India is confident to address them and is expected to strongly defend its interests.
•According to sources, India has the powers to redress the situation of double non-taxation and tax abuse.

Russia slowing down Twitter over content standoff

•The Russian government said on March 10, 2021 that it was slowing access to Twitter, accusing the social network of failing to remove illegal content. 
•Roskomnadzor, Russia's telecommunications regulator said that it was reducing the speed at which Twitter loaded for users in Russia. This means that the pictures and videos on Twitter will take longer than usual to load. 
•Russia's move is a major step, as the internet has essentially remained free in the country despite President Vladimir Putin's authoritarian rule.
•As media regulators tried to slow access to Twitter, many Russian government websites also went offline for about an hour due to technical glitch.