VISION

 Insights IAS (InsightsonIndia) Monthly Current Affairs February 2021 PDF

 What is the issue?

• The Supreme Court has asked a man whether he would marry the woman who had accused him of raping her when she was a minor.
• The Court’s remarks and decision has drawn criticism from various circles for setting a wrong precedent in terms of women’s rights.

What is the case?

• The apex court was hearing a bail request of a government employee, one Mohit Subhash Chavan.
• He is an employee at the Maharashtra State Electric Production Company.
• He has been accused of raping repeatedly a schoolgirl.
• He faces charges under the POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences) Act and had sought protection from arrest.
• Chavan reportedly told the Supreme Court that his mother had “offered marriage” with him to the victim when she went to police.
• Although she had initially refused, a document was reportedly drawn up (it is not clear as to between whom).
• In it, Chavan had promised marriage with the minor victim when she turns 18.
• The petition filed by Chavan says that when he refused to marry her once she turned 18, she filed the case.

What has the Court said?

UPSC CSE 2021 notification released at upsc.gov.in. The preliminary exam will be held on June 27

UPSC CSE Exam 2021 Exam released Notification – Click here

 Click here  TO Apply

The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) has released the notification for the Civil Services Examination (CSE) 2021 at its official website, upsc.gov.in. The notification was scheduled to be released in February, however, it was delayed and is released on March 4. The application process has begun and candidates and will conclude on March 24 at 6 pm. Interested candidates need to apply within the given deadline at upsc.gov.in or upsconline.nic.in.

1)  National Safety Day: 04 March

•The National Safety Day (NSD) is celebrated every year on 4 March by the National Safety Council (NSC) of India. In 2021, we are observing the 50th National Safety Day. The purpose of the day is to instil a sense of safety awareness among people by providing them with safety, health and environment-related support services.

•The National Safety Day Theme 2021 is “Sadak Suraksha (Road Safety)”.

•The day is also celebrated to mark the foundation of the National Safety Council, which was set up on 4th March 1966 by the Ministry of Labour, Government of India. The first National Safety Day was observed in 1972. Additionally, the National Safety Week is celebrated from 4 March to 10 March by organizing week-long safety campaigns.

2)  National Security Day: 04 March

•In India, March 4 is celebrated as National Security Day (Rashtriya Suraksha Diwas) every year, in the honor of the Indian Security Forces. The day aims to show gratitude to all the security forces, including policemen, para-military forces, commandos, guards, army officers, and other persons involved in security, who sacrifice their life in maintaining the peace and security of the people of the country.

3)  Government amends Insurance Ombudsman Rules 2017

•The Government of India has notified comprehensive amendments to the Insurance Ombudsman Rules, 2017, for better resolution of policyholders’ complaints regarding insurance service deficiencies, in a timely, cost-effective and impartial manner. This will help in facilitating the resolution of the complaints with respect to the deficiencies in insurance services in a cost-effective and impartial manner on time.

4)  Udaipur Science Centre inaugurated at Udaipur in Tripura

•The Governor of Tripura, Ramesh Bais has inaugurated the Udaipur Science Centre, at Udaipur, Tripura. The Udaipur Science Centre has been developed at a cost of Rs 6 crore funded jointly by the Ministry of Culture, Government of India and Department of Science, Technology and Environment, Tripura Government and with this; the National Council of Science Museums (NCSM) has now set-up science centres in all the northeastern states.

5)  World Bank plans $100-mn guarantee scheme for solar rooftop projects

•The World Bank plans to introduce a $100-million credit guarantee scheme to boost India’s rooftop solar programme, which has not gained enough traction. The scheme will allow micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) to avail concessional debt financing for setting up rooftop solar units.

•The World Bank scheme, along with the State Bank of India (SBI) and the MSME ministry to accelerate the adoption of rooftop solar units, will help MSMEs access credit of around $1 billion. The arrangement will be beneficial for the firms that often do not meet the lending criteria of banks and other financial institutions, with their financial woes been exacerbated by the covid-19 pandemic.

6)  Indigenously developed “Spectrograph” commissioned in Nainital

•Indian Scientists at Aryabhatta Research Institute of observational sciences (ARIES), Nainital, have indigenously designed and developed a low-cost optical Spectrograph named as Aries-Devasthal Faint Object Spectrograph & Camera (ADFOSC). It has been commissioned on the 3.6-m Devasthal Optical Telescope (DOT), in the Nainital district of Uttarakhand.

7)  Manpreet Vohra Appointed India’s High Commissioner To Australia

•Senior diplomat, Manpreet Vohra has been appointed as India’s next High Commissioner to Australia. Vohra, a 1988-batch Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer, is presently Ambassador of India to Mexico. He is expected to take up the assignment shortly. Mr Vohra’s appointment comes at a time India-Australia ties are at an upswing and the two countries are stepping up cooperation particularly in the Indo-Pacific region.

8)  SBI Mutual Funds Launches First Overseas Fund

•The State Bank of India (SBI) Mutual Funds has launched its first overseas offering on 1 March 2021. The fund titled SBI International Access — US Equity FOF is an open-ended fund of funds scheme investing in a mutual fund scheme/ETFs that invest in US markets, which are domiciled overseas. The scheme will invest 95-100 per cent of its net assets generally in Amundi Funds – US Pioneer Fund (including ETFs), which invest predominantly in the US markets.

9)  Elon Musk Tops Hurun Global Rich List 2021

•The 10th Edition of Hurun Global Rich List 2021 was released, which ranked 3228 billionaires from 2,402 companies and 68 countries. The report showed that despite the COVID-19 pandemic, the world added 8 billionaires every week in 2020 and 421 in a year, taking their total number to a record 3,288.

•The total wealth of all billionaires across the globe surged 32 per cent, an addition of $3.5 trillion, to take their total wealth to $14.7 trillion, during the period under review. The wealth calculations taken into account is as of January 15, 2021.

Top three billionaires:

•Tesla chief Elon Musk bagged the top spot on the Hurun Global Rich List for the first time after adding a massive $151 billion during the year 2020 to take his net worth to $197 billion.

•Amazon.com Inc CEO Jeff Bezos ranked second with $189 billion in net worth.

•Bernard Arnault, the chief executive of LVMH Moët Hennessy – Louis Vuitton SE, the world’s largest luxury-goods company ranked third with a net worth of $114 billion.

India in the list

•With 60 Billionaires from the Hurun India Global List 2021, Mumbai became the capital for India’s rich followed by New Delhi (40) & Bengaluru (22).

•Asia’s richest person and Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani is ranked eighth on the Hurun Global Rich List 2021. The total wealth of Ambani surged by 24% to $83 billion (approximately Rs 6.09 lakh crore).

•Apoorva Mehta of Instacard & Nikhil Kamath of Zerodha (both 34 years) became the youngest Indian Billionaires with a net worth of USD 1.7 Billion.

•Gautam Adani of Adani Group (Global Rank – 48)

•Shiv Nadar of HCL (Global Rank – 58)

•Lakshmi N Mittal of ArcelorMittal (Global Rank – 104)

•Cyrus Poonawalla of Serum (Global Rank – 113)

ASIA:

Zhong Shanshan (Founder of Chinese Bottle Water Maker – Nongfu Spring) with USD 85 Billion became Asia’s Richest person, followed by Mukesh Ambani. He also broke into the Hurun Global Rich List 2021 for the 1st time with a rank of 7.

 What is the issue?

• India is increasingly emphasising on a self-reliant economy.
• In this context, forging stronger ties with the European Union (EU) region could help India strengthen manufacturing and revitalise exports.

What is the priority now?

• The Atmanirbhar Bharat programme and the Budget 2021-22 have called for bolstering supply chains and achieving self-reliance.
• A self-reliant India, however, cannot be economically insular.
• Realising the vision of a self-reliant India would entail localising an increasing share of value added along supply chains.
• This has to happen with investments and phase-wise reduction of import tariffs with strategic partners such as the European Union (EU).

How is India’s export potential?

 Why in news?

In the latest in a series of surveillance and hacking attempts, a Chinese state-backed hacker firm has been reported to be targeting Indian vaccine makers.

What were the earlier surveillance and hacking attempts?

• Zhenhua & its targets - A Shenzhen-based technology company was monitoring over 10,000 Indian individuals and organisations.
• This company, the Zhenhua Data Information Technology Co, has links with the Chinese government and the Chinese Communist Party.
• The attempt was part of the company’s global database of “foreign targets”.
• Its task is to -
  • collect information about relevant people from the web and social media platforms
  • track research papers, articles, patents, and recruitment positions
• The company also monitors the person’s digital footprint across social media platforms and maintains an “information library”.
• Those monitored in this database included -
  1. influential political and industrial figures
  2. bureaucrats in key positions, judges, scientists and academicians, journalists, actors, sportspersons, religious figures, activists
  3. hundreds accused of financial crime, corruption, terrorism and smuggling

• The collection of such data by Zhenhua does not violate any rules under the Information Technology Act of 2000 in India.
• This is because nearly all of this data is available in the public domain.
• However, Zhenhua’s 24×7 watch had raised red flags with cybersecurity experts.
• They feel that the information collected could be put together for tactical manoeuvring.
• It could thereby target the individuals under surveillance or their institutions.
• Red Echo & ShadowPad - Recently, Massachusetts-based cybersecurity company Recorded Future published a report.
• It said that it had observed a “steep rise” in the use of resources like malware by a Chinese group called Red Echo.
• It was used to target “a large swathe” of India’s power sector.
• It said 10 distinct Indian power sector organisations were targeted.
• This included four Regional Load Despatch Centres (RLDCs) that are responsible for the smooth operation of the country’s power grid by balancing the supply and demand of electricity.
• The group also targeted two Indian seaports.
• Red Echo used malware called ShadowPad, which involves the use of a backdoor to access servers.
• The Ministry of Power recently confirmed these attempts.
• It had said that “no data breach/data loss” had been detected due to the incidents.
• Also, none of POSOCO’s functions had been impacted.
  • POSOCO ‘(Power System Operation Corporation Ltd) is the government enterprise in charge of facilitating transfer of electricity through load despatch centres.
• The government said it had taken action against the threats observed.

What is the recent Stone Panda & vaccines attempt?

📰 Voicing dissent against govt. does not amount to sedition: Supreme Court

Rau’s IAS Prelims 2021 Test 18 With Solution PDF

 Insights IAS Editorial February 2021 PDF