Daily Current Affairs - 06-02-2021

The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) has approved the creation of the fifth tiger reserve in Tamil Nadu.

Highlights

Significance

The establishment of the tiger reserve will help in the protection of the wildlife and it will also rejuvenation the Vaigai river by protecting the origins of the river in the tiger reserve.

Srivilliputhur Wildlife Sanctuary

It is also known as the Grizzled Squirrel Wildlife Sanctuary (GSWS). The sanctuary was established in the year 1988 with the objective of protecting the Near threatened grizzled giant squirrel. It is bordered by the Periyar Tiger Reserve in the southwest. The sanctuary is also called as one of the best-preserved forests lying south of the Palghat Gap.

National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA)

It was established in December 2005. The authority was set up on the recommendations of Tiger Task Force constituted by the Prime Minister of India with the objective of protecting the tigers. It was established under section 38 L (1) of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972. The authority gets the power from section 38 O (1) of the act of 1972.

Recently, a maiden contingent of 34 CRPF women personnel were inducted into the specialized jungle warfare commando force called CoBRA. The contingent would now be deployed in the anti-naxal operations grid of India.

Commando Battalion for Resolute Action (CoBRA)

Condition for the CoBRA team

The commandos of the CoBRA are required to be mentally and physically tough. They are mostly deployed in the Maoist violence-affected states of the country. They are also deployed for the insurgency operations.

First Women CoBRA Unit

The induction of the first women CoBRA Unit was marked by a ceremony that was held in Kadarpur village. In the ceremony, the chosen women personnel performed the combat drills. A member of 34 CRPF women personnel contingent have been selected from 6 all-women battalions of CRPF. They will now undergo pre-induction training for 3 months. After that, they will be deployed with the units in Naxal violence-affected districts in the state of Chhattisgarh.

Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF)

It is largest Central Armed Police Force in India. The force works under Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA). It assists the State or Union Territories in the police operations to maintain the law & order and counter insurgency. It was established as the Crown Representative’s Police in July 1939. After Indian Independence, it was renamed as CRPF in accordance with the CRPF Act.

The Minister of State for the Electronics and IT, Sanjay Dhotre, highlighted in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha that; more than 2.9 lakh digital banking cybersecurity incidents were reported in the year 2020.

Cases of cyber incidents

Rising Digital Transactions

Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In)

It is an office under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology. The office is the nodal agency that deals with the cyber security threats such as hacking and phishing. The agency works for strengthening the security-related defence of the Indian Internet domain.

NCRB data on Cybercrimes

The data from the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) shows that 6,233 cases were registered under fraud and cheating in the year 2019. It involved that cases communication devices as medium or target as per Information Technology Act 2000.

Information Technology Act 2000

It is an Act of the Indian Parliament that was notified in October 2000. This act deals with cybercrime and electronic commerce. Section 69A of the IT Act empowers the government to block any information transmitted, generated, received, hosted, or stored in any computer resource in the interest of sovereignty, integrity, defence or security of the Nation.

The 1st High Level Dialogue (HLD) on Trade & Investment was held between India and European Union (EU). The dialogue was co-chaired by Shri Piyush Goyal, the Minister of Commerce and Industry and Mr. Valdis Dombrovskis, the European Union Executive Vice-President & Trade Commissioner.  The dialogue was held on February 5, 2021.

Background

The dialogue was held in the backdrop of the commitment that both the countries have made during the 15th India-EU Leader’s Summit held in July 2020. India and EU have committed to establish this Dialogue. Both the countries wanted to set up the HLD with the objective of setting up of a ministerial level guidance to enhance the bilateral trade and the investment relations.

Highlights

European Union (EU)

It is a political and economic union comprising of 27 member states. The members have an estimated total population of 447 million. It has developed an internal single market by creating a standardized system of laws. These laws are applicable to all member states. These policies of EU ensure the free movement of people, goods & services and capital in the internal market.

The Environment Ministry of China recently announced to set up a new Public Information Platform that will allow the public to track emissions from the polluting enterprises. The platform will come into effect on March 1, 2021.

Highlights

Why this platform has been launched?

China in the past has struggled often to collect the information that are required to make the system work. It has also faced obstruction and data fraud from many of the polluting firms. Thus, this platform will be launched in order to get the information about the polluting firms and in turn will help in penalize them with the motive of reducing the emission of pollutants.

How the new system will help?

The new information platform will permit the authorities and members of the public to monitor the real-time emission levels. It will also allow to check the historical data. This in turn will help in determining whether rules are being breached. After the authorities are done with the monitoring, they will take action against firms that causes pollution without authorisation. Further, penalties will be issued on daily basis for the illegal behaviour such as discharge of pollution without permits.

China’s Environmental Policy

China’s Environmental Policy is highly criticized. The critics often highlights the government’s lack of willingness to protect the environment as a common problem. China mainly focuses on the economic growth that ultimately overrides the environmental concerns. If the recent measure to penalize the polluters are applied strictly it might dismantle the local economy that rely highly on the heavy industry.

The Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) will launch the data analytics-driven MCA21 Version 3.0 by October 2021 in the financial year 2021-22.

MCA21 Version 3.0

MCA21 Mission Mode Project

It is the e-governance initiative that was launched by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs. This project is one among the 31Mision Mode Projects of the National e-Governance Plan. This project was launched because in 2002, the Ministry has faced the problem to provide services to around 7.5 lakh corporate entities. For that matter, huge paperwork was required to be done. Number of documents held were increasing constantly. Thus, this project was launched to ease the task of the ministry. National Institute for Smart Government (NISG) is the body that does the task of managing the bid process. It is being implemented by Tata Consultancy Services under the Build Own Operate and Transfer (BOOT) model.

National e-Governance Plan (NeGP)

This initiative was launched by the government to make all government services available to the citizens through electronic media.  This plan was formulated by the Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY) in collaboration with the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG).

The Square Kilometre Array Observatory (SKAO) Council recently held its meeting. During the meeting, the council has approved the setting up of the world’s largest radio telescope.

About SKAO

About Radio telescopes

Background

Astronomers uses the radio telescopes ever since the discovery of the radio signals in the 1930s. They used it to detect the radio waves emitting from different objects in the universe. However, the field of radio astronomy got evolved after the World War II.

Significance of the telescope

The telescope will help the astronomers to know details regarding how the universe began to grow, how & when stars were born. It would also help in knowing the life-cycle of a galaxy. It will make exploring whether there is any technologically-active civilizations anywhere else in the galaxy easier for the astronomers.  It would also help in understanding from where the gravitational waves come. Further, the As NASA highlighted that this telescope will boost the scientific goals by measuring the neutral hydrogen in the cosmic time. It would also help in accurately timing the signals from pulsars from the Milky Way. Lastly, it would help to detect many galaxies.

The Ministry of Women and Child Development has informed to the parliament that the Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana which is central government’s maternity benefit scheme has crossed 1.75 crore eligible women till the financial year 2020.

Highlights

About Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana (PMMVY)

What are the conditions for beneficiaries?

Objectives of the scheme

The scheme was launched with the objective to provide the partial compensation for the wage loss so that the woman can take proper rest before and after delivery of the first living child and to provide the cash incentives in order to improve the health seeking behaviour and raise awareness regarding the health benefits among the Pregnant Women and Lactating Mothers.

The third phase of Chah Bagicha Dhan Puraskar mela is set to be held in Guwahati on February 6, 2021. The event will be attended by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

Highlights

Chah Bagicha Dhan Puraskar scheme

Assam tea

It is a black tea which has been named after the region of its production. The tea is manufactured specifically from the plant called Camellia sinensis var. This tea is indigenous to the state of Assam.

Tea Cultivation in Assam

Assam is the largest tea-growing region by production in the World. The state lies on both the sides on Brahmaputra River. It has its border with Bhutan and Bangladesh. Assam experiences high rainfall accounting for 250 to 300 mm (10 to 12 in) rain per day in the Monsoon season. Further, the day time temperature stands to about 36 °C. This creates greenhouse-like conditions accounting to humidity and heat. Such weather condition is the reason for unique malty taste of Assam Tea.

The National Horticulture Fair will start on February 8, 2021. It is a five-day event that will be organised at the Indian Institute of Horticultural Research (IIHR) campus. People from all across India will also participate the event virtually.

About National Horticulture Fair

Indian Institute of Horticultural Research (IIHR)

It is an autonomous organization. It is engaged in doing the basic, strategic, anticipatory and applied research on various aspects of horticulture. It is headquartered in Bengaluru, Karnataka. The institute is a subsidiary of Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR). It works under the nodal head of the Ministry of Agriculture.

Horticulture

It is a branch of agriculture that involves the intensively cultured plants which are directly used by man for food, medicinal purposes and aesthetic gratification. It involves the cultivation, production and sale of fruits, vegetables, herbs, flowers, ornamental or exotic plants. L.H. Bailey is called as the Father of American Horticulture. On the other hand, M.H. Marigowda is called as the Father of Indian Horticulture.  

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has announced that it will integrate the consumer grievances redressal under a single ombudsman as opposed to the three grievance redressal schemes working at present.

Key facts

One Nation One Ombudsman approach

Objectives of the move

The central bank has decided to adopt the approach of “One Nation, One Ombudsman” with the objective of making process of redress of grievances easy. The approach will make the grievance process easy by enable the customers to register the complaints under the integrated scheme with a centralised reference point.

Banking Ombudsman

It is a quasi-judicial authority that was created in the year 2006 under the Banking Ombudsman Scheme 2006. The authority was created to enable the resolution of complaints of bank customers.

Banking Ombudsman Scheme, 2006

The Banking Ombudsman Scheme is an inexpensive forum for the redressal of grievances of bank customers. Banking Ombudsman Scheme was first introduced in the year 1995. The scheme was revised in the year 2002. Currently, the Banking Ombudsman Scheme 2006 is operating.

The American Digital payment solutions provider PayPal announced that it will stop offering the domestic payment services within India beginning from April 1, 2021.

Highlights

Implications of the decision

With this decision, the PayPal will not be able to offer the domestic payment services within India. But the company will now invest in the product development in order to enable the Indian businesses to reach 350 million PayPal consumers across the world and increase their sales internationally. This decision, in turn, will help the Indian economy return to growth.

HC’s stand on the issue

About PayPal

It is an American company that operates an online payments system. It also serves as an electronic alternative to checks and money orders to do the transactions.

India’s first thunderstorm research testbed will be established in Balasore, Odisha.

Objective of testbed

The Thunderstorm Research Testbed is being established with the objective to minimalize the human fatalities and loss of property because of the lightning strikes.

Highlights

Thunderstorm testbed

What is the need of testbed?

Many lives are lost in Bihar, Odisha, West Bengal, and Jharkhand because of lightning strikes during the months of April to June every year. On an average, more than 350 people are killed in Odisha because of lightning strikes. As per a report, in the span of nine years (till 2020), 3218 people have died due to lightning. Thus, there is a need to set up the testbed to predict the thunderstorm and save life.

India Meteorological Department (IMD)

IMD was established in the year 1875. It is an agency which is responsible for weather forecasting, meteorological observations, and seismology. The agency works under the Ministry of Earth Sciences. The headquarter of IMD is in Delhi.

Who is Dr Mrutyunjay Mohapatra?

He is currently serving as the Director-General of India Meteorological Department. He is often nick-named as ‘Cyclone Man of India’ because of his accurate prediction of cyclones in Indian subcontinent.