13, April 2019 13/04/2019 – Posted in: Daily News

Russia’s highest civilian award

For: Preliminary

Topic: Award; Bilateral Relations

News Flash

President Vladimir Putin will confer its highest civilian award, the “Order of the Holy Apostle Andrew the First,” on Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his work on bilateral ties.

 

Order of St. Andrew

  • The Order of St. Andrew the Apostle the First-Called is the highest order of the Russian Federation.
  • It was first awarded by former Russian Tsar ‘Peter the Great’ in 1698 and subsequently discontinued.
  • In 1998, former President Boris Yeltsin reinstated the honour by a presidential decree.
  • The Order of St. Andrew the Apostle the First-Called is used to award prominent statesmen and public figures, eminent representatives of science, culture, the arts and various industries for exceptional services, for promoting the prosperity, grandeur and glory of Russia.
  • The Order may also be awarded to foreign heads of states for outstanding service to the Russian Federation.

 

Previous awardees

Previous recipients include Chinese President Xi Jinping, and presidents of Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan, former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and author Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.

United Arab Emirates announced the Sheikh Zayed award for Mr. Modi

Source: The Hindu

 

 

Solar E-waste

For: Preliminary; Mains: GS III

Topic: Environment, electronic waste and Space pollution

News Flash

The study by Bridge to India (BTI), an energy consultancy firm, said that India will likely stare at a pile of a new category of electronic waste, namely solar e-waste by 2050.

  • India’s PV (photovoltaic) waste volume is estimated to grow to 200,000 tonnes by 2030 and around 1.8 million tonnes by 2050.
  • India is among the leading markets for solar cells in the world, also Indian government has committed to install 100 GW of solar power by 2022.

 

Why

  • This is because, India’s e-waste rules have no laws mandating solar cell manufacturers to recycle or dispose waste.
  • India yet not has policy guidelines or basic framework to handle PV waste.
  • Even basic recycling facilities for laminated glass and e-waste are unavailable.
  • As per the latest estimates from the Central Pollution Control Board, only less than 4% of estimated e-waste is recycled in the organised sector.
  • There is no clarity on solar waste management in India.

 

Solar cell modules

  • Solar cell modules are made by processing sand to make silicon, casting silicon ingots, using wafers to create cells and then assembling them to make modules. These modules are 80% glass and aluminium, and non-hazardous.
  • Domestic companies majorly assemble the solar cell modules in the country.
  • Other materials used, including polymers, metals, metallic compounds and alloys, and are classified as potentially hazardous.

 

Impact of E-waste

  • E-waste has many detrimental effects on both the Environment and Human Beings.
  • Dumping of e-waste in the landfills leads to leaching of toxic chemicals and heavy metals into the groundwater thereby contaminating it. They also degrade the soil.
  • In landfills, burning of e-waste will lead to air pollution.

 

Source: The Hindu

 

 

Tea Board

For: Preliminary; Mains: GS I, III

Topic: Indian Tea, Road-map for increasing export

News Flash

The Tea Board is planning to hold a conference to discuss the roadmap for increasing exports and domestic consumption, and improving Indian tea quality. A 12-point agenda has been drawn up for the conclave, according to Tea Board sources.

 

Main Issues

  • Enhancing the quality of Indian tea.
  • Restriction marketing of low quality products
  • Steps needed to be taken to bring good tea to the market.
  • Steps to increase manufacture of more organic tea.

 

It is also calling for a paradigm shift to move the industry from bulk tea production to value-added tea, while exploring ways to increase sales, export and marketing of good quality tea.

A significant agenda of the meeting would be discussing steps needed to manufacture tea compliant with the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) regulations and well in conformity with international standards.

 

Tea Board India

Tea is one of the industries, which by an Act of Parliament comes under the control of the Union Govt. The genesis of the Tea Board India dates back to 1903 when the Indian Tea Cess Bill was passed. The Bill provided for levying a cess on tea exports – the proceeds of which were to be used for the promotion of Indian tea both within and outside India. The present Tea Board set up under section 4 of the Tea Act 1953 was constituted on 1st April 1954. It has succeeded the Central Tea Board and the Indian Tea Licencing Committee which functioned respectively under the Central Tea Board Act,1949 and the Indian Tea Control Act, 1938 which were repealed. The activities of the two previous bodies had been confined largely to regulation of tea cultivation and export of tea as required by the International Tea Agreement then in force, and promotion of tea Consumption.

 

Tea Board Organisation and Functions

Organisation of the Board: The present Tea Board is functioning as a statutory body of the Central Government under the Ministry of Commerce. The Board is constituted of 31 members (including Chairman) drawn from Members of Parliament, tea producers, tea traders, tea brokers, consumers, and representatives of Governments from the principal tea producing states, and trade unions .The Board is reconstituted every three years.

Functions: The Tea Board has wide functions and responsibilities under the direction of the Central Government. Briefly the primary functions of the Tea

Board are as under :

  • Rendering financial and technical assistance for cultivation, manufacture and marketing of tea.
  • Export Promotion
  • Aiding Research and Development activities for augmentation of tea production and improvement of tea quality.
  • Extend financial assistance in a limited way to the plantation workers and their wards through labour welfare schemes.
  • To encourage and assist both financially and technically the unorganized small growers sector.
  • Collection and maintenance of Statistical data and publication
  • Such other activities as are assigned from time to time by the Central Government.

 

Source: The Hindu

 

 

World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) awards

For: Preliminary

Topic: Government schemes; GS II

News Flash

Two schemes of the West Bengal government for skill development and distribution of bi-cycles to students have won the prestigious World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) awards of the United Nations.

  • The schemes are “Utkarsh Bangla” and “Sabooj Sathi”.

The World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) Forum will celebrate its 10th anniversary of the establishment of WSIS Forum from April 8 to 12 in Geneva at the International Telecommunication Union.

 

Utkarsh Bangla scheme

The scheme with an aim of providing vocational training to school dropouts by providing training in driving, tailoring, repairing television and other electronic equipment’s, beautician courses etc ranging from 400 to 1200 hours free of charge. The state Vocational Education Department will nodal agency in charge of implementing the scheme.

 

Sabooj Sathi

Under this scheme nearly 1 crore students of the state studying between Class IX and Class XII in government/ government recognised regular schools/ madrasahs or equivalent got cycles for commuting to schools.  The project has been introduced to reduce the number of school drop-outs. Backward Classes Welfare Department is the nodal Department of this project. Scheduled Caste and Tribal welfare and finance Corporation under this department serves as the nodal agency.

The West Bengal government had received another UN award in 2017 for its ‘Kanyashree’ project, a targeted conditional cash transfer scheme aimed at promoting education among girls.

 

WSIS Prizes

WSIS Prizes is an international contest to create an effective mechanism to evaluate and recognise individuals, governments and private bodies for outstanding success in implementing development oriented strategies that leverage the power of ICTs as an enabler of the development. The contest, organised by the WSIS in Geneva, was first held in 2012.

  • The summit is co-organized by ITU, UNESCO, UNDP and UNCTAD, in close collaboration with other UN organizations.
  • Theme 2019: “Information and Communication Technologies for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals”.

 

Source: Business standard

 

 

5G

For: Preliminary; Mains: GS III

Topic: Technology advancement, Pros and cons

News Flash

5G wireless network, which promises to transform our lives and add trillions of dollars to the global economy every year. Besides faster mobile data speeds, self-driving cars, remote robotic surgery, autonomous weapons and much more is set to be delievered by 5G.

  • It is estimated that 5G will drive an extra $12 trillion (around ₹835 trillion) of annual sales in 2035.
  • 5G mobile data speeds eventually up to 100 times quicker than those of 4G, letting people download full-length movies in seconds.

 

5G will change the world

(1) Internet of Things

The Internet of Things refers to all the machines and devices linked through the internet, and its enormous growth is likely imminent as 5G comes online.

According to analyst at DBS Group Research, it is expected to be 125 billion devices linked by 2030. This leap forward in connectivity will be key to the spread of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning, enabling massive amounts of data to be collected from remote and mobile sensors and analysed in real time.

 

(2) Transport & Logistics

  • Driverless cars
  • Self-driving cars
  • Autonomous Ships and trucks
  • Millions of truck, tractor, bus and taxi drivers around the world could lose their jobs.

 

(3) Health care

In future, you could order a house call from a self-driving mini-clinic that offers automated diagnostic tests and video-links to a range of doctors.

That could also include remote robotics-assisted operations, and even partially automated surgeries.

 

(4) In the office

Office work will get a lot smarter. Advances in AI and machine learning made possible by 5G networks will mean fewer white-collar workers will be engaged in repetitive tasks, even cognitive ones such as accounting and data processing.

 

(5) Security and war

  • 5G has implications for public and national security.
  • Fully autonomous weapons that make their own decisions to fire on targets.
  • Facial recognition technology.
IHS Markit, (London-based global information provider that was formed in 2016 when IHS Inc. and Markit Ltd. merged) views 5G as on a par with the printing press, electricity and the steam engine—a technology that from 2020-35 will add real gross domestic product equivalent to an economy the size of India’s.

 

Source: Livemint

 

 

Homo luzonensis

 

News Flash

Thirteen hominin bones found in a cave are so unique that archaeologists have determined they stem from a distinct hominin species.

The human family tree has got a new branch with the unearthing of an unknown human species that lived on an island in Philippines some 50,000 years ago. The species, dubbed Homo luzonensis after the island of Luzon where its remains were found is not a direct ancestor of modern day humans, but rather a distant ancient relative. Researchers said they most likely walked upright and were less than four feet tall.

The researchers from France, the Philippines and Australia found the remains in the Callo Cave, where a bone dating back 67,000 years was discovered in 2007. It was not initially clear which type of early human that bone came from, but more recently the researchers discovered seven teeth and five different bones at the site, dating back between 50,000 and 67,000 years.

 

Challenges to old evolution theories

For a long time, theories of evolution centred around the idea that an early species called Homo erectus began dispersing from Africa between 1.5 million to two million years ago.

Under that theory, other early humans stayed put in Africa, where they eventually died out.

But the theory has been challenged by discoveries in recent years of species that do not appear to be descended from Homo erectus , including Homo floresiensis , the so-called “hobbit” found in 2004 on an Indonesian island.  The discovery of Homo luzonensis “provides yet more evidence that hints that H. erectus might not have been the only globe-trotting early hominid.

Source: BBC

 

 

Jallianwala Bagh Massacre and an Apology

For: Prelims; Mains: GS I

Topic: History

News Flash

British Prime Minister Theresa May on Wednesday expressed “deep regret” for the 1919 Jallianwala Bagh massacre, carried out by British colonial troops in India.

While May did not offer an absolute apology, she told the British parliament:

“We deeply regret what happened and the suffering caused by the massacre.”

May’s comment come at a time when India prepares to mark the 100th anniversary of the massacre on Saturday.

 

Jallianwala Bagh Massarce

On April 13, 1919, Baisakhi day, following unrest in Amritsar after protests against the Rowlatt Act, Brigadier General (temporary rank) Reginald Dyer took a strike force of 50 rifles and 40 khukri-wielding Gurkhas into an enclosed ground, Jallianwala Bagh, where a peaceful public meeting of 15,000-20,000 was being held. Without any warning, he ordered fire to be opened on the crowd. The firing of 1,650 rounds was deliberate and targeted, using powerful rifles at virtually pointblank range. The officially accepted figure of 379 dead is a gross underestimate.

Eyewitness accounts and information collected by Sewa Samiti, a charity organisation point to much higher numbers. Non-Indian writers place the number killed at anything between 500 to 600, with three times that number wounded. Jallianwala Bagh’s importance lies not in the numbers killed but in what preceded it and in what followed.

 

Events preceding the Massacre

  • The Anarchical and Revolutionary Crimes Act of 1919, better known as the Rowlatt Act, came into force a month before the massacre in Jallianwala Bagh. It shocked most Indians who had expected to be rewarded, not punished, for willingly fighting alongside the British in the First World War.

 

Events followed by the Massacre

  • General Dyer was rewarded by the British public, removed all illusions about benign British rule in the country.
  • More was to follow after the proclamation, two days after the massacre, of Martial Law in Punjab: the infamous crawling order, the salaam order, public floggings, arbitrary arrests, torture and bombing of civilians by airplanes — all under a veil of strictly enforced censorship.
  • It took Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore to capture the full import of the outrage at Jallianwala Bagh. He renounced his knighthood honour.
  • A Disorders Inquiry Committee, soon to be known by the name of its Chairman, Lord Hunter, was set up. The committee split along racial lines and submitted a majority and minority report. The majority report of the Hunter Committee, using tactically selective criticism, established Dyer’s culpability but let off the Lieutenant Governor, Michael O’Dwyer. The minority report written by the three Indian members was more scathing in its criticism. By then Dyer had become a liability and he was asked to resign his command, after which he left for England.

These events led to the disenchantment among the masses and made it possible to mobilise people for the coming mass movement under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi.

Source: Indian Express

 

 

Voluntary Code of Ethics of the IAMAI

News Flash

Facebook recently said in a statement that the company had spent more than 18 months assessing “risk” across its platforms to help ensure that the Lok Sabha election was free from interference, both foreign and domestic.

 

Focussed areas Facebook’s strategy 

  • Blocking and removing fake accounts
  • Fighting the spread of misinformation
  • Stopping abuse by domestic actors.
  • Spotting attempts at foreign meddling
  • Taking action against inauthentic coordinated campaigns.

Point of concern is that under regulations of Indian law in the context of social media’s apparent vulnerability to be used for disseminating fake news and manipulating opinions in the crucial run-up to the election, remains a rather grey area according to legal professionals.

The Bombay High Court directed that social media platforms would be expected to follow the voluntary code of ethics that had been developed by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) and had been accepted by the Election Commission.

Section 126 of the Representation of the People Act (RPA) was incapable of regulating social media. Section 126 places an embargo on the publishing and broadcasting of content that is likely to affect the election only when the content is being aired with 48 hours or less to go before voting.

Legal options are limited for now. The voluntarily developed code by the stakeholders is the only alternative for free and fair elections, and the court can always fill the gaps in law by providing suitable directions. But does the “voluntarily developed code” really work?  Facebook, which counts India as its biggest market with 300 million users, asserts it does. To check the authenticity of content on its platforms in India, the company appointed seven fact-checkers, who, follow “international norms of factchecking” to ensure credibility of the process.

 

Other challenges

  • Does this regulation infringes one’s right to talk or campaign on social media.
  • All of these social media companies are based outside India, regulating them is an issue. Perhaps it is better to talk to them [and] work with them within the law of the land to ensure fair elections.

 

Source: The Hindu