POLITY AND GOVERNANCE                                                        

1. Destruction of public property: What the law says, what Supreme Court directed                                                                                  

ECONOMY                                                                                          

1. Ease of Doing Business Report 2020                                                

2. India slips to 112th place on gender gap in WEF's ranking                  

ENVIRONMENT AND ECOLOGY                                              

1. Mahanadi bird population took a hit due to Cyclone Fani, says study 

2. Pollution fight: painting roads, lasers among options                         

SECURITY                                                                                         

1. What is the 'StrandHogg' bug?                                                        

2. Vijay Diwas                                                                                    

POLITY AND GOVERNANCE

Destruction of public property: What the law says, what Supreme Court directed

GS PAPER - 02 GOVERNANCE - Indian Constitution- historical underpinnings, evolution, features, amendments, significant provisions and basic structure.

Context :

• Recently,the Supreme Court has expressed displeasure over rioting and destruction of public property while hearing petitions on alleged police excesses on students in Jamia Millia Islamia.

Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act, 1984  :

• The Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act,1984 punishes anyone who commits mischief by doing any act in respect of any public property with a jail term of up to five years and a fine or both.

• Public property under this Act includes any property used in connection with the production, distribution or supply of water, light, power or energy or any means of public transportation or of telecommunications or other property used in connection therewith.

• However,despite a law against the destruction of property, incidents of rioting, vandalism, and arson have been common during protests across the country.

• This is because the identification of protesters remains difficult, especially in cases where there is no leader who gave the call to protest.

SC Guidelines :

• Thomas Committee:

  • The Thomas Committee had recommended reversing the burden of proof against protesters.

  • The apex court accepted the recommendation and said that the law must be amended to give the court the power to draw a presumption that the accused is guilty of destroying public property and it would then be open to the accused to rebut such presumption.

• Nariman Committee:

  • The Nariman Committee recommendations were with respect to extracting damages for destruction.

  • The court accepted the recommendations and said that the rioters would be made strictly liable for the damage and compensation should be collected to make good the damage.

  • In 2017,the Punjab and Haryana High Court had ruled to recover the damages from the Dera whose followers were involved in vandalism of Public property.

Concern :

• Like the law, the guidelines too, have had a limited impact. This is because the identification of protesters remains difficult, especially in cases where there is no leader who gave the call to protest.

• Even if a person has been identified, he/she could not be held liable for loss of property unless there is evidence of him/her calling for violence.

                                                                                                                                              Source :- Indian  Express

ECONOMY

Ease of Doing Business Report 2020

GS PAPER - 03 ECONOMY - Indian Economy and issues relating to planning, mobilization of resources, growth, development and employment. Inclusive growth and issues arising from it.

Context :

• India among top 10 improvers in EODB; India ranks 63rd among 190 countries.

World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business Report 2020:

• India ranks 63rd among 190 countries improving by 14 ranks from its rank of 77 in 2019.

• India has improved its rank in 7 out of 10 indicators and has moved closer to international best practices.

• India is one of the top 10 improvers, the third time in a row, with an improvement of 67 ranks in 3 years. It is also the highest jump by any large country since 2011.

Startup India:

• A total of 21,778 startups are now recognised under the Startup India Initiative, of which 2,912 startups have been recognised since 1st June 2019.

Global Innovation Index (GII):

• In the past 4 years, India’s rank in the GII has improved from 81st rank in 2015 to the present 52nd rank in the GII 2019 report.

• India became the first developing country to launch the Global Innovation Index (GII) in association with the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).

Steps taken to promote innovation :

• Final Patent (Amendment) Rules, 2019: This amendment to the Patents Rules, 2003 has led to significant simplification of rules, especially for startups and MSMEs.

• The Patent (Second Amendment) Rules, 2019: This reduced the fees for small entities/MSMEs for the processing of patent applications under various sections of the Patents Act, 1970. This is expected to incentivise MSMEs to file for more patents.

Steps taken to  promote export the Department of Commerce has undertaken various measures:

• NIRVIK: A new export credit insurance scheme ‘NIRVIK’ has been introduced. Read more on NIRVIK in PIB dated 16th Sep 2019 under the headline ‘Export Credit Guarantee Corporation (ECGC) introduces Nirvik’.

• An online portal for filing applications under ‘Transport and Marketing Assistance (TMA)’ scheme for Specified Agriculture Products has been launched.

• A database has been prepared by the Export Credit Guarantee Corporation (ECGC) for all pending claims, and online access on status of claims has been provided. This will be a critical tool for providing information access to exporters.

• The online “Origin Management System” gives single access point for all exporters, for all Free Trade Agreements (FTAs), Preferential Trade Agreements (PTAs) and for all agencies.

• In order to provide extra support to exports to emerging and challenging markets like Africa, CIS, Latin America and Asian countries, fresh capital has been infused into the ECGC.

Ensuring level playing field for domestic industry and farmers:

• The average number of days taken for the initiation of anti-dumping investigations has come down to 32 days in 2019 as against 259 days in 2016.

• The Directorate General of Trade Remedies (DGTR) for the first time ever initiated 2 cases of bilateral safeguards to protect the domestic industry from injury.

• There has been a significant drop in the number of days taken to initiate two cases of Global Safeguards. In 2019, the average number of days taken was just 61, as compared to the standard 75 days.

• In order to ensure the interests of the Indian industry and farmers in FTAs, India successfully laid out its stand in the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP).

Special Economic Zone (Amendment) Bill, 2019

• This will enable any entity to set up a unit in SEZs, including Trusts. This will help boost investments and create new export and job opportunities.

• SEZ units allowed to create facilities/amenities like crèche, gymnasium, and cafeteria for their exclusive use as a measure towards ease of doing business.

Promoting Foreign Direct Investment (FDI)

• 100% FDI has been allowed under the automatic route for coal mining activities including associated processing infrastructure.

• 100% FDI under automatic route has also been allowed in contract manufacturing.

National Institute of Design (Amendment) Act, 2019

• The Rajya Sabha has passed the bill conferring ‘Institute of National Importance’ status to the four new National Institutes of Design (NIDs). This will be introduced in the Lok Sabha.

                                                                                                                                                                    Source :-  PIB

India slips to 112th place on gender gap in WEF's ranking

GS PAPER - 03 ECONOMY - growth, development and employment. Inclusive growth and issues arising from it.

Context :

• World Economic Forum(WEF) has released the Global Gender Gap Index Report 2019.

Global Gender Gap Index Report 2019 :

• Iceland was ranked first as the most appropriate country for women representation followed by Norway, Finland and Sweden.

• Apart from that, China ranked 106th, Bangladesh at 50th, Brazil at 92nd, Nepal at 101st, Indonesia at 85th and Sri Lanka at 102nd.

• The report highlights that as per the present scenario, workplace inequality will not be erased until the year 2276.

• The report also said that it will take 95 years to close the political gender gap as women hold 25.2% of parliamentary seats worldwide.

India Specific Findings :

• India has been ranked at 112th in the Global gender gap Index 2019.In 2018,India was on the 108th position.

• India’s rank has worsened due to widening disparity in terms of women’s health and survival and economic participation.

• India has slipped to 150th place on health and survival, 112th on educational attainment and 149th in economic participation.

• The report has said that there are very few economic opportunities for women in India.It is 34.5% in India, 32.7% in Pakistan, 27.3%in Yemen and 22.7% in Iraq.

• It also highlights that India has a very low (13.8 percent) women representation on company boards.           

                                                                                                                       Source :- Business Standard

ENVIRONMENT AND ECOLOGY

Mahanadi bird population took a hit due to Cyclone Fani, says study

GS PAPER - 03 ENVIRONMENT AND ECOLOGY - Conservation, environmental pollution and degradation, environmental impact assessment

Context :

• A recent study on the impact of super cyclonic storm Fani finds that extreme weather events like cyclones can have severe impacts on bird populations of a region.

Key Findings :

• The population of sandbar-nesting birds along a 40-km stretch from Baideshwar to Kakhadi along the Mahanadi river declined by 81%.

• The study also found that the population of the birds a day before the cyclone was about 800, which dropped to 153 a day after the cyclone.

• The highest decline was observed in the case of Glareola lactea (little pratincole) whose population dropped from over 500 to 50 before and after the cyclone.

• It also studied the following species of Mahanadi River Delta:

  • Rynchops albicollis (Indian skimmer): IUCN (Vulnerable-VU)

  • Sterna aurantia (river tern): IUCN (Near Threatened-NT)

  • Vanellus duvaucelii (river lapwing): IUCN (Near Threatened-NT)

  • Esacus Recurvirostra (great thick-knee): IUCN (Near Threatened-NT)        

                                                                                                                       Source :- The Hindu

Pollution fight: painting roads, lasers among options

GS PAPER - 03 ENVIRONMENT AND ECOLOGY - Conservation, environmental pollution and degradation, environmental impact assessment

Context :

• The Supreme Court has directed to form a High Level Committee (HLC) and look into the feasibility of technologies to control and monitor pollution.Background  :

• On November 25, the Supreme Court had directed to form the HLC and look into the feasibility of these technologies to control and monitor pollution.

  • The HLC has members from Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC), NEERI, professors from IIT-Delhi, IIT-Kanpur and heads of environmental departments of Delhi, Haryana, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh.

Recommendations of the high-level committee - To combat Air pollution :

• Painting roads with photocatalytic coating to clean air:

  • It can be applied on a range of surfaces, such as roofing tiles or even on the surface of roads.

  • Photocatalytic paints contain titanium dioxide [TiO2] which acts as a catalyst when exposed to UV rays and removes atmospheric pollutants.

  • The catalyst converts the pollutants into other species.

  • Issues: The nano materials may result in production of other undesirable species such as nitrous acid and formaldehyde which will have adverse health impacts.

• Using anti-smog guns at construction sites to reduce dust pollution.

  • Anti-smog gun is a device that sprays nebulised water droplets into the air through high pressure propellers, which help particles to settle down.

  • It may be effective in controlling localised dust during the period of application and more suitable to high dust emission zones such as large construction sites

• Setting up of a 20 metre-high ‘smog tower’ with air purifiers.

  • 65% reduction in pollution can be achieved on an average up to 700 metres from the tower.

  • It is expected to influence air quality of more than 1 km in the downwind direction, according to officials.

  • Issues: Smog towers, as per the current knowledge and experience, may not provide a viable solution to improve air quality on a large scale.

• Using of wireless sensors Network (WSN) for monitoring pollution.

  • WSN may be used as an indicative monitoring tool for a few activities like mining, large construction sites, to supplement air quality data and report to regulator for conducting further investigation.

• Oxy furnace

  • Oxy furnace uses only oxygen as fuel instead of atmospheric air (which contains nitrogen), thus reducing the production of NOx by about 90% in industries.

  • Issues: NOx is mostly released in urban centres from vehicles and not industries.

• LiDAR or Light Detection and Ranging:

  • It is a high-end application of LASER-based technology for monitoring pollution.

  • This technology may be adopted for vertical monitoring at a few places to track transport of pollutants at higher altitudes.

                                                                                                                     Source :- The Hindu

SECURITY

What is the 'StrandHogg' bug?

GS PAPER - 03 SECURITY - social networking sites in internal security challenges, basics of cyber security; money-laundering and its prevention.

Context :

• The Union Home Ministry has alerted States, warning them about the vulnerability of the Android operating system to a bug called 'StrandHogg'.

StrandHogg :

• It is a vulnerability in android which allows real-time malware applications to pose as genuine applications and access user data of all kinds.

• It can allow them to listen to microphone, steal login credentials, take photos using camera, read SMS and even access photos.

How a malware exploits StrandHogg?

• According to a Pennsylvania State University, the malware needs to be installed on the Android device to exploit this vulnerability.

  • the malicious apps exploiting the vulnerability did not come directly through Google Play Store. Instead they were installed through dropper apps distributed on Google Play.

• According to a research by Penn State University in 2015, which theoretically described some aspects of the weakness, the Android task management mechanism was plagued by 'severe security risks'.

• When abused, these convenient multi-tasking features can backfire and trigger a wide spectrum of 'task hijacking attacks

                                                                                                                      Source :- The Hindu

Vijay Diwas

GS PAPER - 03 SECURITY - significant events, personalities, issues

Context :

• PM remembers brave soldiers who fought in 1971 on the occasion of Vijay Diwas.

Vijay Diwas :

• Vijay Diwas is celebrated on 16th December every year in India to commemorate the Indian forces’ victory over Pakistan in the 1971 Indo-Pak war which was played out to liberate Bangladesh.

• On 16th December 1971, the chief of the Pakistani forces had surrendered unconditionally to the allied forces consisting of Indian Army and Mukti Bahini in Dhaka.

• The end of the 14-day war resulted in subsequent secession of East Pakistan into Bangladesh.

• To mark the event, Indian Air Force has also felicitated a team of 25 Air Warriors for a running expedition from Kargil to Kohima- aptly named as K2K Ultra Marathon-Glory Run.

• India also observes 26th July as ‘Vijay Diwas’ to commemorate the Kargil War of 1999.

                                                                                                                                                          Source :- PIB

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