Daily Prelims Notes 19 August 2022
- August 19, 2022
- Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
- Category: DPN
Daily Prelims Notes
19 August 2022
Table Of Contents
- Great Indian Bustards (GIBs)
- Tilapia
- Inflation target breach
- Liquidity Adjustment Facility:
- Electricity Sector
- SEBI new rules–AIF and VCF
- Windfall tax
- Blockchain Infrastructure
- Supreme Court hears plea to monitor drug pricing
- The historical and cultural connections between India and Thailand
- The recent blocking of the VLC Media Player
- Piracy Issues
- Split over Lord Curzon gate: TMC statue politics riles Oppn, experts
1. Great Indian Bustards (GIBs)
Subject: Environment
Context: Great Indian Bustards (GIBs) in Rajasthan’s Desert National Park (DNP) have laid around 20 eggs this breeding season, with four females laying two eggs each.
Concept:
- The Great Indian Bustard is one of the heaviest flying birds in the world.
- Scientific Name: Ardeotisnigriceps
- Habitat: Dry grasslands and scrublands on the Indian subcontinent; its largest populations are found in the Indian state of Rajasthan.
Distribution:
- India, effectively the only home of the bustards, now harbors less than 150 individuals in five States.
- Today, its population is confined mostly to Rajasthan and Gujarat. Small populations also occur in Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.
- It is the State bird of Rajasthan.
Protection Status
- Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List
- In Appendix I of CITES,
- In Schedule I of the Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972.
Breeding :
- The sewan grass (Lasiurus scindicus) is the grass on which the GIBs use to lay eggs
- The GIB breeding centre was established in 2019 to protect and conserve eggs collected from the wild. The breeding season will last till October.
- Around 80 per cent of the GIB’s habitat is outside the Desert National Park.
DESERT NATIONAL PARK (DNP)
- Rajasthan’s Desert National Park (DNP), where the GIB’s last remnant wild population is found,forming a part of the mighty Thar desert.
- It was declared as a National Park in 1981 to protect the habitat of the Great Indian Bustard.
- The Thar desert’s eastern boundary is characterised by the Aravalli hills, while the western boundary is defined by the fertile Indus plains. The Great Rann of Kutch forms a sharp border in the south, while the riparian sub-Himalayan plains form the northern limit.
- The Desert National Park (DNP) spans a total area of 3162 km2, with 1900 km2 in Jaisalmer and the remaining 1262 km2 in Rajasthan’s Barmer district.
- The majority of the Thar’s arid region’s vegetation is classified as thorn forest. Local communities, especially the ‘Bishnois,’ revere and protect Khejri Prosopis cineraria, which is commonly found.
Subject: Environment
Concept:
- Tilapia’ has emerged to be one of the most productive and internationally traded food fish in the world.
- Tilapia are mainly freshwater fish inhabiting shallow streams, ponds, rivers, and lakes, and less commonly found living in brackish water.
- Tilapia can become a problematic invasive speciesin new warm-water habitats.
- Tilapia have been used as biological controls for certain aquatic plant problems. They have a preference for a floating aquatic plant, duckweed , but also consume some filamentous algae.
- Tilapia have very low levels of mercury, as they are fast-growing, lean, and short-lived, with an omnivorous diet, and do not accumulate mercury found in prey.
- Tilapia are low in saturated fat, calories, carbohydrates, and sodium, and are a good protein source. They also contain the micronutrients phosphorus, niacin, selenium, vitamin B12, and
- They consume mosquito larvae, which reduces the numbers of adult females, the disease’s vector.
- The culture of tilapia has become commercially popular in many parts of the world and the fishery experts have dubbed the tilapia as “aquatic chicken” due to its quick growth and low maintenance cultivation.
- Today, if any fish that could be named as global fish, no better name can be thought of than Tilapia.
Subject: Economy
Why in the news?
CPI-based inflation is expected to remain above the 6 per cent upper limit in the July-September quarter too.
Details:
- The average retail inflation in January-March 2022 and April-June 2022, according to data released by the National Statistics Office, was 6.34 per cent and 7.28 per cent, respectively.
- In July it was 6.71 per cent.
- The data for August and September is scheduled to be released on September 12 and October 12, respectively.
- The RBI’s retail inflation outlook for July-September was 7.1 per cent. And it was 6.4 per cent for October-December 2022 and 5.8 per cent for January-March 2023.
What happens next?
- The RBI has multiple roles, but it’s accountable for one primary objective — keeping inflation within a flexible range of 2 per cent to 6 per cent.
- The flexible inflation targeting made the RBI more accountable to explain to the government if it fails to meet the inflation targets.
- A breach of the “tolerance level” for three consecutive quarters will constitute a failure of monetary policy
- When the Reserve Bank of India fails to meet the inflation target for 3 consecutive quarters, it will send a report to the central government stating:
- reasons for the breach/failure of monetary policy
- propose remedial actions to bring it down to 4 per cent, and
- provide an estimate of the time-period within which the target would be achieved.
- These would be presented in a report to the Union Ministry of Finance.
- It would be up to the government to make the RBI report public.
- The special meeting of the MPC will discuss the RBI report before it is submitted.
Flexible inflation Targeting:
- Inflation Targeting is a monetary policy framework wherein the Central Bank of a country focuses only on maintaining the rate of Inflation within a targeted range.
- Flexible inflation targeting is adopted when the central bank is to some extent also concerned about other things, for instance, the stability of interest rates, exchange rates, output and employment.
- In case of India, the flexible Inflation targeting was introduced through the Monetary Policy Framework Agreement signed between the RBI and Government in 2015.
- The Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934 was amended to provide a statutory basis for a FTI framework.
- The amended Act provides for the inflation target to be set by the Government, in consultation with the RBI, once every five years.
- As per terms of the agreement, RBI’s primary objective would be to maintain price stability, while keeping in mind the objective of growth.
- The RBI is required to maintain a rate of inflation of 4% with a deviation of 2% i.e. inflation has to be maintained between 2% to 6%.
- The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) constituted by the Central Government under Section 45ZB of RBI Act determines the policy interest rate required to achieve the inflation target.
- Accordingly, the Central Government in September 2016 constituted the MPC as under Governor of the Reserve Bank of India – Chairperson, ex officio;
- The MPC is required to meet at least four times in a year.
- The composition of the MPC is as follows;
- Governor of the Reserve Bank of India – Chairperson, ex officio;
- Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of India, in charge of Monetary Policy –
- (Member, ex officio)
- One officer of the Reserve Bank of India to be nominated by the Central Board – Member, ex officio;
- Except ex-officio members, three independent members will hold the office for a period of 4 years or until further orders, whichever is earlier.
- The quorum for the meeting of the MPC is four members. Each member of the MPC has one vote, and in the event of an equality of votes, the Governor has a second or casting vote.
4. Liquidity Adjustment Facility
Subject: Economy
Why in the news?
The Reserve Bank of India increased the repo rate to 5.40 per cent under the liquidity adjustment facility (LAF)
Details:
Repo rate, which is the rate at which the RBI lends money to commercial banks, is now higher than the pre-Covid level of 5.15 per cent.
Impact:
- Immediate-Increase in the interest rate and decline in the money supply.
- It raises the cost of borrowing by banks from the RBI which in turn is passed on to lenders by raising the rate of interest on loans.
- This will result in higher EMIs on loans-auto, home, consumer durables and may increase the tenure of floating rate loans
- Long run-
- As credit interest rises- corporates especially the manufacturing sectors reduce their company expansion and production further increasing the already high unemployment rate.
- Delayed infrastructure and real estate products due to increase cost of borrowing
- Increased cost of borrowing and delayed recovery for MSMEs.
- Fixed income securities demand will increase
- Fixed-Income securities are debt instruments that pay a fixed amount of interest—in the form of coupon payments—to investors. The interest payments are typically made semiannually while the principal invested returns to the investor at maturity. Bonds are the most common form of fixed-income securities.
- Asset quality of Banks degrade- given the higher cost of borrowing increase difficulty to repay loans thus, increase Gross Non Performing Assets of the Banks.
- GNPA in March 2022 was 5.9 and banks target it to be 5,3%by March 2023
Liquidity Adjustment Facility:
- Liquidity Adjustment Facility was recommended by the Narasimham Committee on Banking Reforms and was introduced by the RBI in 1998.
- A liquidity adjustment facility (LAF) is a monetary policy tool used largely by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI)
- It allows banks to borrow money via repurchase agreements (repos) or make loans to the RBI via reverse repo agreements.
- There are two main components of Liquidity Adjustment Facility (LAF):
- Repo Rate: It is the rate at which the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) lends to other banks.
- Reverse Repo Rate: It is the rate at which the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) borrows from commercial banks.
- This structure is helpful in reducing liquidity demands and ensuring financial market fundamental stability.
- Liquidity Adjustment Facility – Example
- Assume a bank is experiencing a short-term cash shortage as a result of the Indian economy’s recession.
- The bank would use the RBI’s liquidity adjustment facility by entering into a repo agreement with the RBI and selling government securities in exchange for a loan with an agreement to repurchase those securities.
- Assume the bank requires a one-day loan of ₹ 50,000,000 and enters into a repo agreement at 6.25 percent.
- The interest payable by the bank on the loan is ₹8,561.64 (50,000,000 x 6.25 % / 365).
- Another Example
- Assume the economy is expanding and a bank has extra cash on hand.
- In this case, the bank would enter into a reverse repo agreement with the RBI by making a loan in exchange for government securities and agreeing to repurchase those securities.
- For example, suppose a bank has ₹25,000,000 available to lend to the RBI and decides to enter into a one-day reverse repo agreement at 6%.
- The RBI would pay the bank ₹4109.59 in interest (25,000,000 x 6 % / 365).
Subject: Economy
Power System Operation Corporation Ltd (POSOCO) has asked three power exchanges — IEX, PXIL and HPX — to restrict electricity trading by 27 discoms in 13 states having outstanding dues as per the information available on the PRAAPTI portal.
Details:
The action appears to be taken under the Electricity (Late Payment Surcharge and related matters), Rules 2022
Concept:
Power System Operation Corporation Ltd (POSOCO)
- POSOCO, a public sector enterprise under the Union power ministry manages integrated operation of the Indian power system.
- It is responsible to monitor and ensure round the clock integrated operation of the Indian Power System in a reliable, efficient and secure manner thus serving a mission critical activity.
- It consists of 5 Regional Load Despatch Centres (RLDCs) and the National Load Despatch Centre (NLDC).
- It was earlier a wholly owned subsidiary of Power Grid Corporation of India Limited (Powergrid).
- It was formed in March 2009 to handle the power management functions of PGCIL.
- The subsidiary was eventually made a separate company, leaving the parent firm with only the task of setting up transmission links.
- The load despatch functions, earlier handled by PGCIL, have now come up to POSOCO
Electricity (Late Payment Surcharge and related matters), Rules 2022
- These rules shall be applicable to outstanding dues of generating companies, inter-state transmission licensees and electricity trading licensees.
- It states a distribution licensee or other user of the transmission system, as the case may be, shall maintain unconditional, irrevocable and adequate payment security mechanisms.
- Non-payment of dues will result in the obligation of the generator company to supply power at 75% of contracted power to the distribution licencee. The remaining 25% of contracted power may be sold by the generating company through power exchanges.
- State utilities can be barred from trading on electricity exchanges for non-payment of dues and other charges to gencos.
- Late Payment Surcharge shall be payable on the payment outstanding after the due date at the base rate of Late Payment Surcharge applicable for the period for the first month of default.
- Late payment surcharge refers to the charges payable by a distribution company (DISCOM) to a generating company or electricity trader for power procured or by a user of a transmission system to a transmission licensee on account of a delay in payment of monthly charges beyond the due date.
- Rate of Late Payment Surcharge for the successive months of default shall increase by 0.5 percent for every month of delay provided that the Late Payment Surcharge shall not be more than three percent higher than the base rate at any time.
Subject: Economy
Why in the news?
SEBI eases norms on alternate investment funds (AIFs) and venture capital funds (VCFs) investments in overseas firms
Details:
- Earlier, it was mandated that AIFs and VCFs raising funds in India should invest in only those companies globally that have connection to India or at least a back-office in the country.
- Now, they can now invest in any company they want across the world–
- Invest in an overseas investee company, which is incorporated in a country whose securities market regulator is a signatory to the International Organization of Securities Commission’s (IOSCO) Multilateral Memorandum of Understanding or a signatory to the bilateral pact with Sebi.
- Further, AIFs or VCFs will sell the investment in overseas investee companies only to the entities eligible to make overseas investments.
- AIFs or VCFs will have to file an application and furnish the divestment details of the overseas investments before Sebi for allocation of overseas investment limit in the format.
- All the overseas investments sold/divested by them till date, will also be reported to Sebi within 30 days.
- However, AIFs and VCFs still cannot invest in:
- Companies incorporated in countries that do not follow global money laundering norms,
- Companies incorporated in countries don’t have bilateral MoU with SEBI or
- Jurisdictions which are blacklisted or face restrictions by FATF
Concept:
Alternate Investment Funds (AIFs)
- AIFs are funds for the purpose of pooling in capital from Indian and foreign investors for investing as per a pre-decided policy,
- It is a vehicle which invests in non traditional assets- like real estate, infrastructure, venture capital etc..
- Private equity or venture capital, hedge funds, real property, commodities, and tangible assets are all examples of alternative investments.
- It is a privately pooled investment vehicle which collects funds from sophisticated investors, whether Indian or foreign, for investing it in accordance with a defined investment policy for the benefit of its investors.
Venture Capital Funds (VCFs)
VCF is an AIF which invests primarily in unlisted securities of startups, early-stage venture capital undertakings mainly involved in new products, new services, technology or intellectual property right based activities or a new business model.
The International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO)
- Founded: April 1983
- Headquarters: Madrid, Spain
- IOSCO develops, implements and promotes adherence to internationally recognized standards for securities regulation.
- It is the international organization that brings together the world’s securities regulators, covering more than 95% of the world’s securities markets, and is the global standard setter for the securities sector.
- It works closely with the G20 (Group of Twenty) and the Financial Stability Board (FSB) in setting up the standards for strengthening the securities markets.
- The IOSCO Objectives and Principles of Securities Regulation have been endorsed by FSB as one of the key standards for sound financial systems.
- IOSCO’s enforcement role extends to matters of interpretation of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), where IOSCO maintains a (confidential) database of enforcement actions taken by member agencies.
- IFRS is an accounting standard that has been issued by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) with the objective of providing a common accounting language to increase transparency in the presentation of financial information.
- Objectives:
- To cooperate in developing, implementing and promoting adherence to internationally recognized and consistent standards of regulation, oversight and enforcement in order to protect investors, maintain fair, efficient and transparent markets, and seek to address systemic risks;
- To enhance investor protection and promote investor confidence in the integrity of securities markets, through strengthened information exchange and cooperation in enforcement against misconduct and in supervision of markets and market intermediaries; and
- To exchange information at both global and regional levels on their respective experiences in order to assist the development of markets, strengthen market infrastructure and implement appropriate regulation.
Subject: Economy
Why in the news?
In line with the moderation in global crude prices and drop in refining margins, Centre undertook the third review of its recently imposed levies on fuel and cut the tax levy on domestic crude oil production.
Details:
- This is the third review undertaken by the Finance Ministry after imposing the levies on fuel initially on July 1.
- Important steps taken:
- The windfall tax on diesel increased to Rs 7 a litre from Rs 5 a litre,
- Tax on export of aviation turbine fuel (ATF) was retained at Rs 2 a litre
- Export of petrol will continue to attract nil tax.
Background:
- Global crude prices had risen
- Domestic crude producers were making windfall gains by exporting petrol and diesel to foreign countries like Australia at international price parity.
- There was shortage of fuel at retail outlets because oil marketing companies were not willing to sell fuel at a loss since fuel prices have not increased despite rising crude and depreciating rupee
- With an aim to address the issue of fuel shortage in the country and growing profit margin, the government on July 1 had imposed a special additional excise duty or windfall tax on export of petrol and diesel.
Concept:
Windfall taxes:
- Windfall taxes are imposed by a government against certain industries when they experience above-average profits due to economic conditions.
- The tax was imposed after the companies were seen to be making abnormal profits with oil prices shooting up in global markets due to geopolitical turmoil.
- Windfall taxes are primarily directed on companies in a certain industry that sees the most windfalls economically.
- Aim-It aimed at increasing local supplies and boosting its revenues.
Subject: Economy
Context:
We need resilient digital platforms, which may be based on the Web 3.0 architecture.
Web 3.0
- The concept of Web3, also called Web 3.0, used to describe a potential next phase of the internet
- World Wide Web, which is also known as a Web, is a collection of websites or web pages stored in web servers and connected to local computers through the internet.
- These websites contain text pages, digital images, audios, videos, etc. Users can access the content of these sites from any part of the world over the internet using their devices such as computers, laptops, cell phones, etc.
- Web 3.0 is a decentralized internet to be run on blockchain technology, which would be different from the versions in use, Web 1.0 and Web 2.0.
- Example– blockchain, NFT, DeFi etc
- In Web3, users will have ownership stakes in platforms and applications unlike now where tech giants control the platforms.
- Significance of Web 3.0-It establishes a new version of the Internet protocol incorporating token-based economics, transparency, and decentralisation.
- Decentralized and Fair Internet-Web3 will deliver a decentralized and fair internet where users control their own data.
- Eliminates Intermediaries: With block chain, the time and place of the transaction are recorded permanently.
- Thus, Web3 enables peer to peer (seller to buyer) transactions by eliminating the role of the intermediary. This concept can be extended to
- Decentralization and Transparency: The spirit of Web3 is Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO).With DAO, there is no need for a central authority to authenticate or validate.
Blockchain
- Blockchain is an innovative distributed/ decentralised ledger technology that was first introduced in the design and development of cryptocurrency, Bitcoin in 2009 by Satoshi Nakamoto.
- It uses a unique data structure where verification data related to the transactional records is cryptographically secured against tampering and stored in blocks.
- It offers a singular combination of permanent and tamper-evident record keeping, real-time transaction transparency and auditability.
- An exact copy of the blockchain is available to each of the multiple computers or users who are joined together in a network.
Adoption of blockchain infrastructure across the Globe:
- Estonia-the world’s blockchain capital, is using blockchain infrastructure to verify and process all e-governance services offered to the general public.
- China –BSN (Blockchain-based Service Network) to deploy blockchain applications in the cloud at a streamlined rate.
- Britain-National Digital Twin program (NDTp) to foster collaboration between owners and developers of digital twins in the built environment.
- Brazil-Brazilian Blockchain Network to bring participating institutions in governance and the technological system that facilitates blockchain adoption in solutions for the public good.
Layer-1 vs. Layer-2:
- Layer-1 refers to the underlying main blockchain architecture which forms the main structure of a blockchain network.
- Bitcoin, Ethereum, and BNB Chain are examples of Layer 1 blockchains.
- Layer 2 refers to networks built on top of other blockchains.
- For example, if Bitcoin is Layer 1, the Lightning Network that runs on top of it is an example of a Layer 2.
- Hence, a Layer 1 solution will change the rules and mechanisms of the original blockchain directly while a Layer 2 solution will use an external, parallel network to facilitate transactions away from the mainchain.
- Need for Layer-2:
- For instance, Initially, Bitcoin was intended to be a decentralized payment system where the users could remain anonymous and access it from anywhere. However, over time owing to its popularity, transactions became much slower and more costly.
- Thus, developers created cryptocurrency layers, where the first layer was the primary blockchain. Each layer beneath that complements the layer above it and adds functionality.
- Lightning Network is a second layer for Bitcoin that uses micropayment channels to scale the blockchain’s capability to conduct transactions more efficiently.
9. Supreme Court hears plea to monitor drug pricing
Subject: Scheme
- The Supreme Court on Thursday took serious note of a plea to bring transparency in drug pricing and monitoring mechanism while pointing to a recent accusation against the manufacturer of Dolo-650 tablet of indulging in “unethical practices”.
- An NGO that has filed the petition said the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) had accused the pharma group manufacturing the well-known drug of distributing freebies to the tune of ₹1,000 crore to doctors and medical professionals in order to promote its product.
- Petitioner said the market price of Dolo up to 500 mg was under regulation. Any dosage beyond 500 mg is outside regulation.
National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA)
- NPPA was constituted by the Government of India in 1997 as an attached office of the Department of Pharmaceuticals (DoP), Ministry of Chemicals & Fertilizers as an independent Regulator for pricing of drugs and to ensure availability and accessibility of medicines at affordable prices.
- It was made to fix/revise prices of controlled bulk drugs and formulations and to enforce price and availability of the medicines in the country, under the Drugs (Prices Control) Order, 1995-2013 (DPCO).
- A bulk drug — also called Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient (API) — is the chemical molecule in a medicine that lends the product the claimed therapeutic effect.
Mandates
- To implement and enforce the provisions of the Drugs (Prices Control) Order in accordance with the powers delegated to it.
- To deal with all legal matters arising out of the decisions of the NPPA.
- To monitor the availability of drugs, identify shortages and to take remedial steps.
- To collect/maintain data on production, exports and imports, market share of individual companies, profitability of companies etc., for bulk drugs and formulations and undertake and/ or sponsor relevant studies in respect of pricing of drugs/ pharmaceuticals.
Drug Pricing Regulation Mechanism
- All medicines under the NLEM are under price regulation. The NLEM lists drugs used to treat fever, infection, heart disease, hypertension, anaemiaetc and includes commonly used medicines like paracetamol, azithromycin etc.
- The Health Ministry prepares a list of drugs eligible for price regulation, following which the Department of Pharmaceuticals incorporates them into Schedule 1 of DPCO.
- The Standing Committee on Affordable Medicines and Health Products (SCAMHP) will advise the drug price regulator the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) on vetting the list. The NPPA then fixes the prices of drugs in this Schedule.
- As per the Drugs (Prices) Control Order 2013, scheduled drugs, about 15% of the pharma market, are allowed an increase by the government as per the WPI (Wholesale Price Index) while the rest 85% are allowed an automatic increase of 10% every year.
- The annual change in prices of scheduled drugs is controlled and rarely crosses 5%.
- Under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act 1940, the drugs are classified in schedules and regulations are laid down for their storage, display, sale, dispensing, leveling, prescribing etc.
- The pharma lobby is now asking for at least a 10% increase for scheduled drugs too rather than going by the WPI.
- As over the past few years, input costs have flared up. One of the reasons is that 60%-70% of the country’s medicine needs are dependent on China.
10. The historical and cultural connections between India and Thailand
Subject: Ancient History
- India and the Southeast Asia region share a long history of cultural and commercial relations.
- Devasthan
- As part of his visit to Thailand for the ninth India-Thailand joint commission meeting, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar Thursday visited the Devasthan in Bangkok.
- The Devasthan is the Royal Brahmin Office of the Thai Royal Court and is the official centre of Hinduism in Thailand.
- Language links
- Many local languages in the region, including Thai, Malay, and Javanese contain words of Sanskrit, Pali and Dravidian origin in significant proportions. The Thai language is written in script derived from Southern Indian Pallava alphabet.
- The classical Sanskrit and Pali texts from India carry references of the region using various names such as Kathakosha, Suvarnabhumi (the land of god) or Suvarnadvipa (the golden island).
- India’s religious links to Thailand
- Perhaps the most important influence of India on Southeast Asia was in the field of religion and how Shivaism, Vaishnavism, Theravada Buddhism, Mahayana Buddhism and later Sinhalese Buddhism came to be practised in the region.
- The episodes of Ramayana and Mahabharata are regularly featured in puppet shows and theatre events. In terms of architecture, monuments like Borobodur Stupa in Java, the Angkor Vat temple in Cambodia, My Son temple in Vietnam are some of the best examples of Indian influence in the region.
- Thailand today is a Buddhist majority country, there are many temples in the country where Buddhist and Brahmanical Gods are kept side by side. Apart from the popular Brahamanical deities of Ganesha, Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva,those that are largely absent in Indian socio-religious landscape, such as Indra are also worshiped in Thailand.
- The Ramayana — known in Thailand as Ramakriti (the glory of Rama) or Ramakien (the account of Rama) — has provided an outlet of cultural expression in Thailand for both the elite and the common man.
- Trade Link
- A Tamil inscription found in Takua-pa testifies trade links between the Pallava region of South India and southern Thailand.
- A mercantile corporation of South Indians called Manikarramam had established a settlement here and built its own temple and tank, and lived as a ‘self-contained’ colony.
11. The recent blocking of the VLC Media Player
Subject: Science and tech
- VLC continues to be one of the most popular media players
Why VLC was banned?
- The website has been blocked as per order of Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology under IT Act, 2000
- Although VLC is not a Chinese app, reports from cybersecurity firms, such as Symantec, in April this year suggested that Cicada, a hacker group allegedly backed by China, has been using the VLC Media Player to deploy a malicious malware loader.
In which situations can online content be blocked to the public?
- There are two routes through which content can be blocked online — executive and judicial.
- Section69A of the Information Technology Act, 2000.
- Section 69A allows the government to direct an intermediary to “block for access by the public ….. any information generated, transmitted, received, stored or hosted in any computer resource” if it is “necessary or expedient to do so, in the interest of sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, security of the state, friendly relations with foreign states or public order or for preventing incitement to the commission of any cognisable offence”.
- Section 69A draws its power from Article 19(2) of the Constitution which allows the government to place reasonable restrictions on the fundamental right to freedom of speech and expression.
- Courts in India, also have the power to direct intermediaries to make content unavailable in India to provide effective remedy to the victim/plaintiff.
- For example, courts may order internet service providers to block websites which provide access to pirated content and violate the plaintiff’s copyright.
What is the procedure for blocking access to content online?
- A detailed procedure for blocking content is provided by the Information Technology (Procedure and Safeguards for Blocking for Access of Information by Public) Rules, 2009 (IT Rules, 2009) that have been formulated under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act, 2000.
- Only Central govt has the power not State –
- An important point to note is that only the Central government can exercise this power of directing intermediaries to block access to online content directly, and not the State governments.
- Nodal Officer –
- The procedure typically provides that Central or State agencies will appoint a “nodal officer” who will forward the blocking order to the “designated officer” of the Central government.
- Designated officer –
- The designated officer, as part of a committee, examines the request of the nodal officer.
- Committee–
- The committee comprises representatives from the Ministries of Law and Justice, Information and Broadcasting, Home Affairs, and the Cert-In.
- The creator/host of the content in question is given a notice to submit clarifications and replies.
- The committee then makes a recommendation on whether the request of the nodal officer should be accepted or not.
- If this recommendation is approved by the MeitY, the designated officer can direct the intermediary to remove content.
Other provisions
- Rule 16 of the IT Rules, 2009 provides that strict confidentiality is to be maintained with respect to any requests or actions under the IT Rules, 2009.
- Non-compliance with directions under the IT Rules can lead to loss of immunity from liability for content being hosted
Yacht found adrift off Raigad coast with weapons, owner’s husband says to keep Somali pirates at bay
- The 16-metre-long yacht, Lady Han, was found by local fisherfolk off Harihareshwar beach in Raigad district, 190 km from Mumbai
- Sailing master Robert James said: “This yacht is owned by my wife. I was sailing with three others to Europe from Dubai. Our next halt was at Salalah (Oman) and later, we were to pass through the Suez Canal.”
Subject: International Relations
- The seas off West Africa’s oil-rich coastline are now the most dangerous in the world for shipping, according to a new report.
- One Earth Future, which produces an annual State of Maritime Piracy, says that while attacks have been falling substantially in some regions of the world, in West Africa they’ve been on the rise and are now more frequent than anywhere else.
- In 2018, there were 112 such incidents in West African waters.
- It’s not just the huge tankers exporting oil and gas from Nigeria and Ghana that are targeted.
- At a recent event in London, President Faure Gnassingbé of Togo – a country sandwiched between these two regional giants – highlighted his own concerns at the rise in attacks on regional shipping.
- The coastline off Nigeria saw the most attacks in 2018. This is partly because of “petro-piracy”, targeting tankers from Nigeria’s rich oil and gas fields.
- The Horn of Africa used to have a big piracy problem, but it’s now much reduced.
- The Horn of Africa denotes the region containing the countries of Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Somalia.
- Attacks against shipping in the Caribbean and off the coast of Latin American have, however, risen.
- Venezuela in particular has become a hotspot for piracy.
13. Split over Lord Curzon gate: TMC statue politics riles Oppn, experts
Subject: Modern History
- Lord Curzon achieved infamy for his decision to partition Bengal in 1905 and now a 119-year-old structure built in honour of Lord Curzon, who served as the Viceroy of India for six years from 1899, in the city of Bardhaman in West Bengal is at the centre of a political row.
- Bardhaman’s Maharaja Bijay Chand Mahatab had built the gate in 1903 when Curzon visited the town.
Lord Curzon 1899–1905
- Appointment of Police Commission (1902) under Sir Andrew Frazer to review police administration.
- Appointment of Universities Commission (1902) and passing of Indian Universities Act (1904).
- Establishment of Department of Commerce and Industry.
- Calcutta Corporation Act (1899).
- Ancient Monuments Preservation Act (1904).
- Partition of Bengal (1905).
- Curzon-Kitchener controversy.
- Younghusband’s Mission to Tibet (1904).
- In 1904, the Co-operative Credit Societies Act was passed to induce the people to form societies for the purpose of deposits and loans
- In 1900, the Punjab Land Alienation Act was passed which restricted the transfer of lands of the peasants to money-lenders in cases of failure of payment of their debts.
- In 1899, the British currency was declared legal tender in India and a pound was declared equivalent to rupees fifteen.
- The MacDonnell Commission 1901 was the famine commission appointed by Lord Curzon