Hindu Notes from General Studies-02

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India, France to hold anti-submarine drills off Djibouti

News

• End of this month, India and France will hold anti-submarine warfare games off Djibouti coast near the Horn of Africa, as part of the 17th edition of the bilateral Varuna exercise series which is currently underway.
• India’s request for access to Djibouti naval base for refits has been informally cleared with the Djibouti government.

Beyond News

• Under the Mutual Logistics Support Agreement (MLSA) signed as part of its foreign cooperation initiatives, the Indian Navy has sought access to the French base in Djibouti for refit and refuelling. However, as Djibouti is a sovereign country, its clearance is needed for Indian ships and the onus to get it is on France.
• Interestingly, several countries have bases in Djibouti, and China opened its first overseas base there last year.
• Phase I will see the participation of INS Vikramaditya and French carrier FNS Charles de Gaulle and the two air wings, comprising Mi-29Ks and Rafale-M, will perform joint drills.
• In addition to the carrier, France has sent two destroyers, FNS Forbin and FNS Provence, the frigate FNS Latouche-Treville, a tanker FNS Marne and a nuclear submarine.
• The exercise will be conducted in two phases. The harbour phase at Goa would include cross-visits, professional interactions and discussions and sports events and the sea phase would comprise various exercises across the spectrum of maritime operations.
• Apart from its sole aircraft carrier, India has fielded destroyer INS Mumbai, stealth frigate INS Tarkash, Shishumar-class submarine INS Shankul and fleet tanker INS Deepak.
• Apart from carrier drills, other focus areas during the exercise are explosive detection, mine hunting and protection of offshore assets, a specific are of interest for France. The bilateral naval exercise was initiated in 1983 and was christened as ‘Varuna’ in 2001.
• Of late, submarine hunting has become a major area of focus for the Indian Navy in its military cooperation with major countries.

Pakistan orders freezing of assets of Masood Azhar, ban on travel

News

• Pakistan has issued an official order to freeze the assets of and impose a travel ban on terror outfit Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) chief Masood Azhar after the United Nations declared him a “global terrorist”.
• Azhar is also banned from selling or purchasing arms and ammunition.

Beyond News

• The UN sanctions committee on the Islamic State and Al-Qaeda announced the designation of Azhar over his ties to Al-Qaeda.
• The JeM has claimed responsibility for the Pulwama suicide attackthat killed 40 CRPF soldiers in Jammu and Kashmir and led to a spike in tensions between India and Pakistan.
• Pakistan’s foreign ministry said in a notification, “the Federal Government is pleased to order that the Resolution 2368 (2017) be fully implemented” against Azhar.
• The government directed officials to take actions “as appropriate for the implementation of sanctions” against the JeM chief.
• The UN designated Azhar as a “global terrorist” after China lifted its hold on a proposalby the U.S., the U.K. and France to blacklist him.
• The U.S., the U.K. and France had moved the proposal to designate Azhar just days after the deadly Pulwama terror attack.
• A veto-wielding permanent member of the UNSC, China was the sole hold-out in the 15-nation body on the bid to blacklist Azhar, blocking attempts by placing a “technical hold” and asking for “more time to examine” the proposal.

India has robust plan to import oil from other countries: MEA

News

• India has a “robust plan” to import oil from other countries, according to the Ministry of External Affairs, even as the deadline for the U.S. sanction waiver for oil imports from Iran elapsed without an extension from the U.S.

Beyond News

• The U.S. last year re-imposed sanctions on Iran prohibiting countries from importing oil from it, but waived these sanctions for eight countries, including India. That waiver has now elapsed and the U.S. last month announced that it would not be extending it.
• The U.S. refused to change its stance despite a last-minute call by External Affairs Minister to U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
• Indian oil companies, meanwhile, have stopped placing orders for Iranian oil.
• Prior to the sanctions and the subsequent reduction in the quantity of oil imported from Iran, Iran accounted for about 10% of India’s oil requirements.

Hindu Notes from General Studies-03

Central banks step up gold buying in 2019

News

• Central banks across the globe are building up gold reserves with the first quarter of 2019 seeing significant buying from such entities.

Beyond News

• According to the latest Gold Demand Trends report by the World Gold Council, central banks bought 145.5 tonnes of gold in the first quarter a 68% jump from the same period in 2018 and also the strongest start to a year since 2013.
• Meanwhile, the overall global gold demand rose to 1,053.3 tonnes in the first quarter of 2019, up 7% compared to the same period last year.
• This year-on-year increase was largely due to continued growth in central bank buying, as well as growth in gold-backed exchange-traded funds (ETFs).
• On a different note, the first quarter jewellery demand rose 1% compared with the same period last year, at 530.3 tonnes, boosted by India.
• A lower local rupee gold price in late February and early March coincided with the traditional gold buying wedding season, lifting jewellery demand in India to 125.4 tonnes, a 5% increase on the same period last year and the highest Q1 since 2015.
• Bar and coin investment softened slightly and was down 1% to 257.8 tonnes.
• According to the WGC, this was purely due to a fall in demand for gold bars, as official gold coin buying grew 12% to 56.1 tonnes even as China and Japan were the main contributors to the decline.

’Ransomware’ attack on websites of A.P., TS power utilities

News

• The websites of two power distribution companies each of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh were hacked which resulted in their computer-based applications coming to a standstill for over three days.

Beyond News

• The websites were hacked of southern and northern power distribution companies of Telangana at Hyderabad and Warangal respectively and southern and eastern power distribution companies of Andhra Pradesh at Tirupati and Visakhapatnam respectively.
• All of them were maintained by Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) in Hyderabad.
• Meanwhile, TCS was on the job to restore functioning of the websites and recover the stolen data. The officials of Southern Power Distribution Company lodged a complaint with Cyber Crime Police Station in Hyderabad that its website was frozen by culprits by Ransomware virus with the aim to pilfering data from the server.
• The hackers were in possession of database of two crore power consumers in the two States. A number of files were also damaged in the process. As the websites did not open, the online payments by power consumers were affected.
• However, the bill payments by consumers at Electricity Revenue Offices and Mee-Seva were unaffected.
• The officials prima facie suspect that the hackers of Air India and Andhra Bank websites in the past may have resorted to the act to access information about online payments to power utilities.
• They also suspected that the hackers might have targeted information about payments by distribution companies in Telangana and AP which are to the tune of ₹30,000 crore per annum. They did not rule out attempts by hackers to divert the funds. They tried to detect the originating point of hacking.
• There was no damage to the websites of transmission and generation corporations of Telangana.

Cyclone Fani causes extensive damage to power infrastructure, standing trees

News

• The extremely severe cyclonic storm Fani hit Odisha coast near Puri, causing extensive damage to power infrastructure, thatched houses and standing trees.

Beyond News

• One person died in Kendrapara district while several others were injured in five districts including Puri, Khordha, Jagatsinghpur, Ganjam and Kendrapara. One woman died at Debendranarayanpur in Kendrapara district.
• Cyclone Fani crossed Odisha between 8 am and 10 am. Trees were uprooted along the Bhubaneswar-Puri road, resulting in disruption in vehicular movement.
• Personnel from Odisha Disaster Rapid Action Force and Fire Services were immediately pressed into service to clear road blockades.
• While wind speed clocked 175 kmph in Puri, it blew at a speed over 130 kmph in Bhubaneswar as the cyclone moved towards West Bengal over Odisha.
• Wildlife sanctuaries such as Nalabana Bird Sanctuary, Balukhanda Wildlife Sanctuary, Nandankanan Zoological Park and Bhitarakanika Wildlife Sanctuaries were all hit by the storm. Detailed reports about extent of damage are awaited.
• State government evacuated over 11 lakh people from low-lying areas in 15 districts.
• Prime Minister said over ₹1,000 crore had been released in advance for the States affected by cyclone Fani.
• The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), the Indian Coast Guard, the Navy and the Army were engaged in the relief works.

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