IASTODAY DAILY CAPSULES -General Studies-01

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Delhi sees maximum cases of crime against women, again: NCRB

News

• The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data for 2018 ranks Delhi as the metropolitan city with the highest number of crimes against women, yet again.

Beyond News:

• In 2018, 13,640 cases were registered on complaints made by women in the city. Not only is the number of crimes the highest in capital, pending cases are also high and outnumber the number of cases in 2018. Over 18,198 cases have been pending since 2017.
• These include rape, harassment, stalking, acid attack, cruelty by husband or relatives etc. In Mumbai, the number of pending cases is 7,663.
• Most number of crimes against women in Delhi is because of “cruelty by husband and/or relative”, which includes harassment over dowry, domestic violence etc. Number of rape cases in the city in 2018 was 1,217. Crime against women in the city can be compared to that in states such as Karnataka, which has 13,514 such cases and Haryana, which has 14,326 such cases.
• Amongst the 19 metropolitan cities, including Mumbai, Chennai and Bengaluru, Delhi has a share of 27.8% cases of crime against women out of the total 42,180 cases in these cities. Mumbai recorded half the number of cases at 6,058.
• The NCRB released the annual three-volume report, shows the crime statistics in the country between 2017 and 2018. A total of 2,225,977 criminal cases were registered in 2018.
• Another document, titled Accidental Deaths in India, shows that Delhi recorded 6,764 cases of road and railways accidents in 2018 as opposed to 6,929 cases in 2017.
• Chennai has been ranked first in the list with highest number of accidents in both 2017 and 2018. The latest data shows the total number of traffic accidents in Chennai to be 7,580.
• The number of registered cases are highest in Delhi, but so is the recovery rate, says the data. In Mumbai and Bengaluru, the number of kidnapping cases stood at 2,202 and 1,090.

Crime against senior citizens on rise in Chandigarh, 64 cases last year

News

• Senior citizens are becoming more vulnerable to a crime against them by each passing year in the last three years in Chandigarh, the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB)-2018 report said. The report was released in Delhi.
• The report states 48 senior citizens became victims of crime in 2016, 53 in 2017, and 64, including 33 women, fell prey to criminals in 2018.

Beyond News:

• The NCRB report comprising figures from all the states and UTs shows the highest crimes against senior citizens were reported in Chandigarh among all other UTs except Delhi, which has an Assembly making it equivalent to a state. As per the NCRB, any person more than 60 years of age is considered a senior citizen.
• Chandigarh has also left behind certain states in connection with a crime against senior citizens. These states included Uttarakhand, Goa, Tripura, Manipur, Mizoram and Jammu & Kashmir. Most of the crimes that occurred with senior citizens are thefts, cheating, forgery, and house-trespass.
• In 2018, Chandigarh witnessed an overall 4 percent increase in all kinds of registration of cases, including under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Special and Local Laws (SLL) than 2017.
• The NCRB report shows a 5 percent decrease in the registration of IPC crimes in 2018 and 24 percent high registration of cases under SLL in 2018 than 2017.
• The number of IPC crimes has gone down in Chandigarh but the cases registered under SLL, including the NDPS Act, Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO), Excise Act increased in 2018 comparatively to 2017, the report says. The overall registration of FIRs increased in 2018 than in 2017. The report says cases of rapes, attempts to murder, robberies, burglaries and under the NDPS Act increased in 2018 than 2017.

IASTODAY DAILY CAPSULES -General Studies-02

Internet shutdown, Section 144 in Kashmir: How to read the Supreme Court’s order

On shutting down the Internet

• After five months of Internet shutdown in Kashmir, the Supreme Court (January 10) ruled that the right to access the Internet is a fundamental right protected under the Constitution.
• This is the first time that the Supreme Court has read the right to access the Internet as part of Article 19 (1) (a) of the Constitution the right to freedom of speech and expression, and Article 19 (1) (g) the right to practise any profession, trade or occupation.
• Previously, the Kerala High Court in September 2019 had declared access to the Internet as a fundamental right.
• The Supreme Court has ruled that indefinitely shutting down the Internet would be unlawful, it stopped short from declaring the shutdown in Jammu and Kashmir, the longest Internet shutdown in India, as illegal.
• The three-judge Bench has instead asked the government to review the orders that mandated the Internet shutdown.
• Despite a direction for review, the government can issue fresh orders for an Internet shutdown.
• The court said that even a temporary shutdown of the Internet cannot be “arbitrary”, and will be subject to judicial review. The court laid out that like any curbs on free speech, restricting Internet access must also be proportional as laid out under Article 19 (2) of the Constitution.

On Section 144 CrPC

• On the restriction of movement by imposing Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, the court said that such restrictive orders cannot be “a tool to repress legitimate expressions of citizens”.
• Rejecting the arguments of the Jammu and Kashmir government that the court cannot examine all the orders issued under Section 144, the court directed the state to publish every such order so that citizens affected by them can challenge the orders in courts.
• This directive sets the ground for challenging orders of preventive detention, the imposition of Section 144, and the shutdown of the Internet in Kashmir.
• The court also held that magistrates issuing such orders under Section 144 must “apply their minds”, and must balance security and liberty of citizens.
• The court said that repetitive orders without application of mind would violate fundamental rights.

India deploys aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya in Arabian Sea amid China-Pak naval drill

News

• India has deployed its aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya in the Arabian Sea at a time China and Pakistan are holding a nine-day mega naval exercise in the region, a move seen as New Delhi sending a clear signal to its two neighbours.

Nine-day mega naval exercise

• Top officials of the Naval headquarters were on board the aircraft carrier when it was deployed in the strategic mission earlier this week.
• Pakistan and China launched a major drill in the North Arabian Sea with an aim to increase inter-operability and strategic cooperation between their two navies.
• The exercise ‘Sea Guardians’ is taking place in the midst of heightened tension between India and Pakistan over the Kashmir issue. Key platforms of both China and Pakistan, including submarines, destroyers and frigates, are part of the exercise.
• Aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya, with MiG29K fighters on board, has been sent with a strategic objective.
• China has been expanding its presence in the North Arabian Sea and is developing Pakistan’s deepwater Gwadar port in the region.
• Gwadar is being connected through the over USD 60 billion China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) to China’s Xinjiang province, providing a key land route to China to access the warm waters of the Arabian Sea.
• The Arabian Sea provides entry to the Indian Ocean where China has built a logistics base at Djibouti in the Horn of Africa.
• The INS Vikramaditya, commissioned into the Indian Navy in November 2013, is considered one of the top-rated aircraft carriers globally.
• The Russian-origin ship is often called a floating airfield. The 44,500 tonne is about 284-m-long and its height is around 60 m, which is like a 20 storeyed building from keel to the highest point.
• The ship has a total of 22 decks and it has the ability to carry over 30 aircraft comprising an assortment of MiG 29K/Sea Harrier, Kamov 31, Kamov 28, Sea King, ALH-Dhruv and Chetak helicopters.

NCRB data: Sedition cases doubled in two years, Jharkhand is No. 1

News

• The number of sedition cases registered across the country doubled from 35 in 2016 to 70 in 2018, according to latest data released by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB).

Sedition cases

• The data shows that Jammu and Kashmir saw a sharp spike in sedition cases in 2018, with 12 cases compared to just one in 2017. The state was split into two Union Territories last year.
• Jharkhand topped the list of states in sedition cases with 18 while Assam topped the list of offenders with 27 persons booked in 17 cases. Apart from Jharkhand, Assam and J&K, Kerala (9) and Manipur (4) are the other two states in the top five that year.
• In 2017, 51 sedition cases were lodged. In 2018, sedition made almost 50 percent of all cases lodged under various sections related to “offences against the state”.
• The spike in sedition cases comes at a time when cases lodged under other sections linked to “offences against the state” showed a decline in 2018 178 (2016), 160 (2017), 149 (2018).
• Similarly, offences registered under IPC sections 121, 121A, 122 & 123, dealing with waging war against the nation, have also registered a decline from 143 in 2016 to 109 in 2017 and 79 in 2018.
• Along with sedition, offences falling under special and local laws such as the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) and the Official Secrets Act (OSA) have registered a rise. In 2017, 901 offences under UAPA were registered, which rose to 1,182 in 2018. Similarly, only 18 cases were registered in 2017 under the OSA, which doubled to 40 in 2018.
• Under UAPA, the highest number of offences was registered by Assam (308) followed by Manipur (289), J&K (245) and Jharkhand (137). In 2017, the maximum number of such cases was registered by Manipur (330), followed by J&K (156) and UP (109).

Jaishankar meets Sri Lankan counterpart, takes up issue of fishermen

News

• Union Minister of External Affairs S Jaishankar held talks with his Sri Lankan counterpart, Dinesh Gunawardena, on a host of topics, including the sensitive issue of Indian fishermen and their equipment in the neighbouring country’s custody.

Issue of fishermen

• Gunawardena, who arrived on a three-day visit, said during the talks that as announced by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, all 52 boats being held by Sri Lanka will be released, Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) official spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said.
• The Indian side is engaged with the Sri Lankan government for the speedy release of 15 Indian fishermen who are still in their custody.
• Jaishankar and Gunawardena spoke on bilateral economic projects and there are quite a few on the table involving India’s development assistance, human resource development, and mutual cooperation, Kumar said.
• The Sri Lankan foreign minister reiterated the importance laid by President Rajapaksa on exploring newer areas of cooperation with India with an emphasis on skill development, vocational training and capacity building and requested India’s support, the MEA said in a statement.
• The two ministers also exchanged views on regional and global issues of mutual interest, including climate change and counter-terrorism, the statement said. This was Gunawardena’s first foreign visit after he took up office.

Citizenship Amendment Act comes into effect from today as MHA issues notification

News

• The provisions of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) came into effect after the Home Ministry issued a gazette notification.

Citizenship Amendment Act

• The CAA, which has led to widespread protests in the country, grants citizenship to individuals who are Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Christian, Jain, or Parsi and who entered India from Pakistan, Bangladesh, or Afghanistan by the cut-off date of December 31, 2014.
• The Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) became law after receiving the President’s assent on December 14, following a bruising debate in Parliament. At least three Opposition ruled states  Kerala, Punjab and West Bengal have said they will not implement the new citizenship law, and legal challenges have been made in the Supreme Court.

IASTODAY DAILY CAPSULES -General Studies-03

Qassem Soleimani killing prompts Govt to tighten drone rules

News

• The Centre is likely to tighten its drone regulations in the wake of two major global attacks involving unmanned aircraft systems over the last few months the first in September, on Saudi Arabian refineries that impacted nearly half of the country’s global crude supply, and the other last week, when Iran’s top military commander General Qassem Soleimani was killed in Baghdad.

Digital Sky Platform

• A newly launched, first-of-its-kind national unmanned traffic management mechanism called the “Digital Sky Platform” a live platform for registration of manufacturers and operators of drones could see fresh safeguards being built into the certification process.
• A ‘National Counter Rogue Drone Guidelines’, that seeks to lay down measures to be deployed in response to threats to vital installations from unmanned aircraft systems, which was in the works, could now be expedited.
• The regulatory environment is a key factor impacting the pace of adoption of drone-powered solutions by government and business entities. The fresh security imperative could prompt a reset of the regulatory regime for commercial drones.
• India has a ‘No Permission-No Takeoff’ (NPNT) clause for aerial unmanned objects, which implies that a drone cannot be operated in Indian skies unless the regulatory permission is received through the Digital Sky Platform. The pilot also needs certification, requiring a remote pilot licence or an ‘Unmanned Aerial Operator Permit’ (UAOP) before operating a drone.
• In August 2018, the Centre came up with the first set of regulatory norms on the use of drones, which classified them based on their total weight with cargo and fuel for motive power (generally a battery), but with the rider that operations have to be limited to the line-of-sight.
• Then in January 2019, a white paper on drone policy 2.0 was released, that paved the way for wider application of drones, such as the delivery of goods beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS).
• The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) floated an expression-of-interest for conducting experimental BVLOS operations of drones, to which 32 proposals were received.
• In August 2019, the work for the development and hosting of the Digital Sky Platform was awarded by the Airports Authority of India (AAI), and the hosting of a Beta version of this platform is learnt to have been cleared with requisite security certification.
• This platform, currently live, allows operators to apply for a Unique Identification Number (UIN) akin to the registration plate of a car that needs to be issued for all drones (with the exception of the smallest category), and Unmanned Aircraft Operator Permit online for approval by the civil aviation regulator.
• A total of six drone models had been provisionally accepted by the aviation regulator to fly in the country till December 2019.
• The Centre’s regulatory policy on the use of drones classifies them based on their total weight ‘nano’ (up to 250 grams), ‘micro’ (250 g to 2 kg), ‘small’ (2-25 kg), ‘medium’ (25-150 kg) and ‘large’ (over 150 kg).
• The Digital Sky Platform regulates all drones in the micro and higher categories and divides the Indian airspace into three broad categories Red, Yellow and Green. Red denotes “no fly zone” (includes airspace near international borders, vital assets like Parliament House, nuclear installations, major airports);
• Yellow signifies airspace requiring Air Defence Clearance or Air Traffic Control clearance; and Green signifies unrestricted airspace zones.Even for the Green zone, there is a need to get clearance from the Digital Sky Platform to commence operations.

Google removes over 1,700 apps affected by Joker malware from Play Store

News

• Google back last year removed 24 apps infected with the ‘Joker‘ malware from its Play Store.

Malware

• The apps before being removed had amassed over 5,00,000 downloads.. Now, the company has opened up a bit and provided us with more details regarding it.
• It claims that the ‘Joker’ malware is a harmful “large-scale billing fraud family“, which tried a lot to get past the company’s security walls and charge users unethically.
• The malware started back in 2017, where it indulged in SMS fraud. After Google restricted use of SMS permission, it moved to toll billing fraud. Google in a blog post, claims that the Joker malware family has used every cloaking and obfuscation technique to go undetected.
• Under the toll billing fraud, the family made the user visit a URL to complete billing and enter their phone number. It used injected clicks, custom HTML parsers and SMS receivers to automate the billing process without the user noticing.
• It has also tried using standard crypto libraries, custom-implemented encryption algorithms, some obfuscation methods utilizing JavaScript in WebViews and several commercially available packers to go undetected.
• The malware affected apps had fake contact information and the billing process started even without the user confirming it.

Industrial production grows 1.8% in November: Government data

News

• The index of industrial production (IIP) expanded by 1.8 per cent on-year to 128.4 during the month of November, according to the data released by the Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation (MoSPI).

Index of industrial production

• • The IIP had grown 0.2 per cent in November 2018.
  • The industrial growth during the period of April-November 2019 grew 0.6 per cent from the corresponding period year ago, the data showed.
  • The industrial output was positive in November after a gap of three months mainly on account of a rise in the manufacturing sector.
  • The manufacturing sector grew 2.7 per cent to 130.2 during the month of November last year, the MoSPI data showed.
  • The industrial growth during the period of April-November 2019 grew 0.6 per cent from the corresponding period year ago. In November 2018, the manufacturing sector had witnessed a contraction of 0.7 per cent.
  • The mining sector saw a growth of 1.7 per cent at 112.5 during November 2019, however, the sector had grown at 2.7 per cent during the year-ago month.
  • The electricity sector witnessed a contraction of 5 per cent on-year at 139.9 in November, as compared to a growth of 5.1 per cent year ago, the data showed.

Chandrapur forest conservator orders to capture 3 tigers

News

• The impressive growth in the number of tigers in Chandrapur district of Maharashtra has been punctuated by growing incidence of man-tiger conflicts over the past decade and more.
• Two orders issued by Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (Wildlife), to capture three different tigers, underscored the urgency of the situation like never before.

Man-tiger conflicts

• Issued one order to capture a male and a female tiger found venturing regularly into areas adjoining Irai river flowing adjacent to the city and the other for the capture of a tigress in Bramhpuri divisional forest, which was involved in the deaths of two people last year.
• The PCCF may also issue another order soon to capture a tiger believed to be involved in three deaths and one injury in the Rajura forest of the district.
• The male and female tigers that are to be captured were brought up in the prosopis forest that has come up inside the Chandrapur Super Thermal Power Station (CSTPS) area. They will be the first big cats to be captured in anticipation of possible trouble.
• The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) allows the capture or shooting of tigers only when they cause death or injury to humans, and in rare cases, for those straying inside human settlements.
• Chandrapur has a forest area of 5,206 sq km, roughly 45 per cent of the district’s geographical area of 11,441 sq km.

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