IASTODAY DAILY CAPSULES -General Studies-02

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Government notifies new RTI rules

News:

The government on Thursday notified new rules under the Right to Information Act that reduced the tenure of information commissioners from five years to three, something which activists on Friday said would affect their independence.

Beyond News:

• The Chief Information Commissioner’s salary has been fixed at ₹2.5 lakh and an information commissioner’s at ₹2.25 lakh.
• The policy requires all draft rules to be placed in the public domain for comments/suggestions of people. The draft was not available in the public domain and no consultations were held with members of the public.”
• Among the new rules, the government had been given the “power to relax” the provisions of the rules, raising “serious concerns that the government could potentially invoke these powers to determine different tenures for different commissioners at the time of appointment”.

India, U.S. cooperation on jet engines ‘suspended’

News:

The India-U.S. Joint Working Group on jet engine cooperation within the framework of the Defence Technology and Trade Initiative (DTTI), “has been suspended,” said Ellen M. Lord, U.S. Under-secretary of Defence Acquisition and Sustainment.

Beyond News:

• During the talks, the two sides identified seven projects under the SoI which aims to deepen defence technology cooperation, and interoperability consistent with shared national security interests and respective national laws. This SoI will be formalised in a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) that is in the works.
• These include three near term projects — air-launched small Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS), lightweight small arms technology and Intelligence, Surveillance, Targeting Acquisition and Reconnaissance (ISTAR), two mid-term projects — Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA) solution and virtual augmented reality solutions for aircraft maintenance (VAMRAM), and two long term projects — terrain shaping obstacle and Counter UAS Rocket Artillery and Mortar systems (CU-RAM).
• The DTTI was announced in 2012 as an ambitious initiative for co-production and co-development of military systems but has never really taken off despite several efforts.
• As part of engaging the industry within the framework of DTTI, the inaugural meeting on October 21 of the DTTI-industry collaboration forum, a formal industry listening session was held which saw the participation of seven U.S. and over 20 Indian companies.

India climbs 14 notches in ease of doing business ranking

News:

In the latest ranking for countries in ease of doing business, the World Bank has placed India 63rd out of 190 countries — an improvement of 14 places from its 77th position last year. The country’s score improved from 67.3 last year to 71.0 this year, as per The Doing Business 2020 study, released on Thursday.

Beyond News:

• The indicator measures the performance of countries across 10 different dimensions in the 12-month period ending May 1, 2019.
• The 10 areas of study are: starting a business, dealing with construction permits, getting electricity, registering property, getting credit, protecting minority investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts, and resolving insolvency.
• An 11th area – employing workers – is measured, but not factored into the score. A total of 294 reforms had been enacted by 115 countries, the bank said. The indicator, however, is not necessarily representative of each country. For 11 countries, two cities were selected to construct the indicator – Delhi and Mumbai in the case of India. India also featured, for the third consecutive year, in the list of 10 economies where business climates had improved the most.
• Delhi and Mumbai showed improvements in the ‘starting a business’, ‘trading across borders’ and ‘resolving insolvency’ dimensions. On the ‘dealing with construction permits’ front, both cities streamlined and made less expensive the process of getting a permit but Delhi also improved professional certification requirements for constructing buildings.
• Additionally, the report noted that the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Make in India’ programme and the government’s attention to the Ease of Doing Business indicator were a means to demonstrate ‘tangible progress’. The report also noted the government’s goal of making it to the top 50 list by 2020. (India ranked 130 in 2016).
• The 10 top ranking countries with respect to the indicator were: New Zealand, Singapore, Hong Kong SAR China, Denmark, Republic of Korea, United States, Georgia, United Kingdom, Norway, and Sweden. Each country is scored and also ranked ( a comparison ). The 0-100 score measures any given country’s performance with respect to the best practice across the entire set of countries. A score of zero signifies worst regulatory performance and 100, the best.
• China (rank 31, score 77.9) made it to the top 10 list for the second such year. New Zealand and Somalia retained their 1st and 190th spot respectively.

Brazil plans visa-free entry for Indian travellers

News:

Brazil is working to implement a policy to facilitate faster entry for Indian travellers into the country, the Embassy of Brazil confirmed on Friday after President Jair Bolsonaro said the South American country intended to allow Indian travellers to visit without a visa.

Beyond News:

• The comments from the embassy came hours after President Bolsonaro announced that he intended to bring in measures that would allow greater contact with India and China and end visa requirements for the citizens of the two countries. Brazil has already ended visa requirements for the citizens of the United States, Canada, Japan and Australia.
• President Bolsonaro first announced the evolving visa policy for Chinese and Indian nationals in his September speech at the UN General Assembly.
• The announcement from Brazil came ahead of the upcoming BRICS summit that will be held in Brazil which is expected to boost intra-BRICS ties.

CSIR offers free mapping of Indian genomes

News:

Anyone looking for a free mapping of their entire genome can sign up for the IndiGen initiative, a programme managed by the CSIR-Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (IGIB) and the CSIR-Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB).

Beyond News:

Those who do get their genes mapped this way will get a card and access to an app, which will allow them and doctors to access “clinically actionable information” on their genomes.

The aim of the exercise was twofold: To test if it’s possible to rapidly and reliably scan several genomes and advise people on health risks that are manifest in their gene and, understand the variation and frequency of certain genes that are known to be linked to disease.

• A genetic test, which is commercially available at several outlets in the country, usually involves analysing only a portion of the genome that’s known to contain aberrant genes linked to disease. A whole genome sequencing is more involved and expensive — it’s about ₹100,000 and a single person’s scan take a whole day — and generally attempted only for research purposes. The human genome has about 3.2 billion base pairs and just 10 years ago cost about $10,000. Now prices have fallen to a tenth.
• “The outcomes of IndiGen will have applications in a number of areas including faster and efficient diagnosis of rare genetic diseases,” said Union Science Minister, Harsh Vardhan, at a press conference, “The IndiGenome card and app ensures privacy and data security, which is vital for personal genomics to be implemented at scale.”
• The CSIR exercise ties into a larger programme coordinated by the Department of Biotechnology, which plans to scan nearly 20,000 Indian genomes over the next five years, in a two-phase exercise, and develop diagnostic tests that can be used to test for cancer.

Strain of wild poliovirus eradicated: WHO

News:

• Wild poliovirus type 3 has been eradicated, the World Health Organisation said on Thursday, hailing the development as an “historic achievement for humanity” that leaves only one strain of the virus in transmission.

Beyond News:

• All three types of wildpolio can cause paralysis and death, but WHO categorises them separately in terms of eradication because of certain virological differences.
• The last confirmed case of WPV3 was recorded in northern Nigeria in 2012.
• WPV2 was declared eradicated in 2015, but WPV1 continues to circulate in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
• Non-wild forms of polio — known as vaccine-derived polio — remain in transmission in parts of Africa and Asia, including the Philippines where a re-emergence last month nearly two decades after the last case has triggered a mass vaccination campaign.
• Vaccine-derived polio is caused by the weakened form of the virus used in vaccines, which is excreted by people for a time after they receive it.
• According to WHO, that form can mutate and spread in the surrounding community when immunisation rates get too low.

IASTODAY DAILY CAPSULES -General Studies-03

Rajasthan Police to penalise people posting pictures with guns on social media

News:

Action will be taken against those who post pictures with arms and ammunition on social media platforms in Rajasthan.

Beyond News:

• A senior official of the anti-terrorist squad (ATS) and the special operations group (SOG) of the Rajasthan Police has issued directions to all range IGs and SPs to identify such people.
• There are numerous people who post their pictures with guns, bullets and other arms and ammunition on social media.
• Members of different criminal gangs who operate in western Rajasthan and in areas which share border with Haryana are active on social media platforms, particularly Facebook, and posts such pictures.

Cloning bank cards

News:

• Two Romanians on a mission to clone bank cards arrested.

Beyond News:

• They came to India all the way from Romania on a ‘mission’ to skim data from ATM machines and siphon off money from bank accounts after getting instructions from their ‘boss’ in London.
• However, their mission failed after two tricksters were arrested by Hyderabad police on Thursday.
• The duo affixed magnetic card reading skimmers and spy cameras at eight ATM centres across the city and sent the data to London, said Hyderabad Commissioner of Police Anjani Kumar. They install skimmers, as well as spy cameras to get the Personal Identity Number.

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