PERIYAR IAS CURRENT AFFAIRS 21-OCTOBER-2017
Topic: Parliament and State Legislatures –
structure, functioning, conduct of business, powers & privileges and issues
arising out of these.
Rajasthan law: No probe against judges,
officers without sanction
Rajasthan
government has passed an ordinance which seeks to protect both serving and
former judges, magistrates and public servants in Rajasthan from being
investigated for on-duty action without its prior sanction. The Criminal Laws (Rajasthan
Amendment) Ordinance, 2017 has
been promulgated in this regard.
Highlights of the ordinance:
§ The ordinance amends the Criminal Code of
Procedure, 1973 and also seeks curb on publishing and printing or publicising
in any case the name, address, photograph, family details of the public
servants.
§ It seeks to bar the media from reporting on
accusations till the sanction to proceed with the probe is obtained.
§ No magistrate shall order an investigation
nor will any investigation be conducted against a person, who is or was a judge
or a magistrate or a public servant.
§ If there is no decision on the sanction
request post the stipulated time period, it will automatically mean that
sanction has been granted.
§ The Ordinance made additions to sections 156
(3) and 190 (1) of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) which empower a
magistrate to take cognizance of an offence and order an investigation.
§ Violation would call for two years
imprisonment.
Sources: the hindu.
Topic: Bilateral, regional and global groupings and
agreements involving India and/or affecting India’s interests.
India, Brazil, South Africa sign IBSA
Trust Fund agreement
India, Brazil and South Africa have
signed the IBSA Trust
Fund Agreement that
seeks to fight poverty in developing countries. The agreement was signed at the
8th IBSA trilateral Ministerial Commission Meeting in Durban.
About IBSA Trust Fund:
The IBSA Trust Fund brings together the three
emerging economies of India, Brazil and South Africa to combat poverty in other
developing countries. Each country contributes USD 1 million annually to this
fund which is managed by the UN Development Programmes (UNDP) Special Unit for
South-South Cooperation.
THE INDIA-BRAZIL-SOUTH AFRICA DIALOGUE FORUM:
Established in June 2003, IBSA is a
coordinating mechanism amongst three emerging countries, three multi ethnic and
multicultural democracies, which are determined to:
§ Contribute to the construction of a new
international architecture.
§ Bring their voice together on global issues.
§ Deepen their ties in various areas.
Key facts:
§ IBSA also opens itself to concrete projects
of cooperation and partnership with less developed countries.
§ The establishment of IBSA was formalised by
the Brasilia Declaration of 6 June 2003, which mentions India, Brazil and South
Africa’s democratic credentials, their condition as developing nations and
their capacity of acting on a global scale as the main reasons for the three
countries to come together.
§ Their status as middle powers, their common
need to address social inequalities within their borders and the existence of
consolidated industrial areas in the three countries are often mentioned as
additional elements that bring convergence among the members of the Forum.
Sources: the hindu.
Topic: Bilateral, regional and global groupings and
agreements involving India and/or affecting India’s interests.
First Ever Tri-Services India-Russia
War Exercise – Indra
India and Russia have begun their first mega tri-services war game-
Indra involving their armies, navies and air
forces with an aim to boost their operational coordination. The Indian
contingent includes nearly 450 personnel while the Russian side is being
represented by around 1,000 troops in the 10-day exercise Indra.
§ The Indian Army, Navy and Air Force have been
holding bilateral exercises separately with their Russian counterparts but it
is is for the first time that the two countries are carrying out a tri-services
exercise.
Significance of the exercise:
§ The joint tri-service exercise will be a
demonstration of the increasing commitment of both nations to address common
challenges across the full spectrum of operations.
§ The first ever tri-service exercise between
the two countries reflects the vibrancy of the continued Indo-Russian strategic
partnership.
§ With the rich operational experience of
Russian and Indian armies in counter insurgency operations, both sides will
gain immensely from each other to further develop their capabilities. The
exercise will further strengthen the relationship between the two defence
forces.
Sources: the hindu.
Paper 3:
Topic: Challenges to internal security through
communication networks, role of media and social networking sites in internal
security challenges, basics of cyber security; money-laundering and its
prevention.
Govt sets up expert group for
suggestions on artificial intelligence policy
The Union ministry of electronics and
information technology has set up an internal committee to advise the
government on a policy on artificial intelligence (AI). The
expert committee will advise the IT ministry on the most apt technologies for
India.
§ The government’s main focus is to reduce
cyber attacks with AI. The main policy will be drawn up once the committee
gives its report.
Need for a policy on AI:
The artificial intelligence market is
estimated to touch $153 billion in 2020 and expected to grow at a compounded
annual growth rate of 45.4% from 2016 to 2022. However, AI is widely seen as a
major challenge in generation of employment as many companies are likely to
depend more on it to cut down on human resources.
Globally too, there is a growing interest in
AI. In 2016, the White House initiated work on Preparing for the future of
artificial intelligence; in the UK, the House of Commons committee on S&T
looked at robotics and artificial intelligence while in 2017, the State Council
of China started work on the next generation artificial intelligence
development plan.
Seven- point strategy:
The government has recently drawn up a
seven-point strategy that would form the framework for India’s strategic plan
to use AI.
§ The strategy includes developing methods for
human machine interactions; ensuring safety and security of AI systems;
creating a competent workforce in line with AI and R&D needs, understanding
and addressing the ethical, legal and societal implications of AI, measuring
and evaluating AI technologies through standards and benchmarks, among others.
Sources: the hindu.
Topic: awareness in space.
Dawn Mission Extended at Ceres
NASA has authorized a second extension
of the Dawn mission at Ceres,
the largest object in
the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. During
this extension, the spacecraft will descend to lower altitudes than ever before
at the dwarf planet, which it has been orbiting since March 2015. The
spacecraft will continue at Ceres for the remainder of its science
investigation and will remain in a stable orbit indefinitely after its
hydrazine fuel runs out.
Key facts:
§ A priority of the second Ceres mission
extension is collecting data with Dawn’s gamma ray and neutron spectrometer,
which measures the number and energy of gamma rays and neutrons. This
information is important for understanding the composition of Ceres’ uppermost
layer and how much ice it contains.
§ The spacecraft also will take visible-light
images of Ceres’ surface geology with its camera, as well as measurements of
Ceres’ mineralogy with its visible and infrared mapping spectrometer.
§ The extended mission at Ceres additionally
allows Dawn to be in orbit while the dwarf planet goes through perihelion, its
closest approach to the Sun, which will occur in April 2018. At closer proximity
to the Sun, more ice on Ceres’ surface may turn to water vapor, which may in
turn contribute to the weak transient atmosphere detected by the European Space
Agency’s Herschel Space Observatory before Dawn’s arrival.
Dawn mission:
NASA’s Dawn mission will study the asteroid
Vesta and dwarf planet Ceres, celestial bodies believed to have accreted early
in the history of the solar system. The mission will characterize the early
solar system and the processes that dominated its formation.
Dawn is the only mission ever to orbit two
extraterrestrial targets. It orbited giant asteroid Vesta for 14 months from
2011 to 2012, then continued on to Ceres, where it has been in orbit since
March 2015.
Sources: et.
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