Comprehensive Current affairs 24 June 2020

 

Panel of Parliamentarians to work out on AarogyaSetu app.

After several failed attempts to organise a meeting, both online and offline, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information and Technology has started working on the various questions of privacy and data security of the government-run AarogyaSetu app, which was launched during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Chairperson of the committee ShashiTharoor said the committee’s work “must and will” continue, even though the panel members can’t meet in person or via videoconference.

For now, the committee is forwarding all the questions raised by the members on the AarogyaSetu app to the government and other stakeholders concerned. These replies are then circulated amongst the members for further deliberations. According to him

“Despite the considerable challenges the current situation imposes on us as elected representatives, we will continue to carry out our duties of parliamentary oversight of the government, by providing a constructive check and balance to the working and functioning of the various Ministries under our jurisdiction".

Supreme Court allows PuriRathYatra with restrictions.

The Supreme Court today allowed Puri'sRathYatra, scheduled to start from tomorrow, saying it cannot micro-manage the rituals and left it to the wisdom of state, the Centre and temple management to deal with that issue.

The apex court said PuriRathYatra will be held with coordination of Temple committee, State and Central Governments without compromising with health issue. It said, Odisha can even stop the yatra or festivities if they feel it is going out of hand.

The apex court had on June 18th said that in the interest of public health and safety of citizens, this year's PuriRathYatra cannot be allowed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Only selective servitors and police officials will be allowed to pull the chariots of the holy siblings of Lords Jagannath, Balabhadra and Goddess Subhadra in view of COVID19.

Odisha Chief Secretary AsitTripathy informed that RathYatra will be conducted smoothly without devotees and with strict adherence to the COVID-19 guidelines.” On the other hand, Chief Minister Naveen Pattanaik has directed the law minister, health minister and school and mass education minister to work with full coordination and cooperation to make this religious congregation smooth and favourable.

Deep Submergence Rescue Vehicle Complex inaugurated in Vizag.

The Indian Navy has inducted the Deep Submergence Rescue Vehicle (DSRV) Complex to provide rescue cover to submarines on the east and west coast of India. The DSRV complex was inaugurated by Vice Admiral Atul Kumar Jain, Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief of Eastern Naval Command (ENC) in Visakhapatnam on 10 June.

Highlights:

·         DSRV Complex was equipped with state-of-the-art facilities.

·         It has been designed to accommodate the newly inducted submarine rescue system and store the DSRV assets in the rescue-ready state.

·          The system consists of a submarine rescue vessel, a remote operations vehicle, and side-scan sonar and associated equipment.

·          It has hyperbaric medical equipment and diver decompression chambers to decompress submariners after the submarines are rescued from sunken submarines.

·          DSRV complex can be mobilized by air or road to facilitate submarine rescue operations even at distant locations.

·          The Indian Navy has inducted two such systems to provide rescue cover to submarines.

·          At present, there are about 40 nations that operate submarines.

·          The 3rd generation submarine rescue capability of the Indian Navy can be sought by the other navies for assistance during contingencies in the Indian Ocean Region.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic won the controversial Parliamentary election.

Serbia's President Aleksandar Vucic won the controversial parliamentary election. The Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) won over 60% of the vote, which is around 190 seats in the 250-seat Serbian parliament.

Background:
The general election was originally scheduled for 26 April 2020 but was postponed after a state of the emergency was declared to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic. The largest block of parties  including the Serbian Radical Party (SRP), the Democratic Party, the Party of Freedom and Justice, The Doors (Dveri), the People’s Party, and the Let's not drown Belgrade movement boycotted the election.

About Siberian Parliament:

Siberia Parliament is also known as the National Assembly of Siberia. It has a unicameral legislature. The PM of Siberia is elected and appointed by the 250 elected members of the National Assembly. The President of Siberia is also empowered to propose the name of an individual to the National Assembly for the post of the Prime Minister.

China to join the United Nations Arms Trade Treaty to regulate its arms sales.

China announced that it has decided to join the United Nations Arms Trade Treaty (UN-ATT) to regulate its arms sales. The decision was made during a three-day meeting which was held from 18-20 June of the top lawmaking committee in China- Legislative Affairs Committee.

Highlights:

·         China has always strictly controlled the export of military products.

·         China's move to join the treaty is an important step towards the country's effort to enhance & maintain peace and stability across the globe and support multilateralism.

·          Under this, China will export military products to sovereign countries and will not export military products to non-state actors.

Background:
The move by China comes after the US announced to pull out of the ATT in 2019. US cited the reason was the treaty amounts to international gun control which is a threat to the USA's second amendment right to bear arms. In May 2020, the US announced its exit from the Open Skies Treaty (OST).

What is the Arms Trade Treaty?

Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) promotes, regulates, and monitors the international sales and transfer of conventional arms as per the global standards. ATT regulates from small arms to battle tanks, combat aircraft and warships. UNGA adopted the treaty on 2 April 2013. ATT entered into force on 24 December 2014. As per the treaty, the UN member countries must keep records of international transfers of weapons. It also imposes the member states to prohibit cross-border shipments that could be used in human rights violations or attacks on civilians.

 Japan decides to rename disputed islands with China.

A local council in southern Japan voted on Monday to rename an area, including islands disputed with China and Taiwan, a move Beijing denounced as illegal and a “serious provocation”.

The local assembly of Ishigaki city approved a plan to change the name of the area covering the Tokyo-controlled Senkaku Islands — known by Taiwan and China as the Diaoyus — from

“Tonoshiro” to “TonoshiroSenkaku”. Local media said another part of Ishigaki is also known as Tonoshiro, and the name change was cast as a bid to avoid confusion.

But the uninhabited islands are at the centre of a festering row between Tokyo and Beijing and the move sparked anger in both Taiwan and mainland China.

“The passing of the so-called administration designation bill by Japan is a serious provocation to China’s territorial sovereignty,” said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian.

Taiwan says the islands are part of its territory, and also protested the move. “The sovereignty of Diaoyu islands belongs to our country and any move attempting to alter this fact is invalid,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Scientists develop receiver chip for NAVIC and GPS satellites.

IIT-Bombay has developed a homegrown receiver chip - Dhruva – that can be used in smartphones and navigation devices to find locations and routes within the country. Dhruva will receive signals from India’s NAVIC group of navigation satellites as well as the US Global Positioning System-based satellites to determine these accurately under all weather conditions.

The radio frequency receiver chip was designed in 18 months by students and researchers at IIT Bombay. It can receive in multiple frequency bands and handle weak signals. Besides, it can be converted into digital bits and processed by any standard digital signal processor (DSP) to determine one’s location precisely.

India has had a fleet of navigational satellites for a few years, but there have been no commercial receivers so far that could receive its signals in multiple frequencies, IIT Bombay said in a statement.
The nine satellites under NAVIC were built as an alternative to the GPS, as part of India’s space agency’s efforts to make the navigation system accessible for commercial applications.

“Since the satellites are far away from the Earth, the received signals are extremely weak compared to the ambient noise floor. This chip can clean up all the interfering signals, sifting out the weak desired navigation signals,” according to IIT Bombay.

The note added that these signals are further amplified by approximately 400,000 times before converting to digital bits using on-chip Analog-to-Digital Converters (ADCs).

China launched last BeiDou Satellite System.

China launched the satellite of the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System 3 (BDS-3) from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwest China's Sichuan Province on 23 June 2020.

BDS-3 Satellite:

·          BDS-3 Satellite was carried by a Long March-3B carrier rocket.

·         It is the 30th BDS-3 satellite and also the 55th of the whole BeiDou satellite family.

·    BDS-3 will offer its users services including high-precision positioning and short message communication. It will bring new highlights to global navigation satellite systems.

·          The final BDS satellite weighs over 10,000 pounds. It is the largest of its kind in the family.

·          The satellite is filled with propellants for maneuvers in orbit.

·          BDS-3 family will allow the constellation to provide more cost-effective navigation services.

·   BDS-3 is constructed with 24 satellites in medium-Earth orbits (MEO), three in inclined geosynchronous satellite orbits, and three in geostationary orbits. The satellite is scheduled to provide services worldwide.

·          The launch of the satellite marked the completion of China's domestically developed BeiDou constellation, one of four global navigation networks alongside the United States' GPS, Russia's GLObal NAvigation Satellite System (GLONASS) and the European Union's (EU's) Galileo.

 RBI asks payment systems operators to promote education of digital transactions.
Reserve Bank of India has directed payment system operators to undertake targeted multi-lingual campaigns by way of SMS and advertisements to educate their users on safe and secure use of digital payments.

In a circular, the Reserve Bank of India said it has been taking measures to improve awareness through its e-BAAT programmes and organizing campaigns on the safe use of digital payment modes to avoid sharing critical personal information like PIN, OTP and passwords.
RBI said, it is necessary to reinforce efforts to spread awareness as incidents of fraud continue to bedevil digital users, often using the same modus operandi.

To promote safe digital transactions among the general public, RBI has reiterated that users should take care by not sharing with anyone their debit, credit or pre-paid card details. RBI has further advised users not to share their password, PIN, OTP, CVV and UPI-PIN.

The apex bank has also cautioned the public from undertaking banking or other financial transactions through public, open or free WiFi-networks and storing important banking data on the mobile, e-mail, electronic wallet or purse.

Centre launches food processing edition of exclusive investment forum.

Minister of Food Processing Industries HarsimratKaurBadal today said that new opportunities are opening up in Food processing sector.

She was launching the Food Processing Edition of the Exclusive Investment Forum. Invest India has designed this forum of unique sectoral series to conduct detailed conversations between global industry leaders and key decision makers from the highest levels of the Central and State Governments.
The Minister said that due to the COVID pandemic, the sector has seen unique challenges and has been playing a very important role in ensuring that the lockdown remained successful.

She said, a few challenges that are currently being faced are those related to global trade which has seen a dip along with the dip in domestic demand. She said, these challenges are leading to opening up of new opportunities such as the exclusive forum which has made it possible for over 180 investors, 6 state governments and the Central government to be at the same place at the same time. 
Ms Badal further explained about   the opportunities available in the Indian food processing sector to the participants. She also informed that many   projects funded by the Ministry have also been getting new orders from new geographies recently.