comprehensive current affairs 23rd july 2020

Indian Human Resource Development Minister launched ‘Shagun.

Shagun is an over-arching initiative to improve school education system.
This will be achieved by creating a junction for all portals/websites relating to various activities of the Department of School Education and Literacy in the Government of India and States/UTs.

Websites of 1200 Kendriya Vidyalayas, 600 Navodaya Vidyalayas, 18000 other CBSE affiliated schools, 30 SCERTs, 19000 organisations affiliated with NTCE among others are integrated with Shagun.
Report cards of 15 lakh schools all over the country will be available on the newly created junction. The website also provides vital information relating to availability of nearby schools. Common people can directly give their feedback about schools.

The portal seeks to connect approximately 92 lakh teachers and 26 crore students.

Key focus areas: 

Reinforcing and cleaning the data of the Integrated Online Junction through feedback from Stakeholders
Ensuring full interoperability among the websites, portals and applications which are already hosted in the junction.

Creating high quality e-contents, including quizzes and puzzles to enhance learning and also for teachers in aiding classroom transactions Using artificial intelligence and deep machine learning in a variety of ways to enhance the quality of school education including for designing evidence based inventions.

UPSC is going to reimburse airfares of civil services aspirants travelling for test.

UPSC will reimburse airfares of civil services aspirants travelling for test
The commission will also help candidates with their lodging and transport requirements, the statement said. The commission will also help candidates with their lodging and transport requirements, the statement said.

The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) will reimburse ‘to-and-fro’ airfares of civil services aspirants appearing for the personality test in New Delhi as train services are “not fully functional” due to Covid-19 curbs, according to an official statement issued on Monday.

 

Vulnerable groups petition global fund.

Deprived of sources of livelihood during the pandemic, sex workers, trans-persons, gay and bisexual men, drug users and people living with HIV/AIDS have written to the Global Fund for

AIDS, TB and Malaria (GFATM) protesting against being ignored by governments and multilateral agencies in COVID-19-related emergency relief efforts.

Global Fund for AIDS, TB and Malaria (GFATM) 

·         Founded in 2002, GFATM, also known as Global Fund, is an international financing organization.

·         The Global Fund was formed as an independent, non-profit foundation under Swiss law and hosted by the World Health Organization in January 2002.

·         In January 2009, the organization became an administratively autonomous organization, terminating its administrative services agreement with the World Health Organization.

·         It aims to “attract, leverage and invest additional resources to end the epidemics of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria to support attainment of the Sustainable Development Goalsestablished by the United Nations.”

·         It is a partnership between governments, civil society, the private sector and people affected by the diseases.

·         Its secretariat is in Geneva, Switzerland.

 

U.S accuses China of undermining Myanmar sovereignty.

The US has accused China of undermining the sovereignty of Myanmar through its actions in states like Kachin bordering China.The US Chargé d’Affaires in Myanmar George N. Sibley has said in an article on Saturday that China has tried to intimidate, threaten and undermine Myanmar sovereignty by encouraging unregulated banana plantation in the Kachin state, non-demarcation of fisheries and similar other acts.

He has also said that China aided in unregulated investment and corruption in the mining and forestry sector. The infrastructure and Special Economic Zones (SEZs) promoted by China lead to piling up of debts and ceding of regulatory control benefitting China at the cost of Myanmar.

Referring to the human trafficking from Myanmar, the US embassy official says that nearly 80 percent of Myanmar’s reported human trafficking cases in 2019 involved women being trafficked to China. Law enforcement in China often looks the other way and fails to help these vulnerable victims.
The US embassy Chargé d’Affaires also referred to the illicit drug trade. He said billions of dollars worth drugs and chemicals have been seized by the Myanmar authorities. Most of these came from China. The Chinese embassy in Myanmar refuted the allegations and said that the statement was intended to drive a wedge with its neighbours.

Global demand for cancelling debts of developing countries takes root.

The burden of debt on the developing countries that amounts to over $11 trillion should be cancelled in view of the COVID-19 pandemic, a group of global notables has demanded.

Led by former Brazil President DilmaRousseff the group says the debt should go in meeting the public health requirements in these challenging times.

“This debt has ballooned over the past several decades, leaving most developing countries in an unsustainable financial situation. Defaults and debt adjustments seem to be a permanent fixture amongst developing countries, coming for reasons that are often external to the fundamentals of their economies,” said the statement on debt cancellation.

Apart from Ms.Rousseff, the statement was also backed by former Greek Finance MinsterYanisVaroufakis and Argentine lawyer and activist Juan Grabois among others. 

US orders China to close its Houston consulate.

The United States (US) has ordered China to close its consulate in Houston and accused it of ramping up spying operations, dramatically escalating diplomatic tensions between the feuding superpowers.

Wednesday´s announcement infuriated Beijing, which vowed to retaliate as the two countries squabble over a slew of issues ranging from trade to the coronavirus pandemic and China´s policies in Hong Kong, Xinjiang and the South China Sea.

The Chinese Consulate in Houston was opened in 1979 -- the first in the year the US and the People´s Republic of China established diplomatic relations, according to its website.

The website says the office covers eight southern US states -- including Texas and Florida -- and has nearly one million people in the area registered at the consulate. There are five Chinese consulates in the US, as well as an embassy in Washington.

The Consumer Protection Act, 2019 .

This law empowers buyers to ask for replacements, refunds or damages from brands, e-tailers and service providers.Aggrieved customers in India will now be able to seek effective legal remedy,on the lines of class action suits seen in many countries.

Salient features;

Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA):

Act proposes a Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) to regulate matters of consumer rights, trade practices and advertisements prejudicial to the interests of the public, and to promote, protect and enforce the rights of the consumers as a class.

This will be able to file suo motu cases on behalf of a class of customers, thereby initiating class action suits that would hold brands and e-tailers accountable.

What is Simplified Dispute Resolution Process:

·         Consumer Commissions are empowered to enforce their orders.

·         State Commissions & District Commissions can now review their own orders.

·         Ease of approaching Consumer Commissions through E-filing and video conferencing for hearing.

what is Mediation:

·         Mediation is prescribed as an Alternate Dispute Resolution (ADR) mechanism.

·         Reference to mediation by Consumer Commissions wherever scope for early settlement exists and parties agree for it.

·         No appeal against settlement through mediation.

what is Product Liability:

A manufacturer or product service provider or product seller to be responsible to compensate for injury or damage caused by defective product or deficiency in services.This provision would deter manufacturers and service providers from delivering defective products or deficient services.

 

IIT-M researchers use artificial materials and ultrasound to detect defects in large structures.

Recently Scientists from IIT Madras and the University of Nairobi have used metamaterials to improve detection of defects in large structures by guided wave ultrasound.

Details:
Engineering structures including buildings, pipelines and rails require periodic testing to prevent catastrophic failures occurring due to corrosion, impact, and strain.

High-frequency sound waves that travel in the bulk are widely used for non-invasive and non-destructive testing of structural materials.

Conventional bulk ultrasonic inspection is tedious and time-consuming as it involves point-by-point assessment of structures.

What is Guided Wave TestingTesting?

In guided wave testing (GWT), the sound waves are sent along the length of the structure rather than into the structure, allowing the waves to travel longer distances.

GWT has poorer resolution than conventional ultrasound-based testing due to diffraction limitations.
The research team used metamaterials to improve the resolution of guided ultrasound waves.

What are Meta Materials?

Metamaterials are artificially crafted materials with unique internal microstructures that give them properties not found in nature.

The constituent artificial units of the metamaterial can be tailored in shape, size, and interatomic interaction, to exhibit unusual properties.

 

Alerts were issued recently about the threats of malware BlackRock.

What is BlackRock?

It is a banking Trojan and is said to be an enhanced version of existing Xerxes malware which itself is a variant of the LokiBot Android trojan.

·         A trojan is any type of malicious program disguised as a legitimate one. Often, they are designed to steal sensitive information (login credentials, account numbers, financial
information, credit card information, and the like) from users.

·         Banking trojans are a specific kind of trojan malware. Once installed onto a client machine, banking trojans use a variety of techniques to create botnets, steal credentials, inject malicious code into browsers, or steal money.

It collects user information by abusing the Accessibility Service of Android and overlaying a fake screen on top of a genuine app. It uses Android DPC (Device Policy Controller) to provide access to other permissions.

·        It surfaces as a google update. It is said to have the design to overlay attacks, send, spam, and steal SMS messages as well as lock the victim in the launcher activity.

·        It can also act as a keylogger (i.e. track the keys struck on a keyboard), which essentially could help a hacker to acquire financial information. Despite being a banking Trojan, BlackRock is said to target non-financial apps.

·       It targets a total of 337 apps, which is significantly higher than any of the already known malicious code. It makes Antivirus Applications Useless.

Craniopagus Surgery.

India’s only successfully separated craniopagus twins from Odisha Jagga and Balia were discharged from the All India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS), two years after they were admitted, operated and started on rehabilitation at the hospital. 

About: 
The toddlers were born with fused brain and skull, a condition known as craniopagus.

Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said that this is the rarest of the rare surgery and it can be called ‘AIIMS Delhi Jagga and Balia craniopagus surgery’. 

He said this was the first successful craniopagus conjoined twin separation surgery from India wherein both the children had survived. Worldwide only 10-15 children have survived after surgical separation of this condition in the last 50 years.