Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 03 September 2020

::NATIONAL::

Central government blocks another set of Chinese mobile apps in India

The Government has blocked 118 mobile apps including PUBG which are prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, Defence of India, Security of State and Public Order. The move will safeguard the interests of crores of Indian mobile and internet users.This decision is a targeted move to ensure safety, security and sovereignty of Indian cyberspace.
The decision to ban such Apps was taken by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology as it has received many complaints from various sources including several reports about misuse of some mobile apps available on Android and iOS platforms for stealing and surreptitiously transmitting users’ data in an unauthorized manner to servers which have locations outside India.
The Ministry in a statement said, the compilation of these data, its mining and profiling by elements hostile to national security and defence of India, which ultimately impinges upon the sovereignty and integrity of India, is a matter of very deep and immediate concern which requires emergency measures.
It said, the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre, of Home Ministry has also sent an exhaustive recommendation for blocking these malicious apps. It said, there have been similar bipartisan concerns, flagged by various public representatives, both outside and inside the Parliament of India.
The Ministry said, there has been a strong chorus in the public space to take strict action against Apps that harm India’s sovereignty as well as the privacy of citizens.

Government launches mission Karmayodha to promote capacity building of civil servants

The Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister NarendraModi has given its nod to Mission Karmayogi - National Programme for Civil Services Capacity Building. The scheme will lay the foundation for capacity building for Civil Servants so that they remain entrenched in Indian culture while they learn from best practices across the world.
Mission Karmayogi aims to prepare the Indian Civil Servants for future by making them more creative, constructive, imaginative, innovative, proactive, professional, progressive, energetic, enabling, transparent and technology-enabled. Briefing media yesterday, Union Minister PrakashJavadekar said, the Karmayogi scheme will be the biggest Human Resource development programme of the government.
The institutional framework will consist of Prime Minister's Public Human Resources (HR) Council, Capacity Building Commission, Special Purpose Vehicle for owning and operating the digital assets and the technological platform for online training, and Coordination Unit headed by the Cabinet Secretary.

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::ECONOMY::

India ranks in top 50 in latest Global Innovation Index rankings

India ranked in the top 50 countries for the first time in the Global Innovation Index, which was released today. India jumped four positions to rank at 48th since 2019.
The index compiled by World Intellectual Property Index (WIPO) presented the latest global trends and annual innovation ranking for 131 countries.
Moving up four positions since last year, India became the third most innovative lower middle economy in the world. According to the report jump can be attributed to newly available indicators and improvements in various areas of the GII.
India ranks in the top 15 in indicators such as ICT services exports, government online services, graduates in science and engineering and R&D-intensive global companies.
The report added that due to universities like IIT Delhi and Bombay, IIS Bengaluru and other top scientific publications, India is the lower middle-income economy with the highest innovation.

JalShakti ministry issues advisory for assuring safe water service to homes

The Ministry of Jal Shakti has issued supplementary advisory for assured safe water service delivery to every home with focus on various aspects. The Ministry said, hand-washing arrangements with soap and water at the entrance of every water supply establishment may be made to allow everyone to practice it before entering and when leaving.
It said, potable water arrangements are to be ensured at all camp sites, schools, hostels that have been turned into quarantine and isolation centres. The arrangements may include tanker water supply, providing temporary stand-posts from near-by potable water sources, and repairing existing functional infrastructure wherever required.
It also advised to undertake a quick gap assessment on potable water facilities in health care centres and immediate arrangements should be made to ensure safe and clean water in all health care facilities.
It also suggested promoting physical distancing of communities while fetching water. It said, wherever community members fetch water from stand posts, efforts should be made to widely communicate the importance of physical distance by maintaining a 6 feet gap, covering their mouth and nose. It said, all persons must wash hands thoroughly before fetching water.

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::INTERNATIONAL::

Defence minister to attend SCO minister’s meet at Russia

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has reached Russia to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Defence Ministers’ Meet. The Defence Ministers of all eight SCO member nations are expected to deliberate on regional security challenges like terrorism and extremism and ways to deal with them collectively in Moscow tomorrow.
Mr. Singh is visiting Moscow at the invitation of Russian Defence Minister General ShergeiShoigu. During his three day visit, Mr Singh will also take part in the meeting of Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) and Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).
The Defence Minister said in a tweet that he will be meeting his Russian counterpart General Shoigu to discuss bilateral cooperation and issues of mutual interest. He said, India and Russia are privileged Strategic Partners and he is looking forward to further this partnership during the visit.
AIR correspondent reports that it is Mr Singh's second visit to Moscow since June. He had represented India at the Victory Day Parade in Moscow on 24th of June that commemorated the 75th anniversary of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany in the Second World War.
Russia has also invited External Affairs Minister Dr S. Jaishankar to attend the SCO Foreign Ministers' meeting on the 10th of this month.

Saudi Arabia allows UAE flights to overfly its Kingdom

Saudi Arabia has agreed to allow UAE flights to “all countries” to overfly the kingdom, state media reported on Wednesday, days after allowing an Israeli aircraft to pass over en route to Abu Dhabi.
Saudi Arabia has accepted an Emirati request to allow “crossing the kingdom’s airspace for flights heading to the UAE and departing from it to all countries”, the official Saudi Press Agency said, citing a source from the civil aviation authority.
Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that Monday’s historic first commercial flight of an Israeli aircraft direct to the UAE across Saudi Arabia would not be the last.
“Israeli planes and those from all countries will be able to fly directly from Israel to Abu Dhabi and Dubai, and back,” Mr. Netanyahu said, without giving any timeline.
The announcements come after a U.S.-Israeli delegation visited Abu Dhabi on Monday, on the first direct commercial flight from Tel Aviv.

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::SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY::

INDRA-2020 military exercise to be held at Andaman sea

India and Russia are to hold bilateral naval exercise INDRA 2020 in Andaman Sea, close to strategic Strait of Malacca. The exercise is being conducted while the Indian Navy is on high operational alert due to the standoff with China in Ladakh.
Three Russian Naval ships are to take part in the exercise on September 4 and 5. The exercise comes just after India withdrew from Kavkaz-2020 multinational exercise that is to be held in Russia. Also, it coincides with Defence Minister Raj Nath Singh’s visit to Russia for Shanghai Cooperation Organization.
Over 60,000 commercial vessels traverse each year through the Andaman waters. China is increasing its presence in the region. Chinese Naval vessels camouflaged as fishing boats have been sighted in the region.

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::SPORTS::

Pakistan ties T20 series against England

Mohammad Hafeez scored a scintillating unbeaten 86 (52b, 4x4, 6x6) as Pakistan held its nerve to defeat England by five runs in the third and final T20I at Old Trafford on Tuesday to tie the series 1-1.
Sent into bat, Pakistan posted 190 for four in 20 overs as Hafeez and debutant Haider Ali (54, 33b, 5x4, 2x6)) put on 100 for the third wicket, before restricting England to 185 for eight despite Moeen Ali’s brave 61 (33b, 4x4, 4x6).

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