Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 09 July 2018

Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 09 July 2018

::NATIONAL::

Danger of unmanned crossings in tamilnadu to end

  • Southern Railway will spend an estimated Rs. 286.35 crore to eliminate 149 unmanned level crossings in Tamil Nadu by September this year.
  • After being pulled up by the Railway Board for not meeting the March 2018 deadline, the zone has embarked on a fast-track mission to close all unmanned level crossings prone to accidents.
  • The Railways had already speeded up trains in Chennai-Madurai sector after the completion of the double line with electrification project along the 497-km route.
  • More Linke Hofmann Busch (LHB) rakes manufactured by Integral Coach Factory would also be introduced soon replacing the old ICF design coaches for better quality ride and comfort.

Government brings policy to secure government data

  • The Home Ministry is upgrading policy to secure government data and control access to it.
  • Home Minister Rajnath Singh, who recently presided over a meeting to review the evolving cyberthreats, directed that the National Information Security Policy and Guidelines (NISPG) be upgraded and updated for the government sector.
  • In 2013, cybersecurity, which was the sole preserve of the Home Ministry, was moved to the National Security Council Secretariat (NSCS) under the Prime Minister’s Office.
  • The critical infrastructure was moved to the National Technical Research Organisation and the non-critical part to the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.

Nirbhaya case culprits to get death sentence

  • The Supreme Court on Monday rejected the petitions filed by the 2012 Delhi gang rape convicts to review the death penalty awarded to them.
  • A Special Bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) DipakMisra and Justices R. Banumathi and Ashok Bhushan rejected the condemned convicts' plea for a relook into their case on the ground that they were not properly represented by lawyers during the trial and vital pieces of evidence in their favour was not brought before the court.
  • Now, the convicts are left only with the rare remedy of filing a curative petition. They have to show there was judicial bias against them. The curative would be heard by the three seniormost judges of the apex court and the judges on the Bench. In this case, the CJI has led the review Bench.

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::INTERNATIONAL::

India – south koreaMoU on science & technology

  • India and South Korea today signed five MoUs in the field of Science & Technology. Union Minister for Science & Technology, Dr Harsh Vardhan and his South Korean counterpart,Mr. You Young Min signed three MoUs for (i) Programme of Cooperation 2018-21; (ii) Establishment of Future Strategy Group; (iii) Cooperation in Biotechnology &Bioeconomy. The MoU on Establishment of Future Strategy Group was signed by Indian Science & Technology and Commerce Ministers, while on the Korean side, it was signed by Science and ICT and Trade Ministers.
  • Two other MoUs were signed between Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR), and South Korean National Research Council for Science & Technology and IIT Mumbai and Korea Institute of Science &Technology,to further accelerate future-oriented cooperation in their respective sectors.
  • On his part, Mr You Young Min appreciated India’s self-reliance in science and technology, especially in the R&D sector and said that both the countries could bring synergy between Korea’s strong manufacturing base and India’s pre-eminence in basic sciences and software sector.

India says reports about Myanmar border shifting; baseless

  • India has not shifted pillars demarcating the international border with Myanmar, the External Affairs Ministry said here on Sunday.
  • The ministry claimed that have come across media reports stating that certain boundary pillars in the Manipur sector of the India-Myanmar international boundary have been allegedly shifted and the reports are completely baseless and unsubstantiated. “That sector of the international boundary is settled and there is no confusion as to its alignment,” the official spokesperson of the Ministry said.
  • The spokesperson explained that bilateral border surveys were conducted in keeping with the India-Myanmar Boundary Agreement of 1967.
  • Recently, routine survey work has been carried out jointly by the Indian and Myanmar survey departments during which work on construction of subsidiary pillars in between already settled main boundary pillars 81 and 82 along zero line, that is, agreed and settled international boundary, has also been undertaken.

::ECONOMY::

Telecom operators in clash with TRAI’s public wi-fi model

  • Telecom operators have opposed public Wi-Fi model recommended by the sector regulator TRAI, saying it will adversely impact debt ridden industry and compromise national security.
  • Based on existing rules for cyber cafes, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) had recommended that a new set of players to be called Pubic Data Office Aggregator (PDOA) should be allowed to resell Internet services through yesteryear PCO type of set-up that will be called Public Data Offices.
  • Based on a repor, proliferation of public Wi-Fi can provide $3 billion potential revenue opportunity for telecom operators between 2017-2019, as it will help adding new customers and increasing data consumption by existing users.

RBI asks banks to monitor digital transactions too

  • In a move aimed at widening the crackdown on black money and following the money trail flowing in and out of thousands of shell companies, the Centre is planning to set up an information technology (IT)-based mechanism to keep a tab on all non-cash financial transactions in the country.
  • Currently, the idea is to make the RBI the sole repository of such information, which will not be made available to other agencies such as the income tax department and the enforcement directorate as a default. Such agencies may be required to make specific requests to the central bank if they want information on a particular set of entities.
  • Under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, banks and financial institutions are already required to alert the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), under the Finance Ministry, to any suspicious transactions, cash or otherwise.
  • Cash transactions of more than Rs. 10 lakh (including a series of transactions integrally connected to each other and exceeding Rs. 10 lakh in a month), need to be reported to the FIU.
  • In FY17, the FIU had received more than 15.9 million Cash Transaction Reports and 4.73 lakh Suspicious Transaction Reports.

::SPORTS::

Sebastian vetteltriumps in British grand prix

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