(FREE) UPSC Current Affairs 2024 PDF

Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 24 July 2021

::NATIONAL::

Ashutosh Kaushik who won reality shows Bigg Boss in 2008 and MTV Roadies 5.0 has approached the Delhi High Court with a plea saying that his videos, photographs and articles etc. be removed from the internet citing his “Right to be Forgotten”.

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In the plea, Kaushik also maintains that the “Right to be Forgotten” goes in sync with the “Right to Privacy”, which is an integral part of Article 21 of the Constitution, which concerns the right to life.
The Right to be Forgotten falls under the purview of an individual’s right to privacy, which is governed by the Personal Data Protection Bill that is yet to be passed by Parliament.
In 2017, the Right to Privacy was declared a fundamental right by the Supreme Court in its landmark verdict.
The Personal Data Protection Bill was introduced in Lok Sabha on December 11, 2019 and it aims to set out provisions meant for the protection of the personal data of individuals.
Clause 20 under Chapter V of this draft bill titled “Rights of Data Principal” mentions the “Right to be Forgotten.” It states that the “data principal (the person to whom the data is related) shall have the right to restrict or prevent the continuing disclosure of his personal data by a data fiduciary”.
A data fiduciary means any person, including the State, a company, any juristic entity or any individual who alone or in conjunction with others determines the purpose and means of processing of personal data.

Recently, Cabinet approved the establishment of Integrated Multipurpose Corporation for UT ofLadakh for its inclusive and integrated development.

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Corporation will work for industry, tourism, transport and marketing of local products and handicraft.
Established on lines of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands Integrated Development CorporationLimited (ANIIDCO), with an appropriate mandate to take up various developmental activities as per the specific needs of Ladakh.

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India’s Foreign Minister during the 11th MGC meeting said that India is seeking a multidimensional engagement with the Mekong region.
India also called for a “collective and collaborative”response to effectively deal with coronavirus pandemic.
The MGC initiative comprising six countries — India,Cambodia, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos and Vietnam.It waslaunched in 2000.
It aims at to boost cooperation in a range of areas including

1. connectivity,

2. education,

3. tourism

4. culture.

India has scored 90.32% in United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia Pacific’s (UNESCAP) latest Global Survey on Digital and Sustainable Trade Facilitation.

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The Global Survey on Digital and Sustainable Trade Facilitation is conducted every two years by UNESCAP.
The 2021 Survey includes an assessment of 58 trade facilitation measures covered by the WTO’s Trade Facilitation Agreement.
The Survey is keenly awaited globally as it evidences whether or not the trade facilitation measures being taken have the desired impact and helps draw comparison amongst countries.
A higher score for a country also helps businesses in their investment decisions.

Survey has highlighted India’s significant improvement in the scores on all 5 key indicators, as follows:

1. Transparency:100% in 2021 (from 93.33% in 2019)

2. Formalities: 95.83% in 2021 (from 87.5% in 2019)

3. Institutional Arrangement and Cooperation: 88.89% in 2021 (from 66.67% in 2019)

4. Paperless Trade: 96.3% in 2021 (from 81.48% in 2019)

5. Cross-Border Paperless Trade: 66.67% in 2021 (from 55.56% in 2019)

The Reserve Bank of India is considering a phased introduction of its own central bank digital currency (CBDC).

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According to a 2021 survey by the Bank for International Settlements, 86 per cent central banks were actively researching the potential for CBDCs, 60 per cent were experimenting with the technology and 14 per cent were deploying pilot projects.
China leads the space and has already started trials of a digital currency in several cities while the U.S. Federal Reserve and Bank of England are looking into it for a future launch.
RBI has been working on the idea of CBDC for years.
Virtual currencies (VCs) like bitcoin have gained popularity in India in recent years and unofficial estimates suggest the country has around 15 million investors holding over ₹ 100 billion ($1.34 billion) in crypto assets.

Global internet infrastructure company Akamai suffered an outage Thursday night that lasted over an hour, taking down several online applications across India and overseas.
This was the second major outage involving a delivery network in as many months that affected internet usage on a global scale.

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Akamai is a global content delivery network (CDN) and cloud services platform that is rented by online content and commerce services apps.
Akamai faced a disruption on its Edge DNS service that took down platforms such as Zomato, Paytm, parts of Amazon, Airbnb, PlayStation Network, Steam, Disney+Hotstar, etc for a short while.
Edge DNS as a technology provides a shorter route for DNS, or domain name services, between a company’s servers and its users, thereby drastically decreasing resolution times and providing low latencies.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulating Mirabai Chanu, who has won weightlifting medal at the Olympics by clinching a silver in the 49kg category at the Tokyo Games here.
The 26-year-old lifted a total of 202kg (87kg+115kg) to better Karnam Malleswari’s bronze in the 2000 Sydney Olympics and open India’s account in Tokyo.
With this, she exorcised the ghosts of the 2016 Games where she had failed to log a single legitimate lift.
The gold went to China’s Hou Zhihui for an effort of 210kg (94kg+116kg) , while Aisah Windy Cantika of Indonesia took home the bronze with an effort of 194kg (84kg+110kg).