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Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 27 July 2019

::NATIONAL::

Supreme court asks centre to respond to order condemning mob lynching

The Supreme Court on Friday sought the response of the Central government, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) and the State governments to a plea for the implementation of its July 2018 judgment laying down preventive, remedial and punitive measures to combat lynching.
The 45-page judgment, by a three-judge Bench led by then Chief Justice of India DipakMisra had wondered whether the “populace of a great Republic like ours has lost the values of tolerance to sustain a diverse culture?”
The court had observed that the recent litany of spiralling mob violence, their horror, the grim and gruesome scenes of lynchings were made worse by the apathy of the bystanders, numbness of the mute spectators, inertia of the police and, finally, the “grandstanding of the incident by the perpetrators of the crimes” on social media.
Describing lynchings and mob violence as “creeping threats”, the judgment had warned that the rising wave of frenzied mobs - fed by fake news, self-professed morality and false stories - would consume the country like a “typhoon-like monster.”
The court had directed several preventive, remedial and punitive measures to deal with lynching and mob violence. It ordered the Centre and the States to implement the measures and file compliance reports within the next four weeks.
The measures mooted by the court included the setting up of a special task force in the States to procure intelligence reports about the people likely to commit such crimes or involved in spreading hate speeches, provocative statements and fake news.

Satellite images of Assam flood regions shared to India by foreign countries

With Assam inundated by floods, several countries including China, Russia and France collaborated with India on sharing satellite images of the scale of inundation. As signatories to the The International Charter Space and Major Disasters, any of the 32 member countries can send a ‘request’ to activate the Charter.
This would immediately trigger a request by the coordinators to space agencies of other countries whose satellites have the best eyes on the site of the disaster.
Based on an activation request by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on July 17, France’s National Centre for Space Studies, China National Space Administration and ROSCOSMOS of Russia shared satellite images of the flood situation in the districts of Dhubri, Marigaon, Barpeta, Dhemaji, Lakhimpur in Assam with ISRO’s National Remote Sensing Centre.
Ravish Kumar, spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs, said in response to a query from The Hindu that combining earth observation assets from different space agencies allows resources and expertise to be coordinated for rapid response.
This was a “standard practice” and in the past ISRO too had provided information to other space agencies in response to similar requests. In August 2014, for instance, ISRO’s CARTOSAT shared images after an activation request from China after an earthquake struck Yunan province and killed 398.
Since 2000, when the Charter came into operation there have been about 600 activations and data from 61 satellites have helped with disaster operations in 125 countries.

::ECONOMY::

Indian telecom sector expected to create 3lakhs jobs next year

India’s telecom sector will create up to 3,00,000 jobs in the next 18 months and a majority of these positions will come up in rural areas of the country, Telecom Secretary and Telecom Commission chairman ArunaSundararajan said.
The sector has already created over 1,00,000 jobs since the introduction of the National Digital Communications Policy-2018 (NDCP), she said.
The Telecom Ministry had earlier said that the new framework (NDCP) would draw investments worth $100 billion into the country’s telecom industry in five years.
“Since then, a total investment of around $16 billion has already been announced by the private sector companies and government via USOF [Universal Service Obligation Fund], with a rough split of 65% and 35% respectively. This investment is currently in different phases of infusion into the sector,” telecom secretary said.
On the achievability of the government’s job target in telecom when most other sectors are talking about jobless growth, she said it [jobless growth] was happening in sectors where the physical infra creation requirement was low.
“This has never been the case with telecom sector. Almost 95% of the investment in the telecom sector goes into infrastructure creation and jobs creation will be a natural outcome of this investment,” she asserted.

Centre insists whatsapp to trace rogue messages

IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said, the Government will insist on WhatsApp developing a mechanism to trace origin of messages in cases where the platform is misused by terrorists and 'rogue' elements.
WhatsApp Global Head Will Cathcart assured the minister of prompt action in these issues of "concern" in a meeting on Friday.
On WhatsApp's proposed payments service, Mr. Prasad noted that the platform is also going into payments service in accordance with the Reserve Bank of India and NPCI requirements.
He also asked WhatsApp to participate in India's trillion-dollar digital economy vision and said the company is "welcome to explore India-specific products because of their wide reach".

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::INTERNATIONAL::

BRICS calls for prevention of terror financing from members

India along with other BRICS nations today called on all states to prevent the financing of terrorist networks and terrorist actions from their territories.
The five nations Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa condemned terrorism in all its forms and manifestations during the meeting of the BRICS Foreign Ministers at Rio de Janeiro in Brazil.
The BRICS nations called for concerted efforts to fight terrorism under UN auspices on a firm international legal basis. India was represented by Minister of State for Road Transport and Highways VK Singh.
The five nations recognised the primary role of states and their competent bodies in preventing and countering terrorism. The ministers of these countries expressed their conviction that a comprehensive approach is necessary to ensure effective results against terrorism.

U.S pressurises Iran to curb its missile programme

US officials said today that Iran test-launched a mid-range ballistic missile earlier this week in defiance of the Trump administration, which has warned the country to curb its missile program.
The test-launch was said to have taken place completely within Iran’s borders and did not pose a threat to American shipping or military bases.
The test came amid heightened tensions between Iran and the West, mainly regarding the safety of commercial shipping in the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz.
The White House said in a brief statement that it was aware of reports of a projectile launched in Iran but officials declined to comment further.
Tensions have mounted with Iran over a 2015 nuclear accord it reached with world powers. The deal eased sanctions in exchange for Iran curbing its nuclear program.

::SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY::

Study reveals burning of grasslands detrimental to invertebrates

A recent study on “prescribed burning” of large tracts of grassland for the conservation of threatened ungulates in the Eravikulam National Park (ENP), a biodiversity hotspot in the Western Ghats, reveals that such burning is detrimental to endemic invertebrates, including grasshoppers.
Grasshoppers are sensitive to grasslands management and an indicator of grasslands quality, health and restoration success.
“As grasshoppers represent a major faunal component of grasslands, effects of fire on them can be easily studied in grassland habitats,” DhaneeshBhaskar, researcher, Kerala Forest Research Institute (KFRI), said.
Traditionally, the grasslands of the park are managed by prescribed “cold” burning (cold season burning) with the help of the local tribal community, P. S. Easa , former director, KFRI said.
The study suggested that the interval of burning should be extended to more than five years, and the area of burning should be made only in small plots of 25 m. X 25 m. or 50 m. X 50 m., with unburned adjacent areas between plots.
The findings have been published in a recent edition of Biodiversity and Conservation (Springer Nature), an international journal.

::SPORTS::

IOA pulls out of commonwealth games federation assembly

The Indian Olympic Association (IOA) today pulled out of the Commonwealth Games Federation's General Assembly in September to protest the dropping of shooting from the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games roster.
In a letter addressed to Commonwealth Games Federation Chief Executive Officer David Grevemberg, the IOA also withdrew the nomination of its Secretary General Rajeev Mehta for the election of a regional vice-president as well as that of NamdevShiragaonkar for Sports Committee member.
The Commonwealth Games Federation last month left out shooting from the 2022 Birmingham Games in its Executive Board meeting while recommending the inclusion of three new sports.
The decision to leave out shooting has dealt a big blow to India which had won as many as 16 medals out of 66 in the 2018 Gold Coast CWG.