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Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 11 March 2021

::NATIONAL::

A recent study by National Employability through Apprenticeship Program (NETAP) showed rise in hiring of apprentices.
Some 41% of employers are keen on hiring apprentices.
More than 16 reviewed sectors were keen on hiring apprentices. Sectors include manufacturing,automobiles, travel and hospitality etc.
NETAP is an apprenticeship training program that aims to help organizations develop a qualified, robust and sustainable workforce and a productive human supply chain.
It is a 100% employer-funded Public-Private Partnership. Its stakeholders currently include TeamLeaseSkills University, Schoolguru, CM and Ministry of Skill Development.

Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) informed that a Cyber Volunteer Program (CVP) has been rolled out for cyber hygiene promotion to bring together citizens to contribute in the fight against cybercrime in the country.
Assist State/UT LEAs (law enforcement agencies) to curb cyber-crimes.
CVP is envisaged by Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C).
I4C, under MHA, act as a nodal point at National level in the fight against cybercrime.
It brings together academia, industry, public and government in prevention, detection, investigation and prosecution of cybercrimes.

India - Uzbekistan joint military exercise DUSTLIK II begins in Uttarakhand
The India - Uzbekistan joint military exercise DUSTLIK II commenced in Foreign Training Node Chaubatia, Ranikhet in Uttarakhand.
This is the Second Edition of annual bilateral joint exercise of both armies. It will continue till 19th of this month.
The first edition of the exercise was held at Uzbekistan in November 2019.45 Soldiers each from Uzbekistan and Indian Army are participating in the exercise.
Both contingents will be sharing their expertise and skills in the field of counter terrorist operations in mountainous or rural or urban scenario under UN mandate.
The exercise will culminate into a 36 hours joint validation exercise scheduled from 17th to 18th March.
The validation exercise will be a test bed for the soldiers of both armies as they would be undergoing the challenges of actual operations in such scenarios.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi virtually inaugurated the India-Bangladesh Friendship Bridge (MaitriSetu) over the Feni river at Sabroom in south Tripura.
He also inaugurated and laid the foundation stone for eight other infrastructure projects together worth ₹ 3,518 crore.
The inauguration of the 1.9-km- long ‘MaitriSetu’ would herald a new chapter in relations between the two neighbours.
The bridge, which was first mooted a decade ago, would immensely benefit Northeast India in trade matters as the same would connect the Chittagong sea port just 100 km from Agartala.
In earlier, Bangladesh government had declared its Chittagong and Mongla ports as Port of Call to facilitate India’s uninterrupted international and domestic trade activities through waterways in Bangladesh.

NTPC is developing the country’s biggest floating solar power plant, by generation capacity.
It is located in the reservoir of its thermal plant at Ramagundam in Peddapalli district of Telangana.
It is set to be commissioned by May-June next. Work on the 100-megawatt plant is in the final stages of completion.
It would be one of the renewable (solar) energy plants being developed by NTPC with an installed capacity of 447MW in the Southern Region and the entire capacity would be commissioned by March 2023.
Except for the 230MW ground-mounted solar power plant at Ettayapuram in Thoothukudi district of Tamil Nadu, the remaining 217MW capacity was being planned to be commissioned by May-June this year, Regional Executive Director (South) of NTPC C.V. Anand stated in Hyderabad, on Wednesday.
The renewable energy plants that are likely to be commissioned in the next three months are 25MW floating solar plant at Simhadri thermal power plant near Visakhapatnam and 92MW floating solar plant at Kayamkulam in Kerala, besides the 100MW plant at Ramagundam.

The Kerala High Court on March 10 restrained the Centre from taking coercive action against Live Law Media Private Ltd., which owns a legal news portal, for any non-compliance with Part III of the new IT (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021.
The court issued notice to the Centre on a petition filed by the firm challenging the rules regulating digital news media, curated content (OTT platforms), and social media intermediaries.

Chilling effect:

The petition said Part III of the rules imposed an unconstitutional three-tier complaints and adjudication structure on publishers. This administrative regulation on digital news media would make it virtually impossible for small or medium-sized publishers, such as the petitioner, to function. It would have a chilling effect on such entities.
The creation of a grievance redressal mechanism, through a governmental oversight body (an inter-departmental committee constituted under Rule 14) amounted to excessive regulation, the petitioner contended.
The petitioner pointed out that Rule 4(2), which makes it mandatory for every social media intermediary to enable tracing of originators of information on its platform, purportedly in furtherance of Section 69 of the IT Act, violated Article 19(1)(a) (freedom of speech and expression). It also deprived the intermediaries of their “safe-harbour protections” under Section 79 of the IT Act.
The petition also added that the rules obligating messaging intermediaries to alter their infrastructure to “fingerprint” each message on a mass scale for every user to trace the first originator was violative of the fundamental right of the Internet users to privacy.