Current Affairs 18 June 2021 – IAS Current Affairs

Current Affairs 18 June 2021 focuses on Prelims-Mains perspective. Major events are :

Desertification and Land Degradation Atlas UPSC

Source : PIB
GS III : Conservation, environmental pollution and degradation, environmental impact assessment

Why in News ?

Minister of State for Environment, Forest and Climate Change called for generating awareness towards preventing and restoring land degradation for healthier and sustainable ecosystems. 

• Minister of State released the latest version of Desertification and Land Degradation Atlas of India.

June 17 : Desertification and Drought day was commemorated by the Ministry

• An aim to generate large scale awareness towards understanding the key role of land in all environmental and economic concerns that world as well as India is facing now-a days.
• Event also observed release of Coffee Table Book India Hosting UNCCD-COP 14 and a short film on UNCCD-COP 14.
• India is signatory to the United Nations Convention on Combating Desertification (UNCCD).

Key Facts

• It has been published by Space Application Centre, ISRO, Ahmedabad.
• The Atlas provides state wise area of degraded lands for the time frame 2018-19.
• It also provides the change analysis for the duration of 15 years, from 2003-05 to 2018-19.
• Atlas is useful as a ready reference.
• Also be helpful in strengthening the envisaged National Action Plan for achieving land restoration targets by providing important baseline and temporal data and technical inputs.
• India aims Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) and restoration of 26 Million ha of degraded land by 2030 which focus on sustainable and optimum utilisation of land resources.

Desertification and Land Degradation Atlas UPSC Perspective

• Atlas presents state-wise desertification and land degradation status maps depicting land use, process of degradation and severity level.
• This was prepared using IRS Advanced Wide Field Sensor (AWiFS) data of 2011-13 and 2003-05 time frames in GIS environment.
• Area under desertification / land degradation for the both time frames and changes are reported state-wise as well as for the entire country.
• The outputs are helpful in prioritising areas to be taken up for minimising the impact of desertification and land degradation.

Desertification and Land Degradation

• As per the Desertification and Land Degradation Atlas of India, prepared by the Space Applications Centre for the period 2011-2013, 96.4 million hectares i.e. 29.32% of the Total Geographical Area of the country is undergoing the process of desertification/land degradation.
• Approximately 6.35% of land in Uttar Pradesh is undergoing desertification/degradation.
• What is the reason ?
  • As per the Special Report on Climate Change & Land of Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change released in August, 2019
    1. Land use change
    2. Land-use intensification
    3. Climate change have contributed to desertification and land degradation.
• What are the impact ?
  • Food security
  • Terrestrial ecosystems
  • Desertification and land degradation in many regions.

Government measures to tackle Desertification and Land Degradation

• Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR) through Indian Institute of Soil and Water Conservation (IISWC) has developed several location specific bio-engineering measures to check soil erosion due to run-off of rain water.
• Developed sand dune stabilisation and shelter belt technology to check wind erosion.
• For Saline, sodic and waterlogged soils
  • Developed reclamation technology, sub-surface drainage, bio-drainage, agroforestry interventions and salt tolerant crop varieties to improve the productivity of saline has adopted.
• National Innovations on Climate Resilient Agriculture (NICRA) demonstrated technologies namely drought tolerant short duration varieties, crop diversification, integrated farming systems, soil and water conservation measures etc. in 151 most vulnerable districts in the country to minimize vulnerability against climate change.
• National Afforestation Programme (NAP) for ecological restoration of degraded forest areas under which an area of over 2 million ha has been approved for afforestation at a cost of Rs.3874 crore.
• Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA), Nagar Van Yojana  also help in checking degradation and restoration of forest landscape.
• India promote tree outside forests area primarily through expansion of agroforestry, optimum use of wastelands and vacant lands.
• India has raised and focus its ambition to restore degraded land from 21 mha to 26 mha by 2030.

Helpline 155260 Safe Secure Digital Payments Eco-system

Source : PIB
GS III : Challenges to internal security through communication networks, role of media and social networking sites in internal security challenges, basics of cyber security

Why in News ?

To provide safe and secure digital payments eco-system has operationalised the national Helpline 155260 and Reporting Platform for preventing financial loss due to cyber fraud.

Key Facts

• The National Helpline and Reporting Platform provides a mechanism for persons cheated in cyber frauds to report such cases to prevent loss of their hard earned money.
• The Helpline was soft launched on April 01, 2021.

  

• The Helpline 155260 and its Reporting Platform has been made operational by the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) under the Ministry of Home Affairs, with active support and cooperation from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), all major banks, Payment Banks, Wallets and Online Merchants.
• Citizen Financial Cyber Fraud Reporting and Management System has been developed in house by I4C to integrate Law Enforcement Agencies and Banks and Financial Intermediaries.
• It is currently being utilized along with 155260 by seven States and Union Territories (Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Telangana, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh) covering more than 35 per cent of the country’s population.
• Roll out in the others States for pan-national coverage is underway to prevent the flow of money siphoned off by fraudsters.
• Since its soft launch in a short span of two months, Helpline 155260 has been able to save more than Rs.1.85 crore of defrauded money from reaching the hands of fraudsters with Delhi and Rajasthan saving Rs.58 lakh and Rs.53 lakh respectively.
• Helpline and its Reporting Platform has all the major public and private sector banks onboard.
• It also has all major wallets and merchants such as PayTM, PhonePe, Mobikwik, Flipkart and Amazon linked to it.
• What is the Major Advantage ?
  • The success of the Helpline and Reporting Platform is the cheated money has been stopped from reaching fraudsters even after it has been moved by the cheats to five different banks to hide the trail.

How to it works ?

• Victims of cyber fraud call on Helpline no. 155260 which is manned and operated by the concerned State Police.
• The Police operator notes down the fraud transaction details and basic personal information of the caller and submits them in the form of a Ticket on the Citizen Financial Cyber Frauds Reporting and Management System.
• The Ticket gets escalated to the concerned Banks, Wallets, Merchants and so on depending on whether they are the victim’s bank or the bank/wallet in which the defrauded money has gone.
• An SMS is also sent to the victim with an acknowledgement number of the complaint with direction to submit complete details of the fraud on the National Cybercrime Reporting Portal (https://cybercrime.gov.in/) within 24 hours, using the acknowledgement number.
• The concerned Bank, which can now see the ticket on its dashboard on the Reporting Portal, checks the details in its internal systems.
• If the defrauded money is still available, the Bank puts it on hold ie..the fraudster cannot withdraw the money. If the defrauded money has moved out to another Bank, the Ticket gets escalated to the next Bank to which the money has moved out.
• This process is repeated until the money is saved from reaching into the hands of the fraudsters.

Cyber Frauds in India

• Based on a report by cybersecurity software company Norton Lifelock 27 million Indian adults were victims of identity theft in the past 12 months.
• 52% of adults in the country do not know how to protect themselves from cyber crime.

Cable Television Network Rules Amended

Source : PIB
GS II : Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation

Why in News ?

The Central Government issued a notification amending the Cable Television Network Rules, 1994 thereby providing a statutory mechanism for redressal of grievances/complaints of citizens relating to content broadcast by television channels in accordance with the provisions of the Cable Television Network Act, 1995.

Key Facts

• Cable Television Network Rules Amended to provide for this statutory mechanism, which would be transparent and benefit the citizens.
• At the same time, self-regulating bodies of broadcasters would be registered with the Central Government.
• At present there are over 900 television channels which have been granted permission by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting all of which are required to comply with the Programme and Advertising Code laid down under the Cable Television Network Rules.
• This is significant as it paves the way for a strong institutional system for redressing grievances while placing accountability and responsibility on the broadcasters and their self-regulating bodies.
• This will bring the television’s self-regulatory mechanism at par with that being set-up for OTT players and digital news publishers, as envisaged in the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021.
• Cable Television Network Rules Amended Given the viewers a civil mechanism for their grievances to be addressed which was missing till now and had led to people filing FIRs against the makers of web shows and the platforms on which they were available.

Need for Amendment

• At present there is an institutional mechanism by way of an Inter-Ministerial Committee to address grievances of citizens relating to violation of the Programme/Advertising Codes under the Rules.

  

• Similarly various broadcasters have also developed their internal self-regulatory mechanism for addressing grievances.
• A need was felt to lay down a statutory mechanism for strengthening the grievance redressal structure.
• Some broadcasters had also requested for giving legal recognition to their associations/bodies.
• The Hon’ble Supreme Court in its order in the matter of Common Cause Vs Union of India & Others while expressing satisfaction over the existing mechanism of grievance redressal set up by the Central Government, had advised to frame appropriate rules to formalize the complaint redressal mechanism.

What is the Grievance Redressal Mechanism and How it Works ?

• Rules stipulate a three layer grievance redressal mechanism
  1. Self-regulation by broadcasters
  2. Self-regulation by the self-regulating bodies of broadcasters
  3. An oversight mechanism by the Central government.
• Each broadcaster is required to establish a grievance or complaint redressal mechanism
  • Appoint an officer to deal with the complaints
  • Display the contact details of their grievance officer on their website or interface and be a member of a self-regulating body.
• Self-regulation by broadcasters : Any person aggrieved by the content of a programme of a channel may file his/her complaint in writing to the broadcaster first.
  • The broadcaster shall within 24 hours of a complaint being filed generate and issue an acknowledgement to the complainant for his information and record.
  • The broadcaster shall dispose of the complaint and inform the complainant of its decision within 15 days of receipt of such complaint.
• Appeal with the self-regulatory body : Complainant If they are not satisfied with the decision of the broadcaster’s grievance redressal officer or the decision of the broadcaster is not communicated to them within the stipulated period of 15 days.
  • Self-regulating body shall dispose of the appeal within 60 days of the receipt of the appeal.
  • Convey its decision in the form of guidance or advisory to the broadcaster.
  • Inform the complainant of such decision within 15.
• Appeal to the Central government : complainant, not satisfied with the decision of the self-regulating body, he may, within 15 days of such decision.
  • Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) will hear complaints regarding the violation of the advertising code, take a decision within 60 days of the receipt of a complaint.
  • Communicate the same to the broadcaster and the complainant.

World Competitiveness Index UPSC

Source : Business Standard
GS III : Indian Economy and issues relating to planning, mobilization of resources, growth, development and employment

Why in News ?

India maintained 43rd rank on an annual World Competitiveness Index compiled by the Institute for Management Development (IMD) that examined the impact of COVID-19 on economies around the world this year.

Key Facts

• The 64-nation list was led by Switzerland.
• Sweden has moved up to the second position (from sixth last year)
• Denmark has lost one place to rank third, the Netherlands has retained its fourth place and Singapore has slipped to the fifth place (from first in 2020).
• At eighth, Taiwan reached the top-10 for the first time since the ranking began 33 years ago (moving up from 11th last year).
• The UAE and the USA remain in their same spots as last year (9th and 10th, respectively).
• In Asia
  • The top-performing Asian economies are, in order, Singapore (fifth), Hong Kong (seventh), Taiwan (eighth) and China (16th).

    

• BRICS nations
  • India is ranked second after China (16), followed by Russia (45th), Brazil (57th) and South Africa (62th).
• Overall Indian Performance
  • India has maintained its position for the past three years but this year, it had significant improvements in government efficiency.
  • India’s improvements in the government efficiency factor are mostly due to relatively stable public finances (despite difficulties brought by the pandemic, in 2020 the government deficit stayed at 7 per cent) and to the positive feed backs we registered among Indian business executives with respect to the support and subsidies provided by the government to the private companies.
  • Short term performance of India’s economy will depend on its ability to address the pandemic.
• Overall World Performance
  • Qualities such as investment in innovation, digitalisation, welfare benefits and leadership, resulting in social cohesion have helped countries better weather the crisis the best and thus ranked higher in competitiveness.
  • Strength in these areas prior to the pandemic allowed these economies to address the economic implications of the crisis more effectively.
  • Competitive economies succeeded in transitioning to a remote work routine while also allowing remote learning.
  • Countries that ensured the effectiveness of key public spending, such as public finance, tax policy and business legislation, are seen as essential policies to relieve the pressure on the economies hit by COVID-19.

Shenzhou-12 Manned Mission By China

Source : The Hindu
GS III : Awareness in the fields of IT, Space, Computers, robotics, nano-technology, bio-technology and issues relating to intellectual property rights

Why in News ?

China has launched three astronauts into orbit to begin occupation of the country’s new space station.

Key Facts

• It will be China’s longest crewed space mission to date and the first in nearly five years.
• Shenzhou-12 Manned Mission By China launch and subsequent mission are another demonstration of China’s growing confidence and capability in the space domain.

  

• Recent achievements by China
  • Past six months China has returned rock and soil samples to Earth from the surface of the Moon.
  • Landed a six-wheeled robot on Mars – both highly complex and challenging mission.
• The primary objective for Commander and his team on the Shenzhou-12 mission is to bring the 22.5-tonne Tianhe module into service.
  • In May 2021 China’s Tianwen spacecraft landed on Mars carrying a rover, the Zhurong.
  • China will conduct scientific investigations into the planet’s soil, geological structure, environment, atmosphere and water.

Growing Chinese Presence in Space

• China provide significant funding into its space efforts.
• In 2019 became the first country to send an un-crewed rover to the far side of the Moon.
• Russia, which has shared technology in the past with China, has mentioned the possibility of sending its cosmonauts.
• China is not a participant in the International Space Station (ISS), largely as a result of US objections to the Chinese program’s secrecy and close military ties.
  • So China alone in developing a space station, in part because it has been excluded from the International Space Station project.
• US, which leads that partnership with Russia, Europe, Canada and Japan, will not co-operate with the Asian nation in orbit.
• It is expected that China’s station may continue operating beyond the ISS, which is reaching the end of its functional life.

Ministry Of Labour And Employment And UNICEF

Source : PIB
GS II : Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health, Education, Human Resources

Why in News ?

India signed the Statement of Intent between the Ministry of Labour and Employment and UNICEF

Key Facts

• Leveraging the strengths of the Ministry, UNICEF and associated network members to enable abundant choices for young generation to contribute and shape our country’s future.
• Appreciating the idea of partnership between the Ministry and UNICEF for empowering Indian youths to gain relevant skills and guidance.
• The collaboration is a starting point to facilitate direct dialogue and feedback mechanism between youth and other stakeholders including policy makers.
• In the next three years, both UNICEF and Ministry of Labour & Employment will make great achievement in the areas of collaboration and empowerment of Indian youth to face the future confidently.

Ministry Of Labour And Employment And UNICEF : Statement of Intent intends

• To provide a platform for cooperation between MoLE and UNICEF
• Aims to leverage the existing mainstreamed initiatives of both parties in select states to co-create and implement solutions at scale to tackle the employment and skilling challenges for adolescents and youth in India
• Focus on vulnerable population including young people with special needs
  • Youth leaving care institutions
  • Migrant youth
  • Victims of child labour
  • Violence
  • Child marriage
  • Trafficking and like other matter.
• Which are the areas of collaboration ?
  1. Create linkages with aspirational economic opportunities, that is, connecting young people with employment opportunities.
  2. Upskilling of young people on 21stcentury skills including life skills, financial skills, digital skills, vocations skills and foundational skills.
  3. Strengthening National Career Service (NCS) by forming a coalition of partners to engage.
  4. Support in Job forecasting by exploring the gaps in job forecasting and work towards predicting which sectors or /jobs, or both of the economy are strengthening or weakening to build linkages to focus needs for skilling.
  5. Supporting direct dialogue and the establishment of a feedback mechanism between youth and policy stakeholders.

Indian Youth, Opportunities and COVID 19

• According to Census 2011, every fifth person in India is a youth (15-24 years).
• The National Career Service (NCS), launched in 2015 caters to the employment and career needs of the youth.
  • NCS has taken a number of initiatives to mitigate the challenges in the labour market even during the COVID pandemic.
  • It provides a variety of employment related services like career counseling, vocational guidance, information on skill development courses, apprenticeship, internships etc.
• Special link for Work from Home Jobs and Online Trainings has been created on NCS portal to give direct access to job-seekers to such jobs.

Mission by UNICEF

• Driven by its mission to deliver results for children, UNICEF has come together with its public and private sector partners to establish the YuWaah, Generation Unlimited (in short GenU) as a partnership in India.
• GenU is a global multi-stakeholder platform that aims to prepare young people to transition to productive work and active citizenship.
• In India, by 2030 YuWaah aims to ensure, the following
  1. Build pathways for 100 million young people to aspirational economic opportunities
  2. Facilitate 200 million young people to gain relevant skills for productive lives and the future of work
  3. Partner with 300 million young people as change makers and create spaces for developing their leadership.

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