The National Cyber Coordination Centre (CyCord), under the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), issued a set of guidelines for safe usage of Zoom – a web based video conferencing tool.
The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has issued an advisory that the Zoom is not a safe platform.
Key takeaways:
USA based ZOOM video communication has seen an exponential rise in usage in India as office-goers remain at home owing to the present lockdown.
The software used in the online platform is said to be made in China and some calls were being routed through servers in China.
Important value additions:
The National Cyber Coordination Centre (NCCC)
The NCCC was developed in 2017.
It is an operational cybersecurity and e-surveillance agency in India.
It is intended to screen communication metadata (little snippets of information hidden inside each communication) and co-ordinate the intelligence gathering activities of other agencies.
Some have expressed concern that the body could encroach on Indian citizens’ privacy and civil-liberties, given the lack of explicit privacy laws in the country.
Components of the NCCC include:
a cybercrime prevention strategy,
cybercrime investigation training and
review of outdated laws.
Indian and U.S. intelligence agencies are also working together to curb misuse of social media platforms in the virtual world by terror groups
Zoom
It is a web-based video conferencing tool with a local, desktop client and a mobile app that allows users to meet online, with or without video.
Part of: GS Prelims and GS-III – Science and Technology
In News:
Centre for Nano and Soft Matter Sciences (CeNS) has developed a compact solid-state sensor to detect the heavy metal ions in water.
The sensor can detect the heavy metal ions, e.g., lead ions (Pb2) down to 0.4 parts per billion (ppb) for efficient onsite detection.
Important value additions:
Heavy metal ions
Heavy metal ions such as lead, mercury and cadmium pose severe potential threats to living beings as they can easily be accumulated in the body.
They cannot be detoxified by any chemical or biological processes.
Centre for Nano and Soft Matter Sciences (CeNS)
It is an autonomous research institute under Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India.
DST provides core support to the Centre in the form of a grant-in-aid for conducting basic and applied research in nano and soft matter sciences.
CeNS is located at Jalahalli, Bengaluru.
The current activities of the Centre are focussed on a variety of metal and semiconductor nanostructures, liquid crystals, gels, membranes and hybrid materials.
It is being mentored by Nano-Mission of the Government of India.
Defence Research & Development Laboratory (DRDL), Hyderabad under DRDO has developed COVID Sample Collection Kiosk (COVSACK) to combat Coronavirus (COVID-19).
It is a kiosk for use by healthcare workers for taking COVID-19 samples from suspected infected patients.
Patient under test walks into the Kiosk and a nasal or oral swab is taken by health care professional from outside through the built in gloves.
The Kiosk is automatically disinfected without the need for human involvement.
Chitra GeneLAMP-N
Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology, Trivandrum, an Institute of National Importance, of the Department of Science and Technology (DST), has developed a diagnostic test kit that can confirm COVID19 in 2 hours at low cost.
It detects the N Gene of SARS- COV2 using reverse transcriptase loop-mediated amplification of viral nucleic acid (RT-LAMP).
It will be one of the world’s first few of its kinds in the world.
It can detect two regions of the gene, which will ensure that the test does not fail even if one region of the viral gene undergoes mutation during its current spread.
Anastomosis
An anastomosis is a surgical connection between two structures.
It usually means a connection that is created between tubular structures, such as blood vessels or loops of intestine.
Severed hand of an assistant sub inspector in Punjab was recently re-implanted through the process of anastomosis.
Post-Intensive Care Syndrome (PICS)
After leaving the ICU, some Covid-19 patients may suffer from post-intensive care syndrome (PICS).
PICS is defined as new or worsening impairment in:
physical (ICU-acquired neuromuscular weakness),
cognitive (thinking and judgment),
mental health status.
It arises after critical illness and persists even after getting discharged.
(MAINS FOCUS)
ECONOMY/ GOVERNANCE
Topic: General Studies 3:
Indian Economy and issues relating to planning, mobilization, of resources, growth, development and employment.
Context: After its first relief package, RBI announced second set of measures to combat the lockdown impact on the economy
Relief measures announced by RBI are
Liquidity infusion of ₹1 lakh crore, of which
₹50,000 crore is exclusively for non-banking finance companies (NBFCs), via banks through TLTROs
₹50,000 crore to refinance agencies like NABARD, SIDBI and National Housing Bank.
Help for States: RBI has increased the ways and means advances (WMA) limits of States by 60%, over and above the level as on March 31, 2020.
Reserve repo rate reduced by 25 bps to 3.75%. — while keeping the repo rate unchanged
An asset classification will be on standstill during the moratorium period for accounts that were not already NPAs as of March 1,2020
Accommodative on rates: RBI has indicated room for reduction in repo rate as inflation softens.
About TLTROs
These are Targeted Long Term Repo Operations
Repo rate is the rate at which Banks borrow from RBI. Generally, these loans are for short durations up to 2 weeks
LTRO is a tool that lets banks borrow one to three-year funds from RBI at the repo rate by providing government securities with similar or higher tenure as collateral.
It is called ‘Targeted’ LTRO when RBI wants banks opting for funds under this option to be specifically invested in Targeted Sector (Ex: Corporate debt, NBFC, MFI)
Impact of RBI’s actions
Liquidity enhancing measures will ease financial stress and help increase credit flows particularly to NBFC sector
The NBFCs have experienced liquidity shortage since banks had not offered them any moratorium for repayment
Housing sector: The soft loan to NHB should help bring down the cost of home loans
Small businesses can hope for some cheap credit from SIDBI, and the rural-agrarian community from NABARD.
Provides comfort to States to plan market borrowing programmes better and undertake better containment and mitigation efforts.
Avoids Lazy Banking: Reduction in repo rate will discourage banks from parking their excess liquidity with RBI
Relief to borrowers who were worried that opting for the moratorium may turn them into NPAs
Challenges Ahead
Implementation Challenges: With regard to TLTROs into NBFC, investment-grade NBFC assets will be harder to come by now, which will disincentivize the banks from engaging with TLTROs altogether
Insufficient: There is no buy-out of corporate bonds by RBI, and no big largesse for real estate developers
Muted demand in Housing sector, hence soft loans to NHB will not yield dramatic results.
Consequences of heightened liquidity like Inflation which needs to tackled in future
Way Ahead
Banks will have to be liberal in extending help for working capital loans and overdrafts to their borrowers, including MSMEs.
The government could help by extending a scheme of credit assurance cover that will encourage banks to be more liberal in their lending activity
Connecting the dots:
Priority Sector Lending
Impact of money supply on exchange rate
POLITY/ GOVERNANCE/ SOCIETY
Topic: General Studies 2 & 3:
Devolution of powers and finances up to local levels and challenges therein.
Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors
Context: Kerala was the first State with a recorded case of coronavirus
Given Kerala’s population density, deep connections to the global economy and the high international mobility of its citizens, it was primed to be COVID-19 hotspot.
However, Kerala has been able to effectively contain the pandemic leading to flattened coronavirus curve (refer the image below).
Daily Current Affairs IAS | UPSC Prelims and Mains Exam – 18th April 2020
Kerala’s ability to effectively tackle crisis is attributed to its robust Social Democracy
What is Social Democracy and what are its features?
Social democracies are built on an encompassing social pact with a political commitment to providing basic welfare and broad-based opportunity to all citizens
It supports practical, progressive reforms of capitalism (free-market economy) and is more concerned to administrate and humanize it — a key difference with Socialism which detests free-market economy
The emphasis is on State interventions to promote Social Justice — a key difference with Capitalism
Presence of vibrant Civil Society and robust institutions that checks State’s actions
Values of Liberalism, tolerance and decentralisation is promoted
Treats people not as subjects or clients, but as rights-bearing citizens.
Social Democracy can thus be considered as mid-path between Socialism and Capitalism.
Majority of countries in the world have adopted this model with the differing inclination towards free-market economy or State interference
How did Social Democratic Culture emerge in Kerala?
It emerged from recurrent episodes of popular mobilisation
Temple entry movement of the 1930s
Peasant and workers’ movements in the 1950s and 1960s,
Mass literacy movement in the 1980s,
Kerala Sasthra Sahithya Parishad (KSSP)-led movement for people’s decentralised planning in the 1990s
Recent gender and environmental movements
Advantages of Social Democracy- which is reflected in the state of Kerala
Nurtures a strong sense of social citizenship
Builds Institutions: Social Democracy drives reforms that strengthens the legal and institutional capacity for public action
Emphasis on rights-based welfare instead of clientele/patronage based welfare
Reinforces a vibrant, organised civil society which demands continuous accountability from authority
It pressures all governments, regardless of the political party in power, to deliver public services and to constantly expand the social safety net.
Pressurises to empower local government – Nowhere in India are local governments as resourced and as capable as in Kerala
Generalised Trust on the State, which enables heightened compliance with State’s directives
How was Kerala able to manage the pandemic effectively?
Due to its strong Social Democratic Culture, the government was able to
Convince citizens to comply with State’s directives (Enhanced Trust on State)
Quickly mobilise financial and societal resources – Announced COVID-19 package much ahead of National relief package
Smoothly coordinate across multiple authorities and jurisdictions – Creation of State response team that coordinated 18 different functional teams
Effective Communication: Daily press conferences with the public by CM to ensure the connect with public and to remind the public that virus does not discriminate, destigmatising the pandemic.
Social Issue: Government emphasised lockdown response was less an enforcement issue than about people’s participation
Leverage a broad and dense health-care system: Despite the recent growth of private health services, Kerala has maintained a robust public presence.
Taking into the confidence the front-line workers: Kerala’s public health-care workers are highly unionised and organised which made the government lay emphasis on protecting the health of first responders.
Highly mobilised civil society- As the cases multiplied, the government called on two lakh volunteers to go door to door, identifying those at risk and those in need.
Food Needs taken care of: Government was able to deliverthree lakh meals a day through Kudumbasree (Self-Help group) community kitchens
Last Mile Care: Two decades of empowering local governments in Kerala enabled in focalising containment efforts in hotspots
Conclusion
The pandemic is a physical exam of the social body, and never has public trust been put to a greater test.
Kerala has managed the crisis by building on legacies of egalitarianism, social rights and public trust
Connecting the dots:
Socialism with Chinese characteristics
Delhi model of development (during AAP government’s tenure)
(TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE)
Model questions: (You can now post your answers in comment section)
Note:
Correct answers of today’s questions will be provided in next day’s DNA section. Kindly refer to it and update your answers.
Comments Up-voted by IASbaba are also the “correct answers”.
Q.1 Consider the following statements:
The National Cyber Coordination Centre is an e-surveillance agency in India.
It works under Minsitry of Defence.
Which of the above is/are correct?
1 only
2 only
Both 1 and 2
Neither 1 nor 2
Q.2 Consider the following statements:
Heavy metal ions cannot easily be accumulated in the body.
They can be detoxified by any chemical or biological processes.
Which of the above is/are correct?
1 only
2 only
Both 1 and 2
Neither 1 nor 2
Q.3 A new species of green pit viper has been found in which of the following tiger reserve?
Manas Tiger Reserve
Pakke Tiger Reserve
Panna Tiger Reserve
Kaziranga Tiger Reserve
Q.4 Consider the following statements regarding Chitra GeneLAMP-N:
It detects the N Gene of SARS- COV2.
It can detect two regions of the gene.
Which of the above is/are correct?
1 only
2 only
Both 1 and 2
Neither 1 nor 2
ANSWERS FOR 17th April 2020 TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE (TYK)
