Ten relevant news updates from across the world, useful for examinations
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Headlines - 06 - 07 - 2021
- Polity and Constitution - Facebook, Twitter, Google may quit Hong Kong - Giant social media firms from the US viz., Facebook, Twitter and Google have privately warned Hong Kong that they could stop offering their services if authorities proceed with planned changes to data protection laws. The laws could make the companies liable for malicious sharing of individuals' information online. The companies said their staff could be put at risk of criminal investigations over posts by users. The warning came in a letter sent by the Asia Internet Coalition, of which all three companies, in addition to Apple Inc, LinkedIn and others, are members. Proposed amendments to privacy laws in Hong Kong could see individuals hit with “severe sanctions”, said the 25 June letter to the territory’s privacy commissioner for personal data, Ada Chung Lai-ling, without specifying what the sanctions would be. Hong Kong saw an unprecedented wave of "doxing" – or publicly releasing private or identifying information about an individual or organisation – during the mass pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong in 2019. Personal details were released by parties on both sides, with police, politicians, journalists and activists targeted, as well as their families.
- Indian Economy - Inclusion of retail and wholesale trades under MSME - The government has included retail and wholesale traders under the MSME (Micro, small and medium Enterprises) classification. MSME sector includes Industrial sector and Services sector but excludes the Agriculture sector. Though all the retail and wholesale trade is part of Services sector, they were not considered as MSMEs. Since MSMEs are part of the Priority Sector Lending (PSL) Guidelines, now retail and wholesale trade too will be able to avail loan under PSL, which is an important role given by the RBI to the banks for providing a specified portion of the bank lending to few specific sectors. These sectors have high social return and are needed for inclusive development, and may not get timely and adequate credit in the absence of this special dispensation. Banks today lend nearly 40% of their adjusted net bank credit (ANBC) to the priority sector.
- Polity and Constitution - Stan Swamy's death and Section 43D(5) of UAPA - Just two days before his death, 84 years old arrested activist (and suspected terrorist) Father Stan Swamy had moved the Bombay High Court challenging Section 43D(5) of the Unlawful Atrocities Prevention Act (UAPA), a provision Swamy termed “illusory”. The provision makes grant of bail virtually impossible under UAPA since it leaves little room of judicial reasoning. The UAPA, enacted in 1967, was strengthened by the Congress-led UPA government in 2008 and 2012. The test for denying bail under the UAPA is that the court must be satisfied that a “prima facie” case exists against the accused. In 2019, the SC defined prima facie narrowly to mean that the courts must not analyse evidence or circumstances but look at the “totality of the case” presented by the state. Section 43D(5) reads: “Notwithstanding anything contained in the Code, no person accused of an offence punishable under Chapters IV and VI of this Act shall, if in custody, be released on bail or on his own bond unless the Public Prosecutor has been given an opportunity of being heard on the application for such release.
- Social Issues - Forest Rights Act (FRA) - Ministry of Tribal Affairs and Ministry of Environment have jointly decided to give more powers to the tribal communities in managing the forest resources. A “Joint Communication” to this effect has been signed, pertaining to effective implementation of the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006, commonly known as Forest Rights Act (FRA). The Act recognizes and vests the forest rights and occupation in forest land in forest dwelling scheduled tribes (FDSTs) and other traditional forest dwellers (OTFDs) who have been residing in such forests for generations but whose rights could not be recorded. It provides a framework for recording the forest rights so vested and the nature of evidence required for such recognition and vesting in respect of forest land.
- Indian Economy - Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) - The Centre has pushed the idea of Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC), by forming an advisory council comprising nine members including National Health Authority CEO RS Sharma and Infosys boss Nandan Nilekani. Through the ONDC, the government wants to standardise protocols for onboarding stakeholders such as sellers on e-marketplaces. The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) said that the ONDC “aims at promoting open networks developed on open-sourced methodology, using open specifications and open network protocols, independent on any specific platform. ONDC is expected to digitise the entire value chain, standardise operations, promote inclusion of suppliers, derive efficiency in logistics and enhance value for consumers”. ONDC may evolve on the lines of Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and bring various operational aspects put in place by e-commerce platforms on to the same level. These will include processes like vendor onboarding, vendor discovery, price discovery and product cataloguing. If these become legally mandated, it can hit larger e-commerce companies hard, as they have proprietary processes in these aspects.
- Foreign Affairs - Global Peace Index 2021 - The 15th edition of the Global Peace Index (GPI), which ranks 163 independent states and territories according to their level of peacefulness. The ranks are released by the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP). The GPI covers 99.7 per cent of the world’s population, using 23 qualitative and quantitative indicators from highly respected sources, and measures the state of peace across three domains - the level of Societal Safety and Security, the extent of Ongoing Domestic and International Conflict, and the degree of Militarisation. India ranked 135/163 with an improvement of 2 ranks. Iceland remains the most peaceful country in the world, a position it has held since 2008. Afghanistan is the least peaceful country in the world for the fourth consecutive year, followed by Yemen, Syria, South Sudan, and Iraq. India with a score of 2.553 has been ranked 135 out of 163 countries, which specifies 'Low State of Peace'.
- Indian Economy - Freight smart cities - The commerce ministry said it unveiled plans for freight smart cities to improve urban freight efficiency, and create an opportunity for reduction in the logistics costs. Under the freight smart cities initiative, city-level logistics committees would be formed and they will have related government departments and agencies at the local and state levels. These would also include the private sector from the logistics services and also users of logistics services. On the freight smart city initiatives, the logistics division is working closely with GIZ (Germany) under Indo-German Development Cooperation, Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) and RMI India. From the 10 cities to be identified on immediate basis, it is planned to expand the list to 75 cities in the next phase before scaling up throughout the country, including all state capitals and cities that have more than one million population. However, the list of cities to be taken up would be finalised in consultation with the state governments.
- Foreign Affairs - INSTC connects Europe with India for first time - The western wing of the International North South Transport Corridor (INSTC), which offers a shorter multimodal transportation route between Europe and India compared with the Suez Canal way, became operational in July 2021 with a Finnish logistics company despatching a consignment from Finland to India. The INSTC is a 7,200 km-long multimodal transportation network encompassing sea, road, and rail routes to offer the shortest route of connectivity. It links the Indian Ocean to the Caspian Sea via the Persian Gulf onwards into Russia and Northern Europe. It is aimed at reducing the carriage cost between India and Russia by about 30 percent and bringing down the transit time by more than half. It was launched in 2000 with India, Russia, and Iran as its founding members and work on actualizing the corridor began in 2002. Since then, INSTC membership has expanded to include 10 more countries – Azerbaijan, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkey, Ukraine, Syria, Belarus, and Oman. Bulgaria has been included as an observer state. The Baltic countries like Latvia and Estonia have also expressed willingness to join the INSTC.
- Science and Technology - Atmanirbhar Krishi app - The App was launched by the Office of Principal Scientific Adviser, Government of India. It was created to equip farmers with actionable agricultural insights and early weather alerts and is available in 12 languages. It is envisioned in 5 stages: Data aggregation related to soil type, soil health, moisture, weather, and water table. Building centralized insights related to crop selection, fertilizers requirements, and water needs for each farmer at the farm-holding level. The goal is to enable local expertise supported interactions and insights, etc.
- Healthcare and Medicine - Third COVID-19 wave may hit India in Aug, peak in Sept - India may witness COVID-19's third wave from August and it would reach its peak in September, according to a report by SBI Research. "Going by the current data, India can experience daily COVID-19 cases around 10,000 somewhere around the second week of July," the report said. "However, the cases can start rising by the second fortnight of August". The pandemic in 1918-20 had a total of four waves, the fourth being the last to hit.
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