Ten relevant news updates from across the world, useful for examinations
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Headlines - 19 - 07 - 2021
- Indian Politics - Pegasus snooping and privacy breaches exposed - A huge data leak, passed to 17 media outlets, purported to show that spyware produced by NSO Group, an Israeli tech firm, has been used to snoop on scores of dissidents, human-rights activists and journalists. Many prominent names from the Indian journalism fraternity, and also human rights activists, were found in the list. The government issued a quick denial, even as the monsoon session of the Parliament commenced on 19th July. The Pegasus technology is marketed to governments as a crime-combating tool. It allows authorities to listen into conversations using hacked mobile phones’ microphones, as well as track other data. Among those allegedly targeted were associates of Jamal Khashoggi, who was murdered by the Saudi government (in a rogue operation, it says) in 2018. NSO vigorously denied the allegations.
- Environment and Ecology - New initiatives in "Building Energy Efficiency" 2021 - The Minister for Power and Ministry of New and Renewable Energy inaugurated “Aiming for Sustainable Habitat: New Initiatives in Building Energy Efficiency 2021”. The building sector is the second largest consumer of electricity after industry but is expected to become the largest energy consuming sector by 2030. Realizing the importance, the Government of India is focusing on improving energy efficiency across residential as well as commercial building establishments. These will help enhance the energy-efficiency levels in residential buildings thereby leading to sustainable habitation. With future-driven initiatives like smart home ecosystems, optimizing energy-efficiency in any given structure will surely be the need in the coming years. More energy-efficiency means less energy consumption in household and reduced carbon emissions.
- Indian Economy - India’s textile sector - The Union Minister of Textiles held an in-depth review of initiatives undertaken by the Ministry of Textiles for boosting the textiles sector. The textiles & garments industry is a labour-intensive sector employing 45 million people in India, second only to the agriculture sector in terms of employment. It contributes 2.3% to Indian GDP, 7% of industrial output, 12% to the export earnings of India and employs more than 21% of total employment. India is the sixth largest producer of technical textiles with a 6% global share, largest producer of cotton & jute in the world. Technical textiles are functional fabrics that have applications in industries such as automobiles, civil engineering and construction, India is also the second largest producer of silk in the world and 95% of the world’s hand woven fabric comes from India.
- Defence and Military - Hypersonic missiles - Russia tested a hypersonic cruise missile with a range of 350 kilometres. The Zircon missile was launched from a ship in the White Sea, and performed well. America, Russia and China are developing hypersonic weapons, which can travel more than five times the speed of sound, or around 1.6km per second, and evade missile-defence systems. Hypersonic weapons can travel more than five times the speed of sound, or around one mile (1.6km) per second. They come in two flavours - (i) Hypersonic cruise missiles, powered by rockets or jets throughout their flight and (ii) Hypersonic boost-glide weapons, that are launched into the upper atmosphere in the normal fashion atop existing ballistic missiles, but then release hypersonic glide vehicles (HGVs) which fly lower, faster and—to an adversary—much more unpredictably than old-fashioned re-entry vehicles. At ten times the speed of sound, a kilogram of anything has more kinetic energy than you get from exploding a kilogram of TNT. Current ballistic weapons are very fast, but not as manoeuvrable; current cruise missiles are very manoeuvrable, but not as fast. Hypersonic cruise missiles and HGVs are novel because they fuse these qualities of speed and agility.
- Science and Technology - AI tool for cancer detection - NBDriver - Researchers at IIT Madras have developed an AI tool called NBDriver (neighbourhood driver) for use in analysing cancer-causing mutations in cells. By looking at the neighbourhood, or context, of a mutation in the genome, it can look at harmful “driver” mutations and distinguish them from neutral “passenger” mutations. This technique of looking at the genomic neighbourhood to make out the nature of the mutation is a novel and largely unexplored one. The nature of the mutation depends on the neighbourhood, and how this tool may be used to draw the line between driver and passenger mutations. The method of distinguishing between driver and passenger mutations solely by looking at the neighbourhood is novel.
- Defence and Military - MH-60R choppers for Indian Navy - The Indian Navy accepted the first two of its MH-60R Multi Role Helicopters (MRH) from US Navy in a ceremony held at Naval Air Station North Island, San Diego on 16 Jul 21. The ceremony marked the formal transfer of these helicopters from US Navy to Indian Navy. MH-60R helicopters manufactured by Lockheed Martin Corporation, USA is an all-weather helicopter designed to support multiple missions with state of the art avionics/ sensors. 24 of these helicopters are being procured under Foreign Military Sales from the US Government. The helicopters would also be modified with several India Unique Equipment and weapons. The induction of these MRH would further enhance Indian Navy’s three dimensional capabilities. In order to exploit these potent helicopters, the first batch of Indian crew is presently undergoing training in USA.
- Indian Economy - Card payment network companies banned by RBI - The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has so far barred three foreign card payment network companies - Mastercard, American Express and Diners Club - from taking new customers on board over the issue of storing data in India. By the RBI circular on Storage of Payment System Data dated April 6, 2018, all system providers were directed to ensure that within six months the entire data (full end-to-end transaction details, information collected or carried or processed as part of the message or payment instruction) relating to payment systems operated by them is stored in a system only in India. They were required to report compliance to the RBI and submit a board-approved system audit report conducted by a CERT-In empanelled auditor within the timelines specified. However, credit and card firms with global operations have been resisting the move, citing costs, security risk, lack of clarity, timeline, and the possibility of data localisation demand from other countries.
- World Politics - South Africans get their act together - South Africans marked Nelson Mandela’s birthday by cleaning up after recent riots. Each July 18th the public are encouraged to do 67 minutes of volunteering to mark Mr Mandela’s 67 years of public service. Jacob Zuma, another former president, whose imprisonment sparked the unrest, appeared in court at a corruption trial in relation to an arms deal in the 1990s. In South Africa there are many sources of discontent - unemployment, growing inequality, poor power and water, corruption, cruel police and a tough pandemic! The July '21 riots were not random, but urged on by supporters of Jacob Zuma, the former president whose faction of the ruling African National Congress wants to topple President Mr Ramaphosa. On June 29th the Constitutional Court sentenced Mr Zuma to 15 months behind bars for refusing to appear before a judge-led inquiry into corruption during his time in office from 2009-18. Just before midnight on July 7th, as the highest court’s deadline for the police to arrest him approached, Mr Zuma was taken into custody.
- Science and Technology - Fastest internet ever - Japan's National Institute of Information and Communications Technology scientists set the fastest internet speed world record by transferring data at 319 Tbps over a distance of 3,001 kilometres. They used a combination of rare earth minerals, a new kind of fiber optic cable, and a laser system. It's almost twice the 178 Tbps record set in 2020 by UCL engineers. The speed test was performed in a lab using advanced fiber optic technology. Many fiber optic cables contain one core and a lot of cladding, or covering, to protect the data inside. NICT’s system used an experimental strand of fiber optic cable with four cores housed in a cable roughly the size of a standard fiber optic line. NICT looped the data through coiled bits of fiber optic that simulated a transmission distance of 3,001 km or about 1,864 miles without a degradation of the signal or speed. That’s impressive, but there’s still a lot of work to do and the method of attaining this speed was complicated.
- World Politics - Hacking news - (a) US State Department is offering up to $10 million for information that can identify or locate malicious cyber actors working under the control of a foreign government. "Certain malicious cyber operations targeting US critical infrastructure may violate the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act," it said. The violations include extortion threats, intentional unauthorised access to a computer, and others. (b) An Israeli group sold a tool to hack into Microsoft Windows, Microsoft and technology human rights group Citizen Lab said. An Israeli cyber firm, named Candiru, reportedly created and sold software exploit that can penetrate Windows. It said the hacking tool was utilised in multiple countries, including Iran, Spain and the UK, to target various civil society organisations. (c) Facebook said it'd taken down about 200 accounts run by an Iranian hackers' group under a cyber spying operation that targeted mostly US military personnel. Facebook said the group used fake online personas to connect with targets. They later drove the targets onto other sites where they tricked them into clicking malicious links that'd infect their devices with spying malware.
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