07 MARCH 2022 DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS | UPSC CDS CAPF AFCAT NDA SSB

1. CENTRAL INDUSTRIAL SECURITY FORCE (CISF)

Union Home Minister Amit Shah pitched for a “hybrid” security model where the CISF could train and certify private security agencies so that they can take over the task of efficiently guarding various kinds of industrial and manufacturing units in the country. He was speaking at the 53rd Raising Day celebrations of the CISF.

About:

The Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) is one of the Central Armed Police Forces in India.
The CISF is governed by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs, and its headquarters are at New Delhi.
It was set up under an Act of the Parliament of India in 1969. CISF was subsequently made an armed force of India by another Act of Parliament passed in 1983.

Mandate

It which works to provide security cover to over 300 industrial units, government infrastructure projects and facilities and establishments located all over India.
Among its duties are guarding sensitive governmental buildings, the Delhi Metro, and providing airport security.
CISF also provides consultancy services to private industries as well as other organisations within the Indian government. The scope of CISF's consulting practice includes security consulting and fire protection consulting.
It also plays a major role in Disaster Management. The CISF has a 'Fire Wing' which helps during fire accidents in Industries where the CISF is on guard.

Source : The Hindu

2. DEMOCRACY REPORT 2022

The V-Dem Institute at Sweden’s University of Gothenburg has come out with their annual democracy report. The study is titled ‘Democracy Report 2022: Autocratisation Changing Nature?’.

About:

The report classifies countries into four regime types based on their score in the Liberal Democratic Index (LDI): Liberal Democracy, Electoral Democracy, Electoral Autocracy, and Closed Autocracy.
It classifies India as an electoral autocracy ranking it 93rd on the LDI, out of 179 countries.
The level of democracy enjoyed by the average global citizen in 2021 is down to 1989 levels, with the democratic gains of the post-Cold War period eroding rapidly in the last few years.
More than twice as many countries (32) are undergoing autocratisation as are witnessing democratisation (15).
Noting that India is one of the top ten ‘autocratisers’ in the world, the V-Dem (Varieties of Democracy) report classifies India as an autocracy (‘electoral autocracy’) rather than a democracy, ranking it 93rd on the liberal democracy index, out of 179 countries.
One of the biggest drivers of autocratisation is “toxic polarisation”, a dominant trend in 40 countries, as opposed to 5 countries that showed rising polarisation in 2011.

Source : The Hindu

3. ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI) IN JUDICIAL PROCESSES

During the 2022 Budget session of Parliament, Law Minister Kiren Rijiju said that while implementing Phase 2 of the eCourts projects, under operation since 2015, a need was felt to adopt new, cutting-edge technologies of Machine Learning (ML) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to increase the efficiency of the justice delivery system.

About:

To explore the use of AI in judicial domain, the Supreme Court of India has constituted the Artificial Intelligence Committee which has mainly identified application of AI technology in translation of judicial documents, legal research assistance and process automation.
Several law firms are now keen on trying out new technologies for a quick reference on judicial precedents and pronouncements on cases with similar legal issues at stake.
The Mumbai-based Riverus, a “legal tech” firm, has developed ML applications that peruse troves of cases, “understand” them, and parse cases that are similar in content — very much like a human expert would do — in a fraction of the time.

Present status in India

Over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, the use of technology for e-filing, and virtual hearings has seen a dramatic rise.
From the beginning of the lockdown in 2020 until January 8 this year, the Supreme Court of India emerged as a global leader by conducting 1,81,909 virtual hearings.
But the use of ML in India’s legal sphere has so far been restricted to automating back-end work, and is still a very long way from being used as a decision-making tool for the judiciary.
SUVAS is a language-learning application being used to translate judgments, and SUPACE, which can draft a legal brief, comprise the initiatives being undertaken in the Indian judiciary as a part of incorporating ML-based applications.

Source : The Hindu

4. DEEPAK DHAR

Deepak Dhar, physicist, from the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune, has been selected for the Boltzmann medal, awarded by the Commission on Statistical Physics (C3) of the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics.

About:

He has been chosen for this award for his contributions in the field of statistical physics, including universal long-time relaxation in disordered magnetic systems, exact solutions in percolation and cluster counting problems and definition of spectral dimension of fractals.
He becomes the first Indian to win this award, which was initiated in 1975, with Nobel laureate (1982) K.G. Wilson being the first recipient.
He shares the platform with American scientist John J. Hopfield who is known for his invention of an associative neural network, now named after him.
The award consists of the gilded Boltzmann medal with the inscription of Ludwig Boltzmann, and the chosen two scientists will be presented the medals at the StatPhys28 conference to be held in Tokyo, 7-11 August, 2023.
The medal, which honours outstanding achievements in the field of statistical physics, has been given to one or two persons, once in three years, in the last 47 years.
It is given only once to a person and on the condition that that person has not won the Nobel prize so far.

Source : The Hindu

5. FUSOBACTERIUM NUCLEATUM

Researchers at ACTREC-Tata Memorial Centre have identified the presence of a bacteria, Fusobacterium nucleatum, in the oral tumours at a significantly higher burden than in the oral cavity of healthy individuals.

About:

Interestingly, Fusobacterium nucleatum is known to play a vital role in colorectal cancer, wherein its presence affects the spread of the disease and the patient's response to chemotherapy. However, a similar role of Fusobacterium in oral cancer was not known earlier.
The presence of the bacteria was found in Indian and Caucasian oral cancer patients, with a much higher incidence among the Indian patients.
Moreover, oral cancer patients positive for Fusobacterium were found to be negative for Human Papillomavirus (HPV) infection, suggesting they are present in a mutually exclusive way.

Source : The Hindu

6. INDIA-BANGLADESH ROUTE

Union Minister of Ports, Shipping & Waterways and AYUSH received the maiden voyage of food-grains from Patna to Pandu via Bangladesh in Guwahati.

About:

Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) welcomed the self-propelled vessel MV Lal Bahadur Shastri carrying a total of 200 MT of foodgrains for Food Corporation of India (FCI) as it completed the maiden pilot run from Patna to Pandu via Bangladesh.
IWAI is planning to run a fixed schedule sailing between Ganga (NW1) and Brahmaputra (NW2) heralding a new age of inland water transport for Assam & the Northeast India.
The vessel started its sail from Patna on National Waterway-1 (river Ganga) and passed through Bhagalpur, Manihari, Sahibganj, Farakka, Tribeni, Kolkata, Haldia, Hemnagar; Indo Bangladesh Protocol (IBP) route through Khulna, Narayanganj, Sirajganj, Chilmari and National Waterway-2 through Dhubri, and Jogighopa covering a distance of 2,350 km.
Another vessel MV Ram Prasad Bismil with two barges Kalpana Chawla and APJ Abdul Kalam started voyage from Haldia on 17th Feb 22 and is on the way to Pandu.

Source : PIB

7. HANSA-NG

India’s first indigenous Flying Trainer HANSA-NG designed and developed by CSIR-National Aerospace Laboratories, Bangalore under the aegis of Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, has successfully completed the sea level trials at Puducherry from 19th February to 5th March, 2022.

About:

HANSA-NG is one of the most advanced flying trainer powered by Rotax Digital Control Engine with unique features like Just-In-Time Prepreg (JIPREG) Composite light weight Airframe, Glass Cockpit, Bubble Canopy with wide panoramic view, electrically operated flaps etc.
CSIR-NAL further said that HANSA-NG is designed to meet the Indian flying club needs and it is an ideal aircraft for Commercial Pilot Licensing (CPL) due to its low cost and low fuel consumption. NAL has already received more than 80 nos. of LoIs (Letter of Intents) from various flying clubs.

Source : PIB

8. WEAPONS USED IN THE RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR

Here is a look at some of the weapons being used in the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

About:

The Russian military has used warplanes and Kalibr (Caliber) cruise missiles to hit facilities throughout the country. To hit key targets, the Russian military also has used Iskander missiles that have a range of up to 500 kilometers.
The Soviet-designed Grad (Hail), Smerch (Tornado) and Uragan (Hurricane) multiple rocket launchers are designed to fire a salvo of powerful rockets to destroy concentrations of troops or military equipment.
The Russian military also has a wide range of powerful Soviet-designed artillery units, which were bizarrely named after flowers, such as self-propelled 203-mm Peony and 152-mm Hyacinth and Acacia self-propelled howitzers.
Ukrainian officials have accused Russia of using cluster munitions. Cluster bombs, rockets and artillery shells open in the air, releasing submunitions, or “bomblets,” that are dispersed over a large area and simultaneously hit multiple targets.
The Ukrainian military has used Bayraktar drones supplied by Turkey before the conflict.

Source : Indian Express

9. UN HUMANITARIAN CORRIDORS

The United Nations considers humanitarian corridors to be one of several possible forms of a temporary pause of armed conflict.

About:

They are demilitarized zones, in a specific area and for a specific time — and both sides of an armed conflict agree to them.
Via these corridors, either food and medical aid can be brought to areas of conflict, or civilians can be evacuated.
The corridors are necessary when cities are under siege and the population is cut off from basic food supplies, electricity and water.
In cases where a humanitarian catastrophe unfolds because the international law of war is being violated — for example through large-scale bombing of civilian targets — humanitarian corridors can provide crucial relief.

Who sets them up?

In most cases, humanitarian corridors are negotiated by the United Nations. Sometimes they’re also set up by local groups.
Since all sides need to agree to set up the corridors, there is a risk of military or political abuse. For example, the corridors can be used to smuggle weapons and fuel into besieged cities.
On the other hand, they can also be used by UN observers, NGOs and journalists to gain access to contested areas where war crimes are being committed.

Source : Indian Express

10. TIGER DENSITY

Preliminary findings of a study by the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) suggest that the density of tigers in the Sunderbans may have reached the carrying capacity of the mangrove forests, leading to frequent dispersals and a surge in human-wildlife conflict.

About:

Availability of food and space is the primary factor that determines how many tigers a forest can hold. And often, food is space for the tiger.
In the Terai and Shivalik hills habitat — think Corbett tiger reserve, for example — 10-16 tigers can survive in 100 sq km. This slides to 7-11 tigers per 100 sq km in the reserves of north-central Western Ghats such as Bandipur, and to 6-10 tigers per 100 sq km in the dry deciduous forests, such as Kanha, of central India.
The correlation between prey availability and tiger density is fairly established. There is even a simple linear regression explaining the relationship in the 2018 All-India Tiger report that put the carrying capacity in the Sunderbans “at around 4 tigers” per 100 sq km.
A joint Indo-Bangla study in 2015 pegged the tiger density at 2.85 per 100 sq km after surveying eight blocks spanning 2,913 sq km across the international borders in the Sunderbans.
The ongoing WII study indicates a density of 3-5 tigers in the Sunderbans. Given that 88 (86-90) tigers were estimated in 2,313 sq km of the Sundarbans in 2018, the population has been close to its so-called saturation point in the mangrove delta for some time.

Source : Indian Express

07 MARCH 2022 DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS | UPSC CDS CAPF AFCAT NDA SSB

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