9 PM Current Affairs Brief – January 12th, 2020

Home Minister launches country’s first Cyber Crime Prevention Unit AASHVAST in Gandhinagar

News:Home Minister has launched several Cyber initiative projects of the Gujarat police.

Facts:

About Cyber AASHVAST:

• Cyber Aashvast is an initiative started by the Cyber Crime Cell of the Gujarat Police.
• It will own an exclusive online portal that will have dedicated service helpline for victims of cyber-crimes.

Units under Cyber AASHVAST:There are four units of the portal which include:

• Incident Response Unit:It is a 24×7 basis available team ready to deal with online financial crimes.
• Cyber Suraksha Lab:It is a dedicated space for the citizens where they can take the help of kiosks to find out if their phone has been hacked or is a victim of malware.
• Cyber Crime Prevention Unit:It is an online portal which will contain a database of thousands of phone numbers and website links that have been suspected of being involved in financial crimes so that the citizens can aware themselves and stay alert.
• Cyber Anti-bullying Unit:It deals with cases of online stalking, harassment, bullying, using morphed pictures, sexual harassment and has a dedicated team of police personnel and counsellors to help the victims, while retaining their confidentiality. The helpline number is 100

About VISWAS:

• VISWAS stands for Video Integration and State Wide Advanced Security.
• It is a first of its kind project in the country launched for major e-governance initiative.
• It aims at improving Law and Order Management, Proactive traffic management and control, Crime detection through video analytics and Post incident Investigation and video forensics.

About Cyber Crime Cooperation Investigation Request Portal:

• It is a portal where any state police or law enforcement agency can access and submit details about any offender staying in Gujarat.
• The case will be immediately transferred to Cyber Crime Cell of Gujarat which will then deal with the case.

Explained: The ‘presumption of constitutionality’

News:Recently, the Supreme Court has declined hearing a plea to declare Citizenship Amendment Act as constitutional and said that there was already a presumption of constitutionality to a law passed by Parliament.

Facts:

About Presumption of constitutionality:

• The term ‘presumption of constitutionality’ is a legal principle that is used by courts during statutory interpretation.
• Statutory interpretation means the process by which courts interpret and apply a law passed by the legislature such as Parliament.
• Presumption of constitutionality says that the judiciary should presume statutes enacted by the legislature to be constitutional, unless the law is clearly unconstitutional or a fundamental right is implicated.
• The presumption is not absolute.It does not stand when there is a gross violation of the Constitution.Hence,there are limitations to the doctrine.

Raisina Dialogue 2020 to host ministers from across globe

News:The Raisina Dialogue is to be held from January 14, 2020 in New Delhi.

Facts:

About Raisina Dialogue:

• The Raisina Dialogue is a multilateral conference committed to addressing the most challenging issues facing the global community.
• The dialogue is organised by the Ministry of External Affairs and Observer Research Foundation.
• Every year, global leaders in policy, business, media and civil society are hosted in New Delhi to discuss cooperation on a wide range of pertinent international policy matters.
• The Dialogue is structured as a multi-stakeholder, cross-sectoral discussion involving heads of state, cabinet ministers and local government officials as well as major private sector executives of the media and academics.
• The theme for 2020 Dialogue is 21@20: Navigating the Alpha Century.

India attends Hormuz Peace Initiative

News:India has recently attended the Hormuz Peace Initiative that was held in Tehran,Iran.

Facts:

About Hormuz Peace Initiative:

• The initiative was organized by Iran.It was attended by leading trade partners of Iran namely China, Oman, India and Afghanistan.
• It aims at stabilizing one of the world’s busiest shipping lane, the Strait of Hormuz in the backdrop of US-Iran tensions.
• The initiative reviewed the developments in the Persian Gulf region and evaluated the regional cooperation plans under the ‘Hormuz Peace Endeavor’ (HOPE).

About ‘Hormuz Peace Endeavor’(HOPE):

• The HOPE was proposed by Iranian President at UN General Assembly meeting in September,2019.
• It aimed at enhancing solidarity, mutual understanding as well as peaceful and friendly relations among countries in the region in order to guarantee the territorial integrity and political independence of regional states.

About Strait of Hormuz:

• The Strait of Hormuz lies between Oman and Iran.It links the Persian Gulf north of it with the Gulf of Oman to the south and the Arabian Sea beyond.
• On the north coast lies Iran and on the south coast of the United Arab Emirates and Musandam, an exclave of Oman.
• It is 21 miles (33 km) wide at its narrowest point, with the shipping lane just two miles (three km) wide in either direction.
• It is considered as the world’s most important oil artery. Almost a fifth of the world’s oil passes through the Strait. According to data from analytics firm Vortexa some 17.2 million barrels per day (bpd) pass through it.

ICAR to set up Farmers’ Innovation Fund

News:The Indian Council of Agricultural Research(ICAR) is all set to start a Farmers Innovation Fund.

Facts:

About Farmers’ Innovation Fund:

• The farmers innovation fund aims to scientifically validate, scale-up and propagate the innovations of progressive farmers.
• It will link farmers and farming with science and will ensure that their farm practices are science-based.
• As part of this fund,an innovation centre will also be established in New Delhi where the innovations will be scientifically validated and farmers will be allowed to pursue research work.
• Currently, Krishi Vigyan Kendras document the innovations of farmers. This fund will also encourage farmers to continue their innovations.

Additional information:

About ICAR:

• The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) is an autonomous organisation under the Department of Agricultural Research and Education (DARE), Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare , Government of India.
• The Council is the apex body for coordinating, guiding and managing research and education in agriculture including horticulture, fisheries and animal sciences in the entire country.

About Krishi Vigyan Kendra(KVK):

• The Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK) is district level Farm Science Centre established by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) for speedy transfer of technology to the farmer’s fields.
• The aim of KVK is to reduce the time lag between generation of technology at the research institution and its transfer to the farmer’s field.
• The KVKs are 100% funded by the Government of India.The first KVK was established in 1974 at Puducherry.

Naval version of Tejas LCA lands on INS Vikramaditya for first time

News:Recently,Light Combat Aircraft(LCA) Tejas has successfully landed on INS Vikramaditya.With this,the LCA becomes the first aircraft to make an arrested landing on a naval ship.

Facts:

About LCA Tejas:

• LCA Tejas has been built under the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA)  program, which began in the 1980s to replace India’s aging MiG-21 fighters.
• It is designed by the Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) and developed by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL).
• It is a single-seat, single-jet engine, multi-role light fighter.Its design is highly manoeuvrable with a tailless, compound delta wing configuration.
• It has stronger landing gears which can absorb forces exerted by the ski jump ramp during take-off.It also has the capability to be airborne within 200m, as against 1000 m required for normal runways.

About INS Vikramaditya:

• INS Vikramaditya is a modified Kiev-class aircraft carrier.It served with the Soviet Navy and later with the Russian Navy.
• It was commissioned into the Indian Navy in 2013 from Russia.
• The aircraft carrier is 284mts long.It has a displacement of 40,000 tons and is the biggest and heaviest in the Indian Navy fleet.
• The warship can also carry planes such as MiG-29K,Kamov-31 and Chetak helicopters.

National Highway Excellence Awards 2019

News:Union Minister for Road Transport & Highways will present the ‘National Highways Excellence Awards’ to outstanding performers in Highways sector.

Facts:

About National Highways Excellence Awards:

• The National Highways Excellence Awards were instituted by the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways in the year 2018.
• The award aims to recognise companies which are performing exceptionally well in the construction, operations, maintenance and tolling stages of highway development as well as in the arena of road safety.
• The award is given in seven categories namely (a) Project Management (b) Operation and Maintenance (c)Toll Management (d) Highway Safety (e) Innovation (f) Outstanding Work in Challenging Conditions and (g) Green Highway.

Scientist Saha elected as IUPAC bureau member

News:Bipul Behari Saha has been elected as a bureau member of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) for the period 2020-23.He is the only second Indian after CNR Rao to be elected for this position.

Facts:

About IUPAC:

• The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry(IUPAC) was established in the year 1919.It is headquartered in Zürich,Switzerland.
• It has the responsibility of naming all new elements and compounds, declare atomic weights and physical constants, update Periodic table and carry out research projects.
• It is an international federation of National Adhering Organizations that represents chemists in individual countries.It is also a member of the International Council for Science(ICSU).

About Periodic Table:

• The Periodic Table was first published by the Russian scientist Dmitry Mendeleev in 1969.
• The table is an arrangement of all the elements known to man in accordance with their increasing atomic number and recurring chemical properties.
• There are 118 confirmed elements in the periodic table.Hydrogen is the lightest element with its atomic weight 1.Uranium is the heaviest naturally occurring element with an atomic weight of 238.

Note:The United Nations had designated 2019 as the International Year of the Periodic Table (IYPT2019) to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the establishment of the Periodic Table.