Author: ForumIAS

Govt. tightens its grip on fake news What has happened? The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting headed by Union Minister Smriti Irani on Monday amended the guidelines for accreditation of journalists Accreditation can be cancelled Accreditation of a journalist (both television and print) can be cancelled/annulled if the news reported by them is found to… Continue reading Govt. tightens its grip on fake news

‘Court had no business to dilute Act’ What has happened? In its review petition filed before the Supreme Court on Monday, the Centre said the court had no business to dilute the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act and make it easier for accused persons to escape arrest. SC’s view The… Continue reading ‘Court had no business to dilute Act’

Sharing data across borders A scenario: The need of data access from other countries Consider a scenario where a crime is committed in India and the suspect and victim are both Indian citizens. If the suspect used a U.S.-based messaging service to plan the crime, an Indian officer investigating would have to raise a request… Continue reading Sharing data across borders

Study sounds the alarm for Arctic ice What has happened? Even if humanity stops global warming in its tracks at two degress Celsius, long seen as the guardrail for a climate-safe world, Arctic sea ice will still disappear in some years, scientists have warned Odds better if held at 1.5 degrees though In a 2… Continue reading Study sounds the alarm for Arctic ice

NASA spots farthest star Context NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has discovered the farthest individual star ever seen — an enormous blue stellar body nicknamed Icarus located over halfway across the universe 9 billion years The star, located in a very distant spiral galaxy, is so far away that its light has taken nine billion years… Continue reading NASA spots farthest star

RBI didn’t audit PNB properly: CVC Context Apportioning blame to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) over the PNB loan fraud, Central Vigilance Commissioner K.V. Chowdary on Tuesday there had been “no apparent audit” by the central bank during the period of the scam Prelims relevant info Central Vigilance Commission Statutory body CVC was established… Continue reading RBI didn’t audit PNB properly: CVC

Back on track Context Successful roll out of e-way bill system What is e-way bill? It is an electronic documentation detailing the movement of goods and has to be carried by transporters for any consignment exceeding Rs 50000 in value It can be generated from the GSTN set up for the e-way bill system by… Continue reading Back on track

Biometric failure is not related to age, says UIDAI Context UIDAI CEO Ajay Bhushan Pandey repliesto a Supreme Court questionnaire from the petitioners challenging the Aadhaar scheme Petitioners’ argument The petitioners have argued that Aadhaar is prone to biometric authentication failure and results in financial exclusion of senior citizens and those employed in manual labour… Continue reading Biometric failure is not related to age, says UIDAI

Poor success rate in cases of atrocities Context As many as 47,338 cases of crimes against Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes were registered across the country in 2016, the LokSabha was informed NCRB Data Scheduled castes: As per the information provided by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), a total of 40,774 cases were registered… Continue reading Poor success rate in cases of atrocities