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GS: 2
International relations:
Afghanistan, on a slow fuse (The Hindu Opinion)
The attack by the Taliban gunmen at the Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul last weekend was a grim reminder of the deteriorating security environment in Afghanistan. The siege at the hotel lasted more than 12 hours and claimed 22 victims, including 14 foreigners, before the gunmen were neutralised.
The arc to Southeast Asia (The Hindu Opinion)
India and ASEAN must draw up a functional road map to enhance ties
New Delhi brims with ‘Look east’ vibes (The Hindu)
Symbolism and ceremony will mark the 25th year commemorative summit of the ASEAN-India dialogue partnership on Thursday, but officials say security issues in the Indo-Pacific will be the focus of discussions among the 10 leaders of the Association of South East Asian Nations and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
GS:3
Economy:
Will biometrics help fight crimes, asks Supreme Court(The Hindu)
The Supreme Court on Wednesday questioned the argument put forth by petitioners in Aadhaar cases that collection of personal information of citizens by the state would lead to totalitarianism. It asked whether the state’s access to personal and biometric data was necessary to combat terrorism and crimes such as money-laundering.
UDAN to link 73 airports, helipads (The Hindu)
The Centre on Wednesday said 73 underserved and unserved airports and helipads would be connected under the phase 2 of the regional connectivity scheme UDAN.
Capital adequacy ratio to rise 44bps (The Hindu)
SBI will receive ₹8,800 crore capital from the government this financial year out of ₹88,139 crore allocated to 20 banks.
Govt. unveils 2.1 lakh crore bank recapitalisation plan
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Wednesday said the government has moved proposal to infuse additional grant of Rs 88,139 crore – Rs 80,000 crore through Recap Bonds and Rs 8,139 crore as budgetary support – for 2018 under the public sector banks recapitalisation plan
Recalculating ease of doing business (The Hindu Opinion)
Earlier this month, the World Bank announced that it would revise the methodology it uses to calculate the ease of doing business index, a move that is expected to affect the rankings of countries in the last four years. As its name suggests, the index ranks countries based on how welcoming they are to businesses, as measured by criteria like the number of days it takes to start a business or obtain a licence.
Internal security:
Fraud case in India surged 21% in 2017 (The Hindu)
India witnessed a significant increase in fraud cases involving corporates with 89% of executives reporting that their companies fell victim to at least one instance of fraud in the past 12 months, up from 68% in 2016, according to Kroll Annual Global Fraud & Risk Report 2017-18.
Environment:
Submit time-bound action plan on Bellandur lake: NGT(The Hindu)
The National Green Tribunal (NGT) on Wednesday rapped the Karnataka government for not taking measures to prevent recurring fires at the severely polluted Bellandur lake, most recently on January 19, when it raged for over 24 hours.
A turtle recovery plan (The Hindu Opinion)
Every year, thousands of sea turtles are accidentally captured, injured or killed by mechanised boats, trawl nets and gill nets operated and used by comercial fishermen. They can also sustain internal injuries from fishing hooks or suffer serious external injuries after becoming entangled in nets. Each year, environmentalists record a high number of dead turtles washing up ashore. This heavy toll, of injuries and deaths, occurs when turtles begin migrating to their nesting grounds on beaches and in fishing areas that are their feeding grounds.
Science and Technoloy:
HPV vaccine gets immunisation nod(The Hindu)
The National Technical Advisory Group on Immunization (NTAGI), an advisory body that recommends vaccines for India’s Universal Immunization Programme (UIP), has given the green signal to the introduction of the Human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine in the UIP.
First India-designed vaccine passes WHO test (The Hindu)
For the first time, a vaccine conceived and developed from scratch in India has been “pre-qualified” by the World Health Organisation.
Yesterday’s current affairs material by Forum IAS
