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GS: 1
Social justice:
Contested history (The Hindu Opinion)
The Lushai Expedition followed a devastating raid by Lushai tribesmen on the Alexanderpur tea estate in Cachar.
GS:2
International relations:
Dark clouds across Asia (The Hindu Opinion)
What awaits the Asia-Pacific in 2018? Prospects appear, if anything, bleaker than was the case in 2017. More disorder, coming with increasing signs of a breakdown in inter and intra-state relations, is perhaps on the horizon. The Asian region is nowhere near achieving the kind of equilibrium that the Concert of Europe brought to 19th century Europe.
Trump outburst deepens Sino Pak ties (The Hindu)
Central bank has already announced that it will use Yuan to settle bilateral trade
Tuting row resolved, says Army chief (The Hindu)
India and China held a Border Personnel Meeting (BPM) last week to resolve the incident of road building by Chinese civilians at Tuting in Arunachal Pradesh.
Indian Constitution and Polity:
Larger bench to decide on Sec 377 (The Hindu)
The Supreme Court on Monday referred to a larger Bench a writ petition filed by five gay and lesbian members of the LGBT community to strike down the colonial Section 377 in the Indian Penal Code of 1860, which criminalises homosexuality.
A rare unity among parties (The Hindu)
Most political parties welcomed the Supreme Court’s decision on Monday to refer to a larger Bench the contentious Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, which criminalises homosexuality.
Rainbow of hope for LGBT community(The Hindu)
The Supreme Court’s decision to refer to a larger Bench a writ petition to quash Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, which criminalises homosexuality, has brought a ray of hope for LGBT community members and activists who have been fighting a long battle for their rights.
Internal security:
Cybercrime victims can complian online (The Hindu)
The Ministry of Home Affairs is set to launch a web portal where people who have faced online abuse and victims of cybercrimes like financial frauds can register complaints on a real-time basis. The Centre also plans to give access rights to banks on the portal to address cases of fraudulent transactions online.
Break silos of information (The Hindu)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday asked the State police chiefs to share information with one another as “security cannot be achieved selectively, or alone, and for that breaking of silos and information sharing among States can help make everyone more secure”.
Centre to review rules on anthem (The Hindu)
The court had justified the playing of the anthem in cinema halls, seeing it as an opportunity for the public to express their “love for the motherland.”
SC for larger warnings on cigarette packs (The Hindu)
The Supreme Court on Monday stayed a Karnataka High Court order reducing the size of pictorial warnings on packages of tobacco products to 40% of the package space.
No material to probe Gandhi death again (The Hindu)
There is no substantive material to justify a need to re-investigate the assassination of the Father of the Nation, amicus curiae Amarendra Sharan said in his report to the Supreme Court on Monday.
GS: 3
Science and Technology:
India unveils Pratyush, its fastest supercomputer yet (The Hindu)
India’s supercomputing prowess moved up several notches Monday after it unveiled Pratyush, an array of computers that can deliver a peak power of 6.8 petaflops. One petaflop is a million billion floating point operations per second and is a reflection of the computing capacity of a system.
Economy:
The age of crypto- economics (The Hindu Opinion)
The Finance Ministry recently issued a statement warning against investing in bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies (CCs). Likening CCs to ‘Ponzi schemes’, it linked them to terror-funding, smuggling, drug-trafficking, and money-laundering. The stern advisory came after three other warnings issued by the Reserve Bank of India.
Bharat Net covers 1 lakh panchayats (The Hindu)
The government on Monday said it had laid optical fibre in more than 1 lakh gram panchayats, completing the first phase of the BharatNet project that forms the backbone for the Digital India initiative.
Amended companies act notified (The Hindu)
The government on Monday announced that it has notified the Companies (Amendment) Act 2017, which is set to ease the implementation of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code 2016.
Data theft: on UIDAI exposé (The Hindu Opinion)
The UIDAI exposé is another reminderof the need for a robust data protection law
Yesterday’s current affairs material by ForumIAS
7 PM Editorial: Financial Resolution and Deposit Insurance Bill, 2017
