Current-13.01.2021

13.01.2021

Whatsapp Policy Change

• The privacy policy does not change for personal chats, which will remain end-to-end encrypted and fully protected, and third parties will not be able to read them.
• According to the new policy, content shared with a business on WhatsApp will be visible to “several people in that business”.
• Data Shared with Facebook and its Other Companies:Basic information like account registration information (phone number), transaction data of payments, service-related information, information on how one interacts with others (including businesses), mobile device information, and IP address.
• India lacks a regulatory authority and until the Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019 becomes a law, it will be hard to track tech companies on data processing.

Spam

• Spamming is the use of messaging systems to send an unsolicited message (spam) to large numbers of recipients for the purpose of commercial advertising, for the purpose of non-commercial proselytizing, or for any prohibited purpose (especially the fraudulent purpose of phishing).
• While the most widely recognized form of spam is email spam, the term is applied to similar abuses in other media.
• It is named after Spam, a luncheon meat, by way of a Monty Python sketch about a restaurant that has Spam in almost every dish in which vikings annoyingly sing "Spam" repeatedly.

Covishield

• Covishield has been developed by Oxford University in collaboration with Astrazeneca.
• Pune-based Serum Institute of India is their manufacturing and trial partner.
• It uses a replication-deficient chimpanzee viral vector based on a weakened version of a common cold virus.
• This virus causes infections in chimpanzees and contains the genetic material of the SARS-CoV-2 virus spike protein.

Covaxin

• Covaxin is developed by Bharat Biotech and it is India’s first indigenous vaccine against Covid-19.
• Bharat Biotech has developed this vaccine in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research and National Institute of Virology.
• It is an inactivated vaccine which is developed by inactivating (killing) the live microorganisims that cause the disease.
• This destroys the ability of the pathogen to replicate, but keeps it intact so that the immune system can still recognise it and produce an immune response.

State of Emergency in Malaysia

• Malaysia’s king declared a nationwide state of emergency to fight a coronavirus surge that is overwhelming hospitals, with critics charging it was a move by an unstable government to cling to power.
• The move allows for the suspension of parliament and political activities, such as local elections, and comes at a time Mr. Muhyiddin’s highly unstable, 10-month-old government is facing a host of challenges.

2021 Formula one Season

• The 2021 FIA Formula One World Championship is a planned motor racing championship for Formula One cars which will be the 72nd running of the Formula One World Championship.
• It is recognised by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), the governing body of international motorsport, as the highest class of competition for open-wheel racing cars.
• The championship is due to be contested over twenty-three Grands Prix, which will be held around the world.

Impact of inflation on economy

• Inflation causes decrease in the real value of money and other monetary items over time.
• Inflation causes uncertainty over future and this may discourage investment and savings.
• High inflation may lead to shortages of goods if consumers begin hording out of concern that prices will increase in the future.
• Inflation ensures that the central banks adjust the interest rates.
• Inflation encourages non-monetary investment

Tesla

• Tesla, Inc. is an American electric vehicle and clean energy company based in Palo Alto, California.
• Tesla's current products include electric cars, battery energy storage from home to grid scale, solar panels and solar roof tiles, as well as other related products and services.
• Founded in July 2003 as Tesla Motors, the company's name is a tribute to inventor and electrical engineer Nikola Tesla.
• Tesla ranked as the world's best-selling plug-in and battery electric passenger car manufacturer in 2019, with a market share of 17% of the plug-in segment and 23% of the battery electric segment.

Kalapani Dispute

• Kalapani is a valley that is administered by India as a part of the Pithoragarh district of Uttarakhand. It is situated on the Kailash Mansarovar route.
• The Kali River in the Kalapani region demarcates the border between India and Nepal.
• The Treaty of Sugauli signed by the Kingdom of Nepal and British India (after Anglo-Nepalese War) in 1816 located the Kali River as Nepal's western boundary with India.
• The discrepancy in locating the source of the river led to boundary disputes between India and Nepal, with each country producing maps supporting their own claims.

Blacklist of State sponsors of Terrorism by USA

• "State Sponsors of Terrorism" is a designation applied by the United States Department of State to countries which the Department alleges to have "repeatedly provided support for acts of international terrorism".
• Inclusion on the list imposes strict unilateral sanctions.
• As of 2021, the list consists of Cuba, Iran, North Korea and Syria. Countries formerly on the list were Iraq, Libya, South Yemen and Sudan.

Labour Code bill

• The 2nd National Commission on Labour (NCL) recommended consolidation of central labour laws.  It observed that there are numerous labour laws, both at the centre and in states.
• In 2019, the Ministry of Labour and Employment introduced four Bills on labour codes to consolidate 29 central laws.  These Codes regulate: (i) Wages, (ii) Industrial Relations, (iii) Social Security, and (iv) Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions.

UNSC 1373 Anti-Terrorism Resolution

• United Nations Security Council Resolution 1373, adopted unanimously on 28 September 2001, is a counter-terrorism measure passed following the 11 September terrorist attacks on the United States.
• Although the United States is widely credited with initiating Resolution 1373, once adopted unanimously, the resolution became a common act of the Security Council, and therefore all its members at the time had ownership over it.
• The resolution aimed to hinder terrorist groups in various ways. It recalled provisions from resolutions 1189 (1998), 1269 (1999) and 1368 (2001) concerning terrorism.
• UN member states were encouraged to share their intelligence on terrorist groups in order to assist in combating international terrorism.

FATF Groups

• The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) is an inter-governmental body established in 1989 during the G7 Summit in Paris.
• The objectives of the FATF are to set standards and promote effective implementation of legal, regulatory and operational measures for combating money laundering, terrorist financing and other related threats to the integrity of the international financial system.
• Its Secretariat is located at the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) headquarters in Paris.
• FATF has two lists:
• Grey List: Countries that are considered safe haven for supporting terror funding and money laundering are put in the FATF grey list. This inclusion serves as a warning to the country that it may enter the blacklist.
• Black List: Countries known as Non-Cooperative Countries or Territories (NCCTs) are put in the blacklist. These countries support terror funding and money laundering activities. The FATF revises the blacklist regularly, adding or deleting entries. Two countries were on the FATF blacklist: North Korea and Iran.

UNSC 1267 Sanction list

• Assets Freeze: All states are required to freeze without delay the funds and other financial assets or economic resources of designated individuals and entities.
• Travel Ban: All states are required to prevent the entry into or transit through their territories by designated individuals.
• Arms Embargo: All states are required to prevent the direct or indirect supply, sale and transfer from their territories or by their nationals outside their territories, or using their flag vessels or aircraft, of arms and related materiel of all types, spare parts, and technical advice, assistance, or training related to military activities, to designated individuals and entities.

Section 2(c)(i) of the Contempt of the court Act, 1971

• According to this “criminal contempt” means the publication (whether by words, spoken or written, or by signs, or by visible representation, or otherwise) of any matter or the doing of any other act whatsoever which—

1. scandalises or tends to scandalise, or lowers or tends to lower the authority of, any court; or
2. prejudices, or interferes or tends to interfere with, the due course of any judicial proceeding; or
3. interferes or tends to interfere with, or obstructs or tends to obstruct, the administration of justice in any other manner;

Al Ula Summit

• Recently, Gulf states signed a ‘solidarity and stability’ deal at the 41st Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) summit held in Al Ula, Saudi Arabia.
• The deal was signed to remove all the sanctions over Qatar and re-open their land, sea and air borders to Qatar.
• Members of GCC: Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates