Current Affairs-12.01.2021

12.01.2021

PM KISAN

• The scheme was started with a view to augment the income of the farmers by providing income support to all landholding farmers’ families across the country, to enable them to take care of expenses related to agriculture and allied activities as well as domestic needs.
• Under the Scheme an amount of Rs.6000/- per year is transferred in three 4-monthly installments of Rs.2000/- directly into the bank accounts of the farmers, subject to certain exclusion criteria relating to higher income status.
• The entire responsibility of identification of beneficiaries rests with the State / UT Governments.

Rubiya Sayeed Kidnapping

• The 1989 kidnapping of Rubaiya Sayeed was an act carried out by members of the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front, a Kashmiri political organisation on 8 December 1989, in Jammu and Kashmir.
• Rubaiya was the daughter of Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, then the Home minister of India in the V. P. Singh government.
• The kidnappers demanded the release of thirteen of their members in exchange for Rubaiya's release.
• The Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah in agreement with the Central government accepted their demands and freed the jailed militants.
• Yasin Malik is currently under trial for the kidnapping and exchange of five militants.

Highest and Second highest Fourth innings total in a test

• The highest successful run chase on batting fourth in Test history is 418 by West Indies in 2003 at St John's vs Australia
• Second highest – England – 417 runs vs Australia.

Financial Stability Report

• The Reserve Bank of India released it’s 18th Financial Stability Report (FSR). FSR is a biannual publication.
• The FSRs are periodic exercise for reviewing the nature, magnitude and implications of risks that may have a bearing on the macroeconomic environment, financial institutions, markets and infrastructure.
• These reports also assess the resilience of the financial sector through stress tests.
• According to the Report, India’s financial system remains stable, and the banking sector shows signs of improvement, even though the global economic environment and the emerging trends in financial sector pose challenges.

Workers’ Party in North Korea

• The Workers' Party of Korea is the founding and ruling political party of North Korea.
• It is the largest party represented in the Supreme People's Assembly and coexists de jure with two other legal parties making up the Democratic Front for the Reunification of the Fatherland. However, these minor parties are completely subservient to the WPK, and must accept the WPK's "leading role" as a condition of their existence.
• WPK was founded in 1949 with the merger of the Workers' Party of North Korea and the Workers' Party of South Korea.
• The WPK also controls the Korean People's Army.
• WPK (and all of the other parties in the DPRK) remains illegal in South Korea under South Korea's own National Security Act and is sanctioned by Australia, the European Union, the United Nations and the United States.

Turla Group of Hacking

• Turla or Uroboros is a Trojan package that is suspected by computer security researchers and Western intelligence officers to be the product of a Russian government agency of the same name.
• Turla has been targeting governments and militaries since at least 2008.In December 2014 there was evidence of it targeting operating systems running Linux.
• The advanced persistent threat hacking group has also been named Turla. Dan Goodin in Ars Technica described Turla as "Russian spies". Turla has since been given other names such as Snake, Krypton, and Venomous Bear.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps

• The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps is a branch of the Iranian Armed Forces, founded after the Iranian Revolution on 22 April 1979 by order of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
• Whereas the Iranian Army defends Iranian borders and maintains internal order, according to the Iranian constitution, the Revolutionary Guard (pasdaran) is intended to protect the country's Islamic republic political system.

The Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Care and maintenance of Case property animals) Rules, 2017

• The Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Care and Maintenance of Case Property Animals) Rules, 2017 have been framed under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960.
• The Rules allow a Magistrate to forfeit the cattle of an owner facing trial under the Act.
• The animals are then sent to infirmaries, animal shelters, etc.
• The authorities can further give such animals for “adoption”.

Ved Mehta Author

• Ved Parkash Mehta (21 March 1934 – 9 January 2021) was an Indian-born writer who lived and worked mainly in the United States.
• Blind from an early age, Mehta is best known for an autobiography (Face to Face) published in instalments from 1972 to 2004.
• Mehta published his first novel, Delinquent Chacha, in 1966.
• He wrote for The New Yorker for many years.

Pro Quo cases

• In common law, quid pro quo indicates that an item or a service has been traded in return for something of value, usually when the propriety or equity of the transaction is in question.
• A contract must involve consideration: that is, the exchange of something of value for something else of value.

National Human Rights Commission

• NHRC of India is an independent statutory body established on 12 October, 1993 as per provisions of Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993, later amended in 2006.
• It is the watchdog of human rights in the country, i.e. the rights related to life, liberty, equality and dignity of the individual guaranteed by Indian Constitution or embodied in the international covenants and enforceable by courts in India.
• It was established in conformity with the Paris Principles, adopted for the promotion and protection of human rights in Paris (October, 1991) and endorsed by the General Assembly of the United Nations on 20 December, 1993.

Dzukou Valley

• The Dzüko Valley is a valley located at the borders of the states of Nagaland and Manipur in Northeast India.
• This valley is well known for its natural environment, seasonal flowers and flora & fauna.
• The word Dzüko is originally derived from the Viswema dialect of the Angamis 'Dzüko' which loosely translated means 'Soulless and Dull'.