DAILY NEWS ANALYSIS 01 NOVEMBER
SECURITY
Govt seeks privacy breach explanation, WhatsApp says it is taking action
Government has asked the Facebook-owned messaging platform to “explain the kind of breach and what it is doing to safeguard privacy of millions of Indian citizens”.
Government Arguments:
- Government of India is committed to protecting privacy of all Indian citizens.
- Government agencies have a well-established protocol for interception, which includes sanctions and supervision by highly ranked officials of central and state governments, to save national interest.
- Government said that an attempt to malign the Government of India image for the reported breach is completely misleading.
- There are adequate safeguards to ensure that no innocent citizen is harassed or his privacy gets breached. Strict actions will be taken against those who are found guilty of violating any provision of law.
- No information on purchase of Pegasus software is available with the undersigned CPIO (Central Public Information Officer).
- Parliamentary Committee on Information Technology will take up the surveillance matter and seeks clarifications from government.
- Being a democracy, India must remains vigilant about risks to freedoms that may get eroded by technological means.
Whatsapp Reply:
- Whatsapp agreed with Government of India’s commitment to safeguard the privacy of all Indian citizens.
- That is why; Whatsapp has taken strong actions to hold cyber attackers accountable.
Reference: https://indianexpress.com/article/india/whatsapp-spyware-pegasus-india-ravi-shankar-prasad-6097084/
SOCIETY
In Karnataka, digital land records project to check dodgy transactions hits govt wall
A landmark project in Karnataka to create digitised, geo-referenced and unique identity records for property in urban areas, and issue property cards to owners, has stalled in the pilot phase itself.
About this Project:
- Government has made Urban Properties Ownership Records (UPOR) cards mandatory for carrying out land transactions.
Objectives of this Project:
- Prevent cheating in land deals.
- Protect government land from fraudsters.
Benefits of this Project:
- A system like the UPOR project and digitised cards are ways to save properties on lakes, drains, parks, forest areas or even coastal zones from being fraudulently sold to innocent people.
- Project is being used by government as a reference to implement its own land records initiative.
- UPOR is integrated with online land registration IT system called Kaveri. As a result, changes in land ownership are reflected in mutation records as soon as a change occurs.
- Land scams perpetrated by using khata, which is not a legal document for urban land records, are being prevented with UPOR cards.
- A Mckinsey study had said that more than 70% of disputes in India are land based.
Reasons for stopping it:
- Department was not able to issue cards due to technical reasons.
- Public was not able to carry out the land transactions due to it being mandatory.
- The project will be implemented once all the landowners have UPOR cards.
- Some people claims that real estate body had stalled this project to carry out the shoddy deals.
INTERNATIONAL
Beyond Pakistan
The expansion and institutionalisation of strategic cooperation between India and Saudi Arabia during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Riyadh, the second in three years, marks the consolidation of a partnership that has long struggled to realise its full potential.
Earlier Relations:
- India maintained bilateral relations mainly buying crude oil from Saudi and exporting manpower.
- Strategic partnerships cannot be explored due to shadow of Pakistan. The Saudis sought to maintain a balance in their relations with India and Pakistan.
- India never engaged whole-heartedly due to obsession with Pakistan equation.
Contemporary development:
- However, in recent bilateral meetings, Joint statement made no reference to Pakistan.
- India has realized that Saudi Arabia has a lot more on its mind than protecting Pakistan in the name of religious solidarity.
- Saudi Arabia has been struggling to cope with an assertive Iran and Turkey. The long-standing ally of the Saudis — Washington — increasingly looks unreliable.
- With Oil revenue declining, economic security of Saudi is in danger.
- To cope with these challenges, Saudi Arabia has begun serious social and economic reforms at home and diversification of its security and commercial partnerships abroad.
- Agreements signed during the PM’s visit include the establishment of a strategic partnership council, deepening energy interdependence, and expanding defence and security cooperation bilaterally as well as in the Indian Ocean region.
ECONOMY
Withdraw prohibited subsidies: WTO panel to India
In a move expected to put Indian export subsidy programmes claimed to be worth over $7 billion at risk, the World Trade Organization (WTO) dispute settlement panel has sided with the United States on a complaint that these subsidies were not compliant with the multilateral trade body’s norms.
Findings of the Panel:
- Exemptions from customs duties and Integrated Goods and Services Tax and tax deductions provided under some sections or conditions of India’s export-oriented schemes were “inconsistent” with provisions of WTO’s Subsidies and Countervailing Measures (SCM) Agreement.
- It includes India’s Export Oriented Units (EOU) scheme, Electronics Hardware Technology Parks (EHTP) and Bio-Technology Parks (BTP) schemes, Export Promotion Capital Goods (EPCG) scheme, Special Economic Zones (SEZ) scheme and the Duty-Free Imports for Exporters Scheme (DFIS).
- Duty credit scrips awarded under the Merchandise Exports from India Scheme (MEIS) to be inconsistent with these provisions.
- Exemptions from central excise duty on domestically procured goods under the EOU/EHTP/BTP schemes and the exemptions from customs duties on importation under certain conditions of the DFIS scheme are inconsistent with SCM.
Panel Judgement:
- India must “withdraw the prohibited subsidies” under these schemes within 90-180 days (depending on the scheme) from the adoption of its report.
Impact of the Judgement:
- These subsidies, worth “over $7 billion”, are enjoyed by producers of Indian steel products, pharmaceuticals, chemicals, information technology products, textiles. It will make our exports uncompetitive.
- It can further aggravate economic slowdown with exports dwindling down.
- India will have to close several schemes, which would bring uncertainty in export benefits.
Way Forward:
- India will appeal at appellate body of WTO. It would provide some time for Indian government.
- Government is working to redesign the export oriented schemes to make them WTO compliant.
- Silver lining is that appellate body of WTO may become dysfunctional, as it will be left with only one member. Appellate body needs minimum three members to hear a case.
WTO SCM (Subsidy and Counter-vailing) Agreement: It covers subsidation by WTO members and counter-vailing measures.
It follows traffic light approach for subsidies.
- Red Subsidy (Prohibited)
- Yellow or Amber (Actionable): These subsidies are allowed if they do not have adverse impacts on other members. Otherwise, other members can apply counter vailing measures.
- Green (Non-Actionable): These subsidies are allowed which cover mostly research subsidy, environmental subsidy and assistance to other nations.
Prohibited subsidies are those, which are contingent on export performance (Export Subsidies) except agreement on agriculture. It also prohibits Import substitution subsidies, which allow use of domestic products over imported goods.
TECHNOLOGY
Government confirms malware attack in state-run NPCIL’s system
Government Response:
- Identification of malware in Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited system is correct.
- The matter was conveyed by the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) when it was noticed by them on September 4, 2019.
- The matter was immediately investigated by the department of atomic energy (DAE) specialists.
Earlier Such Attacks:
- Malware attack on THDC Ltd’s Tehri dam in Uttarakhand in November 2017.
- The May 2017 ransomware attack on West Bengal State Electricity Distribution Co. Ltd.
- The February 2018 attack on a Rajasthan discom website.
About CERT-IN:
- The Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) is an office within the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.
- It is the nodal agency to deal with cyber security threats like hacking and phishing.
What is malware (malicious software)?
- Malware, or malicious software, is any program or file that is harmful to a computer user.
- Types of malware can include computer viruses, worms, Trojan horses and spyware.
- These malicious programs can perform a variety of different functions such as stealing, encrypting or deleting sensitive data, altering or hijacking core computing functions and monitoring users' computer activity without their permission.
ART & CULTURE
Excavation by Archaeological Survey of India in Gottiprolu, Andhra Pradesh indicate it as a Trade Centre of Early Historic Period
The 1st phase of excavation by a team of Archaeological Survey of India’s Excavation Branch – VI, Bangalore at Gottiprolu near Naidupeta in Nellore (now renamed as Sri Potti Sri Ramulu) district, Andhra Pradesh has discovered the remains of a huge settlement surrounded by a massive brick enclosure.
Findings:
- One life size Vishnu sculpture and a wide variety of pottery of the early centuries of current era have been unearthed. It displays a four-armed Vishnu standing over a pedestal carrying chakra and conch in his upper right and left hands respectively.
- The excavation revealed the presence of brick-built structures in different sizes and forms.
- The most outstanding discovery is of massive sized brick enclosure wall at the southern part of the mound.
- Another interesting find is the small rectangular brick tank exposed near the inner lining of the curved brick structure.
- The available brick sizes (43 - 48 cm) are comparable with the Satavahana / Ikshvaku period structures in Krishna valley i.e. Amravati and Nagarjunakonda.
- Other interesting antiquity retrieved is the moulded female terracotta figurine with two hands lifted upwards.
- The findings of assorted stone tools of Palaeolithic and Neolithic.
- Periods from secondary contexts suggest that prehistoric people also occupied this area.
- These settlements could have been an important trade centre as indicated by the presence of imitated amphorae wares that were mostly used to transport liquid commodities.
- The proximity of the site to the seacoast suggests that the site could have served as a strategic settlement involved in maritime trade.
Source: PIB
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