Selfie for safety:
Lieutenant-Governor Najeeb Jung launched ‘Senior Citizen Mobile App’. Like ‘Himmat’, the app for women’s safety, senior citizens too will be able to call the police at the click of an SOS button in the app. This will connect the caller to the senior citizen helpline number 1291, even as simultaneous alerts in the form of an SMS will be sent to the area SHO and beat officer. Within seconds, the police will have the location details of the senior citizen who made the SOS call. The application will also contain the names and numbers of the beat constables of the area so that they can be contacted at any time by the senior citizen.
In a fresh initiative to enable a sense of security for the city’s elderly, the Delhi Police’s beat officers will be required to take a selfie whenever they visit a senior citizen. The policeman will then be required to upload the selfie on a mobile app especially designed for senior citizens. These selfies will be monitored by the Station House Officer (SHO) and “strict action” will be taken against any beat policeman who fails to make a physical visit to a senior citizen when he or she seeks help through the app. This will ensure that beat officer has done his duty and himself visited to the distressed senior citizen.
Source The Hindu: http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Delhi/selfies-for-safety/article9174567.ece
China blocks tributary of Brahmaputra:
China has blocked a tributary of the Brahmaputra as part of its major hydro-electric project. The Brahmaputra in its upper reaches is called Yarlung Zangbo, after it originates from the Angsi glacier in western Tibet, southeast of Mount Kailash and Mansarovar Lake.
China has maintained that its dams do not restrict the flow of water towards India as they are based on run-of-the river principle.
India and China have set up an Expert Level Mechanism on trans-border rivers. In 2013, they signed a memorandum of understanding on trans-border rivers, under which China has been supplying data to India on water flows.
Source The Hindu: http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/china-blocks-tributary-of-brahmaputra-in-tibet-to-build-dam/article9171963.ece
H1- B Visa:
US is witnessing unemployment due to immigration and outsourcing of American jobs. To address this issue it proposed ‘protect ad grow American Jobs Act’ also known as ‘Issa Bill’ that aims to “stop the outsourcing of American jobs by companies abusing the H1-B visa program.
Implications:
- Bill is being opposed by the Indian IT sector (the main users of H1-B visas),
- The apex IT industry body Nasscom and the US-India Business Council (an advocacy body for boosting US-India business ties), as the bill will not only kill the Indian IT industry but also threat to India-US bilateral relationship.
Source The Hindu: http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-business/illegal-business-trumps-indopak-legitimate-trade/article9174955.ece
Illegal business between India and Pakistan:
Smugglers of goods between India and Pakistan are operating through a third country such as Afghanistan and often misuse transit routes set up on the border for exchange. Trading through a ‘third country,’ generally done through Dubai, is not illegal. The ‘third country’ trade also happens through agents in Singapore. Through this route, Indian exports include capital goods, textile machinery, dyes and chemicals among others.
Major challenges:
- It is difficult to stop this trade because the goods are first exported to third countries like Dubai or Afghanistan before reaching its destination in Pakistan.
- Smugglers in both the countries have developed efficient mechanisms for information flow, risk sharing and risk mitigation.
Source The Hindu: http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-business/illegal-business-trumps-indopak-legitimate-trade/article9174955.ece