Panel suggests steps to curb child porn
Context :
A parliamentary panel has recommended a code of conduct for Internet service providers (ISPs) and strengthening the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights to curb child pornography.
Background :
The report was prepared by an ad hoc committee set up by the Rajya Sabha and led by Congress MP Jairam Ramesh.
Key recommendations :
- Put in place a multi-pronged strategy involving technological, institutional, social and educational as well as State-level measures.
- There is a need for code of conduct or a set of guidelines for ensuring child safety online.
- There shall be a greater onus on ISPs to identify and remove child sexual abuse material (CSAM) as well as report such content and those trying to access them to the authorities under the national cybercrime portal.
- There is also need for strengthening the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) so that it can serve as the nodal body for curbing child pornography. It is suggested that the capabilities required in the NCPCR should include technology, cyberpolicing and prosecution.
Issues with these recommendations :
- Some of the recommendations are expected to lead to concerns over privacy and misuse.
- It is believed that asking ISPs to report content in addition to blocking and filtering may not be practical.
- The suggestion to break encryption could also just lead to traffic moving to different platforms.
NASA’s Voyager 2 spacecraft
Context :
NASA has managed to fix its Voyager-2 probe remotely, almost 11.5 billion miles away from its location.
Background :
The probe has reportedly been acting in an unexpected manner as it failed to carry out a maneuver as planned on January 25. Moreover, the glitch in the probe was detected by the spacecraft’s fault detection software which was relayed to NASA.
Accomplishments so far :
Voyager 2 is the only probe ever to study Neptune and Uranus during planetary flybys.
It is the second man-made object to leave our planet.
Voyager 2 is the only spacecraft to have visited all four gas giant planets — Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune — and discovered 16 moons, as well as phenomena like Neptune’s mysteriously transient Great Dark Spot, the cracks in Europa’s ice shell, and ring features at every planet.
About Voyager mission :
- Launched in the 1970’s, and the probes sent by NASA were only meant to explore the outer planets – but they just kept on going.
- Voyager 1 departed Earth on 5 September 1977, a few days after Voyager 2 and left our solar system in 2013.
- The mission objective of the Voyager Interstellar Mission (VIM) is to extend the NASA exploration of the solar system beyond the neighborhood of the outer planets to the outer limits of the Sun’s sphere of influence, and possibly beyond.
- The Voyager spacecraft are the third and fourth human spacecraft to fly beyond all the planets in our solar system. Pioneers 10 and 11 preceded Voyager in outstripping the gravitational attraction of the Sun but on February 17, 1998, Voyager 1 passed Pioneer 10 to become the most distant human-made object in space.
Repo rate remains unchanged as per the 6th bi-monthly monetary policy statement
Context :
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) released the 6th bi-monthly monetary policy statement for 2019-20 on 6 February. The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) which was led by Governor Shaktikanta Das from 4-6 February.
Highlights :
- The Central Bank has kept the repo rate unchanged at 5.15%.
- The reverse repo rate was decided to remain unchanged at 4.90%.
- RBI is to maintain an accommodative policy stance to ensure that inflation remains within the target.
- GDP growth forecast for the financial year 2020-21 (FY21) has been projected at 6%.
- RBI will conduct new one-year and three-year repos worth Rs.1 lakh crore. It aims to ensure better monetary policy transmission by enabling banks to reduce lending rates.
- It stated that inflation is now expected to go down.
- RBI will not cut interest rates before June.
- To boost best practices on security, customer protection, and pricing, RBI is to introduce a framework for establishing a Self-Regulatory Organisation (SRO) for the digital payment system by April 2020.
- The committee has decided to extend the Cheque Truncation System (CTS) to all over India.
RBI Policy Rates:
Policy Repo Rate: 5.15%
Reverse Repo Rate: 4.90%
Marginal Standing Facility Rate: 5.40%
Bank Rate: 5.40%
Reserve Ratios:
Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR): 4%
Statutory Liquidity Ratio (SLR): 18.25%
Genome India project
Context :
The government has cleared an ambitious gene-mapping project, called Genome India Project.
Overview of Genome India Project :
The Rs 238-crore Genome India Project will involve 20 leading institutions including the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bengaluru and a few IITs.
The first stage of the project will look at samples of “10,000 persons from all over the country” to form a “grid” that will enable the development of a “reference genome”.
The IISc’s Centre for Brain Research, an autonomous institute, will serve as the nodal point of the project.
Significance :
The project is said to be among the most significant of its kind in the world because of its scale and the diversity it would bring to genetic studies.
- The data generated would be accessible to researchers anywhere for analysis. As the genetic landscape differs across the world, it is necessary that genetic data is shared in order to derive greater knowledge from information and serve the purpose of enabling better treatment outcomes.
- The initiative will pave the way for identifying genes and genetic variations for common diseases, treating Mendelian disorders, enabling the transformation of the Precision Medicine landscape in India, and thus improving the healthcare of the general population in our country.
Need for genome sequencing :
Mapping the diversity of India’s genetic pool will lay the bedrock of personalised medicine and put it on the global map. Considering the diversity of population in our country, and the disease burden of complex disorders, including diabetes, mental health, etc., once we have a genetic basis, it may be possible to take action before the onset of a disease.
What is genome sequencing :
A genome is an organism’s complete set of DNA, including all of its genes. Genomics is an interdisciplinary field of science focusing on the structure, function, evolution, mapping, and editing of genomes. Genomics also involves the sequencing and analysis of genomes through uses of high throughput DNA sequencing. Advances in genomics have triggered a revolution in discovery-based research and systems biology to facilitate understanding of even the most complex biological systems such as the brain.
Sources: the Hindu
Bodoland Territorial Area District (BTAD)
In news :
Prime Minister Narendra Modi advised the youth in central India’s Maoist belt and in Jammu and Kashmir to emulate the Bodos and shun the path of violence.
Bodoland Territorial Area District :
- BTAD is spread over four districts of Kokrajhar, Chirang, Baksa and Udalguri.
- The BTAD and other areas mentioned under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution have been exempted from the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), 2019.
Bodo :
- The Bodo are a Tibeto-Burmese-speaking ethnic group in Assam.
- Politically active and dominant in the Kokrajhar, Baksa, Udalguri and Chirang districts of the Bodoland autonomous region in the state of Assam.
- The Bodo people speak the Bodo language, a Tibeto-Burman language recognized as one of twenty-two scheduled languages in the Indian Constitution.
- The Bodo people are recognized as a plains tribe in the Sixth Schedule of the Indian Constitution.
- The Bodo people are concentrated within the Assamese districts of Udalguri, Chirang, Baksa, Bajali, Sonitpur, Goalpara, Dhemaji, Lakhimpur, and Kokrajhar.