Daily Current Affairs for UPSC IAS: 7th September 2022

Mohenjo-Daro:

The recent spell of heavy rains and floods that ravaged large parts of Pakistan’s Sindh province has also taken a heavy toll on the archaeological site of Mohenjodaro.

• In fact, the calamity has pushed the archeological site – situated on the bank of the Indus river – to the “brink of extinction”.
• Mohenjo-daro, a group of mounds and ruins, is a 5000-year-old archaeological site located about 80-km off the city of Sukkur.
• It comprises the remnants of one of two main centres of the ancient Indus Valley Civilisation, the other one being Harappa.
• Mohenjo-daro, which means ‘mound of the dead’, was one of the oldest cities of the world.
• Known to be a model planned city of the ancient civilisation, the houses here had bathrooms, toilets and drainage system.
• Though in ruins, the walls and brick pavements in the streets are still in a preserved condition.
• The ruins of the city remained undocumented for around 3,700 years, until 1920, when archaeologist RD Banerji visited the site.
• Its excavation started in 1921 and continued in phases till 1964-65. The site went to Pakistan during Partition.
• The Indus Valley Civilisation spanned much of what is now Pakistan and the northern states of India (Gujarat, Haryana and Rajasthan), even extending towards the Iranian border.
• Its major urban centres included Harappa and Mohenjo-daro in Pakistan, and Lothal, Kalibangan, Dholavira and Rakhigarhi in India.

Cyber Surakshit Bharat:

The National e-Governance Division (NeGD),organised the 30th Chief Information Security Officers (CISO) Deep-Dive training programme at the Indian Institute of Public Administration (IIPA), New Delhi.

Cyber Surakshit Bharat:

• Cyber Surakshit Bharat initiative was conceptualized with the mission to spread awareness about cyber-crime and build capacities of Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) and frontline IT officials, across all government departments.
• It was launched in 2018 by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY).
• The CISO training is the first-of-its-kind partnership between the Government and industry consortium under Public Private Partnership (PPP) model.
• Officers from Central and State/UT Governments and subordinate agencies/PSUs, including public sector Banks and Insurance companies, technical wings of police and security forces:
  • Designated Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs),
  • CTOs and Member of Technical/PMU teams, Officers responsible to observe security of the IT systems in their respective organization.
• Training:
  • NeGD , an arm of the Ministry of Electronics and IT, will provide logistic support in arranging the training programmes, whereas the industry consortium will provide technical support for the training.
  • The training partners from the industry are Microsoft, IBM, Intel, Palo Alto Networks, E&Y, and Dell-EMC. NIC, CERT-In, and CDAC are knowledge partners from the Government side.

LGBTQIA+:

The National Medical Commission (NMC), has written to all State Medical Councils, banning conversion therapy of LGBTQIA+ Community and calling it a “professional misconduct”.

• The NMC by following a Madras High Court directive, said that conversion therapy is wrong, under the Indian Medical Council (Professional Conduct, Etiquettes and Ethics) Regulations, 2002.
• The LGBTQIA+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, asexual or of any other orientation) are the people who don’t identify with cisgender (sex assigned at birth) heterosexual “ideals”.
• The ‘plus’ is used to signify all of the gender identities and sexual orientations that letters and words cannot yet fully describe.
• In India, the LGBTQIA+ community also includes a specific social group, a distinct community: the Hijras.
• They are culturally defined either as “neither men, nor women”, or as men who behave like a woman.
• At present they are referred to as the Third Gender.
• Supreme Court, on 6th September 2018, decriminalised section 377[1], which titled homosexual relations as “unnatural offences”.

V. O. Chidambaram Pillai:

The Prime Minister paid tribute to V. O. Chidambaram Pillai, the legendary freedom fighter on his 151th birth anniversary on 5th September 2022.

• He was popularly known as Kappalottiya Tamilan (The Tamil Helmsman) and Sekkizuththa Semmal (scholarly gentry who suffered at the oil press).

Chidambaram Pillai:

• Birth: Vallinayagam Olaganathan Chidambaram Pillai (VOC) was born 5th September 1872 to an eminent lawyer Olaganathan Pillai and Paramyee Ammai in Ottapidaram, Tirunelveli district of Tamil Nadu.
• Early Life: VOC graduated from Caldwell College, Tuticorin. Before beginning his law studies, he worked for a brief period as a taluk office clerk.
• His tussle with the judge forced him to seek fresh pastures at Tuticorin in 1900.
• Until 1905, professional and journalistic activities consumed most of his energy.
• Entry in Politics: VOC entered politics in 1905 following the partition of Bengal.
• Towards the end of 1905, VOC visited Madras and was drawn closer to the Swadeshi Movement initiated by Bal Gangadhar Tilak and Lala Lajpat Rai.
• VOC was drawn towards Ramakrishna Mission and came into contact with Subramania Bharati and the Mandayam family.
• It was not until the arrival of VOC at Tuticorin (Present day Thoothukudi) that the Swadeshi movement in Tirunelveli district began to gather force and momentum.
• Role Played in Freedom Movement: By 1906, VOC won the support of merchants and industrialists in Tuticorin and Tirunelveli for the idea of establishing a Swadeshi merchant shipping outfit by the name of the Swadeshi Steam Navigation Company (SSNCo).
• He established many institutions like Swadeshi Prachar Sabha, Dharmasanga Nesavu Salai, National Godown, Madras Agro-Industrial Society Ltd and Desabimana Sangam.
• VOC and Siva were aided in their efforts by a number of Tirunelveli-based lawyers, who formed an organisation called the Swadeshi Sangam, or ‘National Volunteers’.
• The nationalist movement acquired a secondary character with the beginning of the Tuticorin Coral Mills strike (1908).
• Even prior to Gandhiji’s Champaran Satyagraha (1917), VOC took up the cause of the working class in Tamil Nadu, and thus he is a forerunner to Gandhiji in this respect.
• VOC, along with other leaders, resolved to take out a mammoth procession on the morning of 9th March 1908 to celebrate the release of Bipin Chandra Pal from jail and to hoist the flag of Swaraj.
• Writings: Meyyaram (1914), Meyyarivu (1915), Anthology (1915), Thirukural with literary notes of Manakudavar (1917), Tholkappiam with literary notes of Ilampooranar (1928), Autobiography (1946).
• Death: V.O.C died on 18th November 1936 in the Indian National Congress Office at Tuticorin.

PM-SHRI Yojana:

On the occasion of Teacher’s Day today, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has announced a new initiative – the development and upgradation of 14 thousand 500 schools across the country under the Pradhan Mantri Schools For Rising India (PM-SHRI) Yojana.

• These PM-SHRI schools will become model schools which will encapsulate the full spirit of National Education Policy.
• The PM-SHRI schools will have a modern, transformational and holistic method of imparting education.
• The new National Education Policy was launched in 2020.
• The NEP replaced the 34-year-old National Policy on Education framed in 1986 and is aimed at paving the way for transformational reforms in school and higher education systems.

Preventive Detentions:

Preventive detentions in 2021 saw a rise by over 23.7% compared with the year before, with over 1.1 lakh people being placed under preventive detention, according to statistics released by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB).

• Of these, 483 were detentions under the National Security Act, of which almost half (241) were either in custody or still detained as of 2021-end.
• Over 24,500 people placed under preventive detention were either in custody or still detained as of 2021-end,the highest since 2017 when the NCRB started recording this data.
• The number of persons placed under detention has been increasing since 2017 to over 98,700 in 2018 and over 1.06 lakh in 2019 before dipping to 89,405 in 2020.
• According to Section 151 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, the police are empowered to make preventive arrests if they believe they must do so to prevent the commission of “any cognisable offence”.
• This detention can be extended beyond 24 hours if required “under any other provisions of this Code or of any other law”.

Liz Truss:

UK Foreign Minister Liz Truss has been elected as the next Prime Minister of United Kingdom and leader of the governing Conservative Party.

• Liz defeated her rival, former Finance Minister Rishi Sunak by 81,326 votes to 60,399, after over a six-week-long grueling campaign.
• With the win, she becomes the third female Prime Minister of the United Kingdom after Theresa May and Margaret Thatcher. Truss takes over at a time when the UK is saddled with rising inflation and its worst cost-of-living crisis.
• Boris Johnson was forced to announce his resignation in July this year after months of scandal.
• Following the announcement, Mr Johnson will meet Queen Elizabeth to officially tender his resignation.
• A member of the Conservative Party, she has been Member of Parliament (MP) for South West Norfolk since 2010.
• She has served in various Cabinet positions under Prime Ministers David Cameron, Theresa May and Boris Johnson.