Daily Current Affairs for UPSC IAS: 12th September 2022

US – Indonesia Military Drill:

The United States and Indonesian militaries had conducted annual joint combat exercises on Indonesia’s Sumatra Island.

• For the first time, participants from other partner nations have also joined amid growing maritime activity by China in the Indo-Pacific region.
• More than 5,000 soldiers from the U.S., Indonesia, Australia, Japan and Singapore participated in this 2022’s exercises.
• The exercises were designed to strengthen interoperability, capability, trust and cooperation in support of a free and open Indo-Pacific.
• The exercises lasted till 14th August 2022, encompassing army, navy, air force and marine drills.

Wikipedia Content Moderation:

India summoned officials of Wikipedia, in response to a national cricketer’s Wikipedia page being edited with misleading information.

• The Minister of State for Electronics and IT has expressed that no intermediary operating in India can permit this type of misinformation, as it violated the government’s expectation of a safe and trusted internet.
• Content Moderation refers to the process of ensuring user-generated content upholds platform-specific guidelines and rules to establish the suitability of the content for publishing.
• Under the majority of laws regulating online content, intermediaries are endowed with immunity from the user generated content they host, provided they maintain some due diligence over their platforms.
• In previous challenges to the content on wikipedia, it has been ruled that the Wikimedia Foundation does not own the content, and does not have the legal responsibility for it.
• However, administrators or editors have taken notice of the content concerns arising out of the situation and have made suitable edits.
• Wikimedia can also “contribute, monitor or delete content” for legal compliance.
• Therefore, it is arguable that since Wikimedia can exercise such power, it can be held responsible for illegal content being hosted on Wikipedia.

Indira Gandhi Shehari Rojgar Yojana:

The government of Rajasthan has launched the flagship scheme for Urban Employment, the Indira Gandhi Shehari Rojgar Yojana.

• Aim is To provide 100 days of employment to families in urban areas on the lines of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGA).
• The government has allocated Rs 800 crore for the implementation of the scheme.
• Target Population: People in the 18 to 60 age group are eligible for the scheme.
• Employment Opportunities:
  • Water Conservation: The renovation work at Khaniyon ki Baori comes under the water conservation works of the scheme.
  • Convergence: People can be employed in other centre or state level schemes, already having a material component, and which require labour work.

Queen Elizabeth II:

Queen Elizabeth II, Britain’s longest-reigning monarch died after 70 years on the throne at the age of 96.

• After the passing of Queen Elizabeth II, the reign was passed on to her eldest son Charles, the former Prince of Wales.
• He will henceforth be addressed as King Charles III and will be conferred with all the powers the late Queen held as Head of State in the British Constitutional Monarchy.

Queen Elizabeth II:

• Elizabeth Alexandra Mary, officially Elizabeth II was born on 21st April, 1926, London, England.
• Elizabeth was the elder daughter of Prince Albert, duke of York, and his wife, Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon.
• In 1947 Princess Elizabeth married Prince Philip at London’s Westminster Abbey.
• Their first child, Prince Charles, was born in 1948. A daughter, Anne, arrived in 1950, followed by Andrew in 1960 and Edward in 1964.
• She was crowned at Westminster Abbey on June 2, 1953, in front of 8,500 assembled guests.
• Queen Elizabeth II is the world’s longest-serving monarch, whose reign of almost seven decades is the oldest and longest-reigning monarch in British history.

Constitutional monarchy

• It is a system of government in which a monarch shares power with a constitutionally organized government.
• The monarch may be the de facto head of state or a purely ceremonial leader.
• The constitution allocates the rest of the government’s power to the legislature and judiciary.

Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference:

The Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference which was held in New York ended without adopting a substantive outcome due to Russia’s objection.

• Nuclear Proliferation Treaty is an international treaty whose objective is to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and weapons technology, to foster the peaceful uses of nuclear energy, and to further the goal of disarmament.
• The treaty was signed in 1968 and entered into force in 1970. Presently, it has 191 member states.
• India is not a member.
• It requires countries to give up any present or future plans to build nuclear weapons in return for access to peaceful uses of nuclear energy.
• It represents the only binding commitment in a multilateral treaty to the goal of disarmament by the nuclear-weapon States.
• Nuclear-weapon states parties under the NPT are defined as those that manufactured and exploded a nuclear weapon or other nuclear explosive devices before 1st January, 1967.
• India is one of the only five countries that either did not sign the NPT or signed but withdrew later, thus becoming part of a list that includes Pakistan, Israel, North Korea, and South Sudan.
• India always considered the NPT as discriminatory and had refused to sign it.
• India has opposed the international treaties aimed at non-proliferation since they were selectively applicable to the non-nuclear powers and legitimised the monopoly of the five nuclear weapons powers.

Indo-Pacific Economic Framework:

India stayed out of the joint declaration on the trade pillar of the U.S.-led Indo-Pacific Economic Framework ministerial meet in Los Angeles, with Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal citing concerns over possible discrimination against developing economies

• India was the only one of the 14 IPEF countries, which include South East Asian countries, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea and Japan, not to join the declaration on trade.
• Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity (IPEF) is an economic initiative launched by United States President Joe Biden on May 23, 2022.
• IPEF has fourteen member states: Australia, Brunei, Fiji, India, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, United States and Vietnam.
• The four themes of the proposed IPEF are:
  • Fair and resilient trade
  • Supply chain resilience
  • Infrastructure, clean energy, and decarbonization
  • Tax and anti-corruption

Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC):

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has signed a Memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Secretary General of Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) on the mechanism of consultations between India and the GCC.

• The External Affairs Minister is on a two-day visit to Saudi Arabia from 10-12 September.
• This is his first trip to the Kingdom as India’s External Affairs Minister.
• The Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf, also known as the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) is a regional, intergovernmental, political, and economic union comprising Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.
• The council’s main headquarters is located in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
• The Charter of the GCC was signed on 25 May 1981, formally establishing the institution.

Taragiri : Project 17A Frigate

Taragiri, a Project 17A Frigate will be launched at Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited, Mumbai on 11 September 2022.

• ‘Taragiri’, named after a hill range in Himalayas located at Garhwal, is the fifth ship of Project 17A Frigates.
• These ships are advanced version of the P17 Frigates (Shivalik Class) with improved stealth features, state of the art weapons and sensors and platform management systems.
• ‘Taragiri’ is the reincarnation of erstwhile ‘Taragiri’, the Leander Class ASW Frigate, which saw numerous challenging operations in its illustrious service to the nation spanning over three decades from 16 May 1980 to 27 Jun 2013.
• Under the P17A program, a total of seven ships, with 04 at MDL and 03 at GRSE are under construction.
• Four P17A Project ships (two each at MDL and GRSE) have been launched so far between 2019 and 2022.

Exercise Parvat Prahar:

Army chief General Manoj Pande visited the Ladakh sector to review Exercise Parvat Prahar. The exercise saw the deployment of all new major inductions of the Army.

• The exercise, which was held in the Ladakh plateau at an altitude of 14,000 feet, used newly inducted all-terrain vehicles transported by Chinook heavy lift helicopters and K9-Vajra howitzers, among others.
• The exercise comes as India and China are undertaking disengagement from Patrolling Point-15 in eastern Ladakh, as announced on September 8. Gen. Pande is scheduled to visit Siachen on Sunday.
• Simultaneously on the western front, Exercise Gagan Strike culminated with a fire power display of attack helicopters supporting deep operations by Strike Corps.
• Western Army Commander Lt. Gen. Nav K. Khanduri, who witnessed the culmination, lauded the professional readiness of combat forces for contingencies on the western front, the Western Command said on Twitter.

General Bipin Rawat Military Garrison:

The military camp at Kibithu, which is very close to the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Arunachal Pradesh, has been renamed “General Bipin Rawat military garrison” in honour of the country’s first Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), who was killed in a chopper crash last December.

• Kibithu is a small hamlet on the banks of the Lohit Valley in the Rest of Arunachal Pradesh (RALP) close to the LAC.
• Gen. Rawat commanded his Battalion 5/11 Gorkha Rifles here as a Colonel from 1999 to 2000.
• A gate built in local traditional architectural style was inaugurated by Governor Brigadier D.B. Mishra (retd).
• The 22-km road stretch from Walong to Kibithu was dedicated as General Bipin Rawat Marg by Mr. Khandu.
• The Indian Air Force (IAF) Mi-17V5 helicopter with Gen. Rawat, his wife Madhulika Rawat and 12 others including his staff, the pilots and crew was en route to the Defence Services Staff College, Wellington from Sulur on December 8 when it crashed in the Nilgris in Tamil Nadu close to the destination.
• This January, on the eve of Republic Day, General Rawat was posthumously awarded the Padma Vibushan.

Rabies:

The death of a 12-year-old girl in Kerala from rabies, despite having multiple inoculations of the vaccine, has raised questions on the efficacy of rabies vaccines in India and their availability.

• Rabies is a disease that is caused by a family of viruses called the lyssaviruses and found in a range of mammals.
• The virus targets the central nervous system and is nearly 100% fatal to the host animal if it succeeds in infecting it.
• Though many animals from cats to crocodiles can be transmitters of the virus, it is most likely to spread to people from the bite of an infected dog or a cat as they are the most common pets.