Daily Current Affairs for UPSC IAS: 25th February 2022

SPMCIL Declared A Prohibited Place:

The Delhi headquarters of the Security Printing and Minting Corporation of India Ltd. (SPMCIL) has been declared a “prohibited place” under the Section 2 of the Official Secrets Act, 1923 by the Union Home Ministry “to prevent the entry of unauthorised persons”.

• The Security Printing & Minting Corporation of India Ltd. (SPMCIL) is a government printing and minting agency.
• It is under the jurisdiction of Ministry of Finance , Government of India.
• It was incorporated in 2006 with its registered office at New Delhi.
• It is engaged in the manufacture and production of currency and bank notes, security paper, non-judicial stamp papers, postal stamps, stationery, passport and visa stickers, security inks, circulation, commemorative coins and others.
• The nine production units of the SPMCIL, where bank notes and other government papers are manufactured, are already prohibited places.
• The nine production units are four India Government Mints, two Currency Note Presses, two Security Printing Presses and one Security Paper Mill located in Mumbai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Noida, Nashik, Dewas and Narmadapuram.

Multilateral Air Exercise Cobra Warrior:

In a first, the Indian Air Force (IAF) will deploy the indigenous Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas for multilateral air exercise ‘Cobra Warrior’ at Waddington, U.K. Five Tejas aircraft will fly to the U.K.

• The multilateral air exercise ‘Cobra Warrior’ will also see the participation of Air Forces of Belgium, Saudi Arabia, Sweden and the U.S.
• The exercise is aimed at providing operational exposure and sharing best practices amongst the participating Air Forces, thereby enhancing combat capability and forging bonds of friendship.
• The exercise is scheduled from March 6 to 27.

The Ramanujan Prize:

The Ramanujan Prize for Young Mathematicians was awarded to Professor Neena Gupta, a mathematician of the Indian Statistical Institute in Kolkata, in a virtual ceremony on 22nd February 2022.

• She received the award for the year 2021 for her outstanding work in affine algebraic geometry and commutative algebra.
• The prize is awarded annually to a researcher from a developing country funded by the Department of Science and Technology (DST) of the Government of India in association with ICTP (International Centre for Theoretical Physics) and the International Mathematical Union (IMU).
• It is given to young mathematicians less than 45 years of age who have conducted outstanding research in a developing country.
• It is supported by DST in the memory of Srinivasa Ramanujan, a genius in pure mathematics who was essentially self-taught and made spectacular contributions to elliptic functions, continued fractions, infinite series, and analytical theory of numbers.
• Professor Gupta’s solution for solving the Zariski cancellation problem, a fundamental problem in Algebraic Geometry, earned her the 2014 Young Scientists Award of the Indian National Science Academy (NSA).

The Angadia System:

An FIR has been registered against three Mumbai Police officials for allegedly threatening Angadias and extorting money from them in south Mumbai. Earlier this month, an Angadias shop in Mulund was looted by a gang of robbers.

• The Angadia system is a century-old parallel banking system in the country where traders send cash generally from one state to another through a person called Angadia that stands for courier.
• It is by and large used in the jewellery business with Mumbai – Surat being the most popular route as they are two ends of the diamond trade.
• The cash involved is huge and it is the responsibility of the Angadia to transfer cash from one state to another for which they charge a nominal fee. Generally, it is the Gujarati, Marwari and Malbari community that are involved in the business.
• The Angadia system works completely on trust as large sums, at times in crores, are involved.
• While the Angadia system per se is legal, there hangs a cloud over the activity as it is suspected that a lot of times it is used to transfer unaccounted money.
• There have been suspicions that it is also used for transfer of black money like the hawala transaction which is generally used across countries.

25th Meeting Of The Financial Stability And Development Council:

The 25th meeting of the Financial Stability and Development Council (FSDC) was held in Mumbai, under the Chairpersonship of Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

• It was setup in 2010 by Indian Government as an executive body. It replaced the High Level Coordination Committee on Financial Markets (HLCCFM). The idea to create such a super regulatory body was first mooted by the Raghuram Rajan Committee in 2008.
• FSDC is not a statutory body. No funds are separately allocated to the council for undertaking its activities.
• Its objectives are to strengthen and institutionalize the mechanism for maintaining financial stability and Enhancing inter-regulatory coordination. It also focuses on financial literacy and financial inclusion.
• It is chaired by the Union Finance Minister of India. The other 12 members are
  • Governor, RBI,
  • Chairman, SEBI,
  • Chairman, IRDA,
  • Chairman, PFRDA,
  • Minister of state responsible for the Department of Economic Affairs (DEA),
  • Secretary of Department of Electronics and Information Technology’,
  • Revenue secretary,
  • Finance Secretary and/or Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs;
  • Secretary, Department of Financial Services;
  • Secretary, Ministry of Corporate Affairs,
  • Chief Economic Adviser and
  • Chairperson of the Insolvency & Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI).
• A sub-committee of FSDC has also been set up under the chairmanship of Governor RBI. It discusses and decides on a range of issues relating to financial sector development and stability including substantive issues relating to inter-regulatory coordination.

Data Accessibility Policy:

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has come out with a draft Data Accessibility and Use policy.

Highlights of the policy:

• The policy proposes to improve data availability, quality and use in line with the decade’s current and emerging technology demands.
• Any data sharing shall happen within the legal framework of India, its national policies and legislation as well as the recognized international guidelines.
• All data and information generated, created, collected, or stored by the central government and authorised agencies shall be covered by the policy.
• All government data will be open and shareable unless it falls under a negative list of data sets, categorised under the negative list of datasets that won’t be shared; and restricted access and shared only with trusted users, as defined by the respective ministry or department, under the controlled environment.
• It proposes the establishment of an India Data Office (IDO) to streamline and unify data access and sharing among government and other stakeholders.
• In case of the institutional framework, the draft noted that every ministry or department should have Data Management Units, headed by Chief Data Officers, which will work closely with the IDO to ensure the implementation of this policy.
• India Data Council — comprising IDO and chief data officers — shall be constituted with the objective of undertaking tasks that require deliberation across ministries, departments and state governments.

PM CARES For Children Scheme:

PM Cares for Children Scheme has been extended till February 28, 2022. The scheme was earlier valid till December 31, 2021.

• Launched in May 2021.
• The scheme has been launched for support & empowerment of Covid affected children.
• All children who have lost both parents or surviving parent or legal guardian/adoptive parents due to Covid 19 will be supported under the scheme.
• Children must not have completed 18 years of age at the time of the death of their parents in order to be eligible for the scheme.

Features of the scheme:

• Fixed Deposit in the name of the child: A corpus of Rs 10 lakh for each child when he or she reaches 18 years of age.
• School Education: For children under 10 years: Admission will be given in the nearest Kendriya Vidyalaya or in a private school as a day scholar.
• School Education: for children between 11-18 years: The child will be given admission in any Central Government residential school such as Sainik School, Navodaya Vidyalaya etc.
• Support for Higher Education: The child will be assisted in obtaining an education loan for Professional courses / Higher Education in India as per the existing Education Loan norms.
• Health Insurance: All children will be enrolled as a beneficiary under Ayushman Bharat Scheme (PM-JAY) with a health insurance cover of Rs 5 lakhs.

Sea Cucumber:

Sea cucumber in India is treated as an endangered species listed under schedule I of Wildlife Protection Act of 1972.

• They are marine invertebrates that live on the seafloor found generally in tropical regions.
• They’re named for their unusual oblong shape that resembles a fat cucumber.
• They are an integral part of the coral ecosystem as one of the main by-products of the sea cucumbers digestion of sand is calcium carbonate and this is essential for the survival of the coral reefs.
• They act like garbage collectors of the ocean world, and they recycle nutrients, thus playing an important role in keeping coral reefs in good condition.
• Sea cucumbers are in high demand in China and Southeast Asia.
• It is primarily smuggled from Tamil Nadu to Sri Lanka in fishing vessels from Ramanathapuram and Tuticorin districts.
• IUCN Red List: Brown Sea Cucumber (Endangered), Blackspotted Sea Cucumber (Least Concern), Blue Sea Cucumber (Data Deficient), etc.