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Distribution: weekly

  • vaccine hesitancy

    Reluctance to take the vaccine has several implications. The misinformation around the vaccines needs to be fought through several measures. 

    Understanding vaccine hesitancy

    • According to the World Health Organization, vaccine hesitancy is defined as a reluctance or refusal to vaccinate despite the availability of vaccine services.
    • To date, two vaccines have been approved for inoculation in India: Pune-based Serum Institute’s Covishield and Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin.
    • An adequate supply of vaccines is in place at least for the first phase, but the trickier part is to persuade the population for vaccination.
    • Like Western nations, vaccine hesitancy has been a cause of concern in the past in India as well.
    • Social media has seen a rising number of self-proclaimed experts who have been making unsubstantiated claims.
    • The debates around hesitancy for COVID-19 vaccines include concerns over safety, efficacy, and side effects due to the record-breaking timelines of the vaccines, competition among several companies, misinformation, and religious taboos.

    Need to adopt libertarian paternalism

    • It is suggested that we adopt the idea of libertarian paternalism, which says it is possible and legitimate to steer people’s behaviour towards vaccination while still respecting their freedom of choice.
    • Vaccine hesitancy has a different manifestation in India, unlike in the West.
    • According to the World Economic Forum/Ipsos global survey, COVID-19 vaccination intent in India, at 87%, exceeds the global 15-country average of 73%.

    Way forward

    • Instead of anti-vaxxers, the target audience must be the swing population i.e., people who are sceptical but can be persuaded through scientific facts and proper communication.
    • The second measure is to pause before you share any ‘news’ from social media.
    • It becomes crucial to inculcate the habit of inquisitive temper to fact-check any news related to COVID-19 vaccines.
    • The third measure is to use the celebrity effect — the ability of prominent personalities to influence others to take vaccines.
    • Celebrities can add glamour and an element of credibility to mass vaccinations both on the ground and on social media.

    Consider the question “What is vaccine hesitancy? Suggest the measures to deal with it”

    Conclusion

    The infodemic around vaccines can be tackled only by actively debunking myths, misinformation and fake news on COVID-19 vaccines.

  • New York Convention

    Cairn Energy has filed a case in a U.S. district court to enforce a $1.2 billion arbitration award it won in a tax dispute against India. Cairn aims to enforce the award under international arbitration rules, commonly called the New York Convention.

    New York Convention

    • The Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards is commonly known as the New York Convention.
    • It was adopted by a UN diplomatic conference on 10 June 1958 and entered into force on 7 June 1959.
    • It requires courts of contracting states to give effect to private agreements to arbitrate and to recognize and enforce arbitration awards made in other contracting states.
    • Widely considered the foundational instrument for international arbitration, it applies to arbitrations that are not considered domestic awards in the state where recognition and enforcement are sought.

    What was the case?

    • The Indian government has lost an international arbitration case to energy giant Cairn Plc over the retrospective levy of taxes and has been asked to pay damages worth $1.2 billion to the UK firm.
    • The Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague has maintained that the Cairn tax issue is not a tax dispute but a tax-related investment dispute and, hence, it falls under its jurisdiction.
    • India’s demand in past taxes, it said, was in breach of fair treatment under the UK-India Bilateral Investment Treaty.

  • Arjun: Main Battle Tank MK-1A

    PM has recently handed over the indigenously developed Arjun Main Battle Tank (MK-1A) to the Indian Army.

    Q.Discuss India’s preparedness for high-altitude warfare.

    Arjun Main Battle Tank

    • The Arjun Main Battle Tank project was initiated by DRDO in 1972 with the Combat Vehicles Research and Development Establishment (CVRDE) as its lead laboratory.
    • The objective was to create a “state-of-the-art tank with superior firepower, high mobility, and excellent protection”.
    • During the development, the CVRDE achieved breakthroughs in the engine, transmission, hydro-pneumatic suspension, hull and turret as well as the gun control system.
    • Mass production began in 1996 at the Indian Ordnance Factory’s production facility in Avadi, Tamil Nadu.

    Features of the Arjun tank

    • The Arjun tanks stand out for their ‘Fin Stabilised Armour Piercing Discarding Sabot (FSAPDS)’ ammunition and 120-mm calibre rifled gun.
    • It also has a computer-controlled integrated fire control system with a stabilised sighting that works in all lighting conditions.
    • The secondary weapons include a co-axial 7.62-mm machine gun for anti-personnel and a 12.7-mm machine gun for anti-aircraft and ground targets.

    How is Mk-1A different?

    • The Mk-1A version has 14 major upgrades on the earlier version.
    • It is also supposed to have missile firing capability as per the design, but this feature will be added later as final testing of the capability is still on.
    • However, the biggest achievement with the latest version is 54.3 per cent indigenous content against the 41 per cent in the earlier model.

  • Tax regime change

    Article explains the measures adopted in the Budget 2021-22 for increasing compliance and transparency.

    Maintaining the status quo

    • COVID-19 has upset fiscal maths around the world.
    • It is in this context that the Union budget assumed significance this year.
    • The expectations of tax breaks were rife on the presumption that this could boost economic activity.
    • Whereas others called for a tax on stock market gains.
    • Unyielding to such requests, the budget was based on a pragmatic approach to maintain the status quo.

    Why higher tax rates would not help much

    • Nearly 60 per cent of corporate taxes are paid by the 0.06 per cent of the companies belonging to the top income bracket.
    • On the other hand, among individual taxpayers, only 0.17 per cent report taxable incomes above Rs 25 lakh.
    • Therefore, higher taxes would either yield little revenue or adversely affect economic activity.

    Need to shift focus to compliance and greater transparency

    •  For increasing compliance and transparency, significant proposals have been made:
    • 1) Limited the window for reopening the case to 3 years.
    • 2) The introduction of the requirement for an assessment officer to provide facts on the basis of which he/she re-assesses.
    •  3) The faceless Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT).
    • By making the process of assessment faceless the major causes for litigation are addressed.
    • The limited window of re-opening cases for small taxpayers and due consideration of risk management strategy and the CAG’s observations in carrying out such assessments marks an improvement in the process.

    Dispute resolution mechanism with better interface

    • The Vivad se Vishwas scheme was launched in 2020 to address piling litigation and it is reported that collections under this scheme have been Rs 85,000 crore for 1,10,000 taxpayers.
    • This is a small fraction as compared to the Rs 4.34 lakh crore in corporate taxes and Rs 4.49 lakh crore in income taxes that are locked in dispute.
    • Therefore, a dispute resolution mechanism that allows for better interface between the taxpayer and the department may, in fact, be relatively beneficial.

    Consider the question “Examine the reasons for small tax base in India. Examine the measures adopted in the Budget 2021-22 for increasing compliance and transparency.”

    Conclusion

    The budget estimates suggest that corporate tax and income tax collections are expected to increase by 22 per cent. With an expected growth rate of 14 per cent in nominal GDP, the remaining gains in taxes are presumably expected from higher compliance or realisation of taxes due. Whether this will pan out remains to be seen.

     

  • Govt liberalized Geospatial Data Policy

    In sweeping changes to the country’s mapping policy, the government has announced liberalisation of norms governing the acquisition and production of geospatial data.

    Q.What do you mean by Geo-Spatial Data? What are its economic and strategic significance?

    What is the news?

    • The Ministry of Science and Technology has released new guidelines for the Geo-spatial sector in India.
    • It deregulated the existing protocol and liberalizes the sector to a more competitive field.

    What is a Geo-Spatial Data?

    • Geospatial data is data about objects, events, or phenomena that have a location on the surface of the earth.
    • The location may be static in the short-term, like the location of a road, an earthquake event, malnutrition among children, or dynamic like a moving vehicle or pedestrian, the spread of an infectious disease.
    • Geospatial data combines location information, attribute information, and often also temporal information or the time at which the location and attributes exist.
    • Geo-spatial data usually involves information of public interest such as roads, localities, rail lines, water bodies, and public amenities.
    • The past decade has seen an increase in the use of geospatial data in daily life with various apps such as food delivery apps like Swiggy or Zomato, e-commerce like Amazon or even weather apps.

    What is the present policy on geospatial data?

    • There are strict restrictions on the collection, storage, use, sale, dissemination of geo-spatial data and mapping under the current regime.
    • The policy had not been renewed in decades and has been driven by internal as well as external security concerns.
    • Private companies need to navigate a system of permissions from different departments of the government as well as the defence and Home Ministries, to be able to collect, create or disseminate geospatial data.

    Why has the government deregulated geospatial data?

    • This system of acquiring licenses or permission, and the red tape involved, can take months, delaying projects, especially those that are in mission mode – for both Indian companies as well as government agencies.
    • The deregulation eliminates the requirement of permissions as well as scrutiny, even for security concerns.
    • Indian companies now can self-attest, conforming to government guidelines without actually having to be monitored by a government agency- these guidelines, therefore, place a great deal of trust in Indian entities.
    • There is also a huge lack of data in the country which impedes planning for infrastructure, development and businesses which are data-based.
    • The mapping of the entire country that too with high accuracy, by the Indian government alone could take decades.
    • The government, therefore, felt an urgent need to incentivise the geospatial sector for Indian companies and increased investment from private players in the sector.
    • Large amounts of geospatial data are also available on global platforms, which makes the regulation of data that is freely available in other countries, untenable.

    What next?

    • While for decades, geospatial data has been a priority for strategic reasons and for internal and external security concerns.
    • This priority has seen a shift in the past 15 years – geospatial data has now become imperative for the government in planning for infrastructure, development, social development as well as the economy.
    • More and more sectors such as agriculture, environment protection, power, water, transportation, communication, health (tracking of diseases, patients, hospitals etc) are relying heavily on this data.
    • There has also been a global push for open access to geospatial as it affects the lives of ordinary citizens.

    Expected impacts

    • By liberalizing the system, the government will ensure more players in the field, the competitiveness of Indian companies in the global market, and more accurate data available to both the government to formulate plans and administer, but also for individual Indians.
    • Startups and businesses can now also use this data in setting up their concerns, especially in the sector of e-commerce or geospatial based apps – which in turn will increase employment in these sectors.
    • Indian companies will be able to develop indigenous apps, for example, an Indian version of Google maps.
    • There is also likely to be an increase in public-private partnerships with the opening of this sector with data collection companies working with the Indian government on various sectoral projects.
    • The government also expects an increase in investment in the geospatial sector by companies, and also an increase in export of data to foreign companies and countries, which in turn will boost the economy.

  • Sandes: the government’s new Instant Messaging Platform

    The National Informatics Centre (NIC) has launched an instant messaging platform called Sandes on the lines of WhatsApp.  Open initially only to government officers, it has now been released for the common public as well.

    Features of Sandes Platform

    • The instant messaging app, called Sandes, has an interface similar to many other apps currently available in the market.
    • Like WhatsApp, the new NIC platform can be used for all kinds of communications by anyone with a mobile number or email id.
    • Although there is no option to transfer the chat history between two platforms, the chats on government instant messaging systems or GIMS can be backed up to a users’ email.
    • It also offers features such as group making, broadcast message, message forwarding and emojis.
    • Further, as an additional safety feature, it allows a user to mark a message as confidential, which will allow the recipient to be made aware the message should not be shared with others.

    Why need such instant messaging platform?

    • Following the nationwide lockdown, the government felt the need to build a platform to ensure secure communication between its employees as they worked from home.
    • The idea for a secure communication network dedicated exclusively to government employees has been in the works for the past four years.
    • In August 2020, the NIC released the first version of the app, which said that the app could be used by both central and state government officials for intra and inter-organisation communication.
    • The app was initially launched for Android users and then the service was extended to iOS users.

    Limitations of the app

    • The limitation, however, is that the app does not allow the user to change their email id or registered phone number.
    • The user will have to re-register as a new user in case they wish to change their registered email id or phone number on the app.

    Do you remember?

    [Burning Issue] WhatsApp Snooping

  • ISRO collaborates to build alternative to Google Maps

    The ISRO has joined hands with MapmyIndia to combine their geospatial expertise and build holistic solutions by leveraging their geoportals.

    Note various geo-spatial solutions of ISRO mentioned in the newscard.

    What is the Project?

    • It combines the power of MapmyIndia’s digital maps and technologies with ISRO’s catalogue of satellite imagery and earth observation data.
    • Indian users would not be dependent on foreign organisations for maps, navigation and geospatial services, and leverage made-in-India solutions instead.

    Various components

    The collaboration will enable them to jointly identify and build holistic geospatial solutions utilising the ISRO’s earth observation datasets such as-

    • IRNSS (Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System) called NavIC (Navigation with Indian Constellation, is India’s own navigation system, developed by ISRO.
    • Bhuvan is the national geo-portal developed and hosted by ISRO comprising geospatial data, services and tools for analysis.
    • VEDAS (Visualization of Earth observation Data and Archival System) is an online geo-processing platform using an optical, microwave, thermal and hyperspectral EO data covering applications particularly meant for academia, research and problem solving, according to ISRO.
    • MOSDAC (Meteorological and Oceanographic Satellite Data Archival Centre)is a data repository for all the meteorological missions of ISRO and deals with weather-related information, oceanography and tropical water cycles.

    About MapmyIndia

    • MapmyIndia is an Indian technology company that builds digital map data, telematics services, location-based SaaS (Software as a service) and GIS AI services.
    • The company was founded in 1992 and is headquartered at New Delhi with regional offices in Mumbai and Bengaluru and smaller offices across India.
    • Its map covers all 7.5 lakh villages, 7500+ cities at street and building-level, connected by all 63 lakh kilometres of road network pan India and within cities, in total providing maps for an unparalleled 3+ crore places across India.

  • Species in news: Giant Leatherback Turtle

    Proposals for tourism and port development in the Andaman and Nicobar (A&N) Islands has left conservationists worried over the fate of some of the most important nesting populations of the Giant Leatherback turtle.

    What is the news?

    • There is concern that at least three key nesting beaches — two on Little Andaman Island and one on Great Nicobar Island — are under threat due to mega “development” plans announced in recent months.
    • These include NITI Aayog’s ambitious tourism vision for Little Andaman and the proposal for a mega-shipment port at Galathea Bay on Great Nicobar Island.

    Giant Leatherback Turtle

    IUCN status: Vulnerable

    • The largest of the seven species of sea turtles on the planet and also the most long-ranging, Leatherbacks are found in all oceans except the Arctic and the Antarctic.
    • Within the Indian Ocean, they nest only in Indonesia, Sri Lanka and the A&N Islands.
    • They are also listed in Schedule I of India’s Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, according it the highest legal protection.
    • The population in A&N Islands is among the most important colonies of the Leatherback globally.

    About Galathea Bay

    • The Galathea Bay is adjacent to Galathea National Park in Great Nicobar Island.
    • It was earlier proposed as a wildlife sanctuary in 1997 for the protection of turtles and was also the site of a long-term monitoring programme.
    • The monitoring was stopped after the tsunami devastation of 2004, but it provided the first systematic evidence of numbers and importance of these beaches.

  • India’s internal migration

    This newscard presents data on India’s internal migration considering the mass exodus which was visible during the lockdowns.

    The displacement of people during the imposition of lockdown has been described as the second-largest since the Partition of the country.

     

    Also read:

    [Burning Issue] Migrant workers amid COVID-19 outbreak

    India’s internal migration

    (1) Number of migrants

    • As of 2020, India has an estimated 600 million migrants. Roughly half of India is living in a place where it wasn’t born.
    • It would be roughly double the size of the fourth-largest nation on the planet — the United States.

    (2) Nature of migration

    • The bulk of the internal migration in India is within one district itself. An estimated 400 million Indians “migrate” within the district they live in.
    • The next 140 million migrate from one district to another but within the same state.
    • And only about 60 million — that is, just 10% of all internal migrants — move from one state to another.

    (3) Type of Migration

    • There are other misconceptions as well. Typically, it is thought that most migration happens when people from rural areas move to urban areas.
    • That is incorrect. The most dominant form of migration is from rural to rural areas.
    • Only about 20% of the total migration (600 million) is from rural to urban areas.
    • In fact, 20% of the total migration is from one urban area to another urban area.
    • As such, urban migration (rural to urban as well as urban to urban) accounts for 40% of the total migration.

    (4) Comparison with other countries

    • India’s proportion of internal migrants (as a percentage of the overall population) is much lower than some of the comparable countries such as Russia, China, South Africa and Brazil.
    • All have much higher urbanisation ratios, which is a proxy for migration level.
    • In other words, as India adopts a strategy of rapid urbanisation, levels of internal migration will increase further.

    Impact of COVID

    The reality of a migrant worker’s existence is much more complicated than those sharply defined numbers.

    Not all migrants were equally affected

    • The worst-hit were a class of migrants that felt under the group “vulnerable circular migrants”.
    • These are people who are “vulnerable” because of their weak position in the job market and “circular” migrants because even though they work in urban settings, they continue to have a foothold in the rural areas.
    • Such migrants work in construction sites or small factories or as rickshaw pullers in the city but when such employment avenues dwindle, they go back to their rural setting.
    • In other words, they are part of the informal economy outside agriculture.

    “Data insufficient”

    • The truth is that even now all the estimates mentioned above are individual estimates.
    • The official data — be it the Census or the National Sample Survey — is more than a decade old.
    • In fact, Census 2011 migration data was made publicly available only in 2019.

  • What is NetWire Malware?

    This newscard is an excerpt from the original article published in The Hindu.

    Try this question from CSP 2018:

    Q.The terms ‘WannaCry, Petya, Eternal Blue’ sometimes mentioned news recently are related to

    (a) Exoplanets

    (b) Crypto currency

    (c) Cyber attacks

    (d) Mini satellites

    What is NetWire?

    • NetWire, which first surfaced in 2012, is a well-known malware.
    • It is also one of the most active ones around.
    • It is a remote access Trojan, or RAT, which gives control of the infected system to an attacker. Such malware can log keystrokes and compromise passwords.

    Threats posed

    • This malware essentially does two things:
    1. One is data exfiltration, which means stealing data. Most anti-virus software is equipped to prevent this.
    2. The other involves infiltrating a system, and this has proven to be far more challenging for anti-virus software.
    • NetWire is described as an off-the-shelf malware, while something like Pegasus, which used a bug in WhatsApp to infiltrate users’ phones in 2019, is custom-made and sold to nations.

    Back2Basics: Classification of malicious softwares

    Viruses

    • A computer virus is a type of malware that propagates by inserting a copy of itself into and becoming part of another program.
    • It spreads from one computer to another, leaving infections as it travels.
    • Viruses can range in severity from causing mildly annoying effects to damaging data or software and causing denial-of-service (DoS) conditions.
    • Almost all viruses are attached to an executable file, which means the virus may exist on a system but will not be active or able to spread until a user runs or opens the malicious host file or program.
    • When the host code (alternative word for a computer program) is executed, the viral code is executed as well.

    Ransomware

    • Ransomware is a type of malicious software that threatens to publish the victim’s data or perpetually block access to it unless a ransom is paid.
    • While some simple ransomware may lock the system in a way that is not difficult for a knowledgeable person to reverse, more advanced malware uses a technique called cryptoviral extortion.
    • This encrypts the victim’s files, making them inaccessible, and demands a ransom payment to decrypt them.

    Worms

    • Computer worms are similar to viruses in that they replicate functional copies of themselves and can cause the same type of damage.
    • In contrast to viruses, which require the spreading of an infected host file, worms are standalone software and do not require a host program or human help to propagate.
    • To spread, worms either exploit the vulnerability on the target system or use some kind of social engineering to trick users into executing them.
    • A worm enters a computer through a vulnerability in the system and takes advantage of file-transport or information-transport features on the system, allowing it to travel unaided.
    • More advanced worms leverage encryption, wipers, and ransomware technologies to harm their targets.

    Trojans

    • A Trojan is a harmful piece of software that looks legitimate.
    • After it is activated, it can achieve any number of attacks on the host, from irritating the user (popping up windows or changing desktops) to damaging the host (deleting files, stealing data, or activating and spreading other malware, such as viruses).
    • Trojans are also known to create backdoors to give malicious users access to the system.
    • Unlike viruses and worms, Trojans do not reproduce by infecting other files nor do they self-replicate.
    • Trojans must spread through user interaction such as opening an email attachment or downloading and running a file from the Internet.

    Bots

    • “Bot” is derived from the word “robot” and is an automated process that interacts with other network services.
    • Bots often automate tasks and provide information or services that would otherwise be conducted by a human being.
    • A typical use of bots is to gather information, such as web crawlers, or interact automatically with Instant Messaging (IM), Internet Relay Chat (IRC), or other web interfaces.
    • They may also be used to interact dynamically with websites.