Latest News
26th April 2021
Russia to leave the International Space Station
Recently, Russia has announced that it would be withdrawing from the International Space Station in 2025.
Recently, Chad’s longest serving president Idriss Deby died of injuries sustained during clashes with the rebel group FACT (Front for Change and Concord in Chad) on the frontlines.
Recently, Russia has announced that it would be withdrawing from the International Space Station in 2025.
- The Mir space station of the former Soviet Union, and later operated by Russia, was functional from 1986 to 2001.
- The ISS has been in space since 1998, and has been known for the exemplary cooperation between the five participating space agencies that have been running it:NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA (Japan), ESA (Europe), and CSA (Canada).
- Russia has decided to build and manage its own floating laboratory that will be launched into orbit by 2030.
- The decision to leave also comes at a time when relations between Russia and the US have been steadily deteriorating on multiple fronts.
- The station will reportedly orbit the Earth at a higher latitude, enabling it to better observe the Polar Regions, especially since Russia plans to develop the Arctic sea route as the ice melts.
- The new station would help Russia tide over challenges that its cosmonauts currently face on the ageing ISS, such as conducting experiments and adapting the latest technology.
- It is a large spacecraft which orbits around Earth in the low earth orbit.
- The first piece of the International Space Station was launched in 1998 launched by a Russian rocket.
- It has science labs from the United States, Russia, Japan and Europe.
- It serves as a microgravity and space environment research laboratory in which scientific research is conducted in astrobiology, astronomy, meteorology, physics, and other fields.
- The station is divided into two sections i.e. the Russian Orbital Segment (ROS) is operated by Russia, while the United States Orbital Segment (USOS) is run by the United States as well as many other nations.
- A space station is essentially a large spacecraft that remains in low-earth orbit for extended periods of time.
- It is like a large laboratory in space, and allows astronauts to come aboard and stay for weeks or months to carry out experiments in microgravity.
Recently, Chad’s longest serving president Idriss Deby died of injuries sustained during clashes with the rebel group FACT (Front for Change and Concord in Chad) on the frontlines.
- The former French colony is now prime outpost of the West in fighting Islmamist militants across the Sahel which is the vast region between the Sahara and the Sudanian savanna.
- France still has a strong military presence in the region and had provided support to Déby in fighting political opponents and allies.
- France has defended the Chadian army’s takeover, and Macron called upon the military government to foster stability, inclusion, dialogue and democratic transition.
- The motive behind military operations in the Sahel countries is to fight Islamist groups, monitor political ambitions, and train future African leaders.
- Chad has been France’s most effective and stable Sahel ally in achieving these goals.
- France has nearly 5,100 French soldiers in the Sahel region for France’s Operation Barkhane which began in 2014 to lead counter-terrorism operations in the Sahel region.
- France says its objective is to help Sahel nations maintain territorial integrity and prevent rise of Islamist groups that threaten France and the West.
- It is a landlocked state in north-central Africa.
- It is bounded on the north by Libya, on the east by Sudan, on the south by the Central African Republic, and on the west by Cameroon, Nigeria, and Niger.
- It is the fifth largest country on the African continent.
- It is a semi-arid region of western and north-central Africa extending from Senegal eastward to Sudan.
- It forms a transitional zone between the arid Sahara (desert) to the north and the belt of humid savannas to the south.
- The Sahel stretches from Senegal on the Atlantic coast, through parts of Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Nigeria, Chad and Sudan to Eritrea on the Red Sea coast..
- The Union Ministry of Home Affairs has clarified that police being a “State subject” under the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution, does not authorise to maintain a centralised list of cybercrime.
- The cybercrime grievance portal of MHA aims to raise a group of “cybercrime volunteers” to flag “unlawful content” on the Internet.
- The ‘police’ and ‘public order’ are State subjects and States are primarily responsible for the prevention, detection, investigation and prosecution of crimes through their law enforcement agencies (LEAs).
- It has been rolled out as a part of cyber hygiene promotion to bring together citizens to contribute in the fight against cybercrime in the country.
- It assists State/UT LEAs in their endeavour to curb cybercrimes.
- The volunteers are registered, and their services utilised, by the respective State/UT LEAs as per their requirement.
- It is a constituent of National Cybercrime Ecosystem Management Unit Which is part of the Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre (I4C) scheme.
- It is an initiative aimed at inviting ordinary citizens to sign up as volunteers who would help identify the circulation of digital “unlawful content”.
- Any citizen can register herself under one of three categories: ‘Cyber Volunteer Unlawful Content Flagger’, ‘Cyber Awareness Promoter’, and ‘Cyber Expert’.
- The digital rights group, the Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF), has said the programme enables a culture of surveillance.
- It could create potential social distrust by encouraging civilians to report the online activities of other citizens.
- It is expected to include 500 volunteers, 200 “cyber awareness promoters” and 50 “cyber experts”.
- It is supposed to act as a facilitative tool between ordinary citizens and the government for the prevention of cybercrime.
- In general, content that violates any law in force in India are as follows:
- Against sovereignty and integrity of India
- Against defence of India
- Against Security of the State
- Against friendly relations with foreign States
- Content aimed at disturbing Public Order
- Disturbing communal harmony
- Child Sex Abuse material
- A separate section “Report Child/Women related crime” has been provided on the portal under Child Sex Abuse material, where one can report such content.
- The Cybercrime Volunteers are advised to study Article 19 of the Indian Constitution.
- In 2019, China became the first country to land a space probe on the little-explored far side of the moon and in December returned lunar rocks to Earth for the first time.
- China would become the third country after the former Soviet Union and the United States to put a robot rover on Mars.
- It is China’s first Mars rover aboard the Tianwen-1 probe that arrived in Mars orbit in February 2020.
- It is named after a traditional fire god.
- The rover is part of Chinese space plans that include launching a crewed orbital station and landing a human on the moon.
- The rover’s title fits with the Chinese name for Mars i.e. “Huo Xing” or fire star.
- The top candidate for the landing site is Utopia Planitia, a rock-strewn plain where the U.S. lander Viking 2 touched down in 1976.
- Its goals include analysing and mapping the Martian surface and geology, looking for water ice and studying the climate and surface environment.
- It is named after the ancient Chinese poem ‘Questions to Heaven’.
- It is an all-in-one orbiter, lander and rover which will search the Martian surface for water, ice, investigate soil characteristics, and study the atmosphere, among completing other objectives.
- It lifted off on a Long March 5 rocket, a launch system developed by the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALT), from the Wenchang launch centre.
- It will be the first to place a ground-penetrating radar on the Martian surface, which will be able to study local geology, as well as rock, ice, and dirt distribution.
- It is a severe genetic disorder that mainly affects the skin.
- The newborn infant is covered with plates of thick skin that crack and split apart.
- The thick plates can pull at and distort facial features and can restrict breathing and eating.
- It is caused by mutations in the ABCA12 gene.
- The ABCA12 gene provides instructions for making a protein that is essential for the normal development of skin cells.
- The protein plays a major role in the transport of fats (lipids) in the outermost layer of skin (the epidermis).
- A loss of functional ABCA12 protein disrupts the normal development of the epidermis, resulting in the hard, thick scales characteristic of harlequin ichthyosis.
- It is inherited in an autosomal recessive pattern, which means both copies of the gene in each cell have mutations.
- The parents of an individual with an autosomal recessive condition each carry one copy of the mutated gene, but they typically do not show signs and symptoms of the condition.
- The NPS was started as the New Pension Scheme for government employees in 2004 under a new regulator called the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA).
- It has been open for individuals from all walks of life to participate and build a retirement nestegg.
- The NPS has been gradually growing in size and now manages ₹ 5.78 crore of savings and 4.24 crore accounts in multiple savings schemes.
- The law regulating the NPS allows members to withdraw just 60% of their accumulated savings at the time of retirement.
- It is mandatory to buy an annuity product with the remaining 40% that provides a fixed monthly income to retirees till their demise.
- The members who accumulate up to ₹ 2 lakh in their NPS account at the time of retirement are exempted from the mandatory annuitisation, and can withdraw the full amount.
- The regulator has decided that the annuity purchase stipulation for 40% of members’ retirement corpus should be dropped altogether.
- The falling interest rates and poor returns offered by annuity products had triggered complaints from some members and experts about the compulsory annuitisation clause.
- Since annuities are taxable, deducting the tax and factoring in the inflation means annuities are yielding negative returns.
- The regulator has now proposed to give members a choice to retain 40% of their corpus with the NPS fund managers even after retirement.
- It will allow members to get better returns, and these savings can be paid out to members over 15 years through something like the systematic withdrawal plan offered by mutual funds.
- It is a pension cum investment scheme launched by Government of India to provide old age security to Citizens of India.
- It brings an attractive long term saving avenue to effectively plan your retirement through safe and regulated market-based return.
- The National Pension System Trust (NPST) established by PFRDA is the registered owner of all assets under NPS.
- NPS account can be opened only in individual capacity and cannot be opened or operated jointly or for and on behalf of HUF.
- Any individual citizen of India (both resident and Non-resident) in the age group of 18-65 years (as on the date of submission of NPS application) can join NPS.
- The OCI (Overseas Citizens of India) and PIO (Person of Indian Origin) card holders and HUFs are not eligible for opening of NPS account.
POSTED ON 26-04-2021 BY ADMIN
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Political Science and International Relations
Some Reference Essays
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