Japan protests to S.Korea over military drill on disputed islands

Takeshima Island

• Location: It is situated in the middle of the Sea of Japan.
• It is lying almost equidistant between the Korean Peninsula and Japan.
• It is called Dokdo in South Korea and Takeshima in Japan.
• It has also been known as the Liancourt Rocks, named by French whalers after their ship in 1849.
• The islands themselves consist of two main islands and about 30 smaller rocks.

Sea of Japan

• It is a marginal sea of the western Pacific Ocean.
• It is located in Eastern Asia that is bounded by Japan and Sakhalin Island to the east and by Russia and Korea on the Asian mainland to the west.
• The sea itself lies in a deep basin, separated from the East China Seato the south by the Tsushima and Korea straits and from the Sea of Okhotsk to the north by the La Perouse (or Soya) and Tatar straits.

First recorded sighting of Indian Grey Hornbill in Puducherry

Indian Grey hornbill

• It is a common hornbill found on the Indian subcontinent.
• It is commonly sighted in pairs.
• These birds are **known to be arboreal,**e., spend most of their time on tall trees, but may descend for food and to collect mud pellets for nesting.
• Appearance:
  • It has grey feathers all over the body with a light grey or dull white belly.
  • The horn is black or dark grey with a casque extending to the point of curvature of the horn.
  • Unlike a lot of other birds, the male and female look similar
• It is one of the few hornbill species found in urban areas in many cities where they are able to make use of large trees in avenues.
• They play an essential role in the ecosystem as prime dispersers of seeds.
• Distribution: Indian subcontinent; found from north-east Pakistan and south Nepal east to north-west Bangladesh and south throughout most of India except in Assam.
• Conservation status
  • IUCN: Least Concern

GSTN launches geocoding in all states and UTs

• There are concerns over fake registrations and fraudulent availment of input tax credit under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime.

Geocoding

• It converts an address or description of a location into geographic coordinates.
• It has been introduced to ensure the accuracy of address details in GSTN records and streamline the address location and verification process.
• GST Network has already geocoded 1.8 crore principal places of businesses.
• The functionality is available for normal, composition, SEZ units, SEZ developers, input service distributor and casual taxpayers who are active, cancelled, and suspended.
• This is a one-time activity and once submitted, revision in the address is not allowed.
• The functionality will not be visible to the taxpayers who have already geocoded their address through new registration or core amendment.

Goods and Services Tax Network

• It is a nonprofit non-government company registered under Section 8 of the Companies act, 2013.
• It will provide shared IT infrastructure and service to both central and state governments including tax payers and other stakeholders.
• The private players hold 51% equity in the GSTN and the Centre and State governments together holds 49% equity in GSTN.

US destroys last of its declared chemical weapons stockpile

• The U.S. faced a September 30 deadline to eliminate its remaining chemical weapons under the international Chemical Weapons Convention.

Chemical Weapons Convention

• It is a multilateral treaty that bans chemical weapons and requires their destruction within a specified period of time.
• It entered into force on April 29, 1997.
• It requires states-parties to declare in writing to the OPCW their chemical weapons stockpiles, chemical weapons production facilities (CWPFs), relevant chemical industry facilities, and other weapons-related information.
• The CWC is open to all nations and currently has 193 states-parties.
• India is a signatory and party to the Chemical Weapons Convention.
• It has signed the treaty at Paris on 14th day of January 1993.
• It is pursuant to provisions of the Convention enacted the Chemical Weapons Convention Act, 2000.

Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW)

• It is the implementing body of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC).
• Mission: To implement the provisions of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) in order to achieve the OPCW’s vision of a world that is free of chemical weapons and of the threat of their use, and in which cooperation in chemistry for peaceful purposes for all is fostered.
• Headquarters: Hague, Netherlands.
• It receives states-parties’ declarations detailing chemical weapons-related activities or materials and relevant industrial activities.
• It is authorized to perform inspections to verify that signatory states are complying with the convention.
• It also performs testing of sites and victims of suspected chemical weapons attacks.

Understanding solar flares: How explosions on Sun’s surface can lead to radio blackouts

Solar flares

• These are magnetic plasma ejected at great speed from the solar surface.
• They occur during the release of magnetic energy associated with sunspots (‘dark’ regions on the Sun that are cooler than the surrounding photosphere), and can last for a few minutes or hours.
• These flares can be divided into various categories based on their brightness in X-ray wavelengths
• There are five different classes of solar flares: A, B, C, M, and X.
• Each class is at least ten times more potent than the one before it.
• X-class flares are large and M-class are medium-sized flares typically result in brief radio blackouts that affect the Earth’s Polar Regions.
• C-class flares are slight and have little effect on the Earth.

Impact of Solar Flares on Earth

• The energy particles released by solar flares into space impact the ionosphere and radio communications at the Earth.
• They can even affect power grids and navigation signals and endanger astronauts and spacecraft.

4 SAU faculty members suspended: 500 scholars write to SAARC, foreign ministers of member countries

South Asian University (SAU)

• SAU is an intergovernmental university funded by the governments of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) countries.
• The University is currently functioning from Akbar Bhawan Campus in Chanakyapuri, New Delhi.
• It falls under the purview of the Ministry of External Affairs.
• Its degrees are accredited in and recognized by the University Grants Commission (UGC) and its equivalents in all the eight SAARC countries.
• The university offers graduate and doctoral level courses.

SAARC

• SAARC is an economic and political regional organisation of countries in South Asia set up in 1985.
• It aims to accelerate the process of economic and social development in its member states through increased intra-regional cooperation.
• The Secretariat of the Association was set up in Kathmandu, Nepal, on 17 January 1987.
• SAARC has eight member countries (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri-Lanka).

Sebi''s SCORES platform disposes of 3,079 complaints in June

• SCORES is a web based centralized grievance redress system of SEBI that was launched in June 2011.
• SCORES enables investors to lodge and follow up their complaints and track the status of redressal of such complaints online from the above website from anywhere.
• This enables the market intermediaries and listed companies to receive the complaints online from investors, redress such complaints and report redressal online.
• All the activities starting from lodging of a complaint till its closure by SEBI would be online in an automated environment and the complainant can view the status of his complaint online.
• What types of complaints can be registered in the SCORE portal? According to the regulatory authority, complaints can be lodged on SCORES for any issues covered under the Sebi Act, Securities Contract Regulation Act, Depositories Act, and rules and regulations and provisions of Companies Act, 2013.
• Entities against which complaints are handled by SEBI include:
  • Listed companies / registrar & transfer agents
  • Brokers / stock exchanges
  • Depository participants / depository
  • Mutual funds
  • Portfolio Managers
  • Other entities (KYC Collective investment scheme, Merchant banker, Credit rating, Foreign institutional investor etc)
• What types of complaints cannot be registered in the SCORES portal?
  • Bank deposits and banking; fixed deposits with non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) and other matters pertaining to NBFCs. - RESERVE BANK OF INDIA (RBI)
  • Fixed deposits with manufacturing companies; unlisted companies; mismanagement of companies, financial performance of the company, annual general meeting, annual report, minority shareholders'' interest, non-receipt of preferential allotment shares; corporate actions as per the court order, such as mergers, amalgamation, reduction of share capital/par value, etc. - MINISTRY OF CORPORATE AFFAIRS
  • Insurance companies / brokers / agents / products and services. - INSURANCE REGULATORY AND DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY ( IRDA)
  • Commodities - FORWARD MARKETS COMMISSION
  • Pension fund - PENSION FUND REGULATORY AND DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY (PFRDA)
  • Monopoly and anti-competitive practices - COMPETITION COMMISSION OF INDIA (CCI)
  • Housing finance companies - NATIONAL HOUSING BANK

Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI):

• It was established in April 1988 as an executive body and was given statutory powers in January 1992 through the SEBI Act, 1992.
• It monitors and regulates the Indian capital and securities market while ensuring to protect the interests of the investors, formulating regulations and guidelines.

Punjab Regiment soldiers set to march in Bastille Day Parade

Punjab Regiment

• The Punjab Regiment is one of the oldest Infantry Regiments of the Indian Army that traces its origins to 1761.
• Prior to independence and partition there were a number of "Punjab regiments" in British India. These were amalgamated to form two regiments: the 1st Punjab Regiment, and the 2nd.
• At the onset of independence in 1947, the 1st Punjab Regiment being predominantly a Muslim regiment went over to the newly raised Pakistan army, while the 2nd Punjab Regiment was retained in the Indian Army.
• Troops were transferred between regiments based on whether the soldiers would be a part of India or Pakistan.
• The Punjab regiment has participated in both World Wars and various post-independence operations.
• In World War-I, they were awarded 18 Battle and Theatre Honors. In World War-II, they earned 16 Battle Honors and 14 Theatre Honors.
• The Regiment draws the bulk of its rank and file from Punjab and some neighbouring areas of Himachal Pradesh and Jammu region.

Bastille Day Parade

• The Bastille Day military parade, also known as the 14 July military parade, is a French military parade that has been held on the morning of 14 July each year in Paris since 1880.
• It is also one of the oldest regular military parades in the world.
• July 14 is the anniversary of the storming of the infamous Bastille prison in 1789 a turning point for the success of the French Revolution.
• This day is marked as the National Day of France.

WHO Raises Deadly Enterovirus Infection Alarm across Europe

Enteroviruses

• Enteroviruses are a group of viruses that can cause various infectious illnesses and are responsible for annual epidemics.
• There are many kinds of enteroviruses, including coxsackieviruses, echoviruses, polioviruses, and the hepatitis A virus.
• All enteroviruses are antigenically heterogeneous and have wide geographic distribution.
• They can infect anyone, but are more likely to cause illnesses in people with weak immune systems, as well as infants, children, and teens who don''t have immunity against a virus yet because it’s their first exposure to it.
• Illness is usually mild but has been found to affect neonates differently and sometimes more severely than older children and adults.
• Transmission: There are multiple transmission routes, particularly in the neonatal period, including intrapartum by exposure to maternal blood, secretions, and/or stool, or postnatally from close contacts with infected caregivers.
• Symptoms:
  • Most people with an enterovirus infection don''t get sick.
  • For those who do, symptoms depend on the type of enterovirus and which part of the body it affects.
  • Most often a child will simply have a fever or mild cold symptoms such as runny nose, sneezing, coughing, or muscle aches.
• Treatment:
  • There is no specific treatment for enterovirus infection.
  • The focus is on easing symptoms until the infection has run its course, which usually takes only a few days.

Government brings Goods & Services Tax Network under PMLA

Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA)

• It is an Act to prevent money laundering and to provide for the confiscation of property derived from or involved in money laundering.
• The Act was formulated for the following objectives:
  • Prevent money-laundering.
  • Combat/prevent channelising of money into illegal activities and economic crimes.
  • Provide for the confiscation of property derived from, or involved/used in, money laundering.
  • Provide for matters connected and incidental to the acts of money laundering.
• The Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the Department of Revenue, Ministry of Finance, is responsible for investigating the offences of money laundering under the PMLA.
• Financial Intelligence Unit – India (FIU-IND), under the Department of Revenue is the central national agency responsible for receiving, processing, analysing, and disseminating information relating to suspect financial transactions.
• The scheduled offences are separately investigated by agencies mentioned under respective acts, for example, the local police, CBI, customs departments, SEBI, or any other investigative agency, as the case may be.
• Actions that can be initiated against the person involved in money laundering:
  • Seizure/freezing of property and records and attachment of property obtained with the proceeds of crime.
  • Any person who commits the offence of money laundering shall be punishable with –
    • Rigorous imprisonment for a minimum term of three years and this may extend up to seven years.
    • Fine (without any limit).