CURRENT AFFAIRS
26 February 2021
NATIONAL NEWS:
A) Govt announces new social media rules.
With the stated intention of preventing misuse of social media, the Union government on Thursday announced new rules that make it mandatory for platforms such as WhatsApp to aid the government in identifying the originator of certain messages containing unlawful information, while also requiring social media platforms such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter to remove such content within 36 hours of being notified. As per the Information Technology (Guidelines for intermediaries and digital media ethics code) Rules, 2021, social media platforms will also be required to provide information, including related to verification of identity, to lawfully authorised agencies within 72 hours. At a press conference, Electronics and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said that social media is welcome to do business in India, they have done exceedingly well, they have done good business, they have empowered ordinary Indians. The government welcomes criticism and right to dissent. It is important that social media users running into crores should be given a platform for raising their grievance to raise complaints about abuse of social media. He noted that WhatsApp had about 53 crore users in India, YouTube about 48 crore users, Facebook about 41 crore users and about 1.75 crore people used Twitter. The rules, a draft of which was released in 2018, comes close on the heels of a tussle between the government and Twitter over removal of certain content related to the ongoing farmers’ protests. The government has also been at loggerheads with WhatsApp for over two years on the issue of tracing the originator of the messages. The Facebook-owned firm has in the past declined to comply with the government’s request to trace the origin of a fake message, stating that the move will undermine the private nature of the platform. The rules released on Thursday stated that intermediaries providing services primarily in the nature of messaging would enable the identification of the first originator of the information on its computer resource as may be required by an court order or an order passed under Section 69 of the IT Act by the Competent Authority.
B) Allahabad HC denies anticipatory bail to head of Amazon Prime Video in ‘Tandav’ case.
The Allahabad High Court today denied pre-arrest bail to commercial head of Amazon Prime Video, Aparna Purohit, in the ongoing investigation against the web series ‘Tandav’, Livelaw reported. According to the LiveLaw report, the Bench of Justice Sidharth justified its ruling by claiming that Western filmmakers have refrained from ridiculing Jesus Christ or the Prophet Muhammad but Hindi filmmakers have repeatedly taken liberties with Hindu gods and goddesses. The Court further noted that such people make the revered figures of the religion of majority community source of earning money in most brazen manner taking benefit of the liberal and tolerant tradition of the country.
C) Nirav Modi can be extradited, rules UK court.
Wanted diamond merchant Nirav Modi on Thursday lost his fight against being extradited to India as a UK judge ruled that he can be sent back to face charges of fraud and money-laundering in the estimated $2-billion Punjab National Bank scam case. The 49-year-old appeared via video link from Wandsworth Prison in south-west London as District Judge Samuel Goozee handed down his judgment at Westminster Magistrates’ Court in London. The magistrates’ court ruling will then be sent back to UK Home Secretary Priti Patel for a sign-off, with the possibility of appeals in the High Court on either side. Modi was arrested on an extradition warrant on March 19, 2019, and has appeared via videolink from Wandsworth Prison for a series of court hearings in the extradition case. His multiple attempts at seeking bail have been repeatedly turned down, both at the Magistrates’ and High Court level, as he was deemed a flight risk. He is the subject of two sets of criminal proceedings, with the CBI case relating to a large-scale fraud upon PNB through the fraudulent obtaining of letters of undertaking (LoUs) or loan agreements, and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) case relating to the laundering of the proceeds of that fraud. He also faces two additional charges of causing the disappearance of evidence and intimidating witnesses or criminal intimidation to cause death, which were added on to the CBI case.
D) Google urged to compensate Indian newspapers for content.
The Indian Newspaper Society (INS) has urged Google India to compensate print media publishers for use of news as it is proprietary content generated by them. In a letter to Google India’s Country Manager Sanjay Gupta on Wednesday, INS president L. Adimoolam raised various proposals with Google. Pointing to the discussions between INS’s digital committee and the Google team during the past six months, he said it helped in clarifying the strategic and collaborative possibilities between news publishers and Google. Highlighting some of the concerns, he said the print media industry invested heavily on journalism, which is the core of news operations. Indian publishers have been providing quality journalism with credible news that Google’s web crawlers shared with its readers. While print publishers deployed several journalists on the field to ensure credible news was covered, the publisher-generated content that appears on Google is not compensated. Google should pay publishers for the use of news that is generated by print media publishers, said Adimoolam. In a letter to Google India’s Country Manager Sanjay Gupta on Wednesday, INS president L. Adimoolam raised various proposals with Google.In a letter to Google India’s Country Manager Sanjay Gupta on Wednesday, INS president L. Adimoolam raised various proposals with Google. Google must also consider increasing the publisher’s share of advertising revenue to 85% and ensure more transparency in its revenue report. In the digital space, publishers are left with only a small share as Google takes a giant share of advertising spends, he said.
E)Covid Watch: Numbers and Developments
The number of reported coronavirus cases from India stood at 1,10,52,858 with the death toll at 1,85,496. People with comorbidities will need a doctor certificate to avail Covid-19 jab during the second phase of the vaccination drive, a task force member told The Hindu. The second phase of vaccination is set to begin from March 1 for people above 60 years of age and also those above 45 years of age with comorbidities. The vaccines will be available at both government and private hospital vaccination sites. According to N.K. Arora, Head of the Operations Research Group of the Covid-19 Task Force, the cost of vaccine and delivery (vaccine administration) at private hospitals will be announced in a day or two. Vaccines will be provided for free at government vaccination sites. Those older than 45 years and with comorbidities will need a certificate from a registered medical doctor. But those older than 60 years will not need any certificate, Dr. Arora told. Comorbidities will include hypertension, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, kidney and lung diseases, cancers and those on immuno-suppressants. A full list will be provided soon. Self-registration on CoWIN will be needed for those with comorbidities above the age of 45 years, Arora said. This will help in knowing how many have been vaccinated and also helps in informing the recipients when the second dose is scheduled. According to him, for those above 60 years, self-registration will be permitted so that anyone wishing to get vaccinated is not missed. It is not clear if the names of those above 60 years will be uploaded by the government based on the electoral list. On registration on CoWIN, the applicant will be informed of the government and private hospital sites closest to his/her place of residence. The applicant can choose whether to go to a government vaccination site or a private hospital, Dr. Arora said, adding, CoWIN will be open for self-registration from March 1 onwards.
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
A) India, Pakistan agree to stop firing along LoC.
India and Pakistan said on Thursday they have agreed to strict observance of all agreements, understandings and cease firing along the Line of Control (LoC) and all other sectors with effect from midnight of February 24-25. This was agreed between the Directors General of Military Operations (DGMO) of both countries during discussions over the established hotline, the joint statement said. In the interest of achieving mutually beneficial and sustainable peace along the borders, the two DGsMO agreed to address each other’s core issues and concerns which have propensity to disturb peace and lead to violence, the joint statement said. Stating that the two sides reviewed the situation along the LoC and all other sectors in a free, frank and cordial atmosphere, the statement added that both sides reiterated that existing mechanisms of hotline contact and border flag meetings will be utilised to resolve any unforeseen situation or misunderstanding. With a sharp increase in firing across the LoC and other areas by both sides in the last few years, this understanding re-commits both countries to the ceasefire agreement of 2003. As per existing mechanism, there is a weekly discussion by officials from the Military Operations directorate every Tuesday but the DGsMO speak when one side requests a conversation. As per information given by the Government in the Parliament, there were 5,133 instances of Cease-Fire Violations (CFV) along the LOC last year which resulted in 46 fatal casualties.There were 299 Cease-Fire Violations till January 28 this year and one fatal casualty has been reported till February 1.
B) Xi hails ‘complete victory’ in China’s fight to end poverty.
China on Thursday held a high-profile celebration to mark what its President Xi Jinping described as a complete victory in eliminating absolute poverty. Mr. Xi said over the past eight years under his term, 98.99 million poor in rural areas had been lifted out of poverty while all the 832 designated impoverished counties and 128,000 impoverished villages had been removed from the government’s list. He described the lifting of close to 100 million people out of poverty in eight years as a miracle that would go down in history, offering a China example to developing countries, although he said no other country could do so in such a short time. China’s elimination of absolute poverty is defined according to the government’s poverty line of $2.30 in terms of purchasing power parity (PPP) per person a day, which is higher than the international poverty line of $1.90 PPP. According to the World Bank, China has lifted more than 850 million out of poverty since its reforms began in 1978, unleashing years of double-digit GDP growth. The World Bank defines the poverty line for lower middle income countries at $3.20 PPP and for upper middle income countries, such as China, at $5.50 PPP. According to the World Bank, 373 million people in China are living below the upper-middle-income poverty line of $5.50. Mr. Xi convened a highprofile gathering at the Great Hall of the People to mark the occasion, which has been seen as aimed at burnishing his legacy. Thursday’s event mainly emphasised the last eight years in China’s poverty fight, coinciding with Mr. Xi coming to power in 2012, rather than the four-decade legacy of his predecessors Deng Xiaoping, Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao, which received little mention. Sustained push The official Xinhua news agency said in a commentary, In 2020, after eight years of efforts, all of China’s nearly 100 million impoverished rural residents living below the current poverty line had shaken off poverty. Over the last eight years, unabated attention and a sustained push from Chinese President Xi Jinping have ensured continued momentum. Under his leadership, efforts against poverty have been woven into every fabric of Chinese life, in which reducing poverty is a consensus and constant call to action.
