Virtual Private Network
Context:
Virtual private network (VPN) service providers are up in arms against a new directive of The Indian Computer Emergency Response Team or Cert-In, a wing of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, that mandates they must maintain all customer data for five years.
- VPN service providers have said the new directive would mean a total loss of privacy for the users–one of the most important unique selling points of such services.
Relevance:
GS III- Science and Technology
Dimensions of the Article:
- What is a VPN?
- Why is anonymity or privacy so important for VPN providers and users?
- Cert- In latest Directive
- About CERT- In
What is a VPN ?
- Any and all devices connected to the internet are a part of a large network of computers, servers and other devices spread across the world.
- To identify each device connected to the internet, service providers globally assign a unique address to each such device called the internet protocol address or IP address.
- It is this IP address that helps websites, law enforcement agencies and even companies track down individual users and their accurate location.
- A virtual private network, when switched on, essentially creates a safe network within the larger global network of the internet and masks the IP address of the user by rerouting the data.
- Acting as a tunnel, a VPN takes data originating from one server and masks it in a different identity before delivering it to the destination server.
- In essence, a VPN creates several proxy identities for your data and delivers it safely without disturbing the content of the data.
Why is anonymity or privacy so important for VPN providers and users?
- The main reason why privacy or anonymity is important for both VPN service providers and users is that it helps to avoid being tracked, mostly by websites and cybercriminals.
- Since VPN masks the location of a device from everyone, it also prevents government and law enforcement agencies from accurately identifying the location.
- VPN has also been of vital importance in countries that try to suppress dissent.
- By using VPNs, dissidents are able to spoof their location and stay safe.
Cert- In latest Directive:
- As per the latest directive, Cert-In has asked VPN service providers to maintain for five years or longer details such as the validated names of their customers, the period for which they hired the service, the IP addresses allotted to these users, the email addresses, the IP addresses and the time stamps used at the time of registration of the customers.
- Cert-In also wants VPN service providers to maintain data such as the purpose for which the customers used their services, their validated addresses and contact numbers, and the ownership pattern of the customers.
- One of the main reasons that Cert-In provided for seeking these details is that it will help to effectively trace anti-social elements and cybercriminals indulging in various nefarious activities online.
- These details are necessary to prevent incitement or commission of any “cognisable offence using computer resources or for handling of any cyber incident” which may lead to any disturbance in the “sovereignty or integrity of India, defence of India, security of the state, friendly relations with foreign states or public order”.
About CERT- In
- CERT-In is the national nodal agency for responding to computer security incidents as and when they occur.
- The constituency of CERT-In is the Indian Cyber Community.
- CERT-In was established in 2004 as a functional organization of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.
Functions of CERT-In:
The Information Technology (Amendment) Act 2008 designated CERT-In to serve as the national agency to perform the following functions in the area of cyber security:
- Collection, analysis and dissemination of information on cyber incidents.
- Forecast and alerts of cyber security incidents
- Emergency measures for handling cyber security incidents
- Coordination of cyber incident response activities.
- Issue guidelines, advisories, vulnerability notes and whitepapers relating to information
- security practices, procedures, prevention, response and reporting of cyber incidents.
- Such other functions relating to cyber security as may be prescribed.
Monkeypox
Context:
Health authorities in the United Kingdom have confirmed a case of monkeypox, a rare viral infection similar to smallpox, in an individual who recently travelled to that country from Nigeria.
Relevance:
GS II- Health
Dimensions of the Article:
- About Monkeypox virus
- Zoonotic disease
- Symptoms and treatment
- Occurrence of disease
About Monkeypox virus
- The monkeypox virus is an orthopoxvirus, which is a genus of viruses that also includes the variola virus, which causes smallpox, and vaccinia virus, which was used in the smallpox vaccine.
- Monkeypox causes symptoms similar to smallpox, although they are less severe.
- While vaccination eradicated smallpox worldwide in 1980, monkeypox continues to occur in a swathe of countries in Central and West Africa, and has on occasion showed up elsewhere.
- According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), two distinct clade are identified: the West African clade and the Congo Basin clade, also known as the Central African clade.
Zoonotic disease
- Monkeypox is a zoonosis, that is, a disease that is transmitted from infected animals to humans.
- According to the WHO, cases occur close to tropical rainforests inhabited by animals that carry the virus.
- Monkeypox virus infection has been detected in squirrels, Gambian poached rats, dormice, and some species of monkeys.
- Human-to-human transmission is, however, limited — the longest documented chain of transmission is six generations, meaning the last person to be infected in this chain was six links away from the original sick person, the WHO says.
Transmission:
- Transmission, when it occurs, can be through contact with bodily fluids, lesions on the skin or on internal mucosal surfaces, such as in the mouth or throat, respiratory droplets and contaminated objects.
Symptoms and treatment
- According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), monkeypox begins with a fever, headache, muscle aches, back ache, and exhaustion.
- It also causes the lymph nodes to swell (lymphadenopathy), which smallpox does not.
- The WHO underlines that it is important to not confuse monkeypox with chickenpox, measles, bacterial skin infections, scabies, syphilis and medication-associated allergies.
- The incubation period (time from infection to symptoms) for monkeypox is usually 7-14 days but can range from 5-21 days.
- Usually within a day to 3 days of the onset of fever, the patient develops a rash that begins on the face and spreads to other parts of the body.
- The skin eruption stage can last between 2 and 4 weeks, during which the lesions harden and become painful, fill up first with a clear fluid and then pus, and then develop scabs or crusts.
- According to the WHO, the proportion of patients who die has varied between 0 and 11% in documented cases, and has been higher among young children.
Treatment:
- There is no safe, proven treatment for monkeypox yet.
- The WHO recommends supportive treatment depending on the symptoms.
- Awareness is important for prevention and control of the infection.
Occurrence of disease
- The CDC’s monkeypox overview says the infection was first discovered in 1958 following two outbreaks of a pox-like disease in colonies of monkeys kept for research — which led to the name ‘monkeypox’.
- The first human case was recorded in 1970 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) during a period of intensified effort to eliminate smallpox.
- According to the WHO, 15 countries on four continents have so far reported confirmed cases of monkeypox in humans.
- Locally acquired cases have been confirmed in the DRC (which has the largest incidence of the infection in the world), Central African Republic, Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Cameroon, Nigeria, Côte d’Ivoire, Liberia, and Sierra Leone.
Harappan Site Rakhigarhi
Context:
DNA samples collected from two human skeletons unearthed at a necropolis of a Harappan-era city site in Rakhigarhi, Haryana have been sent for scientific examination.
- DNA analysis might tell about the ancestry and food habits of people who lived in the Rakhigarhi region thousands of years ago.
Relevance:
GS I- Ancient History
Dimensions of the Article:
- About Rakhigarhi
- Major findings at Rakhi Garhi
- What is the relevance of Harappa in today’s world?
About Rakhigarhi
- Rakhigarhi, Rakhi Garhi (Rakhi Shahpur + Rakhi Khas), is a village in Hisar District in the state of Haryana in India, situated 150 kilometers to the northwest of Delhi.
- It is the site of a pre-Indus Valley Civilisation settlement going back to about 6500 BCE.
- Later, it was also part of the mature Indus Valley Civilisation, dating to 2600-1900 BCE.
- The site is located in the Sarasvati river plain, some 27 km from the seasonal Ghaggar river.
- The size and uniqueness of Rakhigarhi has drawn much attention of archaeologists all over the world.
- It is nearer to Delhi than other major sites, indicating the spread of the Indus Valley Civilization east across North India.
- In May 2012, the Global Heritage Fund, declared Rakhigarhi one of the 10 most endangered heritage sites in Asia.
- There are many other important archaeological sites in this area, in the old river valley to the east of the Ghaggar Plain. Among them are Kalibangan, Kunal, Haryana, Balu, Haryana, Bhirrana, and Banawali.
Major findings at Rakhi Garhi
- The discovery of 4,600-year-old human remains, fortification, and bricks confirms both early and mature Harappan stages.
- So far, digging has revealed a well-planned city with roadways that are 1.92 metres wide, slightly broader than in Kalibangan.
- Pits with walls around them have been discovered, which are thought to be used for sacrificial or religious events.
- The sewage from the houses is handled by brick-lined sewers.
- Also discovered were terracotta figures, weights, bronze objects, a comb, copper fish hooks, needles, and terracotta seals.
- A bronze jar with gold and silver decorations has been discovered.
- A granary from the mature Harappan phase was discovered here.
- In Rakhigarhi, structures for fire altars were discovered.
What is the relevance of Harappa in today’s world?
- Harappan civilisation is amongst the first major urban civilisation that stretched over an area of 1.5 million square kilometres (the size of a modest sized modern country).
- It was highly standardised architecture, art and utilitarian items.
- It traded over an even larger area, getting raw material and exporting (to region where its standardisation rules did not apply) finished products, traders and some of its habits to different regions.
- The occurrence of the first civilization from which the emergence of the city and urbanism can be understood
- Their expertise in town planning, water management and harvesting systems as well as drainage mechanism is unparalleled.
- They had public and private wells at most of their sites and their houses were often equipped with bathing areas and toilets.
- They were also technologically very advanced in pyrotechnics and metallurgy.
- Their craftsmanship is evident in their beads, jewelry, pottery, seals as well as other artifacts made of metals and their alloys.
- Their trade networks were also quite widespread.
- They had standardized weights and measures.
- They often used standardized bricks in their architecture.
- Recent research has suggested that Harappan people were probably the first ones to introduce silk and lost-wax casting techniques.
- No large-scale weapons have been discovered from the Harappan sites which also suggests that they did not indulge in warfare.
- It post-dated the great cultures of Mesopotamia and was contemporaneous to Sumerian cultures.
- However, it received a lot of ideas also from Central Asia and in many ways, it collected the finest of ideas and technologies.
- Among other things, the Harappan civilization provides important insights into the relationship between civilizational collapse, violence, and disease.
- Global bodies and governmental organizations seeking to make predictions about global warming in the contemporary context have essentialized the relationship between climate change, environmental migration, and violence.
- In that sense it is relevant and important.
La Nina
Context:
This year the La Nina is being blamed for worsening the longest spell of heatwaves from March to April in north, west and Central India.
- In most years, meteorologists considered the La Nina to be a friend of India.
Relevance:
GS-I: Geography (Climatology, Important Geophysical Phenomena), GS-III: Environment and Ecology (Environmental Pollution and Degradation, Impact of Climate Change)
Dimensions of the article:
- La Niña
- El Niño
- Impact on India
- ENSO
La Niña
- La Niña is a coupled ocean-atmosphere phenomenon that is the colder counterpart of El Niño, as part of the broader El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) climate pattern.
- During a period of La Niña, the sea surface temperature across the equatorial Eastern Central Pacific Ocean will be lower than normal by 3 to 5 °C (5.4 to 9 °F).
- An appearance of La Niña persists for at least five months.
- It has extensive effects on the weather across the globe, particularly in North America, even affecting the Atlantic and Pacific hurricane seasons, in which more tropical cyclones occur in the Atlantic basin due to low wind shear and warmer sea surface temperatures, while reducing tropical cyclogenesis in the Pacific Ocean.
- La Niña is a complex weather pattern that occurs every few years, as a result of variations in ocean temperatures in the Equatorial Pacific.
- It occurs as strong winds blow warm water at the ocean’s surface from South America across the Pacific Ocean towards Indonesia.
- As this warm water moves west, cold water from the deep sea rises to the surface near South America.
- As a result, it is considered to be the cold phase of the broader El Niño–Southern Oscillation weather pattern, as well as the opposite of El Niño weather pattern.
- La Niña impacts the global climate and disrupts normal weather patterns, which as a result can lead to intense storms in some places and droughts in others.
El Niño
- El Niño is the warm phase of the El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and is associated with a band of warm ocean water that develops in the central and east-central equatorial Pacific (between approximately the International Date Line and 120°W), including the area off the Pacific coast of South America.
- The ENSO is the cycle of warm and cold sea surface temperature (SST) of the tropical central and eastern Pacific Ocean.
- El Niño is accompanied by high air pressure in the western Pacific and low air pressure in the eastern Pacific.
- During the development of El Niño, rainfall develops between September–November.
- The cool phase of ENSO is La Niña, with SSTs in the eastern Pacific below average, and air pressure high in the eastern Pacific and low in the western Pacific.
- The ENSO cycle, including both El Niño and La Niña, causes global changes in temperature and rainfall.
Impact on India
- El Nino creates warm conditions over the Indian subcontinent in the winter and dry conditions and a lack of monsoon in the summer, whereas La Nina causes a better-than-normal monsoon in India.
- In an agricultural country like India, large departures from typical seasonal rainfall have a significant impact on agricultural output and hence the economy.
ENSO
- El Nino and the Southern Oscillation, also known as ENSO is a periodic fluctuation in sea surface temperature (El Niño) and the air pressure of the overlying atmosphere (Southern Oscillation) across the equatorial Pacific Ocean.
- El Nino and La Nina are complex weather patterns resulting from variations in ocean temperatures in the Equatorial Pacific Region. They are opposite phases of what is known as the ENSO cycle.
- El Nino and La Nina episodes typically last nine to 12 months, but some prolonged events may last for years.
Value of MPs’ vote for President Poll to go down
Context:
The value of the vote of an MP in the presidential polls to be held in July is likely to go down to 700 from 708 due to the absence of a Legislative Assembly in Jammu and Kashmir.
Relevance:
GS II- Polity and Governance
Dimensions of the Article:
- How is the President elected?
- Qualifications for Election as President
- What is the value of each vote and how is it calculated?
- What is required to secure a victory?
How is the President elected?
- The Indian President is elected through an electoral college system, wherein the votes are cast by national and State-level lawmakers.
- The elections are conducted and overseen by the Election Commission (EC) of India.
- The President is elected not directly by the people but by members of electoral college consisting of:
- The elected members of both the Houses of Parliament
- The elected members of the legislative assemblies of the states
- The elected members of the legislative assemblies of the Union Territories of Delhi and Puducherry.
- This means, in the upcoming polls, the number of electors will be 4,896 — 543 Lok Sabha MPs, 233 MPs of the Rajya Sabha, and 4,120 MLAs of all States, including the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi and Union Territory of Puducherry.
- Before the voting, comes the nomination stage, where the candidate intending to stand in the election, files the nomination along with a signed list of 50 proposers and 50 seconders.
- These proposers and seconders can be anyone from the total of 4,896 members of the electoral college from the State and national level.
Qualifications for Election as President
- He should be a citizen of India.
- He should have completed 35 years of age.
- He should be qualified for election as a member of the Lok Sabha.
- He should not hold any office of profit under the Union government or any state government or any local authority or any other public authority. A sitting President or Vice-President of the Union, the Governor of any state and a minister of the Union or any state is not deemed to hold any office of profit and hence qualified as a presidential candidate.
What is the value of each vote and how is it calculated?
- A vote cast by each MP or MLA is not calculated as one vote.
- There is a larger vote value attached to it.
- The fixed value of each vote by an MP of the Rajya Sabha and the Lok Sabha is 708.
- Meanwhile, the vote value of each MLA differs from State to State based on a calculation that factors in its population vis-a-vis the number of members in its legislative Assembly.
- As per the Constitution (Eighty-fourth Amendment) Act 2001, currently, the population of States is taken from the figures of the 1971 Census.
- This will change when the figures of the Census taken after the year 2026 are published.
- The value of each MLA’s vote is determined by dividing the population of the State by the number of MLAs in its legislative Assembly, and the quotient achieved is further divided by 1000.
- Uttar Pradesh for instance, has the highest vote value for each of its MLAs, at 208.
- The value of one MLA’s vote in Maharashtra is 175, while that in Arunachal Pradesh is just 8.
- The total votes of each Legislative Assembly are calculated by multiplying the vote value of each MLA by the number of MLAs.
- Finally, based on these values, the total number of votes of all Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha MPs would be 5,59,408 (776 MPs X 708), and the total votes of all MLAs from State Legislative Assemblies would come up to 5,49,495.
- Thus, the grand total vote value of the whole electoral college comes up to 10,98,903.
What is required to secure a victory?
- A nominated candidate does not secure victory based on a simple majority but through a system of bagging a specific quota of votes.
- While counting, the EC totals up all the valid votes cast by the electoral college through paper ballots and to win, the candidate must secure 50% of the total votes cast + 1.
- Unlike general elections, where electors vote for a single party’s candidate, the voters of the electoral college write the names of candidates on the ballot paper in the order of preference.
