World News -Foreign Diplomacy-TechNews-Artificial_Intelligence-BurningIssues

 NDTL regains the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) accreditation   ✅World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has restored the accreditation of the National Dope Testing Laboratory (NDTL), which was suspended in 2019 because of its failure to comply with global standards. ✅The NDTL is based in the national capital and can resume testing with immediate effect. ● WADA Suspension ✅India is currently third in the WADA's global list of dope violators, led by Russia. ✅The suspension of the NDTL had prohibited it from carrying out any anti-doping activities, including all analysis of urine and blood samples. ✅The WADA first suspended NDTL in August 2019 for a period of six months and extended the de-recognition period after its inspections showed that non-conformities existed. ✅During the suspension period, urine samples collected by NADA were being sent primarily to the WADA-accredited lab in Doha. ✅The process had made the anti-doping programme very expensive for the country because of the si...

Global Supply Chains 1. The COVID 19 pandemic has disrupted the supply chains and countries are dependent on other countries for items of basic necessities including pharmaceuticals. 2. So, the nations should build supply chains inside the country. Where does it make an impact? 1. China has monopolized the world trade as more than 9 lakh companies are operating in China. So, during the pandemic i. The supply disrupted as manufacturing process stopped in China. ii. This has led to shortage of medicines, manufacturing, Infrastructure etc. across the world. 2. Every country would now move towards the protectionism, atleast in essential commodities like medicines, infrastructure etc. 3. As per WTO, global trade for 2020 will see a downfall ranging from 13% - 32%. 4. IMF has forecasted 3% economic slowdown that will surely jeopardize economic activities of many countries. 5. Idea of realigning towards self-sufficiency would be prioritized by the g...

✅ National Human Rights Commission - The chairman and members are appointed by the President on the recommendations of  six Committee consisting of - Prime Minister as its head + The Speaker of Lok Sabha + The deputy chairman of Rajya Sabha + Leaders of opposition in both the houses of parliament and the Central home minister ✅ State Human Rights Commission The chairman and members are appointed by the Governor on the recommendations of a committee consisting of The Chief Minister as its head + The speaker of the Legislative Assembly + The state home minister + The Leader of the opposition in the Legislative Assembly (In case of state having Legislative Council, the chairman of the council would also be the members of the committee) ✅ Central Information Commission Chief Information Commissioner and other commissioners are appointed by the President on the recommendation of a committee consisting of The Prime Minister as chairperson +  The Leader of Opp...

Latest News Mar 17, 2015 Yahoo! pays $24,000 to Hacker for finding Security Vulnerabilities  Yahoo! has offered $24,000 to a security researcher for finding out and reporting three critical security vulnerabilities in its products including Yahoo! Stores and Yahoo!-hosted websites. While testing all the company's application, Mark Litchfield, a bug bounty hunter who often works with different companies, discovered three critical vulnerabilities in Yahoo!'s products. All the three ... Read more... Smart ATM offers Cardless Cash Withdrawal to Avoid Card Skimmers  Banks have tried every effort, from providing Magnetic Stripes based Credit and Debit Cards to Chip-and-Pin Cards, in order to secure its users from credit card cloning and card Skimmers. It has been known from years that Magnetic stripe are incredibly hackable, but Chip-n-Pin cards have also been hacked and successfully cloned by a group of security researchers. A unit of Canada’s Bank of ... R...

1. Wipro appoints Abid Neemuchwala as COO i. India's third largest IT services exporter Wipro Ltd. announced the appointment of appointment of former TCS top executive Mr. Abid Ali Neemuchwala as the Group President and Chief Operating Officer of the company.  ii. Mr Neemuchwala was heading the Business Process Services globally.  iii. Apart from this he was also involved in several leadership roles during his 23-year-long career with TCS.   2. Facebook acquires The Find e-commerce search engine i. Facebook has acquired The Find, a nine-year-old company with a search engine that indexes products across thousands of e-commerce sites. ii. That probably means the ads Facebook users see will be more relevant to products they’ve been browsing and buying online, perhaps highlighting local retailers. One of The Find’s features is that it attempts to mix online and local stores and says its results are based on “your social profile.” iii. For Facebook, the technolog...

1. Union Budget 2015 highlights -   No merit in going ahead with Direct tax Code as it exists today. Net impact of tax proposals Rs.15,068 crore. - Yoga to be included under charitable activites. - Indiviual taxpayer can get benefits up to Rs. 4,44,200. - Transport allowance exemption to be increased to Rs. 1,600 per month. - Rs. 50,000 contribution to new pension scheme. "To make India a pensioned society." - Additional deduction of Rs. 25,000 for differently abled persons. - Increase in limit of deduction of health insurance premium of Rs. 15,000 to Rs. 25,000. For senior citizens, limit will be Rs. 30,000. Very senior citizens - Rs. 30,000 deduction on expenses incurred. - 2 per cent cess on services for Swachch Bharat. - 100 per cent deduction for contribution to Swachch Bharat and Clean Ganga schemes. - Service Tax rate increased to 14 per cent.   2. Three-point action plan to realise ‘Make in India’ dream i. The non-controversial response lies in improving th...

1. India presses for automatic exchange of tax information at G20 meet  i. India has called for expeditious implementation of the automatic exchange of tax information saying it would help in tracking illegal money stashed in foreign banks.  ii. Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha advocated "full and fast implementation" of Automatic Exchange of Information within the agreed time-frame.  iii. India called for strengthening the IMF through implementing the 2010 quota and governance reforms and creating an environment for multilateral swaps to overcome such negative impact. iv. The quota reform, if implemented, will increase India's voting share in IMF from the current 2.44 per cent to 2.75 per cent, following which the country will become the eighth largest quota holder at the IMF, up from the 11th position.   2. National Games mascot in Limca Book of Records i. National Games mascot Ammu, the Great Hornbill, has immortalised itself by finding a...

1. AAP deflates BJP i. The AAP stunned everyone on Tuesday with an overwhelming victory in the Delhi assembly polls, setting up a second stint for Arvind Kejriwal as chief minister. ii. The AAP bagged as many as 67 seats of the 70-member House, going far beyond the most optimistic exit polls. iii. The BJP was left bruised in a distant second place with wins projected for it in just three seats. The Congress drew a blank. BJP's CM candidate, Kiran Bedi, lost the elections. iv. Kiran Bedi lost Krishna Nagar seat which was considered as BJP's pet by a narrow margin, While Arvind Kejriwal won New Delhi seat comfortably. v. AAP got 54.3% of the total polled votes, while BJP came a distant second with 32.2% of the votes polled. vi. Arvind Kejriwal will sworn as the Chief Minister of Delhi for second successive term on 14th February.   2. PNB raises Rs. 1,000 crore via private placement i. State-owned Punjab National Bank has raised Rs. 1,000 crore through bonds to...

1. Kalyan Singh sworn in as Himachal Pradesh Governor i.  Rajasthan Governor Kalyan Singh was today sworn in as the Himachal Pradesh Governor  ii.  He was administered oath of office by Himachal Pradesh High Court Chief Justice Mansoor Ahmed Mir  iii.  Singh has been given an additional charge of Himachal Pradesh after Urmila Singh, who completed the full five year term as HP Governor on January 24.   2.  Hockey Olympian Jaswant Singh Rajput passes away i.  Two-time gold medal winning hockey Olympian Jaswant Singh Rajput passed away on 28th January 2015 following a prolonged illness ii.  The former India centre-half was part of the gold medal winning teams in 1948 London and 1952 Helsinki Olympics. iii.  With the likes of Leslie Claudius, Keshav Dutt and Meldric Daluz, Jaswant had formed a lethal foursome and was part of a golden era in Bengal hockey with as many as seven players in the Helsinki-bound side.   3....

1. Bibek Debroy joins as full time member of NITI Aayog  i.  Noted economist Bibek Debroy today assumed charged as full time member of the NITI Ayog (National Institution for Transforming India). Government had announced the appointment of Debroy and DRDO chief V K Saraswat as full-time members earlier this month.  ii.  An economist by profession, he was educated at the Presidency College (Calcutta), the Delhi School of Economics and the Trinity College (Cambridge). iii.  Debroy worked as a consultant in the Department of Economic Affairs in Finance Ministry.  iv.  Debroy has also authored several books, papers and popular articles, and has been a Consulting Editor of some financial newspapers in the country.    2. India set to overtake China next year: IMF i. International Monetary Fund (IMF) projected that India will grow 6.5 per cent in 2016, overtaking China which, it projected, will slowdown to 6.3 per cent. ii.  I...