DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS 03RD MARCH 2021 - Shiksha IAS
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Best IAS Coaching in Bangalore Daily Current Affairs 03rd March 2021
Shiksha IAS https://iasshiksha.com/daily-current-affair/daily-current-affairs-03rd-march-2021/
DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS 03RD MARCH 2021
Posted on March 3, 2021 by admin
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Shiksha IAS https://iasshiksha.com/daily-current-affair/daily-current-affairs-03rd-march-2021/
India and Japan back in new Sri Lanka port project
ABOUT:
1. Sri Lanka recently said it will develop the West Container Terminal (WCT) at the Colombo
Port, along with India and Japan.
2. The decision comes a month after the Rajapaksa government ejected the two partners from a
2019 tripartite agreement to jointly develop the East Container Terminal (ECT), citing
resistance to “foreign involvement”.
INDIA AND JAPAN:
1. Sri Lanka said approval had been granted to develop the WCT with investors nominated by
India and Japan.
2. While the High Commission of India had “approved” Adani Ports, which was to invest in the ECT
project earlier, Japan is yet to name an investor.
3. Neither India nor Japan has officially commented on the offer, or on the said private investment
from the countries.
4. According to official sources in New Delhi, Colombo had been in talks directly with the Adani
Group, while the government “was not part of” the discussions.
5. Both India and Japan had expressed displeasure about Colombo “unilaterally” pulling out of
the 2019 agreement.
WEST CONTAINER TERMINAL:
1. The deal had been signed by the former Maithripala Sirisena-Ranil Wickremesinghe
government.
2. The February 1 decision came amid mounting opposition from port worker unions and
sections of the clergy to “foreign involvement” in the country’s national assets.
3. The Rajapaksa government has offered India and Japan the WCT as an alternative, allowing
higher stakes.
4. In the ECT project agreed upon earlier, the Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) was to hold
majority 51%, but in the WCT proposal, India and Japan will be accorded 85% stake, as is the
case in the nearby Colombo International Container Terminal (CICT), where China Merchants
Port Holdings Company Limited holds 85%, the government said.
5. The terminal’s further development, which is now to be undertaken by the Sri Lanka Port
Authority, is aimed at augmenting operations at an estimated cost of up to $700 million.
6. The West Container Terminal, however, has to be built from scratch, requiring a much higher
investment.
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7. The WCT is adjacent to the China-run CICT and just a couple of kilometres away from the
China-backed Port City being built on reclaimed land, making it a strategically desirable spot
for India, whose concerns over China’s presence in Sri Lanka are well known.
IMPLICIT SUPPORT:
1. Colombo’s alternative offer also comes at a time when Sri Lanka is seeking support at the
ongoing UN Human Right Council session, where a resolution on the country’s rights record
will soon be put to vote.
2. The government recently wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Asked if the two
developments were linked, Sri Lanka said they were “two different areas — one is commercial,
other one, more of international relations.
Engineering research policy launched
ABOUT:
1. Karnataka launched the country’s maiden Engineering Research & Development (ER&D)
Policy recently to raise its contribution to the sector in the country to 45%in the next five
years.
2. The State government anticipates the policy has the potential to create over 50,000 jobs in
the ER&D space in five years.
3. According to industry apex body Nasscom, ER&D has the potential to become a $100-billion
industry in the country in the next five years.
FASTEST GROWING INDUSTRY:
1. Unveiling the policy, Deputy Chief Minister, who holds the IT/Biotechnology and Science and
Technology portfolios, said, “The ER&D sector in the country is the fastest growing industry
with a CAGR of 12.8%.
2. Meanwhile, the global engineering research and development industry is expected to reach
a spend of $2 trillion by 2025.
3. Considering this scenario, this policy aims to prepare the State to make use of the future
opportunities emanating from this sector.
4. Karnataka is already the leading contributor to the country’s ER&D industry revenue and is
home to over 400 R&D centres, global capability centres and engineering service providers.
5. Through this policy, Karnataka is aiming to grow our contribution, develop more intellectual
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properties (IPs), and make the state a skilled knowledge capital.
6. The government would invest in skilling, improve academia and industry collaboration, and
also encourage IP creation locally in a big way.
7. The new policy, drafted jointly by the Department of Electronics, IT, Biotechnology and
Science and Technology, Karnataka Innovation and Technology Society, and Nasscom in
consultation with industry stakeholders, has identified five key focus sectors such
as aerospace and defence; auto, auto components and EV; biotechnology, pharma and
medical devices; semiconductors, telecom, ESDM; and software products.
8. The new ER&D policy heralds a new chapter in the State’s position as a hub of innovation and
transformation.
Himalayan serow spotted in Assam
ABOUT:
1. A Himalayan mammal, somewhere between a goat and an antelope, has been confirmed as
the newest creature to be spotted in Assam.
2. A couple of nature guides had spotted the Himalayan serow, a goat-antelope, in the 950-
sq.km Manas Tiger Reserve on December 3.
3. The animal — a high-altitude dweller usually found 2,000-4,000 metres above sea level—
was seen being chased by wild dogs.
AUGURING WELL:
1. Experts have confirmed the animal as the Himalayan serow, spotted close to the border with
Bhutan in Manas’s Bansbari-Mathanguri forest.The sighting augurs well for the health of the
tiger reserve.
2. They said the serow has been spotted for the first time in the tiger reserve or anywhere else
in Assam, but “this does not mean the animal never visited the forests before”.
3. The sightings of rare animals and birds in Manas is an outcome of better access to remote
parts of the protected area where extremists and hunters once ruled.
4. There are chances of more faunal species, found in the higher reaches, being spotted in the
park.
BLACK-NECKED CRANE:
1. The Reserve is contiguous with the 1,057-sq. km. Royal Manas National Park in Bhutan.The
black-necked crane was also recently sighted in Manas.
2. A pair each of such cranes was sighted on January 10 and February 18. The Buddhists revere
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the bird that nests in the Tawang region.
3. Officials in Manas said the critically endangered white-bellied hero was also seen a few
weeks ago.
4. In February, birders had sighted the colourful Mandarin duck in the Maguri-Motapung
wetland near eastern Assam’s Dibru-Saikhowa National Park.
5. This duck was last spotted in Assam 118 years ago.
Rising polymer raw material prices hit MSME plastic units
ABOUT:
1. About 50,000 units in the plastics processing sector are believed to be operating below 50%
of their rated capacity due to a sharp rise in raw material prices, said heads of All India plastic
industry associations.
2. They added that if the crisis prolonged, about 20,000 MSME plastic units would be forced to
close down.
IMPACTING THE COST COMPETITIVENESS:
1. Industry bodies said large petrochemical companies, including PSUs, had
exponentially increased raw material prices by 40-155%in the last 8-10 months.
2. The associations have urged the Centre to direct Indian Oil, GAIL, OPAL, Haldia Petrochemicals
and MRPL to streamline supply of raw materials at fair prices.
3. Several industry associations have urged the government to ban the export of the raw
materials for one year and allow import of raw materials not produced in the country.
4. The industry is facing acute shortage of polymers, the main raw material for plastic goods
production, which has varied applications.
5. The increase in raw material costs and its acute shortage in market is leading to escalation in
project costs and is adversely impacting the cost competitiveness of MSMEs.
Interconnected sectors raise need for robust cyber defence
strategy
ABOUT:
1. Even as contradictory claims emerge from the Centre and the Maharashtra government over
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the involvement of Chinese actors in the Mumbai power outage of October last year, the
allegations have put focus on the need for India to be better prepared to protect its critical
infrastructure against globally rising cyber-attack attempts on key infrastructure.
2. Cybersecurity experts pointed out that this is particularly significant given the increasing
interconnectedness of sectors and proliferation of entry points into the internet, which
could further grow with the adaption of 5G.
NATIONAL CYBER SECURITY STRATEGY:
1. A National Cyber Security Strategy is being formulated by the Office of National Cyber
Security Coordinator at the National Security Council Secretariat.
2. A strategy document prepared by an inter-ministerial task force involving representatives from
different central government ministries and departments has now been forwarded to
an Empowered Technology Group for consultation.
3. Once the process is through, the document will be placed before the Cabinet Committee on
Security for deliberations and approval.
4. Hackers targeting critical infrastructure is not a new trend but experts believe that propensity
for damage is more than ever, especially with countries investing in cyber offensive
capabilities.
5. In 2015, in what was the first known successful cyber attack on a power grid, hackers
compromised systems of three energy distribution companies in Ukraine thereby disrupting
electricity supply.
LOW LEVEL OF PREPAREDNESS:
1. Critical infrastructure is getting digitised in a very fast way — this includes financial services,
banks, power, manufacturing, nuclear power plants, etc. Because of these a lot of security
issues arise.
2. The SolarWinds hack impacted national critical infrastructure in the US.
3. Most countries are not prepared for combating the sophistication of attacks that are
happening.
4. A lot of countries have started taking advantage of this. They’re spending unprecedented
amount of money and are building armies.
5. Israel is a good example, they say that there is a fourth unit in the defence system, which is for
defence and offence.
6. Most countries though are not prepared, India not being an exception but there is a need
for high level of preparedness because an attack can have a great impact on the economy,
safety, etc.
7. For the Mumbai incident, while the Centre has denied that the outage was a result of cyber
attack by Chinese group Red Echo, the Maharashtra government — citing an analysis of
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Maharashtra Cyber Police’s report by Maharashtra State Electricity Board’s (MSEB) Supervisory
Control and Data Acquisition system — said “there is some evidence to point at probable
cyber sabotage on MSEB servers”.
8. In addition to the Mumbai incident, Chinese actors are also said to be involved in the attack on
IT systems of vaccine makers Serum Institute of India and Bharat Biotech.
NEED FOR AN UPDATED CYBERSECURITY POLICY:
1. There were 97 lakh cyber security incidents reported in the first eight months of 2020, nearly
equivalent to the previous four years combined, according to information reported to and
tracked by Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In), suggesting a surge in
cyber incidents.
2. The surge in number is perceptive since 2018 – 2.08 lakh reported incidents – and 3.94
incidents reported in 2019. In 2017, the number was 53,117 and 50,362 in 2016.
3. Consequently, there is also a need for an updated cybersecurity policy in the country, which
the Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology is expected to come out with soon.
4. The current cybersecurity framework put out by the government dates back to 2013.
5. It is important for the corporates or the respective government departments to find the gaps in
their organisations and address those gaps with the help of next generation security
solutions.
6. It is essential that there is a layered security system, wherein security threat intelligence
sharing is happening between different layers.
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