Daily Current Affairs for UPSC – 6 December 2022

Daily Current Affairs for UPSC 2022

Q) Recently seen in news, the ‘Turning the Tide on Internal Displacement’ report was released by which one of the following organizations?

1. The Human Rights Council
2. United Nations Development Programme
3. International Organization for Migration
4. United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees

Explanation:

• Option (2) is correct: The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has published a report titled ‘Turning the Tide on Internal Displacement’. According to the report, by the end of the 2021, more than 59 million people remained displaced in their own countries. This was the highest global figure and more than double the number recorded 10 years ago. But that was before the war in Ukraine, where 6.5 million people are estimated to have been internally displaced, the report noted. Conflict, violence, disasters, climate change and economic crises were the major reasons for internal displacement. By 2050, climate change may force more than an estimated 216 million people to move within their own countries. Sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East and North Africa and parts of the Americas are the most affected regions. Internal displacement describes the situation of people who have been forced to leave their homes but have not left their country. Those people who suffered internal displacement are referred to as internally displaced people (IDPs). Refugees are those who cross an international border to find safety. Unlike refugees, IDPs stay within their own country.

Q) With reference to committed expenditure of the government, consider the following statements:

1. Salary and wages constitute the largest part of the committed expenditures of the central government.
2. The committed expenditure constitutes more than Fifty percentage of the total revenue expenditure of the government.
3. The committed expenditure includes interest payments and subsidies paid by the government.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

1. 1 and 2 only
2. 2 and 3 only
3. 3 only
4. 1, 2 and 3

Explanation:

• Statement 1 is incorrect:According to data available with the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG), expenditure on pension was higher than the ‘salary and wages’ expenditure of the Centre and three states viz, Gujarat, Karnataka and West Bengal, during 2019-20. Centre’s total Committed Expenditure was Rs 9.78 lakh crore during 2019-20. It includes an expenditure of Rs 1.83 lakh crore on pensions; Rs 1.39 lakh crore on salary and wages; Rs 6.55 lakh crore on interest payments and servicing of debts.
• Statement 2 is incorrect:Committed Expenditure at Union Level accounted for 37 per cent of its total revenue expenditure of Rs 26.15 lakh crore in 2019-20. Centre’s pension bill was 132 per cent of its expenditure on salary and wages in 2019-20. Committed Expenditure at State Level during 2019-20, the total Committed Expenditure of all states stood at Rs 12.38 lakh crore of which Rs 5.47 lakh crore on salary and wages; Rs 3.52 lakh crore on interest payment and servicing of debt; Rs 3.38 lakh crore on pension. It was almost half of their combined revenue expenditure of Rs 27.41 lakh crore.
• Statement 3 is correct:Committed Expenditure is spending on unproductive and current heads such as salaries and pensions, interest payments and subsidies–termed as committed expenditure. If the Committed Expenditure is higher, it means that the government has lesser flexibility to determine the purpose for which revenue expenditure is to be incurred.

Q) Consider the following statements:

1. He actively participated in the Swadeshi Movement of 1905.
2. He was prosecuted twice for sedition against the British government.
3. He was associated with the newspaper ‘Bande Mataram’.
4. He is well-known for his literary work “The Divine Life.”

Which one of the following personalities is best described in the statements given above?

1. Satyendranath Tagore
2. Aurobindo Ghosh
3. Surendranath Banerjee
4. Promotha Mitter

Explanation:

• Option (2) is correct: Aurobindo Ghose was born in Calcutta on 15th August 1872. At the age of seven he was taken to England for education. There he studied at St. Paul’s School, London, and at King’s College, Cambridge. Returning to India in 1893, he worked for the next thirteen years in the Princely State of Baroda in the service of the Maharaja and as a professor in Baroda College. During this period he also joined a revolutionary society and took a leading role in secret preparations for an uprising against the British Government in India. In 1906, soon after the Partition of Bengal, Sri Aurobindo quit his post in Baroda and went to Calcutta, where he soon became one of the leaders of the Swadeshi movement. He was the first political leader in India to openly put forward, in his newspaper Bande Mataram,the idea of complete independence for the country. Prosecuted twice for sedition and once for conspiracy, he was released each time for lack of evidence. During the freedom struggle, he was imprisoned in 1908 (Alipore Bomb case).Two years later he fled British India and found refuge in the French colony of Pondicherry. He met Mirra Alfassa in Pondicherry, and their spiritual collaboration led to “Integral Yoga”. Integral Yoga is yoga of Earth transformation. The aim of this yoga is not an escape from life or a shunning of worldly existence, but a radical change in our life even while living amidst it. In Pondicherry he founded a community of spiritual seekers, which took shape as the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in 1926. His famous literary works are: the Life Divine, Essays on, the Gita, The Synthesis of Yoga, Savitri: A Legend and a Symbol, On the Veda.

Q) Consider the following statements about cyberattacks:

1. Ransomware is a type of malware that blocks a network by increasing the rate of traffic on it.
2. The National Cyber Coordination Centre is responsible for taking emergency response measures in the event of a cyber security incident.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

1. 1 only
2. 2 only
3. Both 1 and 2
4. Neither 1 nor 2

Explanation:

• Statement 1 is incorrect: Ransomware is a type of malicious software that can infect a computer system by blocking access to the stored data by encrypting the files. The perpetrator then demands ransom from the owner in exchange for the decryption key. The malicious software (virus) may have been injected remotely by tricking the user into downloading it upon clicking a relatively safe-looking web link sent via email or other means. The virus may have then spread throughout the network by exploiting existing vulnerabilities.
• Statement 2 is incorrect: Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) is the national nodal agency responsible for 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. It comes under the aegis of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.

Q) With reference to dark web, consider the following statements:

1. It is a collection of all web pages that are unidentifiable by search engines.
2. The dark web contains information that is not generally available on traditional search engines.
3. The deep web is a part of the dark web that is only accessible by specialized web browsers.

Which of the statements given above are not correct?

1. 1 and 2 only
2. 2 and 3 only
3. 1 and 3 only
4. 1, 2 and 3

Explanation:

• Statement 1 is incorrect: The dark web is the hidden collective of internet sites which can only be accessed by a specialized web browser. It is used for keeping internet activity anonymous and private, which is useful in both legal and illegal applications. Dark web is used by individuals who would otherwise be endangered by revealing their identities online. Abuse and persecution victims, whistleblowers, and political dissidents are known to use dark web for their activities.
• Statement 2 is correct: Dark web is also a hub for illegal activities such as selling/buying private data, narcotics, arms, pornographic material etc. Traditional search engines return results because they contain indexes of links to websites. These are ranked based on keywords and relevancy. The dark web, on the other hand, uses information that isn’t available on these other search engines, such as content from individual accounts, such as email, social media, banking, along with personal and professional databases, and documents (legal and medical) etc.
• Statement 3 is incorrect: Deep web refers to all web pages that that are unidentifiable by search engines. Deep web sites may be hidden behind passwords or other security walls. Deep web accounts for approximately 90% of all websites. Majority portion of deep web is perfectly legal and safe. Most of them are kept hidden from the open web to protect user information and privacy. Deep web also includes the portion that is known as the dark web.

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