DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS ANALYSIS

09 JUNE 2022

. No.	Topic Name	Prelims/Mains
1.	International Conference on Disaster Resilient Infrastructure	Prelims & Mains
2.	Sealed Cover Jurisprudence	Prelims & Mains
3.	Press Freedom Index	Prelims & Mains
4.	ISRO Mission to Venus	Prelims & Mains
5.	Lapsus$	Prelims Specific Topic

 

1 – International Conference on Disaster Resilient Infrastructure: 

GS III

Disaster Management related issues

• CDRI Information:
• CDRI is a global alliance of national governments, UN agencies and programmes, multilateral development banks, the corporate sector, and academic and research organisations.
• National governments lead and oversee the CDRI, which generates and exchanges knowledge on various areas of infrastructure catastrophe resilience.
• New Delhi, India is home to the CDRI Secretariat.
• Date of birth: September 23, 2019.
• Members: As of March 2021, CDRI had 29 members, including 22 national governments and 7 organisations.
• International Disaster Resilient Infrastructure Conference:
• The Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI) holds an annual international conference in conjunction with member governments, organisations, and institutions to strengthen the global discourse on disaster and climate resilient infrastructure.
• Infrastructure that is Disaster Resistant is Required:
• The Sendai Framework for Catastrophe Risk Reduction (SFDRR) emphasises the importance of increased infrastructure disaster resilience as a cornerstone for long-term development.
• Four particular loss reduction targets are included in the SFDRR:
• Reduce the worldwide catastrophic death rate.
• Reduce the amount of people who are affected.
• Reduce direct economic loss from disasters.
• Reduce the impact of disasters on key infrastructure.
• Target (4) on infrastructure is a necessary precondition for meeting the framework’s other loss reduction goals.

• Source – The Indian Express

2 – Sealed Cover Jurisprudence:

GS III

Judiciary related issues

• What is the law of sealed covers:
• The Supreme Court, as well as several lesser courts, has a tradition of requesting or accepting information from government agencies in sealed envelopes that can only be accessed by judges.
• While the notion of sealed cover is not defined by law, the Supreme Court has the authority to apply it under Rule 7 of Order XIII of the Supreme Court Rules and Section 123 of the Indian Evidence Act of 1872.
• Order XIII, Rule 7 of the Supreme Court Rules:
• According to the rule, if the Chief Justice or the court orders that specific material be kept under seal or considered secret, no party will be granted access to the contents of that information.
• Exceptions:
• If the Chief Justice rules that the opposing side be given access to it.
• It also states that information can be kept private if it is not regarded in the public interest to release it.
• The Indian Evidence Act of 1872, Section 123:
• Official unpublished papers relevant to state matters are safeguarded under this statute, and a public officer cannot be forced to release them.
• Other times when material is required in confidence or secrecy is when its release would jeopardise an ongoing investigation, such as details from a police case diary.
• Sealed Covers Have the Following Benefits:
• When the subject was the Official Secrets Act.
• To keep the public’s faith in the government agency.
• International negotiations that are delicate or involve sensitive security issues.
• Details regarding survivors of sexual assaults or child abuse that may have an impact on their future lives and cause unnecessary shame, so jeopardising their right to live in dignity.
• The current investigation is sometimes harmed by disclosure.
• Sealed Cover Jurisprudence’s Problems:
• Against the Transparency and Accountability Principles
• Limits the range of reasoning.
• Obstruction of a fair trial and judgement.
• Nature is arbitrary.
• Source – The Indian Express

3 – Press Freedom Index:

GS III

International Organizations related issues

• Index of World Press Freedom:
• Since 2002, Reporters Sans Frontieres (RSF), or Reporters Without Borders, has published an annual report.
• RSF is a non-governmental organisation based in Paris that has consultative status with the UN, UNESCO, the Council of Europe, and the International Organization of the Francophonie (OIF).
• The Index ranks countries and regions based on the level of journalistic freedom they have. It is not, however, a measure of the quality of journalism.
• Five contextual variables are used to assess each country or territory’s score: political setting, legal framework, economic context, sociocultural context, and safety.
• India’s performance:
• Out of 180 countries, India has dropped eight places to number 150 in 2022.
• According to the report, India’s ranking dropped as a result of growing “violence against journalists” and a “politically partisan media,” putting press freedom in the world’s largest democracy in “crisis.”
• The media in India, one of the world’s most democratic countries, is under attack from “increasingly authoritarian and/or nationalist governments.”
• It also criticises India’s policy framework, which is protective in theory but resorts to charging journalists critical of the government with defamation, sedition, contempt of court, and harming national security, branding them as “anti-national.”
• Other countries’ performance:
• Norway is a country in Northern Europe (1st) The top five countries were Denmark (2nd), Sweden (3rd), Estonia (4th), and Finland (5th).
• North Korea stayed at the bottom of the 180-nation list.
• Russia was ranked 155th out of 180 countries.
• Neighbours of India:
• Nepal has moved up 30 places in the world rankings to 76th place.
• Pakistan was ranked 157th, Sri Lanka 146th, Bangladesh 162nd, and Myanmar 176th on the index.
• China was placed 175th in the world.
• The following is information about World Press Freedom Day:
• Following the request of UNESCO’s General Conference in 1991, the UN General Assembly declared the day in 1993.
• The day also commemorates the Windhoek Declaration of 1991. (adopted by UNESCO).
• Its goal is to “promote the growth of a free, independent, and pluralistic press.”
• Source – The Indian Express

4 – ISRO Mission to Venus:

GS III

Space related issues

• Regarding Venus:
• Venus is the hottest planet in the solar system, with a surface temperature of 500 degrees Celsius, hot enough to melt lead.
• The dense atmosphere of the planet has increased the surface pressure to 90 bars.
• It takes 243.0226 Earth days for Venus to complete one rotation. On Venus, a day lasts longer than a year because it takes 225 Earth days to complete one circle around the sun.
• The planetary core of Venus is 4,360 miles (7,000 kilometres) in diameter, similar to Earth’s core.
• Only two planets, Venus and Mars, rotate from east to west. Only Venus and Uranus rotate in the opposite direction.
• Missions to Venus in the past:
• Nasa mission Magellan, which concluded in 1994.
• Venus Express is a European mission that studies the atmosphere.
• Akatsuki is a Japanese spacecraft that studies the atmosphere.
• Two new NASA missions to Venus:
• Davinci+ (Deep Atmosphere Venus Investigation of Noble Gases, Chemistry, and Imaging) is a NASA project that will:
• To learn more about how the planet’s atmosphere formed and evolved, take measurements of it.
• Find out if Venus ever had an ocean.
• Return the first high-resolution photographs of the planet’s geological structures known as “tesserae” (These features could be comparable to continents on Earth).
• Veritas (Venus Emissivity, Radio Science, InSAR, Topography, and Spectroscopy): This mission will survey the planet’s surface in order to learn more about its geological past and how it differed from Earth.
• It will employ a type of radar to map surface elevations and determine whether or not volcanoes and earthquakes are still active.
• Source – The Indian Express

5 – Lapsus$:

Prelims Specific Topic

• It is a cyber-crime organisation based in South America, according to reports.
• Although the group is still relatively new, it has already broken into huge corporations such as Microsoft.
• It has also publicly mocked its victims by exposing source code and internal information.
• Phone-based social engineering, SIM-swapping to assist account takeover, and accessing personal email accounts of staff at target organisations are among their hacking strategies.
• Source – The Indian Express