BENEVOLENT IAS ACADEMY, COIMBATORE (DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS)

BENEVOLENT IAS ACADEMY

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Dated 01.11.2019

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UPSC-IAS|IPS|IFS (PRELIMS + MAINS FOCUS)

IN NEWS

The German Chancellor’s comments came after New Delhi and Berlin agreed to work on

bilateral and multilateral platforms to counter terrorism and extremism.

EXAM POINT OF VIEW : International Relation and disputes and contracts

The German leader who is on a three-day visit sealed 17

MoUs and five Joint Declarations of Intent covering a wide

range of issues including agriculture, education, marine

science and heritage conservation.

The German leader's comments came hours after India and Germany agreed to work on bilateral and multilateral platforms to counter terrorism and extremism.

A Joint Statement issued after official consultation expressed firm opposition to international terrorism and urged the global community to act against safe havens and sanctuaries of terrorists saying that both sides oppose terrorism in all its “forms and manifestations”. So, my dear civil aspirants we will discuss in detail about Indo German Relation briefly

BENEVOLENT IAS ACADEMY, COIMBATORE (DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS)

Source: All India Radio (AIR) 1st Sep 2017.

Indo German Relationship

India and Germany

India is one of the first countries to end the state of war with post-war Germany in 1951 and amongst

the first countries to recognize the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG). India and Germany have a

‘strategic partnership’ since 2001, which has been further strengthened with two rounds of

Intergovernmental Consultations (IGC). There have been regular interactions between Parliamentarians

of the two countries. The Indo-German Parliamentary Group in the German Bundestag, established in

1971, has contributed to strengthening links between the two Parliaments.

The closeness in relation with Germany started in 2000 when special green cards were introduced for

Indians to encourage Indian students to go to Germany and also encouraged business visas so that

Indian business can go to Germany and there is better flow of trade between India and Germany.

Impact of closeness between India and Germany

India will have to engage much more with Germany and France after Brexit as far as bilateral

relationship is concerned. This is good for India as Germany comes with good source of investment and

are not protectionist.

German partnership is very important for making Skill India Mission successful. If 800 million Indian

youth get skill as per the global standards, then the youth power can contribute to India’s development.

Germany has set global parameters in skill development which are very apt for India.

Germany and India were part of G-4 to fight for permanent membership of UN Security Council. This

was huge step forward in India German relationship. Also, in NSG, Germany and France have supported

India.

Terrorism

India and Germany have established a joint working group on counter terrorism which has led to critical

sharing of intelligence. On the perception of need to fight international terrorism, Germany is

supportive of India’s position, including in the UN that India has a threat from neighbourhood which

threatens the unity of India.

UPSC MODEL QUESTION

Write a critical note on the India – Germany relationship? (200 Words)

BENEVOLENT IAS ACADEMY, COIMBATORE (DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS)

TODAY’S IMPORTANT CURRENT AFFAIRS

UPSC-IAS|IPS|IFS (PRELIMS + MAINS FOCUS)

NEWS : Govt questions whatsapp after spyware is used for snooping

Context

WhatsApp filed a case against Israeli cyber-surveillance firm NSO Group in federal

court in San Francisco claiming the company’s spy technology was used on the

popular messaging service in a wide-ranging campaign targeting journalists and

human-rights activists.

As per WhatsApp, journalists and human rights activists in India have been targets of

surveillance by operators using Israeli spyware Pegasus.

The Pegasus method

To monitor a target, a Pegasus operator must convince a target to click on a specially

crafted ‘exploit link’ which allows the operator to penetrate security features on the

phone and installs Pegasus without the user’s knowledge or permission.

Once the phone is exploited and Pegasus installed, it begins contacting the operator’s

command and control servers to receive and execute operator commands, and send

back the target’s private data, including passwords, contact lists, calendar events, text

messages, and live voice calls from popular mobile messaging apps.

The operator can even turn on the phone’s camera and microphone to capture activity

in the phone’s vicinity. In the latest vulnerability, the subject of the lawsuit, clicking

the ‘exploit link’ may also not be required and a missed video call on WhatsApp will

have enabled opening up the phone, without a response from the target at all.

BENEVOLENT IAS ACADEMY, COIMBATORE (DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS)

Uncertainty over RCEP continues

Context: Ahead of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) summit

meeting, which is expected to conclude the 16-nation FTA, India is unwilling to sign Free

Trade Agreement as per Union Commerce Minister.

What is the RCEP?

The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) is a trade deal that is

currently under negotiation among 16 countries — the 10 member countries of the

Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), and the six countries with which the

ASEAN bloc has free trade agreements (FTA).

The ASEAN includes Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the

Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. The other 6 countries are India,

Australia, China, South Korea, Japan and New Zealand.

The RCEP countries account for almost half of the world’s population, contribute 25%

of the world exports, and make up around 30% of global GDP and hence RCEP is

considered to be one of the largest regional trade agreement. The negotiations are

focussed on areas like trade in goods and services, investment, economic and technical

cooperation, intellectual property, competition, dispute settlement, e-commerce, and

small and medium enterprises.

India’s issues with RCEP

It would give China uncontrolled access to India markets.

Cheap imports from China have already been seen to be impacting India’s domestic

industry, with the Indian government having taken a number of steps to curb such

imports.

BENEVOLENT IAS ACADEMY, COIMBATORE (DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS)

These include imposing a safeguard duty on solar panel imports, and imposing anti-

dumping measures on items such as steel.

According to reports from the various RCEP negotiations that have taken place, India

would, under the agreement, reduce duties on 80% of items imported from China. While

this is a smaller percentage of items as compared to what India is prepared to do for

other countries, the figure has nevertheless spooked Indian industry, especially the

agriculture and dairy sectors.

Under the agreement, India would have to cut duties on 86% of imports from Australia

and New Zealand, and 90% for products from ASEAN, Japan and South Korea.

Further, there is also the fear that companies might be forced to transfer huge royalty

sums to foreign partners, instead of paying dividends to Indian shareholders.

Hyderabad figures in Unesco list

Hyderabad is among the 66 cities named by the Unesco in the list of new Creative Cities

which aims at pushing the Sustainable Development Goals through innovative thinking and

action.

UNESCO has 193 member states and 11 associate members.[4]

Most of its field offices are

"cluster" offices covering three or more countries; national and regional offices also exist.

UNESCO pursues its objectives through five major programs: education, natural

sciences, social/human sciences, culture and communication/information.

Head quaters : Paris, France

Founded on : 4 November 1945

BENEVOLENT IAS ACADEMY, COIMBATORE (DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS)

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TNPSC|SSC|RRB|BANK

Pavan Kapoor took charge as India's new Ambassador to the United Arab Emirates

(UAE).

The Spanish government confirmed that it made its bid to host the COP25 climate summit

on the scheduled dates of 2-13 December 2019. The move comes after Chile withdrew its

plans to host the summit due to deadly anti-government protests. The COP25 summit is

aimed to bring out details of the implementation of the Paris Agreement climate pact.

United Nations Climate Change Conference:

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

(UNFCCC) Conference of the Parties (COP) aims to assess progress

in dealing with climate change. The first UN Climate Change

Conference COP-1 was held from 28 March to 7 April 1995 in

Berlin, Germany.

East Siang HQ Pasighat of Arunachal Pradesh is to host Multilingual writers meet at the

College of Horticulture & Forestry on 2nd and 3rd November 2019. The event is held for the

first time ever.

G C Murmu was sworn in as first Lt Governor of the union territory

of J&K after the bifurcation of the state into two union territories of

J&K and Ladakh. The oath of office to Murmu was administered by

Jammu and Kashmir Chief Justice Gita Mittal at Raj Bhawan at the

foothills of the Zaberwan range, J&K on 31 October.

Ex-IAS Officer Radha Krishna Mathur took oath as the first Lieutenant Governor of the Union

Territory (UT) of Ladakh.

BENEVOLENT IAS ACADEMY, COIMBATORE (DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS)

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TNPSC Group I, II, IV & VAO

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