CURRENT AFFIARS 17th JUNE 2021 Admin CURRENT AFFIARS JUNE 2021 Mon, Jun 21, 2021, at ,10:57 AM => Excess deaths in Tamil Nadu over four time’s official COVID-19 tally· The number of “excess deaths” registered by the Civil Registration System (CRS) in Tamil Nadu ever since the COVID-19 pandemic hit (from April 2020 to May 2021) is 6.2 times the official reported figure of 24,232 deaths. The CRS recorded the number of deaths due to covid 19 as 35,807. The increase of nearly 47% in the death reported in the state health bulletin.=> Soon drones might ferry vaccines· Drones could soon be used for delivering COVID-19 vaccines in remote and hard to reach geographies in the country. The Indian Council of Medical Research has invited expression of interest from drone operators to “Develop a deliver model".· UAVs have been sought by ICMR which can travel upto 35 kms with the supplies and fly at an altitude of at least· ICMR is looking to engage UAV operators to operate “Beyond Visual Line of Site (BVLOS)" in fixed pre-defined and pre-approved flight paths and deliver Medical Supply payloads like Vaccines and drugs to selected locations in India and return to the command station. “The UAV operator must adhere to safety guidelines as per the regulations of DGCA and a prior approval from DGCA will be preferred,"=> Cabinet nod for additional fertilizer subsidy worth ₹14,775 crore· The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has approved the proposal to hike subsidy rates for phosphorus and potassium-based fertilizers by 140% in a bid in a bid to provide relief to farmers as the Kharif sowing season begins.· Bid to provide relief to farmers as the kharif sowing season begins.· The estimated additional subsidy burden is Around Rs.14,775 Crore with the center emphasizing that this is a onetime measure as a part of Covid 19 relief.· Unlike urea, where the Centre sets a fixed maximum retail price, non-urea fertiliser prices are decontrolled, with the Centre fixing nutrient-based subsidy rates each year instead. So far, a 50 kg bag of di-ammonium phosphate (DAP), the fertiliser most popular with Indian farmers after urea, was sold at ₹1,200, including a subsidy of about ₹500.· The Centre has also directed all fertilizer companies to sell all their old stocks of DAP at the old prices only.=> Supreme Court quashes all criminal proceedings against Italian Marines in 2012 sea-firing incident near Kerala coast:· Accepting the compensation of Rupees 10 crores deposited b the Republic of Italy, the Supreme Court quashed the criminal proceedings pending in India against two Italian Marines -Massimilano Latorre and Salvatore Girone - concerning the 2012 sea-firing incident near Kerala coast which killed two Indian fishermen.· A Bench of Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice MR Shah said the compensation of Rs 10 crore paid by the Italian government over and above payments already made was adequate.· Now Italy must immediately start criminal proceedings against the two marines Massimilano Latorre and Salvatore Gironde under its jurisdiction.· We are satisfied with the compensation and the ex-gratia paid over and above earlier. Supreme court using article 142 of the Indian constitution and stated that "This is a fit case to close all proceedings in India,"=> Acquitted But Not Forgotten:· The right to be forgotten must be studied along with the concepts of fair criticism and accountability.· In an important development for the ‘right to be forgotten, the Delhi High Court recently ordered the removal of one of its judgments from easy access.· The petitioner was acquitted of sure crimes by the courtroom and the judgment was freely accessible on the Internet.· Unhappy with this, the petitioner sought to remove the judgment from a number one database platform and search engines like Google.· The courtroom, as a short-lived reduction, requested search engines like Google to take away this order from search outcomes and ordered the database platform to dam the judgment from being accessed by search engines like Google.· The High Court recognized that the petitioner could have a proper to be forgotten, which have to be balanced with the suitable of the general public to enter courts of the report.(Right to Forgotten) Article Link: Click Here to View=> Energy inefficiency can short circuit cooling India· As Indian homes will be a key site where future cooling demand will play out, awareness of energy efficiency is crucial· There is a rise in global temperatures due to climate change because of which we are experiencing more frequent and intense heat waves.· In the last three decades, more than 6heatwavesves have occurred across India causing 12,273 deaths.· India Cooling Action Plan projects the number of room air conditioners to become about four times in the next 10 years, and about 10 times in the next 20 years, making India the world’s largest energy user for cooling.· However, there is an issue that if energy efficiency is not taken into consideration it will ruin India’s mitigation efforts.=> What loss of safe harbor means for Twitter· Micro-blogging platform Twitter is facing fresh heat from the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) for failing to adhere to norms while appointing executives in the roles of Resident Grievance Officer, Nodal Officer and Chief Compliance Officer.· This, according to the government, means that the protection under Section 79 of the Information Technology (IT) Act, accorded to Twitter for being a social media intermediary, now stands withdrawn.=> What is the protection accorded to intermediaries under Section 79 of IT Act?· Section 79 says that any intermediary shall not be held legally or otherwise liable for any third party information, data, or communication link made available or hosted on its platform.=> Speed, the scale of vaccination to shape recovery:· The speed and scale of vaccination against COVID-19 will shape the path of recovery of the economy, which has the resilience and the fundamentals to bounce back from the pandemic and unshackle it from pre-existing cyclical and structural hindrances.· As per the current assessment, the second wave of the pandemic has mainly hit domestic demand, Reserve Bank of India Deputy Governor M.D. Patra and other central bank officials wrote in the article on ‘State of the Economy’.· The economy continued to wrestle with the second wave, though cautious optimism was returning, they opined.· The central bank said views expressed in the article were those of the authors and did not necessarily represent those of the RBI.=> Automation to cull 3-mn IT jobs by 2022:· With automation taking place at a much faster pace across industries, domestic software firms that employ over 16 million are set to slash headcount by 3 million by 2022, that will help them save $100 billion, mostly in salaries annually, Bank of America said in a report.· About 9 million of them are employed in low-skilled services and BPO roles, as per industry association Nasscom.· This is $100-billion in reduced salary and other costs... on the flip side, it offers a likely $10 billion boon for IT firms that successfully implement RPA and $5 billion from a vibrant new software niche by 2022.”=> China offers glimpse of Tibetan life without the Dalai Lama· The Communist Party has been trying to Sinicism Tibetan life.A brisk wind ruffles yellow prayer flags as dozens of Tibetans, some on crutches; circle a shrine in a time-honored Buddhist ritual.· Across the street, a red banner spells out a new belief system, one being enforced with increasing fervor, of China’s ruling Communist Party. “Tibet has eradicated extreme poverty,” reads a 2019 government report on Tibet. “People now lead better lives and live in contentment. A brand new socialist Tibet has taken shape.=> EU nod for more additional Belarus sanctions after forced Ryanair landing· The European Union agreed on additional sanctions on Belarus on Wednesday in response to the forced landing of a Ryanair flight in Minsk and the arrest of a dissident journalist on board in May, an EU diplomat said.· The sanctions, approved by EU Ambassadors and to be adopted by the bloc’s Foreign Ministers at a meeting on Monday, target seven individuals with links to the Belarus aviation sector, according to the diplomat.=> India extends $100 mn loans to Sri Lanka· India and Sri Lanka on signed an expo· Import $100-million loan from the Export Import Bank of India to support the island nation’s efforts to expand solar power coverage.· Issuing a press statement on the bilateral initiative, the Presidential Media Division said one of the “key plans” of the government was to generate solar power, with the contribution o,f state-owned buildings, places of worship and houses of low-income families. “Steps will also be taken to provide facilities to store solar energy in batteries for the low-income families that are unable to access the national power grid.· Sri Lanka has an installed capacity of 4,213 MW of power. While 1,400 MW of that is hydropower, some 900 MW is produced from coal. Over the last five years, Sri Lanka has sought to tap more renewable sources of power, particularly solar power.=> Biden, Putin hold ‘great power’ summit· President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin concluded their summit meeting on Wednesday between what the American leader called “two great powers,” wrapping up more quickly than expected. The pair’s second sit-down, with aides present on both sides, lasted about 65 minutes.· That session was to be divided into two parts with a break in between, but concluded without a second part.· In a press conference held after the summit, Mr. Putin said they have agreed to return their Ambassadors to their posts in a bid to lower tensions. Russia’s Ambassador to the U.S., Anatoly Antonov, was recalled from Washington about three months ago after Biden described Mr. Putin as a killer.· Ambassador to Russia John Sullivan left Moscow almost two months ago after Russia suggested he return to Washington for consultations.=> Rajnath Singh Calls for Open Indo - Pacific· India hoped that the code of conduct for South China Sea (SCS), being negotiated between the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) and China, would lead to outcomes in line with international law, including the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and did not prejudice the legitimate rights and interests of nations that were not party to these discussions, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said on Wednesday.· India supports freedom of navigation, over flight, and unimpeded commerce in these international waterways,=> India to launch deep ocean mission· The Union Cabinet has approved the long pending Deep Ocean Mission, which among other things involves developing a submersible vehicle that will allow a crew to plunge 6,000 meters into the ocean and hunt the floor for precious metals. If this works, India would be among a handful of countries able to launch an underwater mission at such depths. With Cabinet nod, it is poised to be among the few countries that can launch underwater missions.· The Deep Ocean Mission was in 2019 envisaged as a ₹8,000 crore mission, as The Hindu has earlier reported. India has been allotted a site of 75,000 square kilometers in the Central Indian Ocean Basin (CIOB) by the UN International Sea Bed Authority for exploitation of polymetallic nodules (PMN). These are rocks scattered on the seabed containing iron, manganese, nickel and cobalt.