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A gang smuggling at least eight orangutans has escaped through Chennai, allegedly with the help of some police personnel. Following the incident, four personnel, including a Sub-Inspector, have been placed under suspension.
Sources said a fortnight ago, SI Ashok and constables Mahesh, Krishnamoorthy and Vallarasu, all attached to the Red Hills police station in Chennai, intercepted a vehicle carrying the orangutans.
The smugglers bribed some of the police personnel, who let the gang proceed. Senior officers later got a tip-off about the incident. An inquiry has been ordered.
Orangutans, a critically endangered species, are native to the rainforests of Malaysia and Indonesia.
States
ERCP takes a political twist as M.P. approaches SC for stay (Page no. 4)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
The proposed Eastern Rajasthan Canal Project (ERCP), set to benefit 13 districts through interlinking of three rivers, has taken a political twist as neighbouring Madhya Pradesh has approached the Supreme Court seeking a stay on the project’s execution. Rajasthan has also been demanding the national project status for ERCP.
The Supreme Court has issued notices to the Union Jal Shakti Ministry and the Environment Ministry, the Central Water Commission and the Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh governments in the case. The matter will come up for hearing in the apex court on March 17.
Madhya Pradesh has also sought a stay on the construction of the Navnera barrage on Kali Sindh river in Kota district. The ERCP is a major initiative for interlinking of the Parvati, Kali Sindh and Chambal rivers.
While Madhya Pradesh has raised objections in view of the Chambal river flowing 376 km in that State, the Rajasthan government has maintained that any of the two States could use water from its catchment area as well as 10% of the water received from the other after an agreement reached in the Inter-State Water Control Board in 2005.
Madhya Pradesh has itself built the Mohanpura dam on the Newaj river, a tributary of Parvati river, and the Kundalia dam on Kali Sindh river, because of which about 2.65-lakh hectare irrigation area was developed in that State.
The no objection certificate was obtained by the Madhya Pradesh government after the construction of dams in 2017.
Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot has termed the M.P. government’s petition an attempt to deprive Rajasthan of its share of the river waters.
He said the ERCP’s detailed project report had been prepared in compliance with the 2010 guidelines of the CWC and added that both the Centre and Madhya Pradesh were trying to stop the rightful water for eastern Rajasthan.
An average of 19,000 million cubic metres of water is wasted every year in Chambal and flows into the sea, according to the data of the CWC’s river gauge station in Dholpur for 36 years.
The ERCP requires only 3,500 MCM of water to meet the drinking and irrigation needs of the people of Rajasthan.
Editorial
Cyberattacks are rising, but there is an ideal patch (Page no. 8)
(GS Paper 3, Cyber Security)
The past few weeks have highlighted the soft underbelly of our fast expanding digital networks. The first was the ransomware attack on the servers of India’s premium institute, the All India Institute of Medical Sciences.
Nearly 40 million health records were compromised and it took over two weeks for the systems to be brought online. Soon afterwards, a ransomware gang, BlackCat, breached the parent company of Solar Industries Limited, one of the Ministry of Defence’s ammunition and explosives manufacturers, and extracted over 2 Terabyte of data.
Ransomwares have emerged as the most predominant of malicious cyberattacks. Here, the perpetrators demand hefty payments for the release of withheld data.
Data show that over 75% of Indian organisations have faced such attacks, with each breach costing an average of ₹35 crore of damage. There are other malwares that could infect all kinds of computer systems.
With the lines between the physical and digital realms blurring rapidly, every critical infrastructure, from transportation, power and banking systems, would become extremely vulnerable to the assaults from hostile state and non-state actors.
Cyber capabilities are also playing a pivotal role, as seen in the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, where electronic systems in warheads, radars and communication devices have reportedly been rendered ineffective using hacking and GPS jamming.
With cyber threats capable of undermining our critical infrastructure, industry and security, a comprehensive cyber security policy is the need of the hour.
In 2022, the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In), which is India’s cybersecurity agency, introduced a set of guidelines for organisations to comply with when connected to the digital realm.
This included the mandatory obligation to report cyberattack incidents within hours of identifying them, and designating a pointsperson with domain knowledge to interact with CERT-In.
India’s draft Digital Personal Protection Bill 2022 proposes a penalty of up to ₹500 crore for data breaches. Recently, India’s armed forces created a Defence Cyber Agency (DCyA), capable of offensive and defensive manoeuvres. All Indian States have their own cyber command and control centres.
News
Navy submarine docks in Indonesia (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 2, International Relations)
In line with the expanding military cooperation with South East Asian nations, an Indian Navy Kilo class conventional submarine, INS Sindhukesari, docked in Jakarta, Indonesia, for the first time from February 22 to 24.
Highly enriching engagements with the Indonesian Navy conducted during port call, strengthening maritime partnership between India and Indonesia towards safer and secure Indo-Pacific.
The submarine, which was on operational deployment, travelled through the Sunda Strait and undertook the maiden docking in Indonesia for Operational Turnaround (OTR), a defence source said. Naval ships regularly make port calls to countries in the region, the source added.
The OTR in Jakarta, over 2,000 nautical miles away from its home base in Visakhapatnam, significantly expands the area operational reach of the submarine arm near crucial shipping lanes and the strategic Malacca Strait.
In the past, Indonesia gave access to its Sabang port to Indian Naval ships for operational turnaround.
India has steadily expanded its defence and security cooperation with countries in the region, many of which are engaged in disputes with China in the South China Sea.
In recent years, India has signed logistics support agreements with several countries to enhance reach of military assets.
Birders delight: Bengal reports 489 species during count (Page no. 12)
(GS Paper 3, Environment)
West Bengal reported the highest number of species of birds, followed by Uttarakhand and Arunachal Pradesh during the Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC) 2023 across 35 States and Union Territories from February 17 to February 20.
While West Bengal reported 489 species, Uttarakhand recorded 426, Arunachal Pradesh 407, Assam 397 and Karnataka 371 species.
Tamil Nadu and Kerala took the eighth and ninth spots with 349 and 325 species, respectively. Kerala, on the other hand, recorded the highest number of checklists of birds, the Bird Count India (BCI) said in a statement on Friday.
It took the top spot in the checklist category by uploading 9,768 lists of birds. Maharashtra with 7,414 lists and Tamil Nadu with 6,098 were placed second and third, respectively.
The BCI is an informal partnership of organisations and groups working together to increase collective knowledge about bird distributions and populations.
India was among 190 countries that participated in the GBBC 2023, an annual event that brings bird enthusiasts, students and nature enthusiasts together for counting birds they see around the places where they live, work or study.
The preliminary report released by the BCI said that more than 46,000 checklists and a total of 1,067 avian species were uploaded on e-Bird, an online platform to record bird observations.
The GBBC 2023 showed India’s birds are thriving in diverse habitats from the city to the countryside. A remarkable increase in participation across the country helped India upload the second-highest number of checklists after the United States and the third-highest species of any country.
“The event was significant as it encouraged students to learn more about birds and to take initiatives to observe them. Pune birders uploaded more than 5,900 lists, the most among urban centres.
According to the BCI, the data contributed by citizen scientists are used by scientists and conservationists to better understand and protect bird species. The GBBC was launched in 1998. The Bird Count India organises the GBBC in the country.
MGNREGS: over 40% of gram panchayats do not report digital attendance (Page no. 12)
(GS Paper 2, Welfare Schemes)
It has been 55 days since the government made it mandatory to capture the attendance of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) workers through a mobile application — National Mobile Monitoring System (NMMS).
However, the Ministry of Rural Development’s own statistics point out that 41.3% of the gram panchayats have reported no NMMS usage.
As per the Ministry statistics (MIS report 21.6), as on Friday, the NMMS usage has been reported only in 1,58,390 of the total 2,69,637 gram panchayats.
The work of recording the attendance at each worksite is done by the MGNREGS mates or supervisors. A total of 3,83,421 mates have registered on the NMMS, but so far only 99,687 registered devices have been used to record the attendance, which is merely 25.9%.
However, according to Ministry officials, an average of 85% of MGNREGS worksites currently use the NMMS app to collect data.
Only community work under MGNREGS requires NMMS. Out of this also, keeping in mind the area-specific challenges such as low connectivity in hilly regions or remote areas, the District Programme Coordinator has the power to give exemption.
Activists though claim that the low usage shows that there is a slowdown in MGNREGS work. Under the banner of NREGA Sangarsh Morcha, workers from across the country are holding a 100-day protest at the Jantar Mantar in New Delhi.