UPSC Daily Current Affairs | Prelim Bits 11-01-2020

Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Center (I4C)

Union Ministry of Home Affairs has inaugurated the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C).
This state-of-the-art Centre is located in New Delhi.
The I4C will deal with all types of cybercrimes in a comprehensive and coordinated manner.
It has seven components viz.,

At the initiative of Union Ministry for Home Affairs (MHA), 15 States and UTs have given their consent to set up Regional Cyber Crime Coordination Centres at respective States/UTs.

National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal

NCCRP (www.cybercrime.gov.in) is a citizen-centric initiative that will enable citizens to report cybercrimes online through the portal.
All the cybercrime related complaints will be accessed by the concerned law enforcement agencies in the States and Union Territories for taking action as per law.
This portal enables filing of all cybercrimes with specific focus on crimes against women, children, particularly child pornography, child sex abuse material, online content pertaining to rapes/gang rapes, etc.
So far, more than 700 police districts and more than 3,900 police stations have been connected with this Portal.
After successful completion, this portal can improve the capacity of the law enforcement agencies to investigate the cases and will improve success in prosecution.
This portal also focuses on specific crimes like financial crime and social media related crimes like stalking, cyber bullying, etc.
This portal will improve coordination amongst the law enforcement agencies of different States, districts and police stations for dealing with cybercrimes in a coordinated and effective manner.

State Energy Efficiency Index 2019

‘State Energy Efficiency Index 2019’, tracks the progress of Energy Efficiency (EE) initiatives in 36 states and union territories based on 97 significant indicators.
Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) develops the index in association with Alliance for an Energy Efficient Economy (AEEE).
It will help states contribute towards national goals on energy security and climate action by helping drive EE policies and program implementation at the state and local level, tracking progress in managing the states’ and India’s energy footprint and institutionalizing the data capture and monitoring of EE activities by states.
The first such Index, the “State Energy Efficiency Preparedness Index 2018”, was launched on August 1, 2018.
New indicators for this year include adoption of Energy Conservation Building Code (ECBC) 2017, energy efficiency in MSME clusters, etc.
For rational comparison, States/UTs are grouped into four groups based on aggregated Total Primary Energy Supply (TPES) required to meet the state’s actual energy demand (electricity, coal, oil, gas, etc.) across sectors.
TPES grouping shall help states compare performance and share best practices within their peer group.

Integrated Steel Hub

Ministry of steel in partnership with CII and JPC is organizing the launch of Purvodaya-Accelerated Development of Eastern Region through an Integrated Steel hub.
The proposed Integrated Steel Hub, encompassing Odisha, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal and Northern Andhra Pradesh, would serve as a torchbearer for socio-economic growth of Eastern India.
The objective of this hub would be to enable swift capacity addition and improve overall competitiveness of steel producers in terms of both cost and quality.
In addition to increased steel capacity, this hub would also help enhance best-in- class value addition capabilities.
The Integrated Steel Hub would focus on 3 key elements:

Capacity addition through easing the setup of greenfield steel plants
Development of steel clusters near integrated steel plants as well as demand centres
Transformation of logistics and utilities infrastructure which would change the socio-economic landscape in the East

These elements would be supported through additional enablers such as ensured availability of raw materials, presence of supporting industries such as capital goods and well-established avenues for skill development.
12 major steel zones identified in the region are

These include major rail, road and port capacity expansion projects to debottleneck existing capacity and create world-class multimodal logistics infrastructure across these zones

Scrubbers in Ships

Scrubber systems are a diverse group of air pollution control devices that can be used to remove some particulates and/or gases from industrial exhaust streams.
The International Maritime Organization’s (IMO) adopted the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (MARPOL) Annex VI in 2008 that regulates the prevention of air pollution from ships and prohibits deliberate emissions of ozone-depleting substances such as Sulphur oxides and nitrous oxides.
Following the adoption, exhaust scrubbers have become one of the most preferred ways of reducing Sulphur exhaust as they ‘scrub’ pollutants out of emissions.
However, out of the two types those are being used widely, while closed-loop scrubbers retain the Sulphur emissions for safer disposal at port, open-loop scrubbers release pollutants back in the sea after turning the Sulphur dioxide into sulphuric acid.
According to recent reports, there has been a huge increase in the use of open-loop scrubbers in Indian ships in just last one year.
The IMO it approves the use of open-loop scrubbers, deeming them as an ‘equivalent’ – which is defined as ‘any fitting, appliance or apparatus to be fitted in a ship or other procedures, alternative fuel oils, or compliance methods used as an alternative’.
However, it has strict guidelines for discharge of wash water from exhaust gas cleaning systems.

Coronavirus

Chinese researchers has identified a new virus, it was responsible for a new pneumonia-like illness.
The researchers described the infectious agent as a “coronavirus”, identified in a hospitalized person with pneumonia in Wuhan.
Coronaviruses are a specific family of viruses, with some of them causing less-severe damage, such as the common cold, and others causing respiratory and intestinal diseases.
A coronavirus has many “regularly arranged” protrusions on its surface, because of which the entire virus particle looks like an emperor’s crown, hence the name “coronavirus”.
Apart from human beings, coronaviruses can affect mammals including pigs, cattle, cats, dogs, martens, camels, hedgehogs and some birds.
So far, there are four known disease-causing coronaviruses, among which the best known are the SARS corona virus and the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) coronavirus, both of which can cause severe respiratory diseases.
In the newly identified coronavirus, a direct link with the disease has not been established yet.

Source: PIB, Indian Express, Down to Earth