UPSC Prelims News 6 December 2022

UPSC Prelims News of 6 December 2022

Dark Web

Context: Patient records from a Tamil Nadu hospital are being illegally sold on dark web.

What is Dark Web?

The dark web is the hidden collective of internet sites which can only be accessed by a specialized web browser.
It is used for keeping internet activity anonymous and private, which is useful in both legal and illegal applications.
Usage of dark web:
- Dark web is used by individuals who would otherwise be endangered by revealing their identities online.
- Abuse and persecution victims, whistleblowers, and political dissidents are known to use dark web for their activities.
- Dark web is also a hub for illegal activities such as selling/buying private data, narcotics, arms, pornographic material etc.

Deep Web:

The term “deep web” refers to all web pages that that are unidentifiable by search engines. Deep web sites may be hidden behind passwords or other security walls.
Deep web accounts for approximately 90% of all websites. Majority portion of deep web is perfectly legal and safe.
Most of them are kept hidden from the open web to protect user information and privacy.
Deep web also includes the portion that is known as the dark web.

UPSC Prelims News 5 December 2022

India’s First Drone Station to Transport Medicines

Context: India’s first drone station for transporting medicines was innaugurated at Meghalaya’s West Garo Hills district.

More on the New:

The station makes use of certiplane X3 drone, which has a capacity of flying with a payload of up to 4 kg.
The drone service is a joint initiative of the Meghalaya Health Systems Strengthening Project and Techeagle, and the project is funded by the World Bank.
The drug delivery is being handled by TechEagle, a drone logistic service provider helmed by ex-IIT students.

Other Potential uses of Droone Station Facility:

It will also be able to transport diagnostic samples, vaccines, blood components and other medical equipments.
Flying seeds to farmers and transporting their agricultural produce to the markets are some of the other possibilities using drones.

Need for Drone Trnsport:

Accessibility: It is difficult to transport drugs to interiror due to due to floods and landslides, difficult terrain and a challenging road network infrastructure.
Cost and time effective: The time taken to transport drugs over drones is cheaper and time saving compared to road transport.

International Lusophone Festival

Context: Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) in partnership with Indian Council of Cultural Relations (ICCR) and the Government of Goa is organizing the International Lusophone Festival in Goa from 3-6 December 2022.

Highlights:

The festival seeks to further India’s connect with the Lusophone world.
Goa has had historical linkages with the Lusophone world, nurtured through the presence of Portuguese cultural institutions like the Orient Foundation and the Camoes Institute which promote the Portuguese language and culture in India.
India and Lusophone Trade: Lusophone economies are among the fastest-growing in the world, with Brazil, Angola, Portugal, Mozambique being some of them.
- India’s trade with the Lusophone world has grown six-fold in the last decade.

About Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP):

It is also known as the Lusophone Commonwealth (ComunidadeLusofona), is a multilateral forum, founded on 17 July 1996.
Members: Angola, Brazil, Cabo Verde, Guinea Bissau, Mozambique, Portugal, Sao Tome e Principe, Timor Leste and Equatorial Guinea.
- These 9 Lusophone countries comprise approximately 300 million people in 4 different continents (Africa, Latin America, Asia and Europe).
India joined CPLP as an associate observer in July 2021.
- As part of India’s engagement with CPLP, the Ministry of External Affairs celebrated the World Portuguese Language Day in Delhi on 5 May 2022.

Significance of Portuguese:

It is one of the official languages of the continental organisations: African Union, Organization of American States, European Union and of multiple regional organisations, as well as official language of UNESCO General Conference.
More than 265-million speakers worldwide; most widely spoken language in the Southern Hemisphere.
It is regarded as the language of the first globalisation in the modern era.

Sri Aurobindo

Context: 6^th December marks the death anniversary of Sri Aurobindo.

About Sri Aurobindo

Aurobindo Ghose was born in Calcutta on 15th August 1872.
He was a yogi, seer, philosopher, poet, and Indian nationalist who propounded a philosophy of divine life on earth through spiritual evolution.
During the freedom struggle, he was imprisoned in 1908 (Alipore Bomb case).Two years later he fled British India and found refuge in the French colony of Pondicherry.
He met Mirra Alfassa in Pondicherry, and their spiritual collaboration led to “Integral Yoga”.
- Integral Yoga, is a yoga of Earth transformation. The aim of this yoga is not an escape from life or a shunning of worldly existence, but a radical change in our life even while living amidst it.
In Pondicherry he founded a community of spiritual seekers, which took shape as the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in 1926.
Literary works:
- An English newspaper called Bande Mataram (in 1905)
- The Life Divine
- Essays on the Gita
- The Synthesis of Yoga
- Savitri: A Legend and a Symbol
- On the Veda