Daily Current Affairs : 29th and 30th April 2022

Daily Current Affairs for UPSC CSE

  1. Quarterly Employment Survey
  2. Menthol Cigrattes
  3. Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In)
  4. Global Security initiative
  5. Facts for Prelims

1 . Quarterly Employment Survey


Context : Ministry of Labour and Employment (MOLE) released the Report of third quarter of Quarterly Employment Survey (QES) for the period October-December, 2021, prepared by the Labour Bureau, an attached office of MOLE.

About the Survey

  • The AQEES has been taken up by the Labour Bureau to provide frequent (quarterly) updates about the employment and related variables of establishments in both organized and unorganized segments of nine selected sectors, which account for a majority of the total employment in the non-farm establishments.
  • QES captures employment data in respect of establishments employing 10 or more workers, mostly constituting the organized segment, in the nine selected sectors. These sectors are Manufacturing, Construction, Trade, Transport, Education, Health, Accommodation & Restaurants, IT/ BPOs and Financial Services.
  • These nine sectors accounted for about 85% of the total employment in units with 10 or more workers in the 6th Economic Census.

Key Findings of the Survey

  • The Report indicates increasing trend in employment in organized segment, employing 10 or more workers, of the selected nine sectors.
  • ‘Manufacturing’ sector is the largest employer accounting for around 39% of the estimated total number of workers followed by Education Sector 22%.
  • Almost all (99.4%) establishments were registered under different statutes.
  • Overall around 23.55% of units provided on-the-job training to their workers.
  • Among 9 sectors, 34.87% of units in health sector provided on-the-job training, followed by IT/BPOs at 31.1%.
  • About 1.85 lakhs vacancies were reported across the 9 sectors.
  • 85.3% of the workers were Regular workers and 8.9% contract workers.
  • Over four lakh jobs were created in firms with 10 or more workers in nine selected sectors in October-December 2021

2 . Menthol Cigrattes


Context : The US Food and Drug Administration on Thursday (April 28) issued a proposal to ban menthol cigarettes and flavoured cigars, a move aimed at not just curbing smoking in the American population, but also “reducing tobacco-related health disparities”.

Background

  • Tobacco companies add menthol to make cigarettes seem less harsh and more appealing to new smokers and young people.
  • Menthol cigarettes are not less harmful. They are just as dangerous as non-menthol cigarettes.

What is Menthol?

  • Menthol is a chemical compound found naturally in peppermint and other similar plants. Menthol can also be produced in a lab.
  • Even though many brands of cigarettes are marketed as “menthol cigarettes,” almost all cigarettes sold in the U.S. contain at least some natural or lab-created menthol.
  • Usually, there is more menthol in cigarettes marketed as “menthol” than in other cigarettes. According to federal law, tobacco manufacturers cannot market cigarettes with characterizing flavors (i.e. that have a distinct taste), except for cigarettes that taste like menthol or tobacco.
  • Menthol in cigarettes creates a cooling sensation in the throat and airways when the user inhales, making cigarette smoke feel less harsh on the user.1,3 Tobacco companies market menthol cigarettes as “smoother” than other cigarettes.3 However, menthol cigarettes are not less harmful than other cigarettes and they are likely a greater risk to public health than non-menthol cigarettes.

Why is Menthol in Cigarettes Dangerous?

  • Smoking any kind of cigarette, including menthol cigarettes, is harmful and increases risk for serious illness and death.
  • Studies have shown that menthol in cigarettes likely leads people—especially young people—to experiment with smoking.
  • It also could increase a young person’s risk of becoming dependent on nicotine.
  • Compared to adults who smoke non-menthol cigarettes, adults who smoke menthol cigarettes make more attempts to quit smoking and have a harder time quitting
  • Marketing messages imply that menthol cigarettes are a “healthier” alternative. This is not true; menthol cigarettes are just as dangerous as any other type of cigarette.

3 . Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In)


Context : The Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) has made it mandatory for all service providers, intermediaries, data centre providers, corporates as well as government organisations to report cyber incidents within six hours of their detection.

About the News

  • “During the course of handling cyber incidents and interactions with the constituency, CERT-In has identified certain gaps causing hindrance in incident analysis,
  • To address the identified gaps and facilitate incident response measures, CERT-In had issued directions relating to information security practices, procedure, prevention, response and reporting of cyber incidents. These directions will take effect after 60 days.
  • “Any service provider, intermediary, data centre, body corporate and government organisation shall mandatorily report cyber incidents… to CERT-In within 6 hours of noticing such incidents or being brought to notice about such incidents,” the directions issued by CERT-In state.

About CERT IN

  • CERT-In is an acronym for ‘Indian Computer Emergency Response Team’. CERT-In is the National Incident Response Centre for major computer security incidents in its constituency i.e. Indian cyber community.
  • A computer security incident is any real or suspected adverse event in relation to the security of computer systems or networks. It is an act of violating explicit or implied security policy resulting in, unauthorised access, denial of service/disruption, unauthorised use of a system for processing or storage of data or changes to system software, hardware, firmware characteristics without the owner’s knowledge.
  • CERT-in has been established by, and runs under the aegis of Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Government of India.

Role of CERT In

  • CERT-In’s primary role is to raise security awareness among Indian cyber community and to provide technical assistance and advice them to help them recover form computer security incidents.
  • CERT-In provides technical advice to System Administrators and users to respond to computer security incidents. It also identifies trends in intruder activity, works with other similar institutions & organisations to resolve major security issues, and disseminates information to the Indian cyber community.
  • CERT-In also enlightens its constituents about the security awareness and best practices for various systems & networks by publishing advisories, guidelines and other technical documents.

4 . Global Security initiative


Context : A new Global Security Initiative put forward by Chinese President Xi Jinping will look to counter the U.S. Indo-Pacific strategy and the Quad – the India, U.S., Australia, Japan grouping – according to Chinese officials.

Background

  • Mr. Xi last week first proposed what he called a Global Security Initiative, speaking at the Boao Forum in China, warning against “hegemonism, power politics and bloc confrontation”.
  • “China would like to propose a Global Security Initiative, that is, to stay committed to the vision of common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security,” he said, which would “oppose unilateralism, and say no to group politics and bloc confrontation.”
  • Specifically, he said this would “oppose the wanton use of unilateral sanctions and long-arm jurisdiction”, appearing to refer to Western sanctions.

Principles

  • Countries should respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries, uphold the principle of non-interference in internal affairs, and respect the independent choices of development paths and social systems made by people in different countries.
  • The countries should stay committed to taking the legitimate security concerns of all countries seriously, uphold the principle of indivisible security, build balanced, effective, and sustainable security architecture, and oppose the pursuit of one’s own security at the cost of others’ security.
  • The countries should be committed to resolve their differences and disputes through dialogue and consultation in a peaceful environment, support all efforts conducive to the peaceful settlement of crisis, reject hypocrisy or double standards, and oppose the frenetic use of unilateral sanctions and long-arm jurisdiction of international institutions.
  • The countries should be committed to maintaining security in both conventional and non-conventional domains, and work together on regional disputes and global challenges such as terrorism, climate change, cybersecurity and biosecurity.
  • The Asian countries to follow the path of peace and development and seek win-win cooperation. No matter their size and strength, the countries both in and outside the region should add grandiosity rather than trouble to Asia.
  • Countries should choose dialogue and cooperation over zero-sum games, openness and inclusiveness over a closed-door and exclusive approach, and exchanges and mutual learning over a sense of superiority because it is the only choice worthy of the broad-mindedness of Asians.

5 . Facts for Prelims


e-Shram portal 

  • Ministry of Labour & Employment has developed eSHRAM portal for creating a National Database of Unorganized Workers (NDUW), which will be seeded with Aadhaar.
  • It will have details of name, occupation, address,  educational qualification, skill types and family details etc. for optimum realization of their employability and extend the benefits of the social security schemes to them.
  • It is the first-ever national database of unorganised workers including migrant workers, construction workers, gig and platform workers, etc.

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