International
Iran-Russia Maritime Security Belt 2021

Relevance IN - Prelims (about Iran-Russia Maritime Security Belt 2021)
What's the NEWS

• Indian Navy said that it is not participating in the two-day naval exercise dubbed "Iran-Russia Maritime Security Belt 2021" in the northern part of the Indian Ocean.
• The news reports regarding Indian Navy participating in Iran-Russia Maritime exercise is incorrect

Know! more about the exercise

• Reports had earlier claimed that the Indian Navy has joined a drill alongside forces and vessels from the navy divisions of both the Iranian army and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and the Russian Navy.
• The commander of the Iranian Navy, has said that the Chinese Navy will also be participating in the exercise.
• The drill will cover an area of 17,000 square kilometres (6,500 square miles). It will include shooting at sea and air targets and liberating hijacked ships, as well as search and rescue and anti-piracy operations
• Forces and vessels from the navy divisions of both the Iranian army and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) participated in the drill, which kicked off alongside several vessels from the Russian navy.
• The exercise we are conducting with Russia is so flexible that not only one other country, but several others could join in later if they wish to do so
• The Chinese Navy will also be participating in the exercise. In 2019, Iran, Russia and China held similar naval exercise.

Bilateral Relations
Comprehensive Economic cooperation and Partnership Agreement
Relevance IN - Prelims ( about Cooperation and Partnership Agreement (CECPA) + Mains (GS II bilateral relations)
What's the NEWS

• The Union Cabinet, chaired by the Prime Minister, has approved signing of the Comprehensive Economic Cooperation and Partnership Agreement (CECPA) between India and Mauritius.

India-Mauritius CECPA ( salient Features)

• The India-Mauritius CECPA will be the first trade Agreement to be signed by India with a country in Africa.
• The Agreement is a limited agreement, which will cover Trade in Goods, Rules of Origin, Trade in Services, Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT), Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) measures, Dispute Settlement, Movement of Natural Persons, Telecom, Financial services, Customs Procedures and Cooperation in other Areas

Impact or benefits:

• CECPA provides for an institutional mechanism to encourage and improve trade between the two countries.
• The CECPA between India and Mauritius covers 310 export items for India
• Mauritius will benefit from preferential market access into India for its 615 products
• As regards trade in services, Indian service providers will have access to around 115 sub-sectors from the 11 broad service sectors
• India has offered around 95 sub-sectors from the 11 broad services sectors, including professional services, R&D, other business services, telecommunication, financial, distribution, higher education, environmental, health, tourism and travel related services, recreational services and transport services.
• Both sides have also agreed to negotiate an Automatic Trigger Safeguard Mechanism (ATSM) for a limited number of highly sensitive products within two years of the Signing of the Agreement.

Know! about India and Mauritius Relations

• India and Mauritius enjoy excellent bilateral relations, sustained by historic cultural affinities, frequent high-level political interactions, development cooperation, defence and maritime partnership, and people to people linkages.
• Mauritius is an important development partner of India. India had extended a ‘Special Economic Package' of USD 353 million to Mauritius in 2016.
• The new Supreme Court building project is one of the five projects being implemented under this package and was jointly inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Prime Minister of Mauritius PravindJugnauth in July 2020.
•  In October 2019, Prime Minister Modi and the PM of Mauritius had jointly inaugurated the Phase -I of the Metro Express Project and the 100-bed state of the art ENT hospital project in Mauritius, also built under the special economic package.
• Since 2005, India has been among the largest trading partners of Mauritius, and has been one of the largest exporters of goods and services to Mauritius.
• According to the International Trade Centre (ITC), in 2019, the main import partners of Mauritius were India (13.85%), China (16.69%), South Africa (8.07%), and UAE (7.28%).
• The bilateral trade between India and Mauritius has registered a growth of 233% from USD 206.76 million in Financial Year (FY) 2005-06 to USD 690.02 million in FY 2019-20.
• India's exports to Mauritius surged 232% from USD 199.43 million in FY 2005-06 to USD 662.13 million in FY 2019-20, while India's imports from Mauritius increased 280% from USD7.33 million in 2005-06 to USD 27.89 million in FY 2019-20.

Social Issues
Cabinet approves Amendments to the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act 2015 -recent amendments) + Mains ( GS II Social issues)

What's the NEWS

• The Union Cabinet, chaired by the Prime Minister, has approved the proposal of the Ministry of Women and Child Development to amend the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 to introduce measures for strengthening Child Protection set-up to ensure best interest of children.
• A bill in this regard would be brought in Parliament to amend The Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act 2015, that will expand its purview.
• Plans are afoot to ensure that Indian embassies in every country follow up on children adopted by foreigners for a period of two years from the day they land there.
• There is a proposal to appoint a nodal office in each embassy to monitor the child adopted abroad

Know! the amendments cleared by the Cabinet

• The amendments include authorizing District Magistrate including Additional District Magistrate to issue adoption orders under Section 61 of the JJ Act, in order to ensure speedy disposal of cases and enhance accountability.
• The District Magistrates have been further empowered under the Act, to ensure its smooth implementation, as well as garner synergized efforts in favour of children in distress conditions.
• Child victims of trafficking, drug abuse and those abandoned by their guardians will be included in the definition of "child in need of care" and protection under the amended law
• The amendments also categorise certain previously undefined offences as 'serious offences'.
• At present, the act has three categories of petty, serious and heinous crimes. One more category will be included of offences where the maximum sentence is more than 7 years but no minimum sentence is prescribed or a minimum sentence of less than 7 years is provided shall be treated as serious offences within the JJ Act
• The district child protection unit will also function under the district magistrate.
• Till now there was no specific direction to carry out a background check of people who are to become members of the child welfare committees (CWC) as there is no such provision currently to check if a person has a case of girl child abuse against him.
• According to the amendments cleared by the Cabinet, before becoming a member of the CWC, background and educational qualification checks will be included
• A child welfare committee is a quasi-judicial body which declares children as legally-free for adoption and ensures that it does not work in isolation.
• A member of the child welfare committee has to mandatorily attend three-fourth the number of meetings after the amendments.
• Any organisation which wanted to run a child care institution would need to give its purpose to the state government.
• In the proposed amendments, before registration of a CCI, the DM will conduct its capacity and background check and then submit the recommendations to the state government
• The DM can independently evaluate a specialised CWC, juvenile police unit and registered institutions.
• The amendments aim to strengthen child protection set-up to ensure the best interest of children.
• District magistrates are often informed about an incident after it has happened, but henceforth the entire child protection unit in every district will function under the DM so that there is coordination among other departments working for education, health and security of children.

NITI Aayog
PM to chair 6^th Governing Council Meeting of NITI Aayog
Relevance IN - Prelims ( about the governing council) + Mains ( GS II Governance)
What's the NEWS

• Prime Minister will chair the sixth meeting of the Governing Council of NITI Aayog on 20th February 2021 via video conferencing.
• The agenda of the meeting includes deliberations on agriculture, infrastructure, manufacturing, human resource development, service delivery at grassroots level and health & nutrition.

Governing Council

• The Governing Council presents a platform to discuss inter-sectoral, inter-departmental and federal issues.
• It comprises the Prime Minister, Chief Ministers of States and Union Territories (UTs), with Legislatures and Lt Governors of other UTs.
• The sixth meeting will witness the entry of Ladakh for the first time, in addition to the participation of Jammu and Kashmir as a UT.
• This time, other UTs headed by administrators have also been invited to join.
• The meeting will also be attended by the ex-officio members of the Governing Council, Union Ministers, Vice Chairman, Members and CEO of NITI Aayog, and other senior officials of Government of India.

Defence
Software Defined Radio (SDR)
Relevance IN - Prelims ( about CNR,SDR + V/UHF)Manpack SDRs)
Software Defined Radio (SDR)

• The Combat Net Radio (CNR) is the mainstay of communications for the Indian Army in the battlefield.
• The contemporary CNR equipment in the Indian Army supports voice communication only and has limited or no data transmission capability.
• To arm the soldiers with advantages offered by technology and equip him to fight a war in the Net-Centric battle space, present radios are to be replaced soon by indigenously developed Software Defined Radio (SDR), which have enhanced data transmission capability, enhanced voice clarity and data transmission accuracy in spectrally noisy environments, support multiple waveforms, greater system security and better communication survivability in clear and secure mode to meet the operational requirements of the Indian Army.

Very/Ultra High Frequency (V/UHF)Manpack SDRs

• Indian Army is in the process to revamp its communication systems by procuring Very/Ultra High Frequency (V/UHF)Manpack SDRs under Make-II category.
• After successful evaluation of vendor responses, Project Sanction Order (PSO) has now been issued to 18 Indian vendors to start prototype development.
• The contract will be placed with one of the firms post successful development of prototype as per provisions of Buy (Indian-IDDM) category of DAP 2020.
• Development of V/UHF Manpack SDR under Make-II will be a game changer for Indian Army.

‘Make' category of capital acquisition in Defence Procurement Procedure

• The provision of ‘Make' category of capital acquisition in Defence Procurement Procedure (DPP) is a vital pillar for realising the vision behind the ‘Make in India' initiative of the Government, by fostering indigenous capabilities through design & development of required defence equipment/product/systems or upgrades/ sub-systems/components /parts by both public and private sector industry/organization in a faster time frame.

‘Make' Procedure has following two sub-categories:

1. Make-I (Government Funded): Projects under ‘Make-I' sub-category will involve Government funding of 90%, released in a phased manner and based on the progress of the scheme, as per terms agreed between MoD and the vendor.
2. Make-II (Industry Funded): Projects under 'Make-II' category will involve prototype development of equipment/ system/ platform or their upgrades or their sub-systems/ sub-assembly/assemblies/ components, primarily for import substitution/innovative solutions, for which no Government funding will be provided for prototype development purposes.

Bilateral Relations
PM addresses a workshop on "Covid-19 Management
Relevance IN - Prelims ( about the Workshop (highlights)
What's the NEWS

• The Prime Minister addressed a workshop on "Covid-19 Management: Experience, Good Practices and Way Forward" with health leaders, experts and officials of 10 Neighbouring Countries viz Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Mauritius, Nepal, Pakistan, Seychelles, Sri Lanka along with Indian officials and experts
• The Prime Minister recalled creation of COVID-19 Emergency Response Fund to meet the immediate costs of fighting the pandemic and sharing of resources - medicines, PPE, and testing equipment.

Suggestions given by the PM

• The Prime Minister suggested creating a special visa scheme for our doctors and nurses, so that they can travel quickly within our region during health emergencies, on the request of the receiving country.
• He also asked whether our Civil Aviation ministries can coordinate a regional Air Ambulance agreement for medical contingencies?
• He suggested to create a regional platform for collating, compiling and studying data about the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines among our populations.
• He suggest to create a regional network for promoting technology-assisted epidemiology, for preventing future pandemics

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