INDIGENOUS TECHNOLOGY TESTED ON BRAHMOS
NEWS : The BrahMos supersonic cruise missile was successfully test-fired with an indigenous seeker for the first time.
WHAT WAS THE CASE EARLIER : So far the seeker, a critical technology in missiles, came from Russia.
WHERE IT WAS TESTED ? The Pokhran test range in Rajasthan.
WHO DEVELOPED THIS ? The seeker was jointly developed by the Defence Research and Development Laboratory (DRDL), Hyderabad, and BrahMos Aerospace.
WHAT IS BRAHMOS ? BrahMos is supersonic cruise missile - joint collaboration between India and Russia and is capable of being launched from land, sea, sub-sea and air against surface and sea-based targets.
RELEVANCE : SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY.
FB APOLOGISES FOR BREACH OF TRUST : Zuckerberg vows steps ahead of polls.
WHAT HAPPENED ? Details emerged of massive breach of privacy involving data of millions of Facebook users. Company CEO Mark Zuckerberg apologised for a “major breach of trust” with its users.
THE PROBLEM WAS DUE TO : The massive scandal over data siphoned by a data mining firm Cambridge Analytica with ties to the 2016 Donald Trump campaign.
HOW WAS IT DISCOVERED ? The scandal erupted after a whistle-blower revealed that Cambridge Analytica accessed personal data from 50 million Facebook users without their knowledge.
SHOCKING !!! Cambridge Analytica had created psychological profiles on 50 million Facebook users through a personality prediction app, created by a researcher named Aleksandr Kogan.
RELEVANCE : POLITY. Respect to Right to privacy under Article 21. (Puttaswamy Judgement)
ASSAM TO KICK OFF NRC VERIFICATION
WHAT VERIFICATION : The verification of citizenship documents. WHO ARE MAIN PLAYERS : 29 lakh married women, mostly migrant Muslims. WHY IT IS DONE ? Done in lieu of the Supreme Court-monitored exercise to update the 1951 National Register of Citizens, will begin in Assam on April 2. IMPORTANCE : Mainly done for detecting undocumented immigrants from Bangladesh.
FACE ID’ FROM JULY 1 FOR AADHAAR AUTHENTICATION
NEWS : The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) informed the Supreme Court on Thursday that it will introduce ‘Face ID’ on July 1.
REASON : The Face ID would help people without biometrics or those with poor biometrics to avoid authentication failures and financial exclusion.
WHY FACE ID ? Biometric authentication failures for differently abled and sick people had deprived citizens of their rightful entitlements like pension and provident fund and may face the danger of financial exclusion. To solve this face id is used.
