GS PAPER: II

Cyber Kidnapping

• The recent case of a Chinese student found unharmed in the US after his parents paid an $80,000 ransom to alleged ‘kidnappers’ has spotlighted the growing menace of cyber extortion plots globally involving convincing victims to isolate themselves.

What is cyber kidnapping?

• Cyber kidnapping refers to a crime where the ‘kidnappers’ convince their victim to hide, and then contact their loved ones for ransom. The victim is also made to send pictures that make it look like they are being held captive — showing them bound or gagged. These are then shared with the family. Both parties believe their loved ones will be harmed if they don’t do as the kidnappers ask.
• The ‘kidnappers’, though not physically present, monitor the victim online through video-call platforms.
• According to the FBI’s website, “Although virtual kidnapping takes on many forms, it is always an extortion scheme—one that tricks victims into paying a ransom to free a loved one they believe is being threatened with violence or death.
• Unlike traditional abductions, virtual kidnappers have not actually kidnapped anyone. Instead, through deceptions and threats, they coerce victims to pay a quick ransom before the scheme falls apart.

Mounting Global Evidence

• While comprehensive data remains lacking, law agencies confirm cyber kidnappings are increasing worldwide, especially targeting international students.
• Experts worry advances in AI like human-mimicking voice tech could make schemes more convincing for victims and families.

How It Unfolds?

• Scammers often use social media details to make initial contact and pleas for help appear credible and urgent. Victims are instructed to isolate themselves until funds are transferred. Encrypted apps allow remote monitoring.
• The criminals then hide behind crypto currency to quickly collect ransoms before families realize no abduction occurred if victims are found safe.

Steps to protect from Cyber kidnapping

• Use additional security apps and multi-factor authentication to protect your sensitive information. 
• Update your software regularly and add malware protection to your devices. 
• Do not click on any suspicious pop-up ads or links sent in emails from untrusted sources. 
• Use strong passwords to protect your accounts from hackers, and do not share confidential information with anyone. Use a password manager to keep things organised. 

GS PAPER – III

Misuse of Antibiotics

Why in the news?

• Recently the Health Ministry released the results of a survey conducted by the National Centre for Disease Control, mapping the patients treated on one to five days each at 20 tertiary care institutes across 15 States and two Union Territories between November 2021 and April 2022.

Survey’s data

• Over half of the almost 10,000 hospital patients surveyed recently were given antibiotics to prevent infection, rather than to treat it, amidst growing concerns about the rise in resistance to antibiotics.
• The vast majority of patients surveyed – 94% – were given antibiotics before the confirmation of a definitive medical diagnosis of the precise cause of infection.
• Out of 11,588 admissions and 9,652 eligible patients, 72% were prescribed antibiotics. Of these, only 45% were prescribed antibiotics for therapeutic indications, meant to treat infection or disease.
• The remaining 55% were prescribed the drugs for prophylactic indications, meant to prevent the occurrence or spread of an infection.
• Only 6% were prescribed antibiotics after a confirmed diagnosis of the specific bacteria causing their illness, called definitive therapy.

Growing resistance to antibiotics

• The World Health Organization (WHO) has identified antimicrobial resistance (AMR) as one of the top threats to public health. It is a natural phenomenon as bacteria evolves, making drugs used to treat infections less effective.
• However, as the NCDC survey notes, one of the main drivers for the development of antibiotic resistance is the excessive and inappropriate use of antibiotics. 
• To deal with the challenge of limited information on how antibiotics are prescribed and used at the patient level, WHO has introduced the global point prevalence survey methodology to understand the prescribing patterns in hospitals, with repeated surveys showing the changes in antibiotic use over time. Few studies have been conducted in India using this methodology.

Differences among hospitals

• The NCDC survey report noted wide variations between the different hospitals, with some prescribing antibiotics to 37% of patients, while the prevalence was 100% in other institutes.
• Overall, there were 12,342 antibiotic prescriptions, with 86.5% of these prescribed through the parenteral route, meaning that they were not taken orally.
• Using the WHO’s Access, Watch and Reserve (AWaRe) classification, it was found that only 38% of the prescriptions were for antibiotics belonging to the Access group, which “offer the best therapeutic value, while minimizing the potential for resistance.
• However, a much larger 57% of the prescriptions were for antibiotics belonging to the Watch group, which are “only indicated for specific, limited number of infective syndromes and are more prone to be a target of antibiotic resistance”. Just 2% of the antibiotics prescribed were from the “last resort” Reserve group of drugs.
• About 3% of the prescriptions were of the ‘not recommended’ group. The high use of Watch group antibiotics is of concern as these antibiotics have a higher potential to develop antibiotic resistance.

Tracking antibiotic use

• The NCDC is the nodal agency for India’s national programme on AMR containment, of which one of the key components is the surveillance of antibiotic usage. To achieve this goal, it has established the National Antibiotic Consumption Network (NAC-NET) through which network sites compile data on antibiotic consumption in their respective health facilities and send it to NCDC.
• According to NCDC, a major contributing factor to antibiotic resistance is the overuse of antibiotics by humans, with approximately half or more hospitals using antibiotics inappropriately.

GS PAPER – III

For FY24 GDP growth estimate to 6.7%

Why in news?

• India Ratings and Research (Ind-Ra) has revised upwards India’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth estimate for FY24 to 6.7 per cent from earlier 6.2 per cent, citing a number of factors including the resilience of the Indian economy, which grew 7.6 per cent in the second quarter of FY24.

Factors that boost the growth

• According to Ind-Ra, the factors that will boost the growth are:
• Sustained government capex,
• Deleveraged balance sheet of corporates/banking sector,
• The prospect of a new private corporate capex cycle,
• And sustained momentum in business and software services exports, coupled with remittances from the rest of the world despite global headwinds

 Risks to the global growth

• The World Trade Organization (WTO) expects the world merchandise trade volume to have grown only 0.8 per cent as against the expected 1.7 per cent in 2023. However, WTO expects world merchandise trade volume to grow 3.3 per cent in 2024.
• The International Monetary Fund (IMF) expects the global growth to slow down to 2.9 per cent in 2024 (2023: 3 per cent), lower than the pre-pandemic average growth of 3.8 per cent (2000-19).
• While the IMF expects the growth decline in emerging markets and developing economies in 2023 to have been only 10 bps in 2023 at 4 per cent (2022:4.1 per cent), it has been sharper in advanced economies at 110 bps to 1.5 per cent (2.6 per cent).
• The IMF further expects the growth in advanced economies to slow down to 1.4 per cent in 2024 as the monetary policy tightening pursued by the central banks in these countries will continue to bite.
• However, the tighter monetary policies would translate in to global inflation declining to 6.9 per cent in 2023 and 5.8 per cent in 2024 (2022: 8.7 per cent).
• Another risk that may impact the global growth and trade especially through disruptions in the supply chain is the volatile geopolitical situation — the Baltic Dry Index jumped to a six-quarter high of 2,079 in Q3FY24 from 1,194 in Q2FY24.
• All these risks will continue to weigh on and restrict India’s GDP growth to 6.7 per cent in FY24 (FY23: 7.2 per cent). The quarterly GDP growth, which came in at 7.8 per cent and 7.6 per cent in Q1 of FY24 and Q2 of FY24 respectively, is slated to slow down sequentially in the remaining two quarters of FY24.

RBI expectations

• The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) also expects a sequential slowdown in the GDP growth in the remaining two quarters and expects the overall FY24 GDP to come in at 7.0 per cent. 
• Ind-Ra expects the private final consumption expenditure (PFCE) to grow 5.2 per cent in FY24 (FY23: 7.5 per cent). The PFCE growth which increased to 6.0 per cent in Q1 of FY24, declined to 3.1 per cent in Q2 of FY24 (first half of FY24: 4.5 per cent).
  However, PFCE growth in the second half of FY24 will benefit from the base effect (PFCE growth in H2 of FY23: 2.5 per cent). Therefore, Ind-Ra expects PFCE in 2HFY24 to grow 5.8 per cent.
• Ind-Ra’s calculation shows that a 1 per cent increase in real wages could lead to a 1.12 per cent increase in the real PFCE and the multiplier effect of this could result in a 64 bps increase in the GDP growth. However, the data shows that the real wage growth of households belonging to the lower income bracket was marginally negative in Q2 of FY24.
• On the other hand, the real wage growth of households belonging to the upper income bracket grew 6.4 per cent in Q2 of FY24. As a result, the current consumption demand is skewed in favour of the goods and services consumed largely by the households belonging to the upper income bracket.
• Ind-Ra said sustained real wage growth of the households belonging to lower income bracket is an imperative for a sustainable and broad-based recovery in consumption demand.

GS PAPER – III

Haji Malang Dargah

Why in news?

• Maharashtra chief minister Eknath Shinde raked up the longstanding issue surrounding the Haji Malang Dargah, a site contested by right wing groups claiming it as a temple.
• Shinde expressed his commitment to liberation of the centuries old structure acknowledging the sentiments of the community.

Location of the Dargah?

• Located on the lowest plateau of Malanggad, a hill fort 3,000 feet above sea level on the matheran hill ranges.
• The dargah is currently preparing for the death anniversary of Haji Abd-ul-Rahman, a 12^th century Sufi saint from Yemen who is locally known as Haji malang Baba, which is slated on February 20.

What is the dispute?

• The dispute over the site originated in the mid eighties when the local shiv sena unit led by Anand Dighe, stated that the structure was originally an ancient Hindu shrine of Nath Panth yogis.
• The shiv sena initiated a campaign to reclaim the structure, referred as Malanggad.

Claim from the dargah side people?

• It was alleged that it is direct result of civil and criminal Babri judgements. The judgements may have emboldened such acts.

Claim by Hindu trustee of Dargah

• Chandrahas ketkar, one of the two trustees of three-member trust of Dargah, whose family has been managing it for 14 generations.
• A Supreme Court judgement in 1954 had observation that Dargah is composite structure that cannot be governed either by Muslim or Hindu law but only by its own special custom or by general law of trusts.
• They said that the political leaders are raking it up now only to appeal to their vote bank and create a political issue.

GS PAPER – III

India will use Space x rocket Falcon -9

Why in news?

• ISRO has decided to utilise the services of SpaceX for the first time.
• ISRO will deploy its heavy communication satellite GSAT 20 through falcon 9 rocket of the private space agency towards the middle of this year.

What is GSAT -20?

• GSAT 20 can enable telecom providers to offer very high-speed internet services.
• It would plug the high-speed connectivity gaps in remote areas and enable in-flight internet services.
• The satellite would offer high data transmissions capability over the entire country, including the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Lakshadweep.

What is space x?

• Space X is a private aerospace manufacturer and space transport service company headquartered in California, us.
• It was founded in 2002 by Internet tycoon Elon musk.

Why space x is chosen?

• GSAT 20 weighs about 4,700 kg much heavier than launch capacity of ISRO’s most powerful rocket LVM 3 .
• For its heavier satellites weigh more than 4,000 kg India had been depending on European launch provider Arianespace.
• Arianespace heavy launch vehicle Ariane 5 however was retired in July last year and its successor Ariane 6 is yet to make debut.

What is FALCON 9?

• It is a reusable rocket, can carry double that weight over 8,300 kg to GTO.
• It has made 285 flights to different locations in space.
• The Indian satellites flight on Falcon 9 has been facilitated by new pace India limited, the commercial arm of the ISRO that entered into a launch agreement with space X last year.

GS PAPER – III

Hindenburg – Adani saga and Supreme Court judgment

Why in news?

• The Supreme Court refused to order a probe by a special Investigation team or central bureau of investigation into the allegation levelled in the Hindenburg Research report regarding stock price manipulations by Adani group of companies.
• A three judge bench comprising Chief justice of India DY chandrachud, Justice JB pardiwala and Manoj Mishra.

What was the allegation?

• In late January, Hindenburg research which specialises in short selling published a report critical of Adani group finances.
• It said key listed companies in the group had substantial debt which has put the entire group on precarious financial footing.
• It accused Adani led conglomerate of brazen stock manipulation and accounting fraud scheme over the course of decades.

What is Hindenburg?

• Hindenburg is an institute specialising in forensic financial research.
• It looks for the corruption or fraud in the business world such as accounting irregularities and bad actors’ management.

What is the judgement?

• The Supreme Court directed the securities and exchange board of India to invoke its powers of investigation and probe if the Hindenburg reports on short selling have amounted to violation of law, causing harm to investors.
• A three-judge bench dismissed the findings of NGO organised crime and corruption reporting project about alleged stock manipulation and accounting fraud against Adani group.
• Chief justice reading the operative part of judgement said such unsubstantiated third-party reports by media or organisation cannot be relied upon as conclusive proof against a statutory regulator SEBI.

What is SEBI?

• The securities and exchange board of India was constituted as a Non statutory body on April 12 ,1988 through a resolution of Government of India.
• Its objective is to protect the interest of investors in securities and to promote the development of and to regulate the securities market and for matters connected with it.

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