Current Affairs 26th August 2018

Current Affairs 26th August 2018 - Important Points

• NETA App to rate MPs, MLAs launched by - Former President Pranab Mukherjee
• UIDAI makes facial recognition mandatory for Aadhaar authentication on - 24th August 2018
• India, Singapore sign Second Protocol amending Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement on - 24th August 2018
• JNU to rename its Management School after Late PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee, announced on - 23rd August 2018

 Current Affairs 26th August 2018 - Details

NETA App to rate MPs, MLAs launched by - Former President Pranab Mukherjee

 Former President Pranab Mukherjee on 24th August 2018 launched the NETA (National Electoral Transformation) mobile application to rate Members of Parliament(MPs)  and MLAs.

'Neta - Leaders' Report Card' App which is the brainchild of 27-year-old entrepreneur Pratham Mittal and is a platform where voters can also review and rate their elected representatives and hold them accountable as well.

Important Highlights

• In order to order to rate the representatives, the app needs a combination of mediums like the app itself, SMS,IVR calls and even via offline activation.
• One needs to put the pin number of the area that concerns a particular users and it shows a list of politicians from  different parties who contested the last Lok Sabha elections, after downloading the app.
• The app also connects the user's profile with their constituency and present them the trending political discussions of the area.
• One can vote for a particular politician or skip this step to move on and use the other app features.
• New leaders are being provided by the app with an opportunity to showcase their popularity and catch the attention of political parties.
• The users of the app can also see which politician is ahead of others in terms of votes.
• The app is also being viewed as an instrument to determine voter sentiment across constituencies in India, this inspiration has been taken by the United States approval system.
• It is available on Andriod and iOS platforms and on web in 16 languages in order to cater towards a diverse user profile.

UIDAI makes facial recognition mandatory for Aadhaar authentication on - 24th August 2018

UIDAI has recently madde the announcement for new measure that seeks to facial recognition mandatory for every authentication that requires Aadhaar. The information was shared by UIDAI CEO Ajay Bhushan Pandey on 24th August.

This new measure is being implemented following official circulars issued by UIDAI to Authenticate Service Agencies, User Agencies and  certified biometric device providers.

Important Highlights

• According to the new measure, the facial recognition will be coming as an additional feature along with the regular authentication process including identification of an individual based on fingerprints or eye scans.
• The services those majorly need Aadhaar authentication including mobile SIM issuance, banks, public distribution system and office attendance at government offices.
• There have been such cases where people have been excluded from Aadhaar authentication as their fingerprints were worn out or are not clear due to old age or because of being involved in manual labour or in agriculture.
• The facial recognition will be helping people in the Aadhaar authentication process.
• The process will be rolled out in a phased manner and it would also be initially mandated for the providers of SIM cards of telecom companies.
• The telecom operators have also been directed that at least 10 percent of their total monthly authentication transactions should be performed using facial recognition with  effect from 15th September 2018.

India, Singapore sign Second Protocol amending Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement on - 24th August 2018

India and Singapore signed the Second Protocol to make changes in the Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement in order to boost bilateral trade between the two countries on 24th August 2018.

Rajneesh, Joint Secretary in the Union Ministry of Commerce and Industry; and Francis Chong, Senior Director of the Singapore's Ministry of Trade and Industry signed the protocol in New Delhi.

Important Highlights

• The protocol amending CECA will be giving effect to the provisions agreed between India and Singapore during the closure of the Second Review of India Singapore CECA.
• Both the sides agreed to expand the coverage of tariff concessions, rationalise Product Specific Rules,liberalise the Rules of Origin and include provisions on Certificate of Origin and Cooperation on its verification.
• These measures will further be facilitating trade between India and Singapore and also improve utilization of CECA.
• The provisions of the Second Protocol will be coming into effect starting from 14th September 2018.

JNU to rename its Management School after Late PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee, announced on - 23rd August 2018

The Jawaharlal Nehru University has made the announcement of renaming the School of Management and Entrepreneurship to ‘Atal Bihari Vajpayee School of Management and  Entrepreneurship’, as a tribute to the late Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee on 23rd August, 2018.

Atal Bihari Vajpayee passed away on 16th August 2018. He served as the Member of Parliament for Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh. He was a member of the Parliament for more than four decades. He was elected to the Lok Sabha for ten times, and was elected twice to the Rajya Sabha, the upper house.