Rapid Fire Current Affairs | 09 Feb 2023

Quad Cyber Challenge

The Quad Nations are launching Quad Cyber Challenge - a public campaign to improve cyber security across the 4 nations. The Internet-users are being invited across the Indo-Pacific and beyond to join the Challenge and pledge to practice safe and responsible cyber habits.

(India’s National Cyber Security Coordinator with National Security Council Secretariat is the coordinating body in this challenge.

Internet-users worldwide are targets of cybercrime and other malicious cyber threats that can cost trillions of dollars each year and compromise sensitive, personal data. Many successful cyber-attacks can be guarded against by simple preventative measures such as; routinely installing security updates, utilising stronger and regularly changing passwords, and awareness of common online scams, like phishing.

QUAD is the grouping of four democracies –India, Australia, the US, and Japan that aims to ensure and support a “free, open and prosperous” Indo-Pacific region.

Read More - Quad, Cyber Security

RBI Hikes Repo Rate

In a move to further increase the lending/deposit rates, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) raised the repo rate by 25 bps to 6.5% - 6th rate hike in a row.

In the last meeting for the current fiscal (2022-23), the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) projected the real GDP growth at 6.4% (for FY 23-24).

Repo Rate is the rate at which the RBI lends money to commercial banks.

Israel’s Sniffing Robot with Locust Antennae

The scientists in Israel have developed a new sniffing robot equipped with a biological sensor that uses the antennae of locusts (locusts smell with their antennae and have an acute sense of smell).

This makes the robot far more sensitive than existing electronic sniffers and helpful in advance disease diagnosis and better security checks.

The researchers placed the insect’s antenna between two electrodes on the robot that send electrical signals as a response to a nearby odour. The robot is able to identify different scents with machine learning.

Read More - Locust, Machine Learning

Operation Dost

India, under ‘Operation Dost’ has sent its sixth plane carrying National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) personnel, essentials, and medical equipment for the earthquake-hit Turkey. The 6^th flight carries more rescue teams, dog squads, and essential medicines. A field hospital under Operation Dost has been set up by the Indian Army in Hatay province of Turkey. India has also sent a transport aircraft with medical supplies to Syria.

The earthquake of magnitude 7.7 on the Richter scale hit Turkey and Syria on 6 Feb 2023 followed by a series of aftershocks causing huge devastation, major loss of lives and damage to infrastructure in the two countries.

Operation Dost symbolises that India is a friend of Turkey and the two must deepen their relations.

Earlier, the NDRF was sent to two similar international operations – the 2011 Japan triple disaster (earthquake, tsunami and nuclear meltdown) and the 2015 Nepal earthquake.