Current Affairs 12th December 2017

Current Affairs 12th December 2017 - Important Points

• Government sets up first NIC-CERT centre on - 11th December 2017
•  Make the digital world safer for children stated by - UNICEF
• Union WCD Ministry launched logo and tagline contest for National Nutrition Mission on - 11th December 2017
• Ban on movie theatres lifted by - Saudi Arabia
• Hindi writer Mamta Kalia selected for Vyas Samman 2017 on - 8th December 2017

Current Affairs 12th December 2017 - Details

Government sets up first NIC-CERT centre on - 11th December 2017

Law and Information Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology inaugurated The first NIC-CERT, a setup of National Informatics Centre  on 11th December 2017. 

Explaining the move, the Minister stated that the union government as a part of its Digital India initiative had introduced many services online and also easily accessible to citizens, it also exposed them to threats and vulnerabilities that are an inherent part of the cyberspace.

Important Points

• It is set up to enhance the security posture of NIC and the government, which will in turn be leading to enhanced trust of the citizens as the services offered to them would be configured in a framework that is secured by design.
• It has been set up to create a comprehensive framework that will be integrating world class security components and inbuilt threat intelligence for detection, prevention and incident response.
• The centre will be operating in close coordination and collaboration with sectoral CERT’s and more so with Cert-in.
• Using the tools research teams would be able to correlate events that would be helping to generate a canvas of the attack surface and identify the vulnerabilities and possible exploits.
• The gathered intelligence assimilated with the knowledge of the open web would be giving the CERT the ability prevent and predict attacks.

 Make the digital world safer for children stated by - UNICEF

The United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) pointed out on 11th December 2017  that despite massive online presence of children, a very little is done to protect them from the digital world threats. In its report titled 'State of the World’s Children 2017: Children in a Digital World', UNICEF stated that 1 in every 3 internet users worldwide is a child and high level of efforts should be made in order to ensure that children have access to safe online content only.

Key Highlights of the State of the World’s Children 2017 Report

• It presents UNICEF’s outlook in the different ways in which digital technology is affecting children’s lives & life chances.
• It points out that public or private both the organisations, have exposed children to new risks and harms of the digital world including misuse of their private information and access to harmful content.
• It also explores the benefits of the digital technology to offer to the most disadvantaged children growing up in poverty or affected by humanitarian emergencies.

Union WCD Ministry launched logo and tagline contest for National Nutrition Mission on - 11th December 2017

The Ministry of Women & Child Development launched a contest inviting people to design a logo and suggest a tagline for prestigious 'National Nutrition Mission' on 11th December 2017.

The ministry has also proposed an award of a prize money of Rs 1 lakh to the winner of the contest.
In case the logo and tagline selected by the jury are from different participants, then the prize money would be split between them. The last date to submit entries for the contest on Ministry's mail [email protected] is 17th December 2017.

More about National Nutrition Mission (NNM)

• The Union Cabinet approved the setting up of National Nutrition Mission (NNM) with a three year budget of Rs 9046.17 crore on 30th November 2017.
• The mission will going to be partly funded by Government Budgetary Support (50 percent) and the remaining 50 percent by IBRD or other MDB.
• The mission is planned to be rolled out in three phases from 2017-18 to 2019-20.
• It is aiming to ensure holistic development and adequate nutrition for pregnant women, mothers and children.
• It targets to minimize the level of stunting,anaemia, under-nutrition and low birth rate.
• It will be creating synergy, ensuring better monitoring, issuing alerts for timely action and encourage the states to perform and supervise the mission in order to achieve the targeted goals.
• There are plenty of schemes to improve the nutritional status, however, there is a lack of synergy between them.
• The National Nutrition Mission through strong convergence mechanism will be striving to create the synergy at the same time.

Ban on movie theatres lifted by - Saudi Arabia

The kingdom of Saudi Arabia announced on 11th December 2017 that lifted the decades-old ban to provide licenses to commercial movie theatres. The decision will be paving a way for the opening of the country’s first public cinemas after more than 35 years. According to the nation’s Minister of Culture and Information Awwad bin Saleh Alawwad, the opening of the cinemas will be acting as a catalyst for economic growth and diversification.

Important Highlights

• The lifting of the ban will be helping to develop a broader cultural sector in the kingdom and enrich its entertainment options.
• It will also be creating new employment and training opportunities.
• The licensing process for cinema operators would be starting within 90 days and the first cinemas are expected to open in March 2018.
• All the films scheduled to be screened at the theatres will going to be subjected to censorship according to the media policy standards of the kingdom.

Hindi writer Mamta Kalia selected for Vyas Samman 2017 on - 8th December 2017

Renowned Hindi writer Mamta Kalia was selected for the Vyas Samman 2017 for her novel "Dukkham Sukkham" published in 2009 on 8th December 2017. Selection committee headed by Sahitya Akademi director and author Vishwanath Prasad Tiwari chose her for this award. She will be receiving Rs 3.5 lakh as the prize money of Vyas Samman.

More about Mamta Kalia

• Born in 1940 in Vrindavan, She did MA in English from Delhi University before taking up lecturership at SNDT Women's University in Mumbai.
• She headed a degree college in Allahabad since 1973 and was retired in 2001.
• She is known for her excellent works in Englishh and Hindi including "Beghar", "Janch Abhi Jaari Hai", "Nirmohi", and "Bolne Wali Aurat".
• She has been conferred with various awards for her work including Yashpal Katha Samman from Uttar Pradesh Hindi Sansthan, Sahitya Bhushan Samman and Ram Manohar Lohia Samman.

More about Vyas Samman

• KK Birla Foundation gives this award annually to a Hindi literary work published in the past 10 years.
• The first recipient of the award was eminent literary critic and poet Ram Vilas Sharma in 1991.