Class Notes 4 You

Cybercrimes are criminal activities performed on internet platforms or using internet-based services. They are considered one of the emerging threats that have impacted peace and tranquillity in the society. Types of cybercrime: 1. Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Attacks: These are used to make an online service unavailable and take the network down by overwhelming the site with traffic from a variety of sources. 2. Botnets: Botnets are networks from compromised computers that are controlled externally by remote hackers. 3. Identity Theft: This cybercrime occurs when a criminal gains access to a user’s personal information. Measures To Tackle Cybercrime: 1. Need for Collaborative Trigger mechanism to bind all parties and enable law enforcers to act quickly and safeguard citizens and businesses from a fast-growing menace. 2. Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre will assist in centralising cybersecurity investigations, prioritise the development of response tools and bring togethe...

CyberDome is a technological research and development Centre of Kerala Police Department conceived as a Cyber Centre of excellence in cyber security as well as technology augmentation for effective policing. The main objective of CyberDome is to prevent cyber-crimes through the development of a cyber threat resilient ecosystem. Useful in Controlling internet Crimes: 1. CyberDome makes a collective coordination among the Government departments and agencies, academia, research groups, non-profitable organisations, individual experts from the community, and ethical hackers. 2. The industry and the software/technology companies are providing their technical expertise and capabilities to assist the police in various fields of cyber security and technology augmentation for effective policing. 3. CyberDome has also launched a covert cyber-surveillance and infiltration programme to crack down on child pornography. 4. A software called Privacy Tracker has been developed in a partnership model f...

Internal security has remained one of the core focus areas for India. As India now aspires and rises to taking the high seat in the comity of nations, the security challenges become more compounded and complex. The Indo-Pakistan border: 1. This faces key challenges like infiltration and drug smuggling. 2. An increase in ceasefire violations and infiltration attempts is observed during the pre-winter season, when vigilance becomes extremely tough due to snowfall along the mountainous terrain. 3. Other factors like the political instability in Pakistan also lead to an upsurge in cross-border infiltration.  Indo-Bangladesh border challenges: 1. Since the partition in 1947, the primary challenge on this side of the border has been the influx of illegal migrants. Leading to serious burdens on state resources, infrastructure and changes in the demographics. 2. Border is used for smuggling of arms, ammunition and drugs, which has increased the number of anti-national elements illegally en...

India’s territorial borders, both land, and sea ache from diverse physical, ethnic and cultural contradictions. Population can play an important role in securing our interests. The people living in these areas are the most important ingredient towards a secure and safe border area. Steps required to deny local support to militants: 1. Economic factors: lack of jobs, poverty, imbalance in regional development, inequality in society 2. Political – lack of local people representatives in decision making of management of border areas, vote bank politics 3. Social factors – feeling of alienation due to weak integration with mainstream India ex North East Insurgency. 4. Inefficient Governance: Corruption at local level leading to feeling of looting of resources, also lack of effective communication with locals by those in Power (failure to interact regularly). 5. Preventing glorification of terrorists. Measure to overcome negative perception among locals: 1. Political- Grassroots democracy ...

Recently the Parliament has amended the UAPA and NIA act to provide more powers to India’s anti-terror agency and expand the scope of India’s anti-terror law, and strengthening India’s fight against terrorism. Changes made in UAPA: 1. The Act designate individuals also as terrorists on certain grounds provided in the Act. Earlier, organisations were under the definition of the act not the individuals. 2. The Act empowers the Director General of National Investigation Agency (NIA) to grant approval of seizure or attachment of property when the case is investigated by the said agency. 3. The Act empowers the officers of the NIA, of the rank of Inspector or above, to investigate cases of terrorism in addition to those conducted by the DSP or ACP or above rank officer in the state.  Changes made in NIA: 1. The amendment has allowed the NIA to investigate, cases related to (i) human trafficking, (ii) counterfeit currency or banknotes, (iii) manufacture or sale of prohibited arms, (iv) c...

The vulnerability of the India-Myanmar border owing to difficult terrain, alienation of masses, poor administration, 16 Km Free Movement Regime at the Border is posing a serious challenge to the internal security of the country. Challenges emanating from India Myanmar Border:  1. Narcotics and the ‘Golden Triangle’: Proximity to Myanmar in the ‘Golden Triangle’ makes the India-Myanmar border vulnerable to the trafficking of heroin and amphetamine-type stimulants (ATS) produced in Myanmar. 2. Safe Haven for Insurgents to Rakhine state in Myanmar seen in ambush on Indian Army in 2015. 3. Protests against the construction of a border fence: Protestor believe that it would result in Manipur losing substantial portions of its territory to Myanmar. 4. Rohingya Issue: Influx of marginalised Muslim minority Rohingya community has raised a serious sociocultural confrontation in the areas due to increased burden on local resources. 5. Arms trafficking: While the bulk of the weapons from Thai...

The Complexity of Terrorism starts with the lack of its Proper definition. Thus, it is being differentiated as sometimes as Good Terrorism and sometimes as Bad Terrorism based on the Political calculations. Complexity of Terrorism : 1. It is complex in the sense that it is very difficult to say who is fighting against whom in Syria for example. 2. It is complex in the sense of factions within Al-Qaida, ISIS. 3. It is complex in its working too like having Sleeper cells, Lone wolf attackers, State sponsored, backed by big powers. Intensity of Terrorism: ● Globalisation and Technology has improved the capability of groups and cells in Proselytising, Conducting multiple attacks in different locations and Lethality. ● Geographical Landscape: No country is safe today. E.g.: New Zealand ● Backed by Religious doctrines, thus more terrific like Beheading by ISIS. Causes : 1. Ethno-Nationalism: The desire of a group of persons to form a new nation led to the creation of terrorist organisations....

Money laundering is the process of masking the origins of unlawfully obtained funds so that they look to have come from legitimate sources. Emerging technologies contribute to money laundering in following ways : 1. Use of Crypto currency as central banks are unable to trace its circulation. 2. Conversations that are encrypted make it easier to share information concerning money laundering. 3. The structured portions of layered money are hidden behind a large number of digital transactions on online marketplaces. Globalization contributes to money laundering in following ways: 1. Easy movement of money makes it difficult to trace. 2. The deeper dirty money gets into the international banking system, the more difficult it is to identify its origin. 3. Rise of Tax-free nations like Cayman Island, Panama, helps in tax evasion. National and international measures have been enacted to tackle money laundering: 1. Legal Framework: ● Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), criminalizes mon...

A cyber-attack is any attempt to gain unauthorized access to a computer, computing system or computer network with the intent to cause damage. Cyber-attacks aim to disable, disrupt, destroy or control computer systems or to alter, block, delete, manipulate or steal the data held within these systems. Impact of cross border cyber-attack : 1. It will have a debilitating impact on Critical Information Infrastructure (Power Plans, nuclear Plants, telecommunications etc.) 2. Cross border cyber-attacks can be used to threaten national security by indulging in contemporary forms of cross-border terrorism. 3. It can be used to disrupt social harmony through radicalization. Terrorists may use social media to plan and execute terror attacks and for virulent propaganda to incite hatred and violence, recruit youth and raise funds. Defensive measures against these sophisticated attacks : Institutional Measures . 1. National Cyber Security Coordinator (NCSC): to coordinate with different agencies at...

The Union Home Minister described Left-Wing Extremism (LWE) as one of the nation's key internal securityc hallenges during a review meeting on LWE. These extremists target the police, schools, and other government institutions as symbols of the country's power. Determinants of left-wing extremism in eastern India: 1. Land related issues: Evasion of land ceiling laws, poor implementation of 5th schedule, displacement and forced eviction. 2. Livelihood related factors: Disruption of traditional occupation, food security issues, etc 3. Social exclusion: Denial of dignity, untouchability, poor implementation of special law such as Scheduled Caste and Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989. 4. Governance related issues: corruption, no last mile connectivity, ill-trained and poorly motivated public personnel, misuse of power, unsatisfactory working of PRIs, etc. Strategy that should be followed by the Government of India, civil administration and security forces. 1. Government o...

Gilgit-Baltistan Order, 2018 aimed at incorporating GB as its fifth province and to integrate GB with rest of federal structure of Pakistan by legislative, judicial and administrative measure. India said that entire Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, including areas of Gilgit and Baltistan, are “integral part of India” About Gilgit Baltistan (GB) region part of erstwhile princely state of Jammu and Kashmir under Pakistan’s control since November 4, 1947 , following invasion of Kashmir by tribal militias and Pakistan army. renamed as ‘ Northern Areas of Pakistan’ and put under direct control of Pakistan federal government through Karachi Agreement, 1949. Importance of Gilgit- Baltistan region Strategic Location : at intersection of Indian Subcontinent, Central Asia and China. Large Territory : more than five times larger than Pakistan occupied Kashmir. It consists of two ethno-geographically distinct territories: Baltistan, which was part of Ladakh, and Gilgit. Water a...

Global transition to future technologies like Artificial Intelligence, 5G and Big Data among others have started affecting the global geopolitics .  What is the relationship between geopolitics and technology? Geopolitics - interactions and relationship among nation states . The technology development and adoption not only affect the nature of geopolitics but also gets affected by it. For example, Russia’s military technological development was largely driven by its susceptibility on its western borders.  Following geopolitical factors affecting technological access, adoption and development: Geographical position: role in determining the technological priorities. For example, due to its harsh geography and scarce water resources, Israel develop technologies that conserve, reuse and desalinate water Relative access to resources: gives the country a position in the global economy. For example, large scale availability of labour puts China at a comparative advantage in labo...

Kerala High Court issued notice to the Central and State governments on a petition seeking to set up a mechanism to assist NRIs who had lost their jobs abroad and had returned to India, to seek due com­ pensation. The petition exposes the preca­rious conditions of migrant workers in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries.  Employers , particularly construction com­ panies, have used the crisis as an opportun­ity to retrench masses of migrant labourers without paying them wages or allowances. South Asia­ Gulf migration corridor is among the largest in the world. South Asians account for nearly 15 million in the Gulf South Asian labour force forms the back­ bone of the Gulf economies , but has had to go knocking on doors for food and other bas­ ic necessities pandemic, the shutdown of companies, the tightening of borders, and the exploitative nature of the Kafala sponsor­ship system have all aggravated the miseries of South Asian migrant worke...

China’s dams on the Mekong River has raised fresh questions on whether dams being built on other rivers that originate in China, such as the Brahmaputra, may similarly impact countries downstream. Nuozhadu dam (on the upper Mekong River basin) in 2012 and 6 other dams altered natural flow of the river. 1992 to 2019 in spite of above-average rainfall, there was severe lack of water in the lower Mekong. India has concerns over dam-building on the Brahmaptura. In 2015, China operationalised 1st hydropower project at Zangmu, while three dams at Dagu, Jiexu and Jiacha are being developed. Need for Trans-Boundary Water Management Dependency on rivers : Globally More than 45 per cent of the world’s population lives in internationally shared river basins Water Scarcity : Building of embankment dams and other structure on these rivers can lead to issue of water scarcity. Changing climate : may prompt nations to take unilateral actions to secure resources and territorial sovereignty. For Indi...

Nehru’s Foreign Policy India and her Neighbours 1947-64 Issues colonial legacy of international disputes, partition etc aftermath of world war 2 and emergence of Cold War Bloc Politics India decided to conduct its foreign relations with an aim to respect the sovereignty of all other nations and to achieve security through maintenance of peace , also evident from the DPSPs. Nature Indian foreign policy was based on the principle of peaceful coexistence . The government emphasised on inculcating good neighbourly relations with all nearby countries. Emphasis on mutual respect has been another fundamental aspect It is non-discriminatory approach Believe in the use of non-violent methods for resolving international disputes and differences During early years after Independence India’s foreign policy was influenced by prevailing Cold War scenario. Government emphasised on maintaining independent stand on important matters of international concern so that Indian foreign policy could remain ...