Gyanesh Kumar named CEC after panel meeting

Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar has been appointed Chief Election Commissioner after a meeting of a three-member committee headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi. Haryana Chief Secretary Vivek Joshi has been appointed an Election Commissioner. Mr. Gyanesh Kumar, a 1988-batch former Indian Administrative Service officer belonging to the Kerala cadre, retired as Union Cooperation Secretary on

On March 14, 2024, he was ap-pointed Election Commissioner.

Centre likely to raise deposit insurance limit from ₹5 lakh

The Finance Ministry is considering raising the current limit of ₹5 lakh for deposit insurance. The official's statement comes days after the Reserve Bank of India placed curbs on the Mumbai-based New India Cooperative Bank for lack of liquidity. Money deposited by bank customers is insured under the Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee Corporation Act, 1961 by the Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee Corporation under the Finance Ministry. 

To boost investment, Kerala govt. plans to grant industry status to its tourism sector

The Kerala government is planning to grant "industry status" to its tourism sector, a long-pending demand of the State's tourism and hospitality sector. Granting industry status will encourage more investment and development in the sector, which contributes around 10% of the Gross Domestic Product of the State. Though an announcement in this regard was expected during the Budget presentation, Finance Minister K.N. Balagopal mentioned such a plan during the discussion on the Budget in the Assembly. 

Lighten the pollution burden of thermal power States

India has a total installed capacity of 4,56,757 MW in which the central sector has 22.9% share, the State sector has 23.7% and the private sector, a 53.4% share. Out of the total electricity generation capacity from thermal power plants (2,37,268.91 MW), private sector power plants have a capacity of 85,899.095 MW (36.20%), the State sector has 75,991.905 MW (32.03%), and the central sector has the capacity of 75377.91 MW (31.77%). NITI Aayog data show that India accounts for 20,794.36 kg of carbon emission from electricity generation. Rajasthan had the highest renewable electricity generation capacity in India at 22.398.05 MW of installation capacity. 

How did a DDoS attack cripple Kaveri 2.0?

A DDoS attack is a malicious attempt to disrupt the normal functioning of a targeted server, service, or network by overwhelming it with a flood of internet traffic. Unlike a Denial of Service (DoS) attack, which typically involves a single source, a DDoS attack leverages multiple compromised systems, often infected with malware, to generate the traffic. These compromised systems are collectively known as a botnet. Following the incident, K. A. Dayananda, Inspector General of Registrations and Commissioner of Stamps (IGR & CS) lodged a complaint with the cyber-crime police. The cyberattack crippled the Kaveri 2.0 portal, and registrations fell significantly on February 1 and 4. While the portal was restored on February 5, the DDoS attack should serve as a wake-up call for organisations, particularly government agencies, to prioritise cybersecurity. 

What is the Aravali safari park project?

As per the tender invited by the Haryana Tourism Department, the proposed Aravali safari park will have animal cages, guest houses, hotels, restaurants, auditoriums, an animal hospital, childrens' parks, botanical gardens, aquariums, cable cars, a tunnel walk with exhibits, an open-air theatre and eateries. The project has now been transferred to the forest department and an expert committee has been set up to oversee it. The hills in the southern districts of Gurugram and Nuh are a part of Aravali, the oldest fold mountain range in the world. A group of 37 retired Indian Forest Service officers have written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking to scrap the project arguing that the project's aim is to simply increase tourist footfall and not conserve the mountain range. – 

High levels of microbes found in river water at Kumbh, says CPCB report

High levels of faecal coliform (microbes from human and animal excreta) were found in river water in which people took holy dip during Maha Kumbh in Prayagraj, according to a report submitted to the National Green Tribunal (NGT) by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB). "River water quality was not conforming with the primary water quality for bathing with reference to Faecal Coliform [FC] at all the monitored locations on various occasions. Huge number of people taking bath at Prayagraj during Maha Kumbh in river, including on auspicious bathing days, eventually led to increase in faecal concentration," an NGT order quoted the CPCB report. 

'Al can impact critical thinking at work'

High levels of confidence in generative AI applications such as ChatGPT, Gemini and CoPilot can be a drag on 'knowledge workers' exercising critical thinking, researchers from Carnegie Mellon University and Microsoft Research concluded in a paper. Knowledge workers are typically white-collar employees. The paper is due to be discussed at the Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems in Japan this April. "Quantitatively, considering both task and user-specific factors, a user's task-specific self-confidence and confidence in GenAI are predictive of whether critical thinking is enacted and the effort of doing so in GenAI-assisted tasks," researchers said. –