Current Affairs – 16th June 2022

1.    VPN SERVER CLOSURES IN INDIA

• News: The Indian Computer Emergency Response Team’s (CERT-In’s) directive to virtual private network (VPN) providers to store user data on Indian servers has prompted many of them to shut their local servers.
• About Virtual Private Network (VPN):
  • A virtual private network (VPN) extends a private network across a public network and enables users to send and receive data across shared or public networks as if their computing devices were directly connected to the private network.
  • The benefits of a VPN include increases in functionality, security, and management of the private network.
  • It provides access to resources that are inaccessible on the public network and is typically used for remote workers. Encryption is common, although not an inherent part of a VPN connection.
  • A VPN is created by establishing a virtual point-to-point connection through the use of dedicated circuits or with tunneling protocols over existing networks.
  • A VPN available from the public Internet can provide some of the benefits of a wide area network (WAN).
  • From a user perspective, the resources available within the private network can be accessed remotely.
• About new VPN Rules:
  • India’s cybersecurity watchdog CERT-In issued new rules that require companies offering virtual private networks (VPNs) to preserve a wide range of data on their customers, including their contact numbers, email IDs and IP addresses, for five years.
  • Companies are also required to report cybersecurity incidents to CERT-In within six hours of becoming aware of them.
    The rules would apply only to individual VPN customers and not to enterprise or corporate VPNs.
  • With the new rules, VPN companies will be forced to switch to storage servers, which will inflate their costs and eliminate their core function — user privacy.

    Failure to follow the rules will attract penalties for VPN providers. If they all refuse to comply, VPN services will effectively become illegal in India.

    Users, apart from potentially having their privacy data exposed to the government (not to mention hackers), will also face a stringent know-your-customer (KYC) verification process when signing up for a VPN service, and will have to state their reasons for using it.

• About Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT – IN):
  • The Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-IN or ICERT) is an office within the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology of the Government of India.
  • It is the nodal agency to deal with cyber security threats like hacking and phishing. It strengthens security-related defence of the Indian Internet domain.
  • CERT-IN was formed in 2004 by the Government of India under Information Technology Act, 2000 Section (70B) under the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology.
  • CERT-IN has overlapping on responsibilities with other agencies such as National Critical Information Infrastructure Protection Centre (NCIIPC) which is under the National Technical Research Organisation (NTRO) that comes under Prime Minister’s Office and National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) which is under Ministry of Home Affairs.

2.    5G NETWORK AND GENERATIONS

• News: The government set the base price for the 3300-3600MHz band, a stretch of airwaves that is best suited for high-speed fifth-generation networks, at ₹317 crore on a pan-India basis, a 36% reduction from the ₹492 crore it had kept in 2018 when the spectrum remained unsold.

3.    TRADE DEFICIT

• News: India’s merchandise trade deficit ballooned to its highest-ever mark of $24.29 billion in May, driven by a surge in gold imports during the Akshaya Tritiya festival, adding to the already-high energy import bill amid the Russia-Ukraine war.
• About Balance of Trade:
  • The balance of trade, commercial balance, or net exports (sometimes symbolized as NX), is the difference between the monetary value of a nation’s exports and imports over a certain time period.
  • Sometimes a distinction is made between a balance of trade for goods versus one for services.
  • The balance of trade measures a flow of exports and imports over a given period of time.
  • The notion of the balance of trade does not mean that exports and imports are “in balance” with each other.
  • If a country exports a greater value than it imports, it has a trade surplus or positive trade balance, and conversely, if a country imports a greater value than it exports, it has a trade deficit or negative trade balance.