Prelims Bits 16-01-2018

Aadhaar Face Authentication

• The Unique Identification Authority of India has decided to enable Face Authentication for validating Aadhaar cards from July 2018.
• Currently, the UIDAI provides two modes of biometric verification: fingerprint authentication and iris authentication.
• Face authentication will be allowed only in fusion mode along with one more authentication factor either fingerprint or iris or aOTP to authenticate an Aadhaar number holder.
• Face authentication will only be allowed on a “need” basis.

Orange Passports

• Ministry of External Affairs has decided to offer orange coloured passport to the travellers who require an emigration check.
• By this ECR status would be issued a passport with an orange-coloured, non-ECR status will continue to get blue passports.

ECR status

• As per the Emigration Act, 1983, certain categories of Indian passport holders require obtaining an ‘Emigration Clearance’ for going to certain countries.
• Emigration, as per the Act, means the leaving of India by any Indian citizen with the intent of taking up employment in certain foreign countries.
• Persons who don’t have a minimum educational qualification of 10th standard (SSC, Matriculation) will come under ECR category.
• The idea behind the ‘ECR’ is to ensure the safety of uneducated and unskilled Indian citizens, from the most deprived socio-economic strata, against prevailing legal conditions in certain foreign countries.

Types of passports issued in India

• Regular Passport - This has a navy blue cover; it is issued to citizens for ordinary travel like vacations and business trips.
• Diplomatic Passport - This has a maroon cover; it is issued to Indian diplomats, top-ranking government officials (joint secretary and above) and diplomatic couriers.
• Official Passport - This has a white cover; it is issued to individuals representing the Indian government on official business.

FDI in single brand retail

• Union government has decided to allow 100 per cent Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in single-brand retail trading through the automatic route last week.
• Single-brand retail chain is expected to sell all its products under only one label across its store, example Burger King, KFC, Levis.
• If an MNC operates a single-brand retail chain, the product must also be sold under the same brand name globally.
• The MNC must also source 30 per cent of its purchases for the business from India.
• Now this rules are slightly relaxed to allow an MNC to set off any local sourcing for its global business, against this 30 per cent quota.

FDI

• Foreign direct investment (FDI) is an investment made by a company or individual in one country in business interests in another country.
• Foreign direct investments are distinguished from portfolio investments in which an investor merely purchases equities of foreign-based companies.
• FDI comes to India with two routes through automatic and Government route.
• Automatic route-under this route the foreign companies do not need a prior approval for investment either by the Government or the Reserve Bank of India.
• The investors are only required to intimate the Regional office concerned of the Reserve Bank within 30 days of receipt of inward remittance.
• Government route - Certain activities that are not covered under the automatic route and that require prior Government approval comes under this route.
• Earlier Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) issued permissions for such foreign investments.
• Recently FIPB was scrapped and now concerned government department can clear such procedures.

Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act (1958)

• Union government has tabled amendments to Ancient monuments and archaeological sites and remains act in the parliament.
• The Lok Sabha passed the amendments to the Act, the Bill is yet to be cleared by the Rajya Sabha.

• The Act was originally instituted conservation measures and banned construction activities near protected monuments.
• The amendment now allows to carry out public works within the 100 m prohibited zone.

UMANG App

• UMANG (Unified Mobile Application for New-age Governance) is envisaged to make e-governance.
• It is developed by Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) to drive Mobile Governance in India.

• It provides a unified approach where citizens can install one application to avail multiple government services.
• The app services include Aadhaar, DigiLocker, and Bharat Bill Payment System (BBPS). Etc.

Farthest known galaxy

• NASA has spotted the farthest known galaxy in the universe, a primitive cluster of stars just 500 million years old.
• The galaxy was named SPT0615-JD.
• Preliminary analysis suggests that the galaxy is less than 2,500 light-years across.

Source: PIB, The Hindu, Business Line, Live Mint