●      After raising over Rs 5,000 crore through its Infrastructure Investment Trust (InvIT) in October 2021, the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) is now planning to raise Rs 3,000 crore through another InvIT, which is likely to come for subscription in January 2022.

●      This time 2-3 road projects would be up for monetisation through the InvIT to be launched in January. The InvIT launched in October initially had a portfolio of five operating toll roads with an aggregate length of 390 kms. These five roads are located across the states of Gujarat, Karnataka, Rajasthan and Telangana. NHAI has granted new concessions of 30-years for these roads.

●      The units were issued under the private placement route at the upper valuation band of `101 per unit. The units will be listed on NSE and BSE. The first InvIT of NHAI attracted two international pension funds — Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board — as anchor investors, which together hold 25% of the units each.

●      The balance units were placed with a diversified set of domestic institutional investors comprising pension funds, insurance companies, mutual funds, banks and financial institutions.

●      The InvITs are part of the government’s plan to raise Rs 1.6 lakh crore by monetising close to 27,000 km roads in next four years under the National Monetisation Pipeline.

●      Days after the International Olympic Committee warned the international boxing federation (AIBA) to mend its ways or face possible eviction from 2028 Olympics, the AIBA renames itself to International Boxing Association.

●      A total of 107 of IBA’s national federations were in attendance to approve these wide-spread changes.

●      AIBA president Umer Kremlev during a press briefing said that it’s been a year since he took over as its chief and since then has managed to bring in a lot of reforms. The Congress discussed Richard McLaren’s investigation report and then Ulrich Haas presented the report of the Governance Reform Group, previously approved by IBA’s Board of Directors and the national federations.

●      According to AIBA, included among the amendments were the creation of a new Boxing Independent Integrity Unit, which is expected to become operational in the course of 2022.

·       In what may turn out to be a first-of-its-kind move, the government is looking at the option of blocking mobile numbers involved in cyber crimes, on a real-time basis.

·       The plan is discussed by Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) as part of a larger plan to effectively tackle cyber crime.

·       The government is also considering creating a national-level cyber-crime database to identify and track criminals.

·       There is a National Cyber Crime Reporting portal through which citizens can report cyber crimes. The plan is to make the portal more effective.

·       The proposal to block mobile numbers was made in the recent DGP-IGP conference attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah.

·       Prevention and detection of cyber crime has to be a priority, for which a national-level mechanism is nedeed to track, block and recover money from fraudsters.

·       It is needed also to block numbers and International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) involved in such frauds in real time. IMEI is a 15-digit number unique to each mobile device.

·       Also on the government’s agenda is stricter Know Your Customer (KYC) norms for banks, wallet providers and Telecom Service Providers.

·       This move is likely to curb, to a large extent, cyber crimes such as financial frauds, stalking, data theft, online harassment, fake news and misinformation campaigns.

·       Rising number of cyber crimes in India is hampering plans of promoting digitisation in the country.

·       Besides bringing framework changes in the mechanism to deal with cyber crimes, efforts are being made to improve inter-agency and inter-state coordination for effectively controlling cyber crimes and also to create awareness.

·      India recorded 50,035 cases of cyber crime in 2020 — a jump of 11.8% in such offences over the previous year.

·       In a major attack on Dec 13  evening, terrorists opened heavy fire at a police bus in Zewan in Srinagar’s outskirts, killing at least two policemen including an assistant sub inspector and injuring 12 others. Police sources said the terrorists fired with automatic weapons at a bus of J&K Armed Police’s 9th battalion on the Pantha Chowk–Khunmoh road, a few hundred yards away from J&K Armed Police Headquarters around 5.50 pm.

·       Fourteen injured policemen were evacuated to a hospital, where ASI Ghulam Hassan (NO. 861250) and a selection grade constable died of their wounds. The condition of three other injured cops is said to be critical. After the attack, top security officials and contingents of police, CRPF and Army rushed to the area. The security men launched a search operation to track down the militants.

·       The attack sparked strong condemnation from Lt Governor Manoj Sinha and all political parties in J&K.

·       Modi calls for three solutions — cleanliness, creation and continuous efforts — towards a self-reliant India

·       After a dip in the Ganga and rituals inside the temple, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Dec 13 inaugurated the Kashi Vishwanath corridor that connects the temple to the banks of the river, terming it a “symbol of Sanatan culture of India” and placing it at the centre of the sacred geography of the country.

·       Earlier, the U.P. Chief Minister said the development of the corridor was the next step in a series starting with the construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya. The corridor, which was started in 2019, was carried out after demolishing around 300 buildings, making a wider path from the river to the temple. Modi said the number of pilgrims who visit the temple would increase, with the space increasing from 3,000 square feet to 5 lakh square feet.

·       Estimated to cost ₹800 crore, the portion of the corridor opened on Dec 13 was the first phase of the project. The gateway to the river and the steps going to the ghat would be completed in the coming months.

·       The Lok Sabha has  passed the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (Amendment) Bill amid the Opposition objecting to the retrospective clause in it. Reacting to the Opposition, the Centre said the amendments were seeking only to “correct the errors” in the law as pointed out by judiciary.

·       The “error” crept in when the NDPS Act was amended in 2014 to allow better medical access to narcotic drugs, and removing state barriers in transporting and licensing of essential narcotic drugs. Prior to the 2014 amendment, clause (viiia) of Section 2 of the Act, contained sub-clauses (i) to (v), wherein the term ‘illicit traffic’ had been defined.

·       Until recently, Trinamool Congress had no presence in Goa. Now, it is difficult to miss Mamata Banerjee smiling from the hoardings in the coastal state. In the state run by BJP headed for Assembly polls next year, TMC is promising Goenchi Navi Sakal (Goa’s New Dawn).

·       Mamata started a two-day trip of the state on Dec 13 . Meetings with editors of media organisations, addressing public gatherings and reaching out to community leaders to induct fresh faces into the party are some of the points on her agenda. This is Mamata’s second Goa visit in two months.

·       Taking a cue from the ‘Khela Hobe’ slogan used in West Bengal elections, Mamata said it will be ‘Khel Jatlo’ in Goa. BJP has posters with the faces of PM Modi, former Goa CM Manohar Parrikar, Goa CM Pramod Sawant and some prominent leaders. The state is witnessing a mutli-corner protest with Congress, AAP and smaller parties also in the fray.

·       India has  successfully tested a supersonic missile assisted torpedo system from a defence facility off the Odisha coast strengthening its anti-submarine warfare capability.

·       Developed by DRDO, the next generation missile-based standoff torpedo delivery system was fired from the launching complex IV of Abdul Kalam Island.

·       The missile carried a torpedo and parachute delivery system. The release mechanisms and full range capability of the missile were successfully demonstrated during the trial, the second in the last year.

·       The canister-based missile system consists of advanced technologies, including two-stage solid propulsion, electro-mechanical actuators and precision inertial navigation. Launched from ground mobile launcher, it can cover a range of distances.

·       The hybrid missile system incorporates technologies of two different weapons making it faster and stealthier. It is an important missile technology India has developed in recent times.

·       While the long range torpedo available in the world can destroy targets up to 50 km and rocket-assisted torpedoes can strike at a range of 150 km, the supersonic missile assisted torpedoes will have a range of over 600 km.

·       Once fired, the weapon system will travel like a supersonic missile at a low altitude and eject the torpedo into water after it comes closer to the target. The torpedo will then move towards the target and destroy it