Daily News Analysis 22nd October 2018

Daily News Analysis (Prelims + Mains) – 22nd October 2018

Topics for Prelims

Saffron marigold is the color of sacrifice

• It will be the symbol of remembrance for Indian soldiers martyred in First World War.
• “It was felt that there was a strong need for India to have a uniquely Indian symbol that could allow citizens in India, as well as the international diaspora, to acknowledge the valor and sacrifice of the Indian armed forces in the service of the nation, including those who fell in the two world wars.”

Why was it chosen?

• “The marigold was chosen because it is easily and widely available and also because saffron is often seen as a color of sacrifice,”
• The India Remembers project is a joint endeavor of the USI and the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) and a part of the ‘India and the Great War’ Centenary Commemoration project initiated by the USI in 2014 with the support of the Ministry of External Affairs and in close association with the British High Commission.

Background

The First World War ended with the signing of the armistice on November 11, 1918. Since then, poppy was adopted as the symbol of remembrance as it grew widely in the Flanders fields in Europe where some of the major battles were fought.

National Police Memorial

• The National Police Memorial (NPM) dedicated to the nation by the Prime Minister in recognition of the supreme sacrifice made by police personnel since independence.
• October 21 is observed as the Police Commemoration Day every year in memory of the policemen killed at Hot Springs in Ladakh by Chinese troops on this date in 1959.
• The memorial has been erected on 6.12 acres of land in Chanakyapuri, at the northern end of Shanti Path, New Delhi.
• This Police Memorial represents all State/UT Police Forces and Central Police Organizations of the country.
• The National Police Memorial consists of Central Sculpture, a Wall of Valor-engraved with the names of police personnel who laid down their lives in the line of duty and a State of Art Museum dedicated to the memory of the martyred police personnel.
• A Police Museum also dedicated to the nation. It contains artifacts and points of time that shaped the history of the Indian police.
• Since 1947, 34,844 police personnel have been martyred, with 424 losing their lives this year. Many of these brave lives were lost in the fight against terrorism (referred to as militancy and insurgency in some theatres) in various geographical regions such as Kashmir, Punjab, Assam, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram and LWE-affected regions of the country.
• And also, large number of police lives were lost in prevention of crime and in maintenance of law and order.
• On this occasion Prime Minister announced an award in the name of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, to honour those involved in disaster response operations. 
• The award would be announced every year, recognizing the bravery and courage displayed in saving lives of people, in the wake of a disaster.

4th Edition of NITI Lecture Series

• NITI Aayog is organizing the fourth edition of NITI Lecture Series at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi.
• Theme: “AI for ALL: Leveraging Artificial Intelligence for Inclusive Growth”
• Prime Minister to attend the Address by Jensen Huang, President and Co-Founder, NVIDIA Corporation

AI & NITI

• Artificial intelligence is the use of computers to simulate human intelligence. AI amplifies our cognitive abilities — letting us solve problems where the complexity is too great, the information is incomplete, or the details are too subtle and require expert training.
• Union Budget-2018 mandated NITI Aayog to come up with a national programme on employing Artificial Intelligence towards national development.
• NITI has published a National Strategy for Artificial Intelligence.
• National Strategy lays down the vision of India for evolving a robust ecosystem for AI research and adoption.
• The Strategy is termed #AI for All as it is focused on leveraging AI for inclusive growth in line with the Government policy of Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas.
• NITI Aayog has signed Statements of Intent (SoI) with industry leaders such as Google, Microsoft and IBM to leapfrog India into the global arena of future technologies and enable use of artificial intelligence in key, high gain sectors of social development – healthcare, agriculture, smart mobility, education and infrastructure.
• Recognizing the importance of research and its commercial adoption in success of AI, NITI has also proposed setting up of Centre of Research Excellence (CORE) to focus on developing better understanding of existing core research.
• Besides this, the strategy paper also recommends setting up of International Centres of Transformational AI with a mandate to develop and deploy application-based research in collaboration with private players.

ADMM Plus

• The 12th ASEAN Defence Ministers Meeting (ADMM) and 5th ADMM-Plus were held recently Singapore.
• The conferences were attended by defence ministers from India, Australia, China, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, Russia and US. This was second time Singapore has chaired ADMM since its establishment in 2006 and first time to chair ADMM-Plus since its establishment in 2010.

 About ASEAN:

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN, was established on 8 August 1967 in Bangkok, Thailand, with the signing of the ASEAN Declaration (Bangkok Declaration) by the Founding Fathers of ASEAN, namely Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand.

• At present there are 10 members namely, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and VietNam.
• The motto of ASEAN is “One Vision, One Identity, One Community”.

ADMM-Plus:

• ADMM-Plus is platform for ASEAN and its eight dialogue partners to strengthen security and defence co-operation for peace, stability, and development in the region. Its objective is to promote mutual trust and confidence between defence establishments through greater dialogue and transparency.
• The inaugural ADMM-Plus was convened in Hanoi, Vietnam in 2010. The defence ministers then had agreed on five areas of practical cooperation, including maritime security, counter-terrorism, peacekeeping operations and humanitarian assistance.