Initiatives for Transgender persons

• This is the first-of-its-kind gender-inclusive community policing initiative in the country, the Cyberabad police inaugurated a ‘Transgender Community Desk’ at Gachibowli Police Station.
• The desk will be managed by a police liaison officer and a transgender person who is designated as a community coordinator.
• It will be the focal point for all grievance redressal among the transgender community in the Cyberabad Commissionerate.
• The desk will provide support to file cases in offences related to violence or discrimination against any transgender person.
• Among other services, the desk will also provide counselling, legal aid, life skills, soft skills training, job placements, and referral linkages to welfare schemes in partnership with the Department of Women and Child Welfare, and the District Legal Services Authority.
• The Society for Cyberabad Security Council (SCSC) will also organise monthly training, employability, life-skill training, and facilitate access to job opportunities, while Prajwala, a non-governmental organisation, would assist the desk to facilitate a safe space for any transgender person who needs emergency transit stay.
• Over 200 transgender persons participated in the event, during which Mr. Sajjanar spoke about the need to build an inclusive society ensuring equal opportunities for all

Recent Cyber Attacks & India's Cyber Security Agencies

• Recently, the Union Power Ministry said that State-sponsored Chinese hacker groups targeted various Indian power centres.
• India has been attacked by suspected Chinese state-sponsored groups multiple times in the past.
• In 2009, a suspected cyber espionage network dubbed GhostNet was found to be targeting the Tibetan government in exile in India, and many Indian embassies.
• There were a number of subsequent attacks that targeted India. Such as:
  • Stuxnet had also taken down nuclear reactors in Iran.
  • Suckfly, targeted not just government but also private entities including a firm that provided tech support to the National Stock Exchange.
  • Dtrack which first targeted Indian banks, and later the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant in 2019.

• Documents released by WikiLeaks show that groups such as the CIA’s UMBRAGE project have advanced capabilities of carrying false flag attacks.

Institutional security:

• The National Security Council, chaired by the National Security Adviser (NSA), plays a key role in shaping India’s cyber policy ecosystem.
• The NSA also chairs the National Information Board, which is meant to be the apex body for cross-ministry coordination on cybersecurity policymaking.
• The National Critical Information Infrastructure Protection Centre established under the National Technical Research Organisation in January 2014 was mandated to facilitate the protection of critical information infrastructure.
• In 2015, the Prime Minister established the office of the National Cyber Security Coordinator who advises the Prime Minister on strategic cybersecurity issues.
• India’s Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In), which is the nodal entity responding to various cybersecurity threats to non-critical infrastructure comes under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY).
• The Ministry of Defence has recently upgraded the Defence Information Assurance and Research Agency to establish the Defence Cyber Agency, a tri-service command of the Indian armed forces to coordinate and control joint cyber operations and craft India’s cyber doctrine.
• The Ministry of Home Affairs oversees multiple coordination centres that focus on law enforcement efforts to address cybercrime, espionage and terrorism.
• The Ministry of External Affairs coordinates India’s cyber diplomacy push, both bilaterally with other countries, and at international fora like the United Nations.

Types of Cyber Crimes

• Stalking: Cyberstalking is the use of the Internet or other electronic means to stalk someone
• Hacking - is a crime, which entails cracking systems and gaining unauthorized access to the data stored in them
• Phishing - refers to the receipt of unsought emails by customers of financial institutions, asked them to enter their username, password or other personal information to access their account for some reason.
• Squatting - is the act of registering a famous domain name and then selling it for a fortune
• Software Piracy - is the illegal reproduction and distribution of software for business or personal use. This is considered to be a type of infringement of copyright and a violation of a license agreement
• Cyber pornography - includes pornographic websites; pornographic magazines produced using computers (to publish and print the material) and the Internet (to download and transmit pornographic pictures, photos, writings etc).
• Cyber-terrorism - is the adaptation of terrorism to computer resources, whose purpose is to cause fear in its victims by attacking electronic resources
• Cyber Defamation - occurs when defamation takes place with the help of computers and/or the Internet. E.g. someone publishes defamatory matter about someone on a website or sends e-mails containing defamatory information to all of that person's friends

Recent India-Srilanka Defence Exercise

• A team of 4 Sarang Advance Light Helicopters, Surya Kiran (Hawks), Tejas Fighter Aircraft and the Dornier Maritime Patrol Aircraft from India were in Sri Lanka this week, to participate

Historical background:

• During Sri Lanka’s over three decade-civil war, India has played a crucial role, politically and at times, using its military.
• India launched ‘Operation Poomalai’ in 1987 — when the Indian Air Force dropped food supplies in Jaffna.

Other Indian Operations in the Past:

• Operation Polo 1948 Indian armed forces ended the rule of the Nizam of Hyderabad and led to the incorporation of the princely state of Hyderabad into the Indian Union.
  • By Sardar Patel’s plan, Army and Police led by Maj Gen J N Chaudhuri attacked and covered Hyderabad.
• Operation Vijay 1961 - Code name is given for Liberation of Goa.
  • Goa was placed under military administration headed by Kunhiraman Palat Candeth as Lieutenant Governor. Later it was granted statehood in 1987.
• Operation Trident 1971 - Offensive operation launched by the Indian Navy on December 4 – 5 in Pakistan’s port city of Karachi during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971. This operation saw the first use of anti-ship missiles in combat in the region. We celebrate Navy Day on December 4th to mark the success of this operation.
• Operation Meghna Heli Bridge 1971 Aerial operation of Indian and Bangladeshi allied forces during the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971. It took place on 9 December, when the Indian Air Force (IAF) airlifted the Mukti Bahini and the IV Corps of the Indian Army over the River Meghna, bypassing the destroyed Meghna Bridge and Pakistani defences in Ashuganj.
• Operation Blue Star 1984 Indian military action was carried out between 1 and 8 June 1984 to remove militant religious leader Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and his followers from the buildings of the Harmandir Sahib (Golden Temple) complex in Amritsar, Punjab. Operation Woodrose was taken up to counter the protests that came after this operation.
• Operation Meghdoot 1984 Launched on 13 April 1984, this military operation was the first assault launched in the highest battlefield in the world. The military action resulted in Indian troops gaining control of the entire Siachen Glacier.
• Operation Pawan 1987 - Operations by the Indian Peace Keeping Force to take control of Jaffna from the LTTE in late 1987 to enforce the disarmament of the LTTE as a part of the Indo-Sri Lankan Accord.
  • Operation Viraat, which occurred in 1988, after Operation Pawan, was an anti-insurgency operation launched by the IPKF against the LTTE in April 1988 in Northern Sri Lanka
• Operation Cactus 1988 - Para commandos of Indian Army and MARCOS of Indian Navy oust Tamil nationalist mercenaries of PLOTE (People’s Liberation Organization of Tamil Eelam) who instigated a coup in Malé in the Maldives.
• Operation Vijay 1999 - Indian operation to push back the infiltrators from the Kargil Sector, in the 1999 Kargil War.
• Operation Black Tornado 2008 - 10 members of Lashkar-e-Taliban carried out 12 coordinated attacks in Mumbai.
  • Indian Armed Force planned to stop these attacks.
• Operation Surya Hope 2013 - The Indian Army’s Central Command response to the June 2013 North India floods in Uttarakhand.
• Operation Goodwill - Humanitarian tasks in J&K.
• Operation Good Samaritan - Humanitarian tasks in Manipur, Nagaland
• Operation Maitri 2015 - India’s Army-led rescue and relief mission in quake-hit Nepal.
• Operation Sahyog 2018 - To rescue people in flood-hit Kerala.

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