Daily PIB 18th October 2023

• Rafah Crossing: Recently, the area of the Rafah Border Crossing has been reportedly hit by a military strike. The crossing is at the south end of the Gaza Strip, a narrow slither of land that is home to 2.3 million people. It is wedged between Israel, Egypt, and the Mediterranean Sea. The crossing is controlled by Egypt. 

It is the only likely route for humanitarian aid to enter Gaza via Rafah from Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula region. There are only two other border crossings: Erez, a border crossing with Israel in north Gaza, and Kerem Shalom, a commercial crossing between Israel and Southern Gaza. 

• RISC-V technology: It is an open-source technology that is pronounced “risk five”. It is an open-source instruction set architecture (ISA) used for the development of custom processors targeting a variety of end applications. It is considered the fifth generation of processors built on the concept of the reduced instruction set computer (RISC).  

It was begun as a project at UC Berkeley to create an open-source computer system based on RISC principles. It was initially designed for academic use. The standard has evolved and is now managed by RISC-V International. As an open-standard architecture, RISC-V is defined by member companies of RISC-V International, the global nonprofit organization behind the ISA. The intent is that through collaboration, the member companies can contribute to new avenues of processor innovation while promoting new degrees of design freedom. It features a small core set of instructions upon which all the design’s software runs. The architecture allows designers to customize and build their processor in a way that’s tailored to their target end applications. Its open-standard nature, which allows collaboration and innovation across the industry. The entire RISC-V architecture can be scrutinized closely in the public domain, eliminating back doors and hidden channels.   

• Advanced Traffic Management System (ATMS) Standards: It is to enhance road safety, reducing incidence response time and digital enforcement on national highways and expressways. The new standard includes the following features: It provides for the implementation of digital highways by developing integrated utility corridors along the national highways to develop optic fibre cables (OFC) infrastructure. Under the new standards, the existing VIDS cameras will be replaced with the Video Incident Detection and Enforcement System (VIDES) to emphasize the digital enforcement of traffic rules. For comprehensive coverage, these cameras are slated for installation every 10 km along National Highways and the feeds from these cameras will be integrated at the command and control centres located at every 100 km. The vehicle speed detection system (VSDS) is now integrated into VIDES, optimizing use of automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras. Depending on the detected incident, VIDES will alert route patrol vehicles or ambulances, generate e-challans, relay alerts to nearby variable messaging boards, or send notifications through ‘Rajmargyatra’ mobile app to nearby travellers. These measures play an active role in disaster management by providing inputs for effective planning and implementation. It will also provide online sharing of highway status and other important information that will help both the agencies and the highway users.