1) Central Industrial Security Force (CISF): The CISF is a central armed police force under the aegis of Ministry of Home Affairs, established in 1969 under CISF Act, 1968 to protect major PSUs.
- However, it was converted to armed force with a larger ambit under an amendment to the Act in 1983. CISF is tasked with providing security to various government installations including country’s airports, metros etc.
- Now, CISF provides security to industrial ventures and establishments, VIPs and engages in disaster management amongst others.
- With force larger than 1,65,000 it is the largest security force in the world.
2) Rosenstrasse Protest: The Rosenstrasse Protest of 1943, in the heart of Berlin, was one of the most successful non-violent protest in Nazi Germany.
- The protestors were “gentile”, or not-Jew, women married to Jewish men. On February 27, 1943, the Gestapo rounded up over 2,000 Jewish men who were still free because they were in mixed marriages. The women came to Rosenstrasse (Rose Street) and gave rise to the cry: “Give us our husbands back.”
3) Wagner Group: Also known as PMC Wagner it is a Russian paramilitary organization founded in 2014 by a Russian veteran of the Chechen war. The skull is the symbol of the Wagner Group.
- The organization first came to the world’s attention in 2014, fighting alongside Russian-backed separatists in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine.
- The organization has also been active across Africa in recent years — Libya, Sudan, Mozambique, Mali and the Central African Republic.
- The U.S. government has called Wagner a “proxy force” of Russia’s defense ministry.
4) India’s Arms Imports: SIPRI: India remained the world’s largest arms importer for the five-year period between 2018 and 2022, followed by Saudi Arabia, even though its arms imports dropped by 11% between 2013-2017 and 2018-2022
- Russia was the largest supplier of arms to India from 2013 to 2022, but its share of total imports fell from 64% to 45% while France is the second largest supplier.
- Among the top 10 arms exporters for the period 2018 to 2022, India was the biggest arms export market to three countries — Russia, France and Israel — and the second largest export market to South Korea. India was the third-largest arms supplier to Myanmar
- While the global level of international arms transfers decreased by 5.1%, imports of major arms by European states increased by 47% between 2013–17 and 2018–22 in the backdrop of the war in Ukraine.
5) “Chip 4” alliance: The “Chip 4” or “Fab 4” alliance includes four of the world’s top producers of semiconductors: the U.S., Japan, Taiwan, and Korea.
- It represents more than 70 percent of the value of the global semiconductor industry.
- It was first proposed by the US in March 2022 as part of wider plans aimed at enhancing the “security” and “resilience” of semiconductor supply chains, including by reducing the world’s reliance on chips made in China.
- It is intended to cooperate on policy implementation that would support sustainable semiconductor manufacturing in the member states’ home countries.
