Exercise KAZIND

Why is in news? Indian Army and Air Force Contingent Departs for India-Kazakhstan Joint Military Exercise KAZIND-2023

Indian Army and Indian Air Force contingent comprising 120 personnel departed for Kazakhstan to take part in the 7th edition of Joint Military ‘Exercise KAZIND-2023’.

The Exercise will be conducted at Otar, Kazakhstan from 30th October to 11th November 2023.

Indian Army contingent comprises 90 personnel led by a Battalion from the DOGRA Regiment. The Kazakhstan contingent is mainly represented by personnel from Regional Command South of Kazakh Ground Forces.

The Joint Exercise between India and Kazakhstan was instituted as ‘Exercise PRABAL DOSTYK’ in the year 2016.

After the second edition, the Exercise was upgraded to a company-level exercise and renamed as ‘Exercise KAZIND’.

The Exercise has been further upgraded as a Bi-service Exercise this year by including the Air Force component.

In this edition of the Exercise, both sides will practice conduct of Counter Terrorism operations in a sub-conventional environment under United Nations mandate.

The contingents will jointly rehearse various tactical drills to include Raid, Search and Destroy Operations, Small Team Insertion and Extraction Operations etc. The scope of the Exercise also includes conduct of Counter Unmanned Aerial System Operations.

‘Exercise KAZIND-2023’ will provide an opportunity for both sides to gain an insight into the tactics, battle drills and procedures of each other, which is a prerequisite while operating under the ambit of the United Nations.

The joint training will develop the necessary skills, resilience and coordination to conduct joint military operations in Semi-Urban and Urban environments.

Both sides will get a chance to practice drills on a wide spectrum of combat skills and mutually learn from each other.

The Exercise will provide an opportunity for the contingents to exchange views and share the best practices. ‘Exercise KAZIND-2023’ will further strengthen the bond between the two armies.

4. C-Vigil mobile app

Subject: Polity & Governance

Why is in news? Assembly Elections 2023: C-Vigil mobile app keeps eye on cases of model code of conduct violations in Chhattisgarh

The Election Commission of India's C-Vigil mobile app is proving to be effective in keeping an eye on the cases of model code of conduct violations in the Assembly elections to be held in Chhattisgarh.

About the app:

Election Commission of India has launched the Mobile App “cVIGIL” to enable citizens to report on violation of election code of conduct.

Utility of the application:

“cVIGIL" is a user-friendly and easy to operate Android application.

It will be operational only where elections are announced. However, the beta version of the app will be made available for the public and election staff to download so that they can acquaint themselves with its features and also try sending dummy data.

“cVIGIL” will allow anyone in the election-bound state to report violations of Model Code of Conduct (MCC) that comes into effect from the date of announcement of elections and goes on till a day after the polls.

By using this app, citizens can immediately report on incidents of misconduct within minutes of having witnessed them and without having to rush to the office of the returning officer to lodge a complaint.

The vigilant citizen has to click a picture or record a video of upto two minutes’ duration of the scene of violations of the model code. The photo or video is to be uploaded on the app.

The automated location mapping will be done by the app using the Geographic Information System.

After its successful submission through the app, the vigilant citizen gets a Unique ID to track and receive the follow up updates on her or his mobile.

Once the complaint is lodged, the information beeps in the District Control Room from where it is assigned to a Field Unit.

A field unit consists of Flying Squads, Static Surveillance Teams, Reserve teams etc. Each Field Unit will have a GIS-based mobile application called ‘cVIGIL Dispatcher’, which allows the unit to directly reach the location through navigation technology and take action.

If the incident is found correct, the information is sent to the National Grievance Portal of the Election Commission of India for further action and the vigilant citizen is informed about the action taken within a hundred minutes.

Prevention of misuse:

It will receive complaints only about Model Code of Conduct violations. The user will get 5 minutes to report an incident after having clicked a picture or a video.

To prevent any misuse, the app will not allow uploading of the pre-recorded or old images and videos.

The app will not facilitate saving of the photos or videos recorded using the ‘cVIGIL' app into the phone gallery either.

Further, the application will be active only in States where elections have been announced. The moment a citizen exits an election-bound State, the app will become inactive.

Benefits of the Application:

cVIGIL is a convenient and user friendly app allowing citizens to send pictorial evidence of the model code of conduct violations in their vicinity.

Each reported incident is tracked and scrutinised from the beginning to the end point, thus bringing accountability into the system.

The immediate location verification feature of the cVIGIL will act as a strong deterrence for miscreants and wrong-doers as they can be easily tracked.

A combination of all these factors will encourage citizens to keep vigil over unhealthy electoral practices and bring them to the notice of the Election Commission. This in turn will help the commission reach its objective of conducting free and fair elections.