Current Affairs for IAS Exams – 05 September 2016

:: National ::

Pope Francis proclaimed Mother Teresa of Kolkata a saint

Pope Francis proclaimed Mother Teresa of Kolkata a saint, hailing her as the personification of maternal love and a powerful advocate for the poor.
“We may have some difficulty in calling her ‘Saint’ Teresa,” the pontiff said. “Her Holiness is so near to us, so tender and so fruitful that we continue to spontaneously call her Mother.
The unscripted comments came at a canonisation mass attended by 100,000 pilgrims, including 13 heads of state or government and hundreds of sari-clad nuns from Teresa’s order, the Missionaries of Charity.

India and China must be “sensitive to each other’s concerns says PM

India and China must be “sensitive to each other’s concerns”, Prime Minister Narendra Modi told Chinese President Xi Jinping, when the two leaders met on the sidelines of the G-20 summit.
Mr. Modi raised several concerns, including “terrorism emerging” from the area covered by the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor — the $46 billion connectivity project that India has objected to.
In response, President Xi is understood to have said that “China is willing to work with India to maintain their hard-won sound relations and further advance cooperation”, a tacit acceptance that the relationship needs improvement.

Justice Chalameswar questions transparency in collegium (Register and Login to read Full News..)

:: International ::

PM Modi balances between US and China

PM Narendra Modi praised U.S. President Barack Obama for his leadership of the G-20 and asserted that the grouping in the future would succeed if it pursued a “collective, coordinated and target-oriented” approach.
Mr. Modi had held talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping, widely seen as an effort to reboot ties between New Delhi and Beijing.
India aimed to improve its financial system, boost domestic production, enhance infrastructure investment and create a pool of human capital in the country.
Mr. Modi also held talks with Saudi Arabia’s Deputy-Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman Al-Saud, where he singled out maritime trade, infrastructure and low-cost housing among the items for joint collaboration between New Delhi and Riyadh.

U.S. and Russia have still not reached a deal on Syria (Register and Login to read Full News..)

:: Environment ::

Illegal hunting pushing gorillas towards extinction

The world’s largest gorillas have been pushed to the brink of extinction by a surge of illegal hunting in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and are now critically endangered.
With just 5,000 Eastern gorillas left on Earth, the majestic species now faces the risk of disappearing completely, issue came up at the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) global conference in Honolulu.
Four out of six of the Earth’s great apes are now critically endangered, “only one step away from going extinct.
Chimpanzees and bonobos are listed as endangered.
War, hunting and loss of land to refugees in the past 20 years have led to a “devastating population decline of more than 70 per cent,” for the Eastern gorilla, said the IUCN’s update.
One of the two subspecies of Eastern gorilla, known as Grauer’s gorilla, has drastically declined since 1994 when there were 16,900 individuals, to just 3,800 in 2015.
Even though killing these apes is against the law, hunting is their greatest threat, experts said.
The second subspecies of Eastern gorilla — the Mountain gorilla — has seen a small rebound in its numbers, and totals around 880 individuals.

:: Science and Technology ::

New method to fight desertification

Chinese scientists have claimed to have converted sand into fertile soil using a new method which they hope will be useful to fight desertification.
A team of researchers from Chongqing Jiaotong University has developed a paste made of plant cellulose that, when added to sand, helps it retain water, nutrients and air.
The plants in the sandy test plot needed about the same amount of water as those grown in regular soil, but required less fertilizer and bore higher yields, according to estimates by experts.
Since 2013, scientists have been experimenting with outdoor cultivation at two sites with areas of approximately 550 and 420 square metres in Chongqing, where scientists simulated desert landform conditions.

:: Business and Economy ::

Govt to come up with scheme to provide mobile phone access to over 55,000 villages

The government will soon unveil a new scheme to provide mobile phone access to over 55,000 villages, particularly those in border states and in the Himalayan region, to push forward its flagship Digital India programme.
The USOF, which is maintained by the government, was formed to help fund projects to boost connectivity in rural areas.
The money for this fund comes through a ‘Universal Access Levy,’ charged from the telecom operators as a percentage of various licenses fees being paid by them.
Under the scheme, the villages have been divided into Himalayan regions such as Jammu and Kashmir, Uttrakhand and Himachal Pradesh; and the second set will be those states which share borders with other nations..
Another scheme — funded by the USOF — to connect Left wing extremism (LWE)-affected areas in ten identified states in on the “verge of completion.” “Together, these will help take forward the Digital India drive.
As on date, the total available fund in USOF is more than Rs.47,411.56 crore.
The total collection since the scheme was started in 2002-03 stands at about Rs.78,587.31 crore, while total amount disbursed for various initiatives to boost rural connectivity is about Rs.31,175.75 crore, according to government data.
As per official data about 4,700 villages in Himalayan States (Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand), and 2,138 villages in Border States (Rajasthan, Gujarat, Punjab and Haryana) are not yet connected.
The Centre is also in middle of executing the Bharat Net project which aims to connect all of India’s households, particularly in rural areas, through broadband by 2017.