Current Affairs for IAS Exams – 07 April 2016

:: NATIONAL ::

NIT Srinagar still tensed

• Tensions between Kashmiri and outstation students kept the National Institute of Technology in Srinagar on the boil as outstation students — protesting the “celebrations” by some local students of India’s T-20 cricket loss to West Indies.

• A day after they were lathi-charged by the police while protesting with placards, the outstation students demanded action against those NIT officials who, they said, had indulged in “anti-national” activities.

• They insisted that they be allowed to hoist the national tricolour every day before the main gate of the institute.

• Incidentally, during the Jawaharlal Nehru University crisis, Ms. Mufti had sent emissaries to Delhi to ask the Centre to ensure the safety of Kashmiri students.

• The flare-up is now emerging as a test for the new government of the PDP and the BJP, allies who are together despite having little in common in their approach to the Kashmir issue.

• The roots of the crisis go back to alleged celebrations by Kashmiri students of India’s T20 loss, leading to a confrontation on April 1 with outstation students, who waved the tricolour.

Union Home ministry wants internet companies to set up servers in India

• The Union Home Ministry had requested Internet companies like Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp and Google to maintain servers in India to help get real time information about accounts, which spread mischievous and incendiary messages.

• Almost two months after Home Minister Rajnath Singh waded into the Jawaharlal Nehru University row with terror link claims based on a fake Twitter handle of Hafiz, Twitter is yet to respond to the government’s request for details of the handle.

• In February, the Home Ministry asked Twitter India for details of the account.

• This was one of many cases, in which the government faced problems in getting real time information about such accounts. Twitter has put up a Transparency Report on removal requests athttps://transparency. twitter.com/.

Bombay High Court asks People are more important or IPL matches? (Register and Login to read Full News..)

One rank one pension scheme gets ex-post facto approval (Register and Login to read Full News..)

:: INTERNATIONAL ::

Panama Govt says it is unfair to single out Panama

• Panama mounted a fierce defence of its crucial financial services sector, trying to head off a feared international clampdown on its offshore business in the wake of the “Panama Papers” leak.

• Diplomats accredited to the small Central American nation were called to the foreign ministry to hear officials argue that it was unfair to single out Panama in the scandal.

• The government has also written a harshly worded letter to the head of the OECD,, attacking a statement he made describing Panama as “the last major holdout that continues to allow funds to be hidden offshore from tax and law enforcement authorities”.

• Earlier, law firm Mossack Fonseca, at the centre of the scandal after its papers were obtained from an anonymous source by various media organisations, said it had lodged a criminal complaint against the leaks.

India took the issue of J-e-M chief with China

• India has conveyed its disappointment to China after its move to add Maulana Masood Azhar, head of Pakistan-based militant group Jaish-e-Mohammed, to an international blacklist of terrorists faced Chinese opposition at the UN.

• “We have taken up the issue with the Chinese at a fairly high level and we will continue to pursue this with them. We will have to wait and see where this goes,” Mr. Jaishankar said.

• India accuses J-e-M of masterminding the January attack on the Pathankot air base, and had requested that Azhar be added to the U.N. Security Council blacklist of groups linked to al-Qaeda or Islamic State, but China objected it.

• Mr. Jaishankar, however, added that the issue will remain limited between India and China at the UN and will not “overflow into other areas”.

• Chinese Ambassador Le Yucheng said that Beijing had not dismissed India’s move to bring a ban on Azhar. “We felt that the information provided by India to the UN was inadequate, that is why we placed a ‘technical hold’—a temporary measure,” Mr. Le said.

US Presidential nomination still far from settled (Register and Login to read Full News..)

:: Science and Technology ::

Comets and asteroids might have helped Mars to be more conducive to life

• Large comets and asteroids that bombarded Mars some 4 billion years ago likely enhanced climate conditions enough to make the red planet more conducive to life, at least for a time, a new study has found.

• If early Mars was as barren and cold as it is today, massive asteroid impacts would have produced heat to melt subsurface ice, said Stephen Mojzsis, a professor at University of Colorado Boulder in the U.S.

• Scientists have long known there was once running water on Mars, as evidenced by ancient river valleys, deltas and parts of lake beds.

• In addition to producing hydrothermal regions in portions of Mars’ fractured and melted crust, a massive impact could have temporarily increased the planet’s atmospheric pressure, periodically heating Mars up enough to “re-start” a dormant water cycle.

• Much of the action on Mars occurred during a period known as the Late Heavy Bombardment about 3.9 billion years ago when the developing solar system was a shooting gallery of comets, asteroids, moons and planets.

:: Business and Economy ::

Governments tax collection exceeds budget and revised estimates

• The government collected Rs.14.6 lakh crore in taxes in financial year 2015-16, which is higher than the Budget Estimates and Revised Estimates for the year.

• The government data shows that the bulk of the growth in total tax revenues was due to the increase in indirect tax collections.

• Indirect tax revenue in FY 2015-16 stood at Rs.7.11 lakh crore, which is higher than the BE and RE by Rs.65,618 crore and Rs.9,885 crore, respectively.

• Indirect tax collections were 31.1 per cent higher than in the previous financial year.

• Direct tax collections grew 7.6 per cent in the fiscal year 2015-16 to Rs 7.48 lakh crore, marginally lower than the RE of Rs 7.52 lakh crore.

• The aggregate Budget Estimates (BE) for total direct and indirect tax revenues for the fiscal year 2015-16 was Rs 14.45 lakh crore, which was revised to Rs 14.55 lakh crore. The actual collection (provisional) is Rs 14.60 lakh crore.

• The direct tax collection, however, is lower than the RE of Rs 7.52 lakh crore.

Government looking for various measures to increase exports (Register and Login to read Full News..)  

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Sources: Various News Papers & PIB

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