Current Affairs for IAS Exams – 15 September 2016

:: National ::

India again rebuffed UN OHCHR’s reference to Jammu and Kashmir

• In another sharp rebuff to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights’ reference to Jammu and Kashmir, India said it was concerned at the “persisting ambiguities” in the UN body’s governance.
• India also asserted the violence in the State was “choreographed” from across the border.
• India also emphasised that it has shared evidence of terrorists who came across the border with instructions to target the security forces by mingling with protesting crowds and using them as human shields.
• India in its statement said, “We have noted the reference in the High Commissioner’s statement to the situation in the Indian State of Jammu and Kashmir”.

Prime Minister NarendraModi will celebrate his 66th birthday with tribals in Limkheda

• Prime Minister NarendraModi will celebrate his 66th birthday with tribals in Limkheda and the differently-abled in Navsari after meeting his mother in Gandhinagar on Saturday.
• This will be Mr. Modi’s second visit to Gujarat in three weeks. Earlier, he was in the State to open the first phase of an ambitious irrigation scheme in the water-starved Narmada region.
• Meanwhile, the State BJP unit has announced that it would hold health check-up, blood donation and awareness camps on the occasion of the Prime Minister’s birthday.

Centre counters SC’s reason for vacancies in the courts (Register and Login to read Full News..)

India is likely to offer Nepal help in building an east-west railway line (Register and Login to read Full News..)

:: International ::

Pakistan military is waging war on its Balochistan province said Afghanistan’s President

• The Pakistan military is waging a war on its provinces of Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, President of Afghanistan Ashraf Ghani said.

• Seeking deeper cooperation with India, Dr. Ghani said there were two wars raging in South Asia with the first being in Afghanistan and the other across the Afghanistan-Pakistan borders in the two Pakistani provinces where Pakistan is fighting a “blowback”.

• The war in my country is not a civil war. What kind of a political solution is possible when you have nine internationally recognised terrorist groups operating in your country [Afghanistan]?

• The second war is the war in Pakistan. But the media do not speak about that. There are two hundred seven thousand members of the Pakistani army just in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and of course in Balochistan. This war needs coverage.”

• Defeating of terrorism, Dr. Ghani said during his speech, needs internationally coordinated effort covering a network of states, civil society and the market institutions.

China wants the BRICS grouping to acquire a larger security dimension (Register and Login to read Full News..)

:: Business and Economy ::

Govt. to discuss the proposed labour code on wages and the Small Factories Bill

• A group of central ministers led by Finance Minister ArunJaitley will meet Thursday to discuss the proposed labour code on wages and the Small Factories Bill, barely two weeks after trade unions led a nationwide strike.

• Mr. Dattatreya said the code on wages will be taken up for discussion in the winter session of Parliament to be held later this year.

• The central trade unions went on a one-day nationwide strike on September 2 to press for their charter of demands that include higher minimum wages, pensions, social security for unorganised workers, and to oppose labour reforms.

• The proposed labour code on wages empowers the Centre to fix a minimum wage applicable across all sectors in all states. At present, while the Centre can fix a minimum wage level only for central public sector units, States can fix their own minimum wage for workers in private factories.

• The draft code, which combines four Central laws – the Minimum Wages Act, 1948, the Payment of Wages Act, 1936, the Payment of Bonus Act, 1965 and the Equal Remuneration Act, 1976, also streamlines the definition of wages.

• The Small Factories Bill has been proposed as a separate set of labour laws for factories with less than 40 workers.

• Mr. Dattatreya also said the Industrial Relations Bill, which makes it easier for companies to retrench workers, has been sent to the Union Cabinet for its consideration.

• It will allow companies with staff of 300 to retrench workers without government permission, up from the present requirement of up to 100 workers.

Manufacturing sector leads WPI to a two-year high of 3.74 per cent (Register and Login to read Full News..)

:: Sports ::

Javelin thrower DevendraJhajharia scripted history

• Javelin thrower DevendraJhajharia scripted history by becoming the first Indian to clinch two gold medals at the Paralympics after he broke his own world record to clinch top honours at the ongoing Games.

• Competing in the F46 category, the 36-year-old, who won at the 2004 Athens Games, threw the javelin to a distance of 63.97m and bettered his 62.15m achieved in Athens.

• Jhajharia, won gold (2013) and silver (2015) at the International Paralympic Committee’s World Championships with record throws and a silver at the 2014 Asian Para Games.

• The Rajasthan-born Jhajharia had lost his left hand when he was electrocuted while climbing a tree as an eight-year-old. Jhajharia was given the theArjuna Award in 2004 and conferred the Padma Shri in 2012, the first Paralympian to receive the honour.

• Currently ranked third in the world, Jhajharia has swelled India’s medal tally at Rio to four medals — two golds, one silver and a bronze.

• “Congratulations to DevendraJhajharia for the historic and well-deserved Gold at the #Paralympics. We are very proud of him. #Rio2016,” Prime Minister NarendraModi tweeted.

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Sources: Various News Papers & PIB