Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 20 February 2017

:: National ::

Bihar says Farakka barrage is responsible for floods  in Bihar

• The Nitish Kumar government has held the Farakka barrage in West Bengal responsible for heavy floods in Bihar and asked the Centre to decommission it to de-silt the heavily loaded upstream of the Ganga river.

• The State has made the recommendation, observing that the dam is the “genesis of severe” flood consequences and responsible for “alarming” silt increase in the river’s upstream.

• The Nitish dispensation has made the demand before an experts’ committee formed by the Centre to work out guidelines for de-silting the nGanga following last year’s devastating floods.

• The Farakka barrage was constructed in the early 60s with the main purpose of helping flush out sediment deposition from the Kolkata Port, besides addressing drinking water requirement in West Bengal.

• Such a move, the State has said, will further help in restoration of deltas and its eco-system which is also getting adversely affected due to this barrage.

• To buttress its point, the State government has referred to Kolkata Port Trust’s data, which suggests that silt dredging at the port has increased from 6.40 million cubic metres annually from pre-Farakka days to four times.

Against the backdrop of largescale protests Nagaland CM quits

• Nagaland Chief Minister T.R. Zeliang resigned against the backdrop of widespread protests in the State against the government decision to reserve 33 per cent of the seats in urban local bodies for women.

• Neiphiu Rio, former Chief Minister and the only MP from the State, appears to be a front-runner for the Chief Minister’s post.

• A statement from the Chief Minister’s Office said Mr. Zeliang was stepping down and a consensus leader would be chosen on Monday morning at the Naga People’s Front (NPF) Legislature Party meeting.

VP differentiated between the relationship India and China have with Africa (Register and Login to read Full News)

:: International ::

Around 3,50,000 children are trapped in western Mosul

• Around 3,50,000 children are trapped in western Mosul, Save the Children warned as Iraqi forces launched a fresh offensive on jihadists defending the strategic city.

• Iraqi forces and their allies, including the U.S. and U.K., must do everything in their power to protect children and their families from harm, and avoid civilian buildings like schools and hospitals as they push deeper into the city.

• Escape is not an option for most families, who risk summary execution by fighters from the Islamic State but they are also running out of food, water and medicine.

:: Science and Technology ::

Scientists have 3D-printed small, soft bio-bots with living tissues

• Scientists have 3D-printed small, soft bio-bots with living tissues that can not only walk and swim, but also have the ability to age as well as heal if there is an injury.

• Researchers at University of Illinois made a soft 3D-printed scaffold measuring a centimetre or two in length and seeded it with muscle cells. The cells then self-organised to form functional tissues that make the bio-bots move.

• “As engineers, we usually build with materials like wood, steel or silicon. Our focus here is to forward-engineer biological or cell-based systems,” said Rashid Bashir, head of the bioengineering department at the University of Illinois.

• “The design is inspired by the muscle-tendon-bone complex found in nature. There is a skeleton or backbone, but made out of soft polymers similar to the ones used in contact lenses, so it can bend instead of needing joints like the body does,” he said.

Scientists have discovered why the crystallised iron core of the Earth remains solid (Register and Login to read Full News)

:: Business and Economy ::

Vodafone and Idea meger will create India’s largest telecom firm

• The U.K.’s Vodafone and Aditya Birla group firm Idea Cellular are likely to finalise within a month the mega merger deal that will create India’s largest telecom firm.

• The companies are likely to announce a definitive signing agreement by February 24-25.

• The British telecom major has brought its ex-India unit chief Marten Pieters to work on the proposed merger.

• If the deal is successful, the combined entity will create India’s largest telecom firm with a revenue share of around 40% and a subscriber base of over 380 million, according to India Ratings and Research.

• The proposed merger of Vodafone India and Idea will create an entity with a revenue of around Rs. 77,500-80,000 crore besides eliminating duplication of spectrum and infrastructure capex, the rating agency said in its report.

• Further, the spectrum of Vodafone India in seven circles and that of Idea in two, whose permits are expiring in 2021-22, is together valued at around Rs. 12,000 crore as per the last auction price.

• These permits are not in common circles, and hence there could be potential spectrum capex synergies between the two companies.

• According to the merger and acquisition rules, an entity should not hold more than 25% spectrum allocated in a telecom circle and 50% on spectrum allocated in a particular band in a service area.

• The merged entity should also not have more than 50% revenue and subscriber market share. As per CLSA report, the merged entity would breach revenue market share, subscriber and spectrum caps in five markets.

Solar energy has become the cheapest it has ever been in India

• Solar energy has become the cheapest it has ever been in India, thanks to historically low tariffs achieved in the reverse auction bid for three units in the Rewa plant in Madhya Pradesh earlier this month.

• The two-day reverse auction bid for three 250 MW blocks in the Rewa solar plant in Madhya yielded a tariff of Rs 2.97 for each of the blocks and a levelised tariff of Rs. 3.3 over the course of the 25-year power purchase agreement.

• The winners of each of the bids were Mahindra Renewables, ACME, and Solenberg Power. The Rewa plant is a joint venture of Solar Energy Corporation of India and Madhya Pradesh Urja Vikas Nigam (MPUVN).

• A reverse auction in such a scenario is basically a situation where companies bid for a unit by offering the lowest tariffs at which they will sell the energy generated from the unit. The lowest tariff wins the bid.

• Companies bidding for the Rewa units were able to commit to such low tariffs because of various factors, some to do with the industry, and others to do with the specific bid.

• The industry-related factors include the fact that solar energy producers in India have been able to greatly reduce their costs due to the import of cheap photovoltaic panels from China.

• In addition, in keeping with the government’s renewable energy push, especially its commitment to achieve 100 GW of solar energy by 2022, it has expedited the land acquisition process and has reduced excise duties on various components required to set up a solar plant.

•  Specific to the Rewa bid, the Madhya Pradesh government implemented a few favourable and unique structures in the project power purchase agreements.

• While this does mean that solar energy will be cheaper, several industry experts have warned that, at such low tariffs, margins are also very slim.

• This could mean that even a slight increase in input prices — such as pricier imports from China — could push many of these projects into unprofitability.

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