Current Affairs for IAS Exams – 23 April 2016

:: NATIONAL ::

Six new members nominated to upper house

• The Rashtrapati Bhavan approved a list of six nominated members to the Rajya Sabha, including senior BJP leader Subramanian Swamy, former Test cricketer and BJP MP Navjyot Singh Sidhu and boxing legend Mary Kom among others.

• Economist and former member of the Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council (NAC) Narendra Jadhav has also been nominated for a Rajya Sabha seat, along with journalist Swapan Dasgupta and Malayalam actor Suresh Gopi.

• These nominations to the Upper House are for achievers in various spheres of public life, and total 12 in number. As of now, there are seven vacancies among these 12, for which six names have been announced, and one kept in abeyance.

• The government can nominate members in this category at anytime and it is not bound to an electoral cycle like the other seats.

• Of these, Mr. Sidhu’s nomination is politically most significant as there had been talk that the former cricketer was negotiating with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) just ahead of the Assembly polls in Punjab.

After undertaking from Attorney-General SC kept HC’s order aside

• The Supreme Court restored President’s Rule in Uttarakhand till April 27, barely a day after the Uttarakhand High Court quashed the Centre’s decision and restored the Harish Rawat-led Congress government.

• A Bench of Justices Dipak Misra and Shiva Kirti Singh admitted the Centre’s challenge to the High Court decision and brought back President’s Rule in the State because judgment, dictated by Uttarakhand HC was not yet available in the public domain.

• The Bench said the High Court judgment would “remain in abeyance” till April 27, the next date of hearing in the Supreme Court. It further directed the High Court to release the signed judgment by April 26 to the parties, who will file copies in the apex court.

• The Supreme Court recorded an oral undertaking from Attorney-General Mukul Rohatgi that the Centre would not in the meantime revoke President’s Rule in the State before April 27 as a ploy to install a BJP government.

Leaked chapter of draft RCEP shows reduction in access to affordable medicines (Register and Login to read Full News..)

:: International ::

India along with 174 other countries signed Paris climate agreement

• A total of 175 Countries, including India, signed the Paris climate agreement at the United Nations.

• This is a record for one-day signing of an international accord.

• Fifteen countries, mostly small-island states, have already ratified the agreement on combating global warming.

• The landmark deal takes a key step toward entering into force years ahead of schedule.

• States that do not sign on Friday have a year to do so. The agreement will enter into force once 55 countries representing at least 55 per cent of global emissions have formally joined it.

• The U.S. and China have said they intend to join this year.

Resolution of border dispute discussed during NSA meet between India and China

• China and India should reach a “fair and reasonable” political solution to the border dispute acceptable to both sides, the China said in an indication of Beijing’s willingness to make concessions on the vexed issue.

• As National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, who along with his Chinese counterpart held border talks.

• China said in a statement that both sides had in-depth and candid exchanges on the boundary question, bilateral relations and relevant international and regional issues.

US President makes an impassioned appeal against Brexit (Register and Login to read Full News..)

:: Science and Technology ::

India’s own Regional Navigation Satellite System, the IRNSS, is all set to be completed

• India’s own Regional Navigation Satellite System, the IRNSS, is all set to be completed in space next week when the seventh and last of its spacecraft gets placed in orbit.

• The 1,425-kg spacecraft, IRNSS-1G, will be launched at 12.50 p.m. on April 28, Indian Space Research Organisation said.

• IRNSS will be to the subcontinent what the U.S. Global Positioning System, GPS, is to its users worldwide, but with far greater precision and in Indian control, according to ISRO.

• It will drive both everyday uses as a 24/7 standard service for air, sea, ship transport and will also be used for missile-related applications as an encrypted and restricted service.

• IRNSS-1G is slated to be launched from the PSLV-C33 from Sriharikota and will be the 35th PSLV flight in the last two decades.

• Over the next three to six months, all the IRNSS satellites in the fleet would be stabilised as a constellation, their signals and performance verified and later put to use.

• The fleet has two spare satellites ready in case of an emergency, a full-fledged ground control centre in Bengaluru and tracking stations across the country.

:: India and world ::

External affairs ministry exploring legal options in Mallya case

• The External Affairs Ministry is consulting legal experts to explore the option of deportation of Vijay Mallya in connection with the money laundering probe against the liquor baron in the Rs. 900 crore IDBI ‘loan fraud’ case.

• On revocation of the passport of Mr. Mallya, whose Kingfisher Airlines has allegedly defaulted on loans of over Rs. 9,400 crore, the Ministry, which has “suspended” his passport, said it was examining the reply sent by him while declining to divulge its contents.

• The Ministry was also examining the response provided by Mr. Mallya through his lawyer to the show-cause notice asking why his passport should not be impounded or revoked.

• Once the deportation proceedings were initiated, the government would seek the U.K.’s assistance to interdict Mr. Mallya and fly him back to India.

After J-e-M snub by China, India allows China declared terrorist (Register and Login to read Full News..)

:: Business and Economy ::

With consultation about to finish new civil aviation policy to released soon

• With long-drawn consultations now in final stages, the Civil Aviation Ministry expects to come out with the new civil aviation policy next month.

• The inter-ministerial consultations on the revised draft policy are progressing and once these are completed, the ministry hopes to give the final touches.

• The draft policy, unveiled in October 2015, seeks to bolster the country’s aviation sector which has high growth potential.

• It has suggested tax incentives for airlines, maintenance and repair works of aircraft, increasing FDI limit for foreign airlines, setting up of no-frills airports and providing viability gap funding for carriers to bolster regional air connectivity.

• The ministry has held extensive consultations with various stakeholders, including ministries, airlines, airport operators and ground—handling agencies.

• The issue of 5/20 international flying norm has witnessed extensive debates with legacy carriers opposing any changes to the rule, while start—up airlines are against continuing with the requirement.Under 5/20 rule, carriers having five years of operational experience and a fleet of at least 20 planes would be allowed to fly overseas.

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Sources: Various News Papers & PIB

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