Current Affairs for IAS Exams – 26 October 2016

Current Affairs for IAS Exams – 26 October 2016

:: National ::

President wants world leaders to come together against terrorism

  • President Pranab Mukherjee asked world leaders to come together to defeat the menace of terrorism, which has “no ideology” and only believes in “wanton destruction of humanity.”

  • “Terrorism has no ideology except the wanton destruction of humanity. We need to deal with this menace in order to leave a safer world for the coming generations,” he said.

  • The President said global governance was not just about maintaining peace as there were many challenges that needed to be tackled.

  • “Manifold challenges are staring at us such as poverty, hunger, disease and exploitation of the resources of mother earth,” he said, adding global governance was a concept that had come to acquire increasing significance today.

  • Poverty eradication, environmental preservation of our planet, maintenance of peace, social inclusion etc. are at once the objectives of global governance and challenges to overcome.

Rajasthan and UNICEF starts a drive to end child marriages

  • Under the banner of “Sajha Abhiyan” of the Rajasthan government, UNFPA and UNICEF, a district-level Abhiyan Yatra was flagged off in Dausa for complete elimination of child marriages in the State.

  • Child marriage in Rajasthan continues to be much higher than the national average.

  • In order to address the issue, the State government, with the support of UNFPA and UNICEF, has taken the lead in developing a comprehensive strategy and action plan for doing away with the marriages of minor boys and girls.

  • As part of ‘Sajha Abhiyan’, multiple stakeholders, interventions and sectors are converging to address child marriage in the State as a unified force.

  • The yatra will bring the community on a united platform to work towards making the State child marriage-free. Yatra will wind its way through as many as 50 village panchayats in the district to generate awareness among the rural populace.

  • A significant aspect of the yatra is that it would apprise the people of the ill effects and harmful consequences of child marriage and convince them to get such marriages nullified if they have taken place in their families and neighbourhood.

CBI will have a new Director of Prosecution (Register and Login to read Full News..)

Apex court stayed away from Hindutva judgement (Register and Login to read Full News..)

:: International ::

Despite tension between India and Pakistan, communities in US are united

  • Tensions have been on the rise between India and Pakistan in recent weeks, but people of Indian and Pakistani origin in the U.S. have been bonding, perhaps like never before.

  • Considering the divisions exacerbated by Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s campaign, the inherited and lingering fault lines between India and Pakistan have become less relevant.

  • The trend is similar across other pockets where South Asian population is concentrated.

  • In New Jersey, a group of Pakistani doctors organised a successful fundraiser for Peter Jacob, Indian American candidate for Congress, recently and the Pakistani community is solidly behind him.

  • A cooperation between Indian and Pakistani communities is visible in Cleveland, Ohio, as well.

  • People often incorrectly assume that immigrant communities make their political choices in the U.S. based solely on what is happening back home. Tensions back home between India and Pakistan start becoming less relevant.

:: Business and Economy ::

World Economic forum says gender gap has narrowed in India

  • The World Economic Forum (WEF) reckons that the gender gap in India has narrowed down — with the gap closing in primary and secondary education enrolments, pushing it up in the Forum’s global gender gap rankings from 108 to 87.

  • However, India remains one of the worst countries in the world for women in terms of labour force participation, income levels as well as health and survival.

  • According to the Forum which has been compiling the Global Gender Gap report since 2006 by examining four broad dimensions of gender equality — economic participation, education, health and politics.

  • India has closed its gender gap by 2 per cent in a year, but much work remains to be done to empower women in the economic sphere, the WEF report noted.

  • The global workplace gender gap, measured in terms of economic participation and opportunities, is getting worse and stands at the highest level since 2008, according to the WEF. This gap will ‘now not close until the year 2186,’ going by current trends.

  • Within South Asia, India’s neighbour Bangladesh is the top performer (ranked 72nd), recording progress on the political empowerment gender gap, but a wider gap on women’s labour force participation and estimated earned income.

  • India’s women rank highly on political empowerment and the country is closing the gap on wage equality and across all indicators of the educational attainment sub-index, fully closing its primary and secondary education enrolment gender gaps.

  • Clubbing India with the likes of Iran, UAE and Chile, the report said these countries have made key investments in women’s education but have generally not removed barriers to women’s participation in the workforce.

Govt formed a committee to look into the regulator TRAI’s recommendation

  • The Telecom Ministry has formed a committee to look into the regulator TRAI’s recommendation of a Rs.3,050 crore penalty on top three telcos — Airtel, Vodafone and Idea — for denial of interconnection points to Reliance Jio.

  • The committee has been asked to give a report on the recommendations soon. While the timeline for submission of the report is not confirmed, it is likely to be before November 15.

  • TRAI had earlier suggested a hefty penalty on the three incumbents for “non-compliance of the terms and conditions of license and denial of Interconnection to RJIL appears to be with ulterior motive to stifle competition and is anti-consumer.”

  • While the recommended fine for Airtel and Vodafone amounts to Rs.1,050 crore for 21 service areas (all, expect Jammu and Kashmir), for Idea the penalty suggested for 19 service areas pegged at Rs 950 crore.

Centre will hold a special high-level meeting with States for reforms (Register and Login to read Full News..)

India improved its position to 130 in the World Bank Ease of Doing Business 2017 report (Register and Login to read Full News..)

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Sources: Various News Papers & PIB