Current Affairs for IAS Exams – 30 April 2016

:: NATIONAL ::

Economically backward class gets 10% reservation in Gujrat

• In a bid to placate the Patidars demanding reservation in jobs and education, the government in Gujarat announced a 10 % quota for those earning Rs. 6 lakh a year or less among the upper castes.

• “Gujarat government has decided to accord 10% reservation for economically backward in general category,” Chief Minister Anandiben Patel said.

• She also added that the existing 49% reservation for SC, ST and OBC will remain untouched.

• But the Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti dismissed the announcement as “lollipop” and demanded specific quota for the Patidars.

Govt says conducting NEET this year is difficult

• Attorney general suggested before a Bench led by Justice Anil R. Dave that the NEET on May 1 be scrapped and instead a combined exam be held on July 24.

• The “majority” of States and private medical colleges had almost completed or were midway through their own entrance tests, Mr. Rohatgi pointed out that States like Tamil Nadu did not even have a legacy of entrance exams.

• But the court had chosen to go by the assurances given by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), the Medical Council of India (MCI) and the Health Ministry that holding NEET was definitely possible this year.

• NEET, as per the December 21, 2010 Medical Council of India notification brought back to life on April 28, replaces all other exams for medical and dental admissions in the country.

• The common entrance examination is meant to end rampant corruption in medical admissions.

• It was quashed by the Supreme Court in 2013 on the ground that it interfered with the administrative powers of government-run and private colleges.

• A petition on whether NEET is constitutionally valid is listed for fresh hearing on May 3 before a five-judge Bench.

Govt declassifies a new batch of Netaji files (Register and Login to read Full News..)

Odd-even shows mixed data (Register and Login to read Full News..)

:: International ::

India looking to explore Papua New Guinea’s oil and gas resources

• India is looking to explore and develop Papua New Guinea’s vast oil and gas resources through joint ventures and investments from both the Indian private and public sectors in ongoing and new projects.

• The Pacific island country agreed that oil and gas exploration and development could be a new avenue of cooperation between the two countries, keeping in view India’s desire to achieve energy security.

• Indian companies are looking at projects coming up in Papua New Guinea after natural gas was discovered in the country’ s Southern Highland Province.

• Gas discoveries elsewhere in the country have evoked interest among Indian companies that believe they could participate in associated projects as well as in some gas blocks.

• Papua New Guinea is estimated to have 35 trillion cubic feet of natural gas as recoverable reserves.

• India agreed to provide a line of credit of $100 million to Papua New Guinea for infrastructure projects and signed a pact to set up a ‘Centre of Excellence’ in information technology.

• The request for the line of credit had been made by Papua New Guinea Prime Minister during a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the sidelines of a summit of the Forum for India-Pacific Islands Cooperation.

• Four memorandums of understanding were signed on the second and final day of President Mukherjee’s visit, the first state visit by an Indian head of state to the island nation.

• Papua New Guinea gave support for India’s claim for permanent membership in the UN Security Council and agreed to expedite a proposed Bilateral Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement to facilitate investments.

• Mr. Mukherjee announced that India would provide anti-retroviral drugs and equipment to benefit 20,000 HIV positive patients in Papua New Guinea, a figure that would help at least half the number of those suffering from the disease.

• UNAIDS estimates say that between 37,000 and 41,000 people were living with HIV in 2014 in the country, which has a population of about eight million.

India- EU could go for a deal which is lesser than BTIA

• India and the EU should consider a less-ambitious free trade agreement if necessary, vice chair of the Delegation for Relations with India, said.

• “Yes I would prefer a watered down agreement, it’s better to take small steps and move on than moving for a very high goal that is not achievable in the near future,” she said.

• The India EU summit of March 30 failed to breathe life back into the stalled Broadbased Trade and Investment Agreement (BTIA).

• There have been gaps in the offers and demand of both sides in the trade in services, automobiles and wine and spirit sectors.

Former bureaucrat N. K. Singh will receive one of Japan’s highest civilian honours (Register and Login to read Full News..)

:: Science and Tech ::

In a major breakthrough skin cells transformed into heart cells and brain cells

• In a major breakthrough, a team of researchers, including an Indian origin scientist, has transformed skin cells into heart cells and brain cells using a combination of chemicals.

• The team used chemical cocktails to gradually coax skin cells to change into organ-specific stem cell-like cells and, ultimately, into heart or brain cells.

• Reprogramming a patient’s own cells could provide the safest and most efficient way to regenerate dying or diseased heart muscle.

• The research lays the groundwork for one day being able to regenerate lost or damaged cells with pharmaceutical drugs.

• The researchers used genes to convert scar-forming cells in the heart of animals into new muscle that improved the function of the heart, using a chemical reprogramming approach.

• The team conducted two studies using a cocktail of nine chemicals to change human skin cells into beating heart cells and brain cells.

• They began the process by changing the cells into a state resembling multi-potent stem cells, which can turn into many different types of cells in a particular organ.

• With this method, more than 97 per cent of the cells began beating and they also responded appropriately to hormones, and molecularly, they resembled heart muscle cells, not skin cells.

• When the cells were transplanted into a mouse heart early in the process, they developed into healthy-looking heart muscle cells within the organ.

:: Business and Economy ::

After tussle between labour and finance ministry govt rolls back EPF interest rates

• The Finance Ministry backtracked from its attempt to lower the payout on Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF) savings for 2015-16 to 8.70 per cent, after a tussle with the Labour Ministry, which had announced 8.80 per cent returns.

• This marks the third time, in little over 50 days, that the government has rolled back contentious policy decisions pertaining to retirement savings of the working class.

• The labour ministry will “immediately” notify 8.80 per cent interest rate to EPF subscribers.

• The Finance Ministry had asked the EPFO to keep a surplus of over Rs 1,000 crore to give interest to inoperative EPF accounts that were not getting interest credits since 2011.

India resumed publishing its income tax data

• India on Friday resumed publishing its income tax data, which was suspended in 2000 owing to staffing and technical issues.

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that it is a big step towards transparency and informed policy-making was expected to assist researchers and analysts.

• The decision comes three months after French economist Thomas Piketty remarked in a lecture that India could be vastly under-estimating inequality levels in the country in the absence of this data.

• In the absence of data, he said, it was not possible to show the evolution of wealth in India as a result of which “we could be vastly underestimating inequality.”

• India had first started publishing its income tax statistics in 1961. The driving force behind the revival of this practice is Chief Economic Advisor (CEA) Arvind Subramanian.

• He demonstrated the usefulness of the data in the Economic Survey in a chapter titled “Fiscal Capacity for the 21st Century”.

• Conclusions based on analyses of the data were reported in the chapter, the crux of which was that just four per cent of India’s voters are taxpayers, though it should be closer to 23 per cent, and 85 per cent of the net national income falling outside the tax net.

• On Friday, the Income Tax Department put up income tax data from the year 2000, on its website. Along with it, the department also released the State-wise breakup from 2008-09.

Direct tax collection sees highest growth in Gujrat (Register and Login to read Full News..)

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Sources: Various News Papers & PIB

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