Current Affairs for IAS Exams – 02 November 2015


Current Affairs for IAS Exams – 02 November 2015


:: National ::

Centre readies blueprint to check IS influence

  • The National Democratic Alliance government is ready with a blueprint to tackle the influence of the Islamic State (IS) in India, and newly created Telangana.

  • The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) will circulate among all States a model framework for de-radicalisation and counter-radicalisation.

  • Of the 19 Indians who had planned to travel to Syria to join the IS in the past one year, 16 were identified and stopped by the Telangana police.

  • Telangana suggested a ‘surrender and rehabilitation’ policy — similar to the one offered to Maoists — for young men and women prevented from joining extremist groups.

  • The State also suggested that India follow the U.K. model and set up a separate unit to tackle violent extremism.

  • The Research Information and Communication Unit (RICU) of the U.K., created after the 2005 London train bombings, draws officials from the Home, Foreign &Commonwealth Office.

  • It works under the Office for Security and Counter-Terrorism, coordinating government-wide communication activities to counter violent extremism and promote stronger inter-community relations at the grassroots.

  • Telangana said waging an ideological battle was important and government agencies should have a wide presence on the Internet, both overt and covert.

Indology meet to project ‘soft power'

  • The Ministry of External Affairs is getting ready to promote the global discipline of Indology as a soft diplomatic platform.

  • The Ministry, under the umbrella of the Indian Council for Cultural Relations, will organise the first World Indology Conference from November 21 to 23.

  • Indology, which includes the study of the Vedas, Vedanta, Upanishads and the Sanskrit classics, has a global pool of scholars who can project India's core civilisational values effectively on the global stage.

  • The three-day conference would be inaugurated by President Pranab Mukherjee who is widely known for his interest in the Sanskrit classics.

Govt. forms committee to review drug pricing policy (Register and Login to read Full News..) 

:: Business And Economy ::

5-member panel mooted for deciding on monetary policy

  • After four months of debate and discussion, the Reserve Bank of India and the Finance Ministry has overcome the stalemate over the most significant reform in the central bank’s 80-year history.

  • The Ministry’s note for the Cabinet’s approval proposes a five-member Monetary Policy Committee.

  • The government will nominate two members and the RBI one expert, besides two of its officials: the Deputy Governor and the executive director dealing with monetary policy.

  • Each of the five members would have one vote and the RBI Governor, chair of the committee, will have a casting vote in the event of a tie in situations such as the absence of a member.

  • The inflation target for the RBI in each financial year will be determined by the Government in consultation with the RBI itself.

  • At present, the Governor is advised by a technical committee but can veto decisions, being singularly responsible for monetary policy.

  • A draft of the Indian Financial Code that the Ministry had posted on its website in July proposed to strip the Governor of veto vote on the monetary policy.

  • The draft proposed a six-member monetary policy committee, besides powers for the government to appoint four of the six members.

  • Relations between the Centre and the RBI had already been uneasy over amendments to the RBI Act that Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had announced in his Budget speech, leading to a breakdown of talks between the two sides.

India to emerge as largest cotton producer (Register and Login to read Full News..)

:: India And World ::

Indonesia is our key ally , says Vice-President

  • Vice-President Hamid Ansari said in Jakarta on Sunday that key agreements in maritime security cooperation, bilateral trade and cultural exchange would be soon signed with Indonesia.

  • He also said that Indonesia is the “single-most important and biggest country in ASEAN, and a key strategic partner.”

  • Mr. Ansari underlined the three crucial MoUs under consideration in Jakarta. One was collaboration between the AYUSH Ministry and Bali's Uddiyana University in the field of Ayurveda. Another pertained to a cultural ex-change programme. Notes would be exchanged on the Extradition Treaty signed in 2011.

  • The last visit by an Indian dignitary was in October 2013, when then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh visited Bandar Seri Begawan to attend the 11th ASEAN-India Summit.

Boost for Erdogan as AKP wins critical Turkey vote (Register and Login to read Full News..)

13 killed in al-Shabaab attack on Somali hotel (Register and Login to read Full News..)

:: Science And Technology ::

IISc: cleaning rivers using a nano-composite

  • Scientists from the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru have developed a novel ‘reusable' nano-composite material, with Cerium being the crucial compound in it, which can degrade microbes and chemical dyes that are among common effluents in rivers.

  • It is this notion, that the compound can speed up the degradation of chemical dyes and the bacterium Escherichia coli (which forms a large chunk of organic waste in sewage) led the re-searchers to develop ceria nanoflakes, which com-bines ceria with silver salts.

  • The superior photo catalytic activity of this nano-composite for the degradation chemical dyes is attributed to its extended absorption in visible region and enhanced stability of the catalyst owing to the firm adherence of silver bromide and phosphate to ceria nanoflakes.

  • The compound was to re-main stable even after seven cycles of its usage with polluted fluids.

:: Environment And Ecology ::

Vanishing African lions

  • Africa's lions are fast “'disappearing” from vast swathes of the continent, including from the savannah grasslands, where they are the indisputable flagship species, finds a new scientific paper.

  • Threatened by habitat loss, a depleting prey base, poorly regulated sport hunting and a demand for traditional African and Chinese medicines, several lion populations have either entirely disappeared or are expected to go within the next few decades.

  • Their populations are declining every-where, except in four southern countries — Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, and Zimbabwe.

  • The reintroduction of lions in fenced and intensively managed reserves has been the key to their growth in Southern Africa.

  • While the animal is currently graded as “vulnerable” on the World Conservation Union (IUCN) Red List, it will be considered “endangered” if numbers declined by 50 per cent over three lion generations.

:: Sports ::

Sania-Hingis domination is complete

  • Swiss veteran Martina Hingis and India's Sania Mir-za crowned a stunning year for their partnership on Sunday by winning their ninth title at the WTA Finals here on Sunday.

  • The top seeds, who joined forces only in March, beat Spain's eighth seeds Garbine Muguruza and Carla Suarez Navarro 6-0, 6-3 in 66 minutes, much of which looked more like an exhibition match than a season finale.

  • Hingis, 35, and Sania, 28, have also won Wimbledon, the US Open and Indian Wells on their way to Singapore, where they also swept all their matches. Their only finals loss was in Rome.

  • The pair had bagged the 2015 WTA year-end top ranking.

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Sources: Various News Papers & PIB

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