Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 04 December 2014

National

SC directed to complete Prosecution of account holders by March 31

• The Supreme Court directed the Centre to complete prosecution of black money holders abroad under the Income Tax Act by March 31, 2015.
• A Bench of Chief Justice H.L. Dattu and Justices Madan B. Lokur and A.K. Sikri gave this direction to the Centre after senior counsel Anil Divan, appearing for petitioner Ram Jethmalani, said the defaulters and evaders whose names had been disclosed to the SIT would be off the hook if the income tax proceedings were not completed by then.
• Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi said the Income Tax Act had been amended to extend the period of limitation for launching prosecution.
• He said if prosecution could not be completed by the deadline, the law would be suitably amended or appropriate orders passed. He said some people had accepted that they had accounts in foreign banks and paid tax. Proceedings against others were pending.
• During the last hearing, the Centre submitted to the court in a sealed cover a list of 627 Indians holding black money in accounts abroad, along with a status report regarding the investigation.

Kerala Fish Seed Bill before House panel

• After a two-hour discussion, the Assembly referred a Bill to invigorate inland fisheries to its Subject Committee.
• The Kerala Fish Seed Bill, 2014, which went to the panel for honing, seeks to bring in “an integrated planning, monitoring and management mechanism” for ensuring supply of quality fish seed to inland fish farmers — the supply spurring growth in demand, spread of inland fish farming to more areas in the State, and thus growth in production, Fisheries Minister K. Babu said, piloting the Bill.
• He said the State had nearly four lakh hectares of inland water-spread consisting rivers, lakes, reservoirs, estuaries, and ponds.
• Hardly 25 per cent of this supported fisheries activities now and one constraint was the difficulty in accessing fish seed for cultivation.
• Some quantity came from other States, but there was no system here to ensure that the hatcheries in the State and those located outside the State supplying fish seed to the farmers here were supplying seeds of good and safe quality.
• The Bill envisages the setting up of a State Fish Seed Centre and Regional Fish Seed Centres and laboratories, appointment of fish seed inspectors and analysts, a registration and licence system for hatcheries, penal provisions for flouting provisions governing quality of seeds, several adjudicators and an appeal system.
• The powers of the adjudicators are vested with officers of deputy director’s rank in the Fisheries Department, and those of the appeal system, with joint director’s rank or above.
• K.K. Lathika, G.S. Jayalal and A. Pradeep Kumar from the Opposition side spoke of how the “Bill does not address the real impediments before the development of inland fisheries in the State” — pollution of waterbodies, reclamation of lakes, the use of destructive fishing methods and so on.
• Dominique Presentation of the Congress too spoke of the diverse issues hampering inland fisheries and said this fisheries Bill would help promote fisheries production in the State.

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Persons in news

New CBI chief Anil Kumar Sinha takes charge

• “Do your duty without fear and so far as integrity is concerned, it goes without saying that you all would uphold it,” was the first message from Anil Kumar Sinha to his officers, after he took over as Director of the Central Bureau of Investigation at the agency headquarters.
• Described as a soft-spoken officer by his junior colleagues, Mr. Sinha is said to have a “very simple” lifestyle. His son and daughter are both settled in the United States.
• The CBI Director holds an MA in Psychology and M.Phil in Strategic Studies. He has been the recipient of several awards.
• Mr. Sinha, who belongs to Bihar and was inducted as an IPS officer into his home cadre in 1979, is recipient of Police Medal for Meritorious Services in the year 2000 and President’s Police Medal for Distinguished Services in 2006.

International

Include more adaptation efforts in the 2015 Paris agreement: India

• With the ministerial-level talks to begin next week at the UN climate summit, India said its position remains very strong on the need for a balanced inclusion of adaptation efforts in the 2015 Paris agreement and less focus on mitigation.
• Sushil Kumar, interim head of the Indian delegation at the talks, said the first two days of the 12-day conference are “off to a good start” with discussions on adaptation and finance underway.
• He said that countries participated in sessions for the adaptation and finance groups. “Developing countries are talking quite a bit about adaptation, but not developed countries,” he said.
• Ministerial-level talks will begin next week which will be attended by Environment Minister Prakash Javedkar on December 7.
• “The Indian position is to remain very strong on the need for a balanced inclusion of adaptation in the 2015 Paris agreement and less focus on mitigation efforts,” said Mr. Kumar.
• The conference has to agree on a draft agreement which would form the cornerstone of a historic deal to be signed in Paris in December 2015 and take effect by 2020.
• Kumar said that India will “need to bring [climate change issues] into development planning” and “disseminate whatever is in the IPCC report” at the state-level within India.
• The state-level action plans are important because each will be have different concerns depending on whether it is a coastal, desert, or tropical climate.
• Kumar said these tailored state plans are crucial for India to put together a “comprehensive and robust” Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC).

Obama praises PM Modi’s efforts for shaking India’s ‘bureaucratic inertia’

• U.S. President Barack Obama praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s efforts to shake up the “bureaucratic inertia” in India, less than a month after he described the Indian leader as a “man of action.”
• However, Mr. Obama said that this was a long-term project and one would have to see how successful Prime Minister Modi is in his efforts.
• “Modi has impressed me so far with his willingness to shake up the bureaucratic inertia inside of India.
• But that is a long-term project and we’ll have to see how successful he is,” Mr. Obama told a business roundtable, which was attended by top corporate leaders of the country.
• The roundtable was organised to discuss the current economic condition of the US and across the globe.
• Last month in Myanmar on the sidelines of the East Asia Summit, Mr. Obama in his brief interaction with Mr. Modi had told him that he is a “man of action.”
• On his return from the 10—day trip to the Asia Pacific region that took him to Beijing, Myanmar and Australia, Obama announced that he has accepted an invitation to be the chief guest at the annual Republic Day Parade in New Delhi on January 26 next year.
• In his interaction at the business round table, Mr. Obama said the US, over the last six years, has put more people back to work than Europe, Japan, and the rest of the advanced world combined.
• The growth of emerging markets has been slower than anticipated, he noted.
• “The overall global picture is people continue to look to America for economic leadership. We need some other engines to be pulling the global economy along and we’re pursuing diplomatic policies and consultations to try to encourage that,” Mr. Obama said.

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Business & economy

Nifty touches record high

• A benchmark index of Indian equities markets was trading 208.40 points or 0.73 percent up as fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) stocks surged.
• All the sectors were trading in green and good buying was observed in FMCG, banking and healthcare sectors.
• The 30-scrip Sensitive Index (Sensex) of the S&P Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 28,616.93 points, was trading at 28,651.11 points (at 09.27 a.m.) in the early session, up 208.40 points or 0.73 percent from the previous day’s close at 28,442.71 points.
• The Sensex has touched a high of 28,808.78 points and a low of 28,587.75 points in the trade so far.
• The S&P FMCG index gained by 200.87 points, bankex went up by 105.17 points and healthcare index moved up by 67.73 points.
• The wider 50-scrip Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) was also trading 21.80 points or 0.26 percent up at 8,559.45 points. It has touched a record high of 8626.95 in the trade so far.

Govt. relaxed FDI policy for investors in construction sector

• To help attract foreign funds in construction of townships, hospitals and hotels, the government relaxed the FDI policy for this sector by easing exit norms and reducing built-up area and capital needs.
• The revised norms relating to construction development sector has been notified by the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP). India allows 100 per cent FDI in the sector through the automatic route.
• The new policy has done away with the three-year lock-in period for repatriation of investment.
• “The investor will be permitted to exit on completion of the project or after development of trunk infrastructure, that is, roads, water supply, street lighting, drainage and sewerage,” a DIPP circular said.
• It is to be noted here, the official statement issued after the October 29 Cabinet meeting had mentioned that the investor can exit on completion of the project or “after three years from the date of final investment,” subject to development of trunk infrastructure.
• Under the new policy, the minimum floor area requirement has been reduced to 20,000 square metres from 50,000 square metres earlier.
• It also brought down the minimum capital requirement to $5 million from $10 million. In case of development of serviced plots, the condition of minimum land of 10 hectares has been completely removed.
• Reacting on the new policy, Chairman & Country Head of JLL India Anuj Puri said: “With the FDI policy now providing investors a much more attractive exit option...FII interest in the Indian construction sector is bound to increase.’’
• DLF’s Executive Director (Finance) said the easing of exit norms would give flexibility to investors.
• “Smaller projects can now attract FDI with reduction in minimum built-up area requirement,” he added. Although 100 per cent foreign direct investment was allowed in townships, housing and built-up infrastructure and construction developments since 2005, the government had imposed certain conditions.

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Sports

East Zone reclaims ‘Deodhar Trophy’ after a long gap

• East Zone proved to be a hard nut to crack and won the Deodhar Trophy after 11 seasons. The game swung back and forth in a tantalising manner, but East struck crucial blows in the closing stages of the match to beat West by 24 runs in the final.
• East’s team work stood out in stark contrast to some poor bowling by Shardul Thakur and Yusuf Pathan, and later some poor batting chasing a tall target of 270.
• West’s chase suffered as Ashoke Dinda, getting one last chance to impress the selectors before the World Cup probables selection, induced errors from Smit Patel, Sheldon Jackson and Ambati Rayudu. His effort earned him the man-of-the-match award.
• As the final drifted towards East, Maharashtra’s Kedar Jadhav and his Pune teammate Ankit Bawne pulled their team out of the woods with a solid 74-run stand for the fourth wicket.
• After Bawne’s dismissal, Jadhav and local lad Suryakumar Yadav took charge. Jadhav also survived a strong appeal for leg-before off left-arm spinner Shahbaz Nadeem and was lucky to be dropped by Kumar Deobrat at long-on off off-spinner Saurasish Lahiri.
• But once Odisha all-rounder Biplab Samantaray bowled Jadhav and Dinda dismissed Yadav, East’s anxiety ended and it went on to win the match.
• Earlier, after electing to bat, East was indebted to skipper Manoj Tiwary — his 75 led the fight-back after early loss of wickets — and Samantaray’s quick-fire half-century.

Science & technology

India signs up for a multi-crore project

• Union Minister for Science and Technology Harsh Vardhan signed a multilateral agreement admitting India‘s participation in the development of the Thirty Metre Telescope (TMT) in Hawaii.
• This project was rapidly cleared by the Union Cabinet and India has agreed to spend Rs. 1299.8 crores over the next decade for this project.
• Besides learning about the universe, India will gain the technology to manufacture fine aspherical mirror segments from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). This technology, say experts, will form the basis of the next generation of spy satellites.
• TMT will contain 492 hexagonal mirror segments of 82 different kinds. These will behave like a single mirror with an aperture of 30 metre diameter.
• This large collecting area of 650 square metres is thrice as sensitive as the Hubble Space Telescope. India’s role will primarily be to create the control systems and software that keep the mirrors aligned and collects the data.
• The control system is an intricate process involving edge sensors—that detect the mutual displacement of mirrors, actuators to correct their alignment, and the segment support assembly.
• These will be manufactured by General Optics (Asia) in Puducherry, Avasarala Technolgies and Godrej in Bengaluru respectively.
• GC Anupama of Indian Institute of Astrophysics explained that India will also manufacture 100 aspherical mirror segments in Hoskote, near Bengaluru.
• “These thin glass slabs made in Japan have minimal expansion when heated. We will apply a protective layer and a reflective coating using technology from Caltech,” she told the Hindu.
• “Initially we will start off by producing two a year and after the technology transfer is complete we will make one every fortnight,” she added. The telescope is expected to be completed by 2024.
• The James Webb Space Telescope, to be launched in 2018 by the US, with European and Canadian collaboration, also uses segmented mirrors. These are being designed to deploy and form a mirror after being delivered into its orbit.

Google launches a new application for SMBs

• In a move to create easier online presence for the small and medium businesses (SMBs), Google has launched a new application, Google My Business.
• The new product is designed to work across desktop and mobile devices, and will enable SMBs to create and update their business info on various Google products such as search, maps and Google plus from one place for free. The users can use the service in Hindi and English.
• Commenting on the new initiative, Google India Head (SMB sales) Suryanarayana Kodukulla said: “India is a strategic market for Google, and we are committed to invest in solutions that cater to the needs of SMBs in India.”
• “As part of our Digitising India mission, we are introducing this new mobile-based product Google My Business that will help Indian SMBs create and manage their Internet presence and help them connect with potential customers online,’’ he added.
• According to the company, globally over two million businesses use Google’s advertising platform to find potential buyers on Internet. On growth of Internet in the country, he said, “India is the third largest Internet market.
• To get the first hundred million Internet users it took us ten years, but the second hundred million came in a span of two years that was pretty fast, more interesting thing is in the next one one-and-half years we will get the next hundred million users.”
• Google India also announced the launch of its Google SME Heroes initiative in Bengaluru. The initiative aims to showcase and celebrate local small medium businesses that have used the power of internet to grow their business.

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Sources: Various News Papers & PIB

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