Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 05 November 2014

National

‘Make in India’ programme will meet Russia’s ‘Eastern pivot’

• The government’s “Make in India” programme and Russia’s “Eastern pivot” will meet as Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin will discuss more cooperation on energy, the co-production of fighter aircraft and nuclear cooperation with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and National Security Adviser Ajit Doval.
• During the visit, Mr. Rogozin will chair the 20th commission (IRIGC-TEC) along with Ms. Swaraj, as well as draw up the plan for “deliverables” for President Vladimir Putin’s visit to Delhi, expected in December for the annual India-Russia summit.
• Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is expected at the end of November as well. “Each of these fields, from defence production to nuclear and space programmes, are fields India is looking to Russia for closer cooperation, and so Mr. Rogozin’s visit is important,” an official told.

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Persons in news

Erach Bharucha gets 'Earth Hero' award

• A pioneer of environment education in India, Erach Bharucha, has been named for the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) 'Earth Hero' award for this year.
• “All of you need to work with conservation, whichever profession you are in. The significance of these awards are that it brings recognition for hotspots of biodiversity and the need for conservation... For conservation to be successful, we need the number of conservation conscious individuals to reach a tipping point and the press and schools are the two mediums which can make this happen,” he said.
• Mr. Bharucha is currently the Director of Bharati Vidyapeeth Deemed University in Pune.
• The winners of other awards, announced by RBS, include Indian Forest Service Officer Sujoy Banerjee and P.S. Somashekar (Green Warriors), Nagaland's Pangti Village Council and Assam's Goutam Narayan (Save the Species award), Tamil Nadu's Kenneth Anderson Nature Society (KANS) (Earth Guardian), West Bengal's Padmaja Naidu Himalayan Zoological Park (Special Mention) and wildlife photographer Dhritiman Mukherjee (Inspire award).
• Uttar Pradesh cadre forest officer Mr. Banerjee is credited with ensuring the breeding of more than 2,000 gharials in the National Chambal Sanctuary, which falls in Uttat Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan in 2012-13.

International

U.S. slams Pakistan for using militant proxies in a war against India

• In an unusually candid report, the U.S. Pentagon has openly criticised Pakistan for using militant groups as proxies in a war against a “superior” Indian army, a step that could mark growing strategic closeness between Washington and New Delhi since Prime Minister Narendra Modi assumed office in May.
• In its report on “Progress Towards Security and Stability in Afghanistan,” tabled in the U.S. Congress, the Pentagon said, “Afghan - and India - focused militants continue to operate from Pakistan territory to the detriment of Afghan and regional stability. Pakistan uses these proxy forces to hedge against the loss of influence in Afghanistan and to counter India's superior military.”
• The report also strongly hints that the terrorist attack on the Indian consulate in Herat, Afghanistan, in May, was deliberately timed to coincide with Mr. Modi’s swearing-in.
• “In May of this reporting period, the Indian consulate in Herat Province was attacked by a group of four heavily armed militants. The attack came three days prior to the swearing-in of the new Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi. Prime Minister Modi is perceived as being close to Hindu nationalist groups, a fact that may have played into the timing of the attack,” the report said.
• It added that within a month of that strike the U.S. State Department announced that the terrorist outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba, the group behind the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, was responsible for the violence.
• The report assumes additional significance as given Mr. Modi’s use of similar terms when he said in August, “The neighbouring country has lost the strength to fight a conventional war, but continues to engage in the proxy war of terrorism.”

Science & technology

Rare birds of foreign origin sighted off Mangaluru coast

• When a group of birdwatchers sailed out for their fourth annual survey of birds in the Arabian Sea recently, they were in for a surprise. They spotted two birds of foreign origin. The birds live on the surface of the water, squat on floating objects or fly over the high seas and they come to land only for nesting.
• What surprised the group was the presence of Brown Noddy — commonly bred in the Australian islands — though it is not a winter migratory bird. “It might have come in search of food,” a group member, Shivashankar, said.
• Mr. Shivashankar, a software engineer, who has co-authored the book ‘Birds of Southern Coastal Karnataka’ along with K. Prabhakar Achar, a biologist-cum-academic, told that the group spotted four Brown Noddy.
• “This is the first time our group has spotted this species,” he said. The group also came across another species, the Red-necked Phalarope.

World’s first dengue vaccine likely by next year: Sanofi

• As India deals with increasing number of dengue cases, pharma major Sanofi said the world’s first vaccine against the mosquito-borne viral disease may be available by the second half of 2015.
• Sanofi Pasteur, the French drugmaker’s vaccine unit, will file for registration of its vaccine candidate and subject to regulatory approval the world’s first dengue vaccine could be available by the second half of 2015, the company said in a statement.
• Results of the last stage of the clinical study showed that the vaccine gives a 95.5 per cent protection against severe dengue and an 80.3 per cent reduction in the risk of hospitalisation, it said.
• Dengue has been a serious challenge to public health as it affects lakhs of people annually in India, Sanofi said.
• The company added that its phase III efficacy clinical study programme for the dengue vaccine candidate was conducted in over 31,000 participants across 10 endemic countries in Asia and Latin America.
• “We plan to submit the vaccine for licences in 2015 in endemic countries where dengue is a public health priority,” Sanofi Pasteur president and CEO Olivier Charmeil said.
• Sanofi Pasteur India head Stephan Barth said dengue is a serious health concern in India, causing a significant but under-reported burden.

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Business & economy

Payments space is going to see disruption in next 5 years

• The payments space is going to see lot of invention and disruption in the next five years, a top official from online payment firm Paypal said.
• “This entire space is rife for disruption whether it is Apple Pay, whether it is Paypal or somebody. It is bound to happen in the next five years that is my forecast,” Anupam Pahuja, General Manager, Paypal Technology- APAC, said.
• Every time a customer bought a product for Rs. 100, he paid Rs 2 of that to a bank, he said. For merchants, transaction fees was the fourth highest item in their P&L after cost of space, cost of inventory and employee cost, he pointed out.
• “Nobody wants to pay such transaction fees. There is going to be so much invention and creative in this space. Fees merchants are forced to pay because there is no competition today is going to come down,” Mr. Pahuja said.
• He also saw lot of payments happening through mobile going forward. About $12 billion or 20 per cent of total payments volume came through mobile for Paypal in the third quarter. “From 0, we have to gone up to 20 per cent in two years time in mobile payments,” he said.
• Mr. Pahuja said India had seen a slow pace of growth in electronic payments because most payments happened through cash.
• “We are cash-driven economy today, but five years down the road, I don’t see that happening. Will it come down to 80 per cent mobile payments? No. But not in nature today,” he added.
• Once issues of easier use and security were addressed, mobile payments would pick up in India as well, according to Mr. Pahuja.

Sports

Manavaditya Rathore wins gold at Asian Championships

• Manavaditya Rathore, son of Olympic silver medallist Rajyavardhan Rathore, clinched the gold medal in junior men’s trap at the 4th Asian Shotgun Championships. Rathore shot 114 out of 125 to win the junior trap event in a shoot-off.
• Commenting on Manavaditya’s performance, Raninder Singh, president, NRAI said, “I would like to congratulate Manavaditya on winning the gold today. This is India’s third gold in the championship and this showcases India’s strength in the world of shooting and how our youngsters like Manavaditya are the rightful stars of the future that India is going to bank on for years.
• “However the lack of the required entries resulted in the junior trap event being converted to a grand prix, which eluded Manavaditya of an Asian Championship gold but with the precision and accuracy that he has showcased I am sure he is not far away from earning many other big international medals for India.”
• Other members of the junior trap squad Sharan Susheel and Kismat Chopra shot 113 and 105 respectively. In the senior trap event for men, Kynan Chenai finished 5th in the finals, after having shot an impressive 120 in qualification.
• The senior men’s trap team finished fourth overall with other members of the team namely Manav and Prithvi Raj Tondaiman shooting 115 and 114 respectively to add to Kynan’s tally.