Current Affairs for IAS Exams – 06 November 2015

:: National ::

SC throws open collegium system to public scrutiny

Braving uncharted territories to fulfil its promise of transparency in judicial appointments, the Supreme Court on Thursday threw open the collegium system to public scrutiny and invited the common man from every part of the country to give his opinion on what kind of per-sons should be appointed as judges of the highest courts.
Judicial appointments to the Supreme Court and the High Courts were based entirely on the Memoranda of Procedure framed after a nine-judge Bench of the Supreme Court established the collegium system.
The public had never been consulted in these matters.
The public can post their suggestions on the Ministry website till 5 p.m. November 13.
Meanwhile in a report to improve the collegium prepared by senior advocate Arvind Dattar and Additional Solicitor-General Pinky Anand, lot of suggestions have come.
Improve transparency, formulate eligibility criteria, establish a Secretariat for the collegium and frame a mechanism to deal with complaints against judicial candidates. Some of the suggestions to ensure transparency within the collegium include subjecting the minutes of its meetings to Right to information Act.
The report records a proposal to have candidates dis-close whether they are related to any sitting judge.
While the OBC Advocates Association made an oral representation to include 50 per cent quota in judicial appointments to highest courts, the report has incorporated a “special suggestion” for representations for minority, backward classes, and SCs/STs.

India wants China to share counter-terror plan

At the first counter terrorism dialogue with China under the NDA government, India reportedly asked one of its most powerful neighbours to share its strategy for dealing with ‘jihadi activities' in Xinjiang province.
Uighur militants, affiliated to al-Qaeda operating in Xinjiang province, want to establish an independent state called East Turkestan.
The official said India also discussed the probable involvement of certain Chinese individuals in supply-ing of arms and ammunition to the North-east-based terrorist outfits.
The dialogue has been an annual affair since 2002 and the last meeting took place in 2013 when the UPA was in power.
According to a report by central intelligence agencies, China has become a transit hub for circulation of fake In-dian currency notes.
India is said to have raised the issue with China and re-quested it to share the details of recovery of fake currency notes and the persons involved in its circulation in the past couple of years.

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:: India And World ::

In India, Li will ink pacts on river and culture

Li Yuanchao, the Vice-President of China will conclude his India visit by sealing agreements marking cooperation on better river water management and cultural exchanges.
Mr. Li who visited Aurangabad and Kolkata before landing in Delhi, will preside over the renewal of the 2013 memorandum of under-standing on joint water management which helps India and China share data on multiple Himalayan rivers for better water management.
The second agreement tobe signed during Mr. Li's visit will be on the cultural exhibition on the Gupta period in the Indian history to be held in 2016 in China.
However, the focus of Mr. Li's visit is expected to be onthe renewal of the MoU on smooth sharing of hydrological data related to the com-mon Himalayan rivers.
While a prominent part of the 2013 agreement focused on joint study of Sutlej which originates in the western Ti-bet region, the other and more important aspect of that agreement was on the hydrological study of the Brahmaputra.
Water scarcity is a big is-sue in China whereas the north-eastern States of India have abundant river water. So hydrological exchanges be-tween India and China are mainly aimed at emergency planning to help India.

China passes blame for ASEAN split

Without naming the United States or Japan, China has blamed “individual countries outside the region” for the failure of the ASEAN Defence Ministers and their partners to agree on a joint statement after their meeting.
The U.S. and its allies had insisted on a mention of disputes in the South China Sea in the joint statement. This was objected to by China, which is in principle op-posed to the mention of the dis-cord on maritime boundaries in these waters in multilateral fora, insisting, instead, on a bilateral resolution of the differences.
Vietnam, Philippines, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei contest China's view that the nine-dash-line defines its maritime boundaries in the South China Sea.
The South China Sea was in sharp focus during the conclave in Malaysia, following the outrage caused in Beijing over the conduct of a U.S. naval patrol last month within 12 nautical miles of the Zhubi reef, which China considers sovereign territory.
China on Thursday said it was open to India's “constructive and positive” role in cementing peace and stability in South Chi-na Sea, following nuanced re-marks by Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar in Kuala Lumpur where he linked an advocacy of “freedom of navigation” with the swift implementation a Code of Conduct in these waters.

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:: Economy And Business ::

PM unveils 3 gold schemes

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday unveiled three gold-re-lated schemes, namely the Gold Monetisation Scheme, Sovereign Gold Bond Scheme and Gold Coin and Bullion Scheme.
“India has no reason to be de-scribed as a poor country, as it has 20,000 tonnes of gold. The gold available with the country should be put to productive use, and these schemes show us the way to achieve this goal,” the Prime Minister said while introducing the schemes.
The Gold Monetisation Scheme (GMS) will replace the existing Gold Deposit Scheme, 1999. However, the government has made clear that deposits outstanding under the Gold Deposit Scheme will be allowed to run till maturity unless the depositors pre-maturely withdraw them.
Under the GMS, resident Indians (classified as individuals, Hindu Undivided Families, Trusts including Seri-registered Mutual Funds and Exchange Traded Funds) can deposit gold at collection and purity testing centres certified by the Bureau of Indian Standards.
The deposit certificates will be issued by banks in equivalence of 995 fineness of gold and the principal and interest of the deposit under the scheme will be denominated in gold. The terms of deposit range from short-term deposits (1-3 years), medium-term deposits (5-7 years) and long-term deposits (12-15 years).
Depositors will be allowed to prematurely withdraw their deposits subject to a minimum lock-in period and a penalty that is to be determined by each authorised bank. “The minimum deposit atany one time shall be raw gold (bars, coins, jewellery excluding stones and other metals) equivalent to 30 grams of gold of 995 fine-ness. There is no maximum limit for deposit under the scheme,” the government said in a notification.
Under the Sovereign Gold Bond Scheme, the Reserve Bank of India will issue Gold Bonds on behalf of the Government of India. The applications for the bonds will be accepted between November 5-20 and the bonds will be issued on November 26.
The Bonds will be sold through banks and designated post offices as may be notified. As with the GMS, the Gold Bonds will be sold only to “Indian entities including individuals, HUFs, trusts, Universities, charitable institutions”. They will be de-nominated in multiples of gram(s) of gold with a basic unit of one gram.
The Bonds will be for a tenor of eight years, with an exit option from the 5th year. Those buying the bonds will not be allowed to purchase less than two grams-worth of bonds and not more than 500grams-worth per person per financial year.
Under the Gold Coin and Bullion Scheme, the government will issue gold coins, the first ever national gold coins, which will have the Ashok Chakra engraved on them. Initially, coins of five grams and 10 grams will be available, soon to be followed by a 20 gram bar.
The government will make avail-able 15,000 coins of five grams, 20,000 coins of 10 grams and 3,750 gold bars. “The Indian Gold coin is unique in many aspects and will carry advanced anti-counterfeit features and tamper proof packaging that will aid easy re-cycling,” the government said.
These schemes are aimed at bringing the gold lying with citizens into the economy, and at reducing India's dependence on gold imports.
India imported Rs.2.1 lakh crore worth of gold in the financial year 2014-15, according to CMIE, not counting jewellery. So far, Rs.1.12 lakh crore worth of gold has been imported between April-September 2016.

Centre hikes support price of Rabi pulses to boost production

To give a boost to production of pulses, the Centre on Thursday hiked the minimum support price (MSP) of Rabi pulses by Rs.250 a quintal and in addition sanctioned a bonus of Rs.75 per quintal for gram and masoor dals.
The MSP of wheat was hiked by Rs.75 to Rs.1,525 per quintal from Rs.1,450 per quintal last season, while the support price for oilseeds were also raised by an average of Rs.250 per quintal.
Announcing these deci-sions taken at a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Power Piyush Goyal later said that the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs had approved an increase in the MSP for the Rabi season of 2015-16 to be marketed in 2016-17. The hike of Rs.325 per quintal (including bonus) in the support price of pulses is significant as the prices of tur, urad and moong have sky-rocketed in the retail market due to huge gap between demand and supply leading to heavy imports.
The support price for masoor is now Rs.3, 325 and for gram (chana) Rs.3, 425 per quintal.Centre hikes support price of Rabi pulses to boost production.

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::Sports ::

Indian juniors strike it rich

India finished with a rich haul at the World youth chess championship in Halkidiki, Greece, on Thursday. It won 11 medals — five gold, three silver and three bronze.
It was indeed quite an impressive show by the Indians who won five out of the 12 gold medals on ofer.
India was by far the best-per-forming country. The other top teams, Russia and the United States, won just four medals each but neither of them could win a gold.