Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 09 November 2014

National

CM Abdullah seeks political solution for Kashmir issue

• Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said Kashmir issue is a political problem that should be resolved politically and his party would not rest till a solution is reached.
• “The issue of J&K is political. It is important to address it politically. We will stand firm on our endeavour to resolve the issue and National Conference will not rest until then,” Mr. Omar said while addressing a public meeting at Alusa village in north Kashmir’s Bandipora Assembly constituency.
• Bandipora assembly seat goes to polls in the first phase of state elections on November 25.
• Calling on the people to give a decisive mandate to his party, Mr. Omar said the electorate of Jammu and Kashmir need to “get rid of the coalitions by voting a single party to power for the prosperity of the state.”
• “We have seen coalition governments for the last 12 years and how it is against the interests of the state. Give mandate to a single party like the old times. If that party then does not fulfil its responsibility, throw it away in the next elections but end this coalition era,” Mr. Omar added.

Khejri trees of Rajasthan is dying: scientists

• Rajasthan’s State tree — Khejri — is dying a slow death, scientists and environmentalists have warned.
• Khejri (Prosopis cineraria) covers about two-thirds of the total geographical area of the State and and is of immense significance culturally and economically. The tree supports rural economy like no other wild vegetation does.
• The fruit of the tree is eaten as sangria, cooked as a delicious vegetable and mixed with the fruits of “Kair,” another dominant vegetation across the desert region. It is rich in proteins and dry sangria is sold at Rs. 300-400 a kg. The dead leaves of the tree are natural fertilizers. Other parts are fed to the cattle as it increases the milk yield.
• A branch or two on the top of the tree is left uncut, which helps rejuvenate the tree within a few months. The Desert Tree, as it is also known as, was the lifeline of the people in Western Rajasthan in the earlier times. It provided firewood and even acted as a cash crop.
• The root cause of decline in the Khejri cover is its excessive lopping (cutting of branches), which all farm owners do annually to procure its fruit, pods, leaves, branches and twigs, says environmentalist Harsh Vardhan. Indiscriminate cutting of branches takes its toll on the tree and its decay gets expedited, Mr. Harsh Vardhan explains.
• Scientists at Jodhpur-based Arid Forest Research Institute (AFRI) have assessed that Khejri mortality ranged from “18.08 per cent to 22.67 per cent with an average mortality of 20.93 per cent” in Jodhpur, Nagaur, Churu, Sikar, Jhunjhunu and Jalore districts.

More issues regarding BT cotton research (Register and Login to read Full News..)

Ayurveda needs dedicated doctors: PM (Register and Login to read Full News..)

Business & economy

Hindustan Motors declares VRS scheme for all workers in Uttarpara unit

• The C.K. Birla-controlled Hindustan Motors declared a VRS scheme for all the workers at its mother plant in Uttarpara in Hooghly district of West Bengal.
• The company had declared a work suspension at this unit in May, 2014 and this was the longest closure for the unit which turned out the iconic Ambassador cars.
• The unit has some 1900 workers on its rolls.
• Experts fear this move could be the end of road for the `Amby.'
• The company management said in a statement that this was part of its restructuring exercise.
• HM is now a BIFR listed sick company. The Uttarpara unit where the company terminated the services of all managerial staff following the work suspension, was Asia's first automobile unit.

Sports

Ramkumar R. beats Saketh Myneni

• Ramkumar Ramanathan celebrated his 20th birthday by beating Saketh Myneni 6-1, 6-2 in the final of the Gondwana Cup $10,000 ITF men’s Futures tennis tournament at the VIP Club courts.
• In defending the title that he had won last year at the same venue, Ramkumar also avenged his defeat at the hands of Saketh in the Challenger semifinal in Indore recently.
• It was the fifth ITF singles title of the year for Ramkumar and the seventh of his career. Apart from the two titles won in Raipur, Ramkumar had won all his other five titles abroad in Turkey, Spain and Cambodia.
• “I got a better start this time. In the Challenger, I dropped serve early and could not recover”, said Ramkumar, quite pleased with his game.
• Ranked a career-best 223, the second best in the country behind Somdev Devvarman, Ramkumar played solid in the first set in which he dropped only one point on his serve.
• The 263rd-ranked Saketh held serve in the first game and failed to win another game in the first set.
• Ramkumar did drop serve after taking a 2-0 lead in the second set, the only time he faced a breakpoint in the whole match. However, he did not allow any further recovery for the 27-year-old Saketh as he broke for 4-2, and cruised thereafter.
• “I played percentage most of the time, and attacked whenever there was a chance”, said Ramkumar who needed only 52 minutes to win the final against Saketh who has nine Futures singles titles apart from the Challenger title that he won in Indore.

Persons in news

Indian-origin radiographer elected as the President of ISRRT

• A South African Indian-origin radiographer has been elected as the president of the International Society of Radiographers and Radiological Technologists (ISRRT).
• Dr Fawzia Peer, who has been a radiographer for three decades, is the Manager of the Department of Nuclear Medicine and also an honorary lecturer at the Albert Luthuli Central Hospital’s Nuclear Medicine Department in Durban.
• “I feel elated, but also really honoured and privileged to hold this prestigious position,” said Peer, who was elected for the four—year—term during an ISRRT council meeting in Helsinki, Finland, as only the fourth woman and the second person from the African continent in the post.
• Peer said she would pursue the organisation’s objective of being the international liaison representative for Medical Radiation Technology, an area in nuclear medicine which involves the application of radioactive substances in the diagnosis and treatment of disease.
• “The future of nuclear medicine is molecular imaging,” Peer said. “We were fortunate to have the first PET—CT scanner in the public sector in South Africa in 2006,” she said.
• Peer has previously been elected to the Radiography and Clinical Technology Board of the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HCPSA), where she served two terms of office on the executive committee as a representative of the Radiography sector.

Science & technology

Google X, developing nanoparticles to detect cancer

• Google X, the internet giant’s research unit, is reportedly working on a technology project that combines disease-detecting nanoparticles, which would enter a patient’s bloodstream via a swallowed pill, with a wrist-worn sensor.
• The technology aims to constantly monitor the blood for the unique traces of cancer, allowing diagnosis long before any physical symptoms appear.
• “What we are trying to do is change medicine from reactive and transactional to proactive and preventative,” said Dr. Andrew Conrad, a molecular biologist who is leading the diagnostic project.
• “Nanoparticles give you the ability to explore the body at a molecular and cellular level,” Dr. Conrad said.
• These nanoparticles are intended to match markers for different conditions. They could be tailored to stick to a cancerous cell or a fragment of cancerous DNA. They could also find evidence of fatty plaques about to break free from the lining of blood vessels. These can cause a heart attack or stroke if they stop the flow of blood.
• “You can recall those nanoparticles to a single location - because they are magnetic - and that location is the superficial vasculature of the wrist, [where] you can ask them what they saw,” said Dr. Conrad.
• The tech company will also create a wristband that would take readings of the nanoparticles via light and radio waves one or more times a day.
• Google has hired more than 100 experts for the nanotechnology project from disciplines including astrophysicists, immunology, biology, oncology, cardiology and chemistry.

International

U.S. air strikes target IS convoy in Iraq

• U.S. air strikes destroyed an Islamic State convoy near the Iraqi city of Mosul but U.S. officials said it was unclear whether the group's top commander Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi had been in any of the 10 targeted vehicles.
• Colonel Patrick Ryder, a Central Command spokesman, said the U.S. military had reason to believe that the convoy was carrying leaders of Islamic State, an al-Qaeda offshoot which controls large chunks of Iraq and Syria.
• The convoy consisted of 10 Islamic State armed trucks.
• "I can confirm that coalition aircraft did conduct a series of air strikes in Iraq against what was assessed to be a gathering of ISIL leaders near Mosul," said Colonel Ryder, using another name for Islamic State.
• "We cannot confirm if ISIL leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was among those present." Islamic State had been changing its strategy since the air strikes began, switching to lower profile vehicles to avoid being targeted, according to residents of towns the group holds.
• A Mosul morgue official said 50 bodies of Islamic State militants were brought to the facility after the air strike.
• Mosul, northern Iraq's biggest city, was overrun on June 10 in an offensive that saw vast parts of Iraq's Sunni regions fall to the Islamic State and allied groups.
• A month later a video posted online purported to show the reclusive Baghdadi preaching at Mosul's grand mosque. Al-Hadath television channel said U.S.-led air strikes targeted a gathering of Islamic State leaders in a town near the Syrian border, possibly including Baghdadi.
• Iraqi security officials were not immediately available for comment on the report from the station, part of Saudi-owned al-Arabiya television, but two witnesses told Reuters an air strike targeted a house where senior Islamic State officers were meeting, near the western Iraqi border town of al-Qaim.