Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 09 October 2014

National

Flipkart issue attracts Centre’s attention

• Complaints on e-retailer Flipkart’s “Big Billion Day” sale have attracted the Centre’s attention, and Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman promised to look into the issue.
• Asked if the government was considering a policy for e-commerce retailing, the Minister said the matter would be looked into. “We have received many inputs regarding the Flipkart episode.
• Lot of concern has been expressed and we will look into it. We will study the matter. Whether there is a need for a separate policy or some kind of clarification is needed, we will make it clear soon,” Ms. Sitharaman, who is also the Minister of State for Finance and Corporate Affairs, said.
• Complaints of marking up of prices, non-availability of stock and website outage followed. Small and big traders raised concern that such campaigns would hit the traditional retail market.

Stop polluting river Ganga: Uma Bharti

• All polluting industries along the river Ganga will have to set up sensor-based real-time online effluent monitoring system by March 31 next year. The government said it was serious about the deadline with water resources minister Uma Bharti issuing a veiled threat to industries—-mend your ways or faces the consequences.
• The government also said that its long-term goal was to implement "zero liquid discharge" where all the water used by industries could be recycled and re-used.
• Sending a tough message to polluting units, Bharti said that if she had to choose between the Ganga and industry, she would choose the river unless polluting industries adhere to all environment norms and the deadline.
• Using the analogy of a delivery procedure where a mother's life may be at stake, the minister said she would ideally like both the mother (Ganga) and child (industry) to survive. But, if she has to choose between the two, she would choose "Ma" (mother Ganga), she said.

Babu warns of 40% fall in MGNREGS jobs

• Overriding objections raised by senior officials, rural development minister Nitin Gadkari has ordered far-reaching changes in the job guarantee scheme (MGNREGS) which has provided seasonal work to one in three rural households in the last eight years.
• Documents obtained under the Right to Information (RTI) Act by activists show file noting by a senior official in the ministry arguing that Gadkari's announcements run contrary to the "spirit of the Act" and that reducing the wage component of the total funds allocated for the scheme would lead to a 40% fall in jobs, affecting five crore rural households.

Cyclone Hudhud to cross A.P., Odisha

• Cyclone Hudhud, lying centred about 1,150 km southeast of Gopalpur in Odisha, will cross north Andhra Pradesh and the adjoining Odisha coast between Visakhapatnam and Gopalpur by October 12, bringing heavy rain in the two States, the Meteorological Centre said.
• The cyclone, named after a bird by Oman, has been categorised as a “very severe cyclonic storm” and National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) teams have been rushed to the States. A deep depression over the north Andaman Sea intensified into the storm.
• Heavy rain is expected in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and in Vizianagaram and Srikakulam districts of Andhra Pradesh and Ganjam, Puri and Khurda districts of Odisha. Fishermen have been advised not to venture into the sea. Air, sea and road traffic will be regulated. People living in coastal villages on the landfall stretch of about 200 km have been advised to relocate.
• “The wind speed range is expected to be 130-140 kmph and may gust up to 155 kmph,” Director-General of Meteorology Laxman Singh Rathore said in New Delhi. The storm, he said, will not be as severe as Cyclone Phailin, which hit Odisha last year with wind speeds of more than 210 kmph.
• The Odisha government sounded a high alert across the State and readied the administrative machinery to face any possible impact from the storm. Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik took stock of the situation at a high-level meeting to discuss the supply of essential commodities, flood-control mechanisms, and safety of communication infrastructure and evacuation of people.

SC dismisses plea against posts for retired judges

• The Supreme Court dismissed a public interest litigation petition (PIL) which alleged that the offer of jobs to retired judges of the Supreme Court and the High Courts affected judicial independence.
• A three-judge Bench headed by Chief Justice of India H.L. Dattu refused to entertain the plea by a Bangalore-based Ph.D. scholar, Muhammed Ali, to restrain the government from clearing the names of retired judges “without the consultation and concurrence of the Chief Justice of India or the Chief Justices of the High Courts.”
• The petition said this restraint was in compliance with the recommendations contained in the Consultation Paper on Superior Judiciary of September 26, 2001, submitted by the National Commission to Review the Working of the Constitution to the Union Law and Justice Ministry.
• The petition was filed in the backdrop of the appointment of the former Chief Justice of India P. Sathasivam as the Governor of Kerala, contending that it was done in a “hasty and ill-advised” manner.

Hill stations will be part of smart city project

• A few hill stations that were developed by the British but have little to show by way of development and infrastructure over the years will be part of the Centre’s ambitious smart city project.
• The Urban Development Ministry will identify and initiate the process with the help of private players.
• A senior official of the Ministry said the concept of creating smart cities will be carried out on a PPP model and the government will contribute viable gap funding (VGF) for the project. Work on the hill stations will be taken up as Greenfield projects.

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Sports

Hamilton wins F1 Japanese Grand Prix

• Lewis Hamilton won a rain-shortened Japanese Grand Prix, claiming his third straight Formula One victory and widening his lead over teammate Nico Rosberg in the race for the drivers' championship.
• With Hamilton leading Rosberg, a red flag came out on the 44th of 53 laps due to a crash involving Marussia driver Jules Bianchi. Race officials elected not to re-start the race and Hamilton was declared the winner. Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel finished third.
• The race celebrations were subdued as Bianchi was taken to a hospital by ambulance. "Once I was able to get past Nico I was just able to enjoy the ride," Hamilton said. "It was a great result for the team but obviously I am very concerned about Bianchi right now."

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Persons in news

Nobel Prize 2014 for super-zoom microscopes

• Two Americans and a German scientist won the Nobel Prize in chemistry for finding ways to make microscopes more powerful than previously thought possible, allowing scientists to see how diseases develop inside the tiniest cells.
• Working independently of each other, U.S. researchers Eric Betzig and William Moerner and Stefan Hell of Germany shattered previous limits on the resolution of optical microscopes by using glowing molecules to peer inside tiny components of life.
• Their breakthroughs, starting in the 1990s, have enabled scientists to study diseases such as Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and Huntington’s at a molecular level, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said.
• “Due to their achievements the optical microscope can now peer into the nanoworld,” the academy said, giving the 8 million-kronor ($1.1 million) award jointly to the three scientists.

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Science & technology

Inspiration from Butterfly wings to fight forgery

• Harvard researchers have taken inspiration from ‘colour-changing’ wings of a butterfly to develop an artificial photonic material that is difficult to recreate and can help produce counterfeit-proof banknotes.
• Researchers were inspired by the male Pierella luna butterfly of Latin America that uses its wings to perform an advanced optical trick known as reverse colour diffraction to attract a mate.
• Owing to the microstructure of its wings — made up of tiny scales curled slightly upward at the end to diffract light — the butterfly appears to change colour when viewed from different angles. Researchers have now figured out a way to use artificial photonic materials to mimic the insect.

International

Hong Kong talks will begin on 10th October

• Authorities in Hong Kong and student-led protesters, weakened by the dwindling crowds of their supporters on the streets, are set to begin talks on 10th, which are unlikely to make much headway.
• On 8th, only a couple of hundred protesters were camped out on in the main government and business districts in the city-a sharp fall from the earlier peak when tens of thousands of agitators had poured-into the streets.
• The upcoming talks will focus on "the basis for political development", but the room for flexibility is minimum. In 1990, China had floated its “Basic Law,” which made it unambiguous that the 2017 elections for the post of the Chief Execrative in Hong Kong would be held by universal suffrage among candidates who would be nominated by a committee. On August 31, the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, China’s top legislature had reiterated this position-triggering a spate a protests.
• Lau Kong-wah, Hong Kong’s undersecretary of constitutional affairs, announced after talks with three student leaders that negotiations will commence on 10th. The formal meeting would be open to the media, he said, and each side could send five members to the talks.

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Business & Economy

RBI considering G-secs settlement

• The Reserve Bank of India is working towards allowing settlement of government bonds in the international systems like the Euroclear, Deputy Governor H. R. Khan said.
• “We have the proposal of Euroclear and Clearsteam settlement. There is a budget announcement also on international settlement. So, we are working on it to see how we can balance between the loss of liquidity in the local market as well as providing ease of trading for overseas investors,” he told reporters on the sidelines of an event.
• However, he did not offer a timeline for this. He said to start with only settlement of government bonds would be allowed on the international system.
• When asked about whether the RBI is looking for further liberalising the external commercial borrowing (ECB) window, Mr. Khan said the bank had been cautious and it could not fully liberalise the route.
• “We cannot open (the ECB window) fully given the current situation. The Sahoo committee has made certain recommendations and we are looking at that. It is not that we will open in a big bang way,” he said.