Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 1 May 2015

Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 01 May 2015

:: National ::

Uproar in RS over Ramdev’s Putrajivak Beej medicine

In the face of an uproar in the Rajya Sabha over “son-guaranteeing’’ medicine, Putrajivak Beej being sold by Yoga guru Baba Ramdev’s pharmacy, the government on Friday agreed to look into the issue and see how the “ayurvedic medicine” was issued a licence.
Soon after the issue was raised in the Upper House, Baba Ramdev tweeted that `Putrajivak’ is a “classical ayurvedic name and deals with fertility issues and not gender selection.”
The matter was flagged by Janata Dal (United) member K. C. Tyagi who wanted to know how a person selling such a product could be made brand ambassador of Haryana, where the Beti Bachao-Beti Padhao scheme was launched by none other than Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself. He did not refer to the Yoga guru by name but described him as the brand ambassador of the Haryana Government which had also offered him Ministerial status.
Mr. Tyagi came to the House armed with a packet of `Putrajivak Beej’ produced by Divya Pharmacy and a receipt for the purchase made on April 14.
Several members of the Opposition joined Mr. Tyagi in demanding an enquiry and action against the pharmacy.
Samajwadi Party member Jaya Bachchan demanded that the product be removed from the market and the company banned, While Leader of the Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad demanded action against those responsible, Sitaram Yechury the Communist Party of India (Marxist) was of the view that this was not just an issue of gender-bias but also one of spreading obscurantism which is against scientific temper. And, Trinamool Congress MP Sukhendu Sekhar Roy said the sale of the product must be stopped pending enquiry.

Panel urges new criteria for SC/ST applicants in technical jobs

The Committee on the Welfare of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, in its latest report on action taken by the government, has recommended that eligibility criteria be amended to facilitate influx of meritorious SC/ST candidates in the scientific and technical field.
The Committee’s report on action taken by the government on its recommendations in the 26th report was laid in Parliament. It had in the earlier report on the review of representation of SCs and STs in senior government positions noted that even today the community is not considered qualified enough for scientific and technical posts.
“The absence of reservation clause in the scientific and technical posts is just another tactic to rob them of their opportunity to get a foothold in the field of scientific and technical expertise,” the committee noted.
In its reply, the government said only those scientific and technical posts which are required for conducting research or for organising, guiding and directing research and also fulfilling the certain stipulated requirements are exempt from the purview of reservation orders.
However, the conditions do not apply to posts in the Department of Space and in the Department of Electronics and in regard to the recruitment of trainees at the training school under the Department of Atomic Energy.
Commenting on the government’s reply, the Committee has said the absence of reservation in the scientific/technical posts and also posts meant for conducting or guiding research has rather deterred SC/ST candidates from venturing into these fields. Accordingly, it has suggested that the eligibility criteria need to be amended to encourage meritorious candidates.
The Committee had also expressed dismay over the backlog in Group ‘A’ posts, to which the DoPT submitted that special recruitment drives had been launched to fill up the backlog. The overall success rate of the drive was 74.85 per cent.

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:: International :

U.S. warns India not to rush into business with Iran

The United States Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, Wendy Sherman, has said India and other countries should “not rush” into doing business with Iran as Washington is yet to work out its nuclear deal with Tehran.
Ms. Sherman, who is in India ahead of the strategic and commercial dialogue between the two countries later this year, was speaking at a panel discussion on bilateral and regional issues at the University of Chicago Centre.
On the nuclear deal that is still being worked out, Ms. Sherman said India should “hold its horses”.
“…Every country that remains an importer of Iran’s oil and wants to do business and increase its trade with Iran…hold your horses. We are not quite to an agreement yet. We understand that nobody wants to be last in line; everyone wants to be first in line if the sanctions get relieved. But it will take some time even after an agreement for all the implementation to be worked out,” Ms. Sherman said.
She said the U.S. and Iran were on a better trajectory for getting the deal done. “We all believe that this is an opportunity we should not miss, if we can possibly get it done, but there are a lot of details that are to be worked out, it is still not a done deal,” she warned.
On whether sanctions against Iran will be lifted in one go, she said the U.S. has worked out in broad terms how they will be released, what will trigger the release.
She said the U.S. appreciates the solidarity that India has demonstrated on the enforcement of the sanction. “But sanctions are the reason why Iran has come to the negotiating table and so it is important that they stay on until we get this deal.”

China slams new security pact between Japan, U.S.

China has slammed new guidelines defining the security partnership between Japan and the United States, calling them an attempt to undermine Beijing, as well as the geopolitical architecture of the Asia-Pacific.
“The new guidelines have struck a threatening pose toward China, which is the strongest driver for East Asia’s development. They should know that their aggression has sent a dangerous signal to regional stability,’’ said an editorial in the Global Times — a daily affiliated with the Communist Party of China.
Officials from the United States have been quoted as saying that the latest guidelines — updated for the first time since1997 — end the geographic limits on the Japanese military to operate.
Following permission from Parliament, Japanese forces can participate in military operations across the globe. “The current guidelines are unrestricted with respect to geography,” U.S. Defence Secretary Ash Carter has been quoted as saying.
“That is a very big change — from being locally focused to globally focused,” he observed. Analysts point out that the changes to the U.S.-Japan pact injects more substance to President Barack Obama’s “Pivot to Asia” doctrine, which the Chinese say lays the military groundwork for containing Beijing’s peaceful rise.
A string of articles in the Chinese official media, have been vocal in rejecting the new parameters. The Chinese have been incensed by the joint decision taken by Washington and Tokyo to include the disputed Diyaoyu islands, which the Japanese call Senkaku, in the ambit of the new agreement. “Since the Cold War’s end, the U.S.-Japan alliance has never been so military-oriented as now. They no longer make efforts to hide their intention of containing China’s rise. This antagonistic trajectory has dealt another blow to the already vulnerable China-U.S. and China-Japan relations,” the Global Times said in the editorial.
“The current Asia-Pacific geopolitical structure is on the verge of destruction,” it observed. The write-up also warned that Japan was stepping back in historical issues and leaning to the right in internal politics. “Relaxing the restraints on the Japanese military forces will trigger enormous controversies in Japan’s neighbourhood.”
A write-up published in the People’s Daily — China’s official newspaper — also attributes the shift in position by Tokyo and Washington to China’s rising influence, which became evident when many prominent members of the Atlantic Alliance broke ranks and joined the Beijing-led Asian Infrastructure and Investment Bank.

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:: Business and Economy ::

Cloud brings Microsoft real opportunity in India, says Nadella

With the emergence of cloud computing, Microsoft has a real opportunity in India, the company’s India-born CEO Satya Nadella has said.
“It was hard selling software. But now with cloud, we have real opportunity in India.
“That definitely is the transformative thing. And of course by design, it has anti-piracy built into it, which also is very helpful,” Mr. Nadella told an investors conference being held on the sidelines of the Build 2015 conference.
The world’s largest software company is one of the leaders in the cloud, essentially providing computing power and storage to customers through its network of data centres.
In his address to the ‘2015 Microsoft Financial Analyst Briefing’, 47-year-old Mr. Nadella said: “Qualitatively, the way I describe the world that we live in and what it will be in the next five years is this mobile-first, cloud-first world.”
Mr. Nadella said the company’s mission was to empower every person and organisation on the planet to achieve more.
“Obviously, in the last 40 years, a lot has changed. A lot of technologies and a lot of devices, rightfully so, have come and gone. But what has remained at our core is that empowerment,” he said.
“We have a focus. Our focus, our core is about being the best when it comes to productivity and platform in this mobile-first, cloud-first world,” the Microsoft CEO said.
“That is what we want to excel in, that’s what’s going to drive our growth, that’s where we want to make sure we serve our customers, partners, the best,” he added.
Mr. Nadella was appointed as Microsoft’s CEO in February 2014, succeeding Steve Ballmer.

Replaces colour codes for MF

In order help investors better understand risks involved in mutual fund (MF) investments, SEBI, replaced the mandatory colour codes with a ‘riskometer’ containing five levels of risks from low to high.
MFs would need to mention the risk level of a scheme through a speedometer-like mechanism, while specifying whether the investment was of low or high risk in nature.
The five risk levels would be low, moderately low, moderate, moderately high and high.
The new system would replace the existing practice of colour-coding the schemes wherein the funds needed to be given blue, yellow and brown codes to indicate low, medium and high risk respectively.

Zicom focuses on the Internet (Register and Login to read Full News..)

:: Science and Technology ::

National roaming tariff slashed

As per the directive and deadline set by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), mobile phone service providers such as Bharti Airtel, Idea cellular, Vodafone India, Reliance Communications and others have reduced national roaming tariff, with effect from 1st May, by as high as 40 per cent in case of incoming calls.
Outgoing STD call tariffs have been reduced by 23 per cent and outgoing local calls by 20 per cent.

:: Sports ::

India offers assistance to Nepal and Afghanistan

India has offered Afghanistan and Nepal infrastructure access to enable these two nations prepare their cricketers for international assignments.
The decision was taken at the first meeting of the National Cricket Academy (NCA) held.
“Key issues related to the overall development of the game were addressed. A road map to develop the NCA into a High Performance Centre was deliberated at length and the need to establish such a nodal centre for all developmental activities with a renewed focus to develop our next generation of cricketers was discussed,” the Board said in a statement.
All state units have been invited to submit their claims. “We have asked them to give us a detailed presentation on the facilities they have offer to host the High Performance Centre,” said a Board official.
The location and detailed plans will be finalised to be presented in the forthcoming meeting of the Working Committee.
Considering the unfortunate tragedy that has devastated Nepal, the Board Secretary Anurag Thakur proposed that the BCCI must extend the facilities available at the NCA (presently in Bangalore) to the national cricketers of Nepal, who are deprived of such facilities, which will take time to be restored in their home-country.
Afghanistan and Nepal had been requesting the Board in vain for the last two years.
“The BCCI stands with Nepal in this hour of crisis. We have offered our NCA facilities to cricketers from Nepal. We extend help to Afghanistan too to help them emerge competitive cricket nations,” Thakur said.
Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association took the lead in offering its facilities at Dharamshala.
“We have a state of the art infrastructure in natural settings that offer an excellent ambience for high altitude training,” said an official from the HPCA.
The proposed high-performance centre will take shape with technical assistance from Cricket Australia.

Vaas quits as SL bowling coach

Chaminda Vaas resigned as the national team’s bowling coach.
Vaas said he made the decision after being disappointed with functioning of Sri Lanka Cricket.
However, SLC CEO Ashley de Silva said Vaas’s contract had ended this month and the board was not renewing it.
Vaas, 41 was appointed Sri Lanka’s fast bowling coach in 2013 and was on a two-year contract, SLC said.
It was believed that the relationship between Vaas and head coach Marvan Atapattu had deteriorated of late.