Current Affairs for IAS Exams – 11 January 2016

:: NATIONAL ::

The government has decided to scrap a tax on seed funding provided to start-ups by Indian angel investors in the upcoming Union Budget, to help domestic financiers bankroll new entrepreneurial ventures under its Start Up India campaign.
The tax provision in question treats infusion of funds by domestic angel investorsas income in the hands of the start-up, making India the only country in the world to penalise local angel investors in such a manner.
The tax is one of the key reasons that 90 per cent of Indian start-ups are financedby foreign venture capital and angel funds.

India is likely to say it has “no interest” in sending troops to Syria to fight in any of the anti-IS coalitions, but could indicate it is open for a bigger role in the Syrian regional reconciliation in West Asia.
The issue is expected to be discussed when Syrian Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Walid al Moualem meets National Security Adviser and External Affairs Minister during a three-day visit to New Delhi.
The visit is significant as it comes just ahead of a series of trips by the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi focused on West Asia.
Mr. Moualem could ask India toplay a “conciliatory” role in reconciling the positions of all the major players in the region, given India’s standing with them.
U.S.-led coalition of more than 60 countries that are conducting strikes on IS locations and supporting anti-Assad rebel groups, the Russian forces sent in to support President Assad’s Syrian military forces against IS and other groups, and the newly announced Saudi Arabia-led coalition of 34 Muslim nations, which claims it will attack IS as well.

Exuding confidence that the Supreme Court's verdict will come in favour of building Ram Temple at Ayodhya, BJP leader Subramaniam Swamy said the work on its construction could start before the end of this year.
Mr. Swamy was speaking on the concluding day of a two-day seminar titled 'Shri Ram JanmaBhoomi Temple: Emerging Scenario' organised at Delhi University's Arts Faculty by Arundhati VashishthaAnusandhanPeeth (AVAP), a research organisation founded by late VHP leader Ashok Singhal.

United States deployed a B-52 bomber on a low-level flight over its ally South Korea, a show of force following North Korea’s nuclear test last week.
North Korean leader Kim Jong un maintained that Wednesday’s test was of a hydrogen bomb and said it was a self-defensive step against a U.S. threat of nuclear war.
North Korea’s fourth nuclear test angered both China, its main ally, and the United States, although the U.S. government and weapons experts doubt the North's claim that the device was a hydrogen bomb.
The massive B-52, based in Guam and capable of carrying nu- clear weapons, could be seen in a low flight over Osan Air Base at around noon (0300 GMT).
It was flanked by two fighter planes, a U.S. F-16 and a South Korean F-15, before Guam.

An 11-year-old Indian-origin girl in the U.K. has achieved the top possible score of 162 on an IQ test of Mensa, becoming one of the youngest brainiest students in the country.
Mumbai-born Kashmea Wahi achieved the top score of 162 out of 162, putting her in the league of scientists Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking and in the top one per cent of the country’s brightest.

The Union Cabinet will soon consider a law to combine India’s three archaic legislations to make it easier for companies to retrench employees and to raise severance pay.
Inter-ministerial consultations on the proposed Industrial Relations Bill were completed, and it would soon be submitted to the Cabinet.
In a first, workers affected by retrenchment or factory closure will be re-skilled by employers.
A re-skilling fund will be set up, and employers will contribute 30 days’ wage of every retrenched worker immediately before the retrenchment.
An employer will need to give compensation to a worker laid of for prolonged ill- ness.
At present, organisations can lay of workers on the ground of continued ill- health without giving a one- month notice or compensation, both mandatory in other cases under the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947.
The Bill will club the Trade Unions Act, 1926, the Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act, 1946, and the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, into a single code.
Trade unions continue to oppose the proposed law that will allow companies with a staff of 300 to retrench workers without government permission, up from the present requirement of up to 100 workers.

Under their barren look, the laterite hills in northern Kerala conceal patches of biodiversity-rich small groves, known as Kanam in local parlance.
With ecological significance of these hills remaining unknown, Kanams are re-corded as waste lands in revenue records and often assigned to development projects. Mining too is damaging this system.
As the lateritehills are recorded as wasteland since it is not productivefor agriculture there is thetendency to allot these areas to large-scale projects, whichleads to the destruction of theunique ecosystem
The floral diversity of four Kanams (Kanayi, Vannathi,Easwaran, and Vattappoyil)in the Kavvayi River Basincaught the researchers by surprise. They were able todocument 452 plant species in these four Kanams.
Of these, 56 were endemic to thearea and 35 were endemic toWestern Ghats. They also re-ported that two endemic species recorded from theseareas were classified as endangered and five as vulnerable to extinction in the RedList of the InternationalUnion for Conservation ofNature.