Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 12 March 2015

Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 12 March 2015

:: National ::

NGO seeks CBI, ED probe into Aditya Birla group

  • Common Cause, the NGO whose PIL plea led to the cancellation of coal block allocations, moved the Supreme Court accusing Aditya Birla group of hawala transactions, money laundering and bribery and sought a CBI and Enforcement Directorate probe.

  • The application filed by advocate Prashant Bhushan for the NGO cited how coal extracted from a captive block allocated to the Sasan ultra mega power project was allowed to be diverted, resulting in a huge post-bidding concession worth Rs. 29,000 crore to Reliance Power Limited (a Reliance ADAG company).

  • It alleged that huge amounts of cash were routed through hawala by the Birla Group.

  • The application also pointed to alleged recovery of unaccounted Rs. 25 crore during the raids on the company office.

India and Mauritius announce security cooperation pact

  • India and Mauritius announced a new security cooperation agreement, as part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Indian Ocean outreach.

  • In Port Louis, on the second leg of his three-nation tour to the Seychelles, Mauritius and Sri Lanka, Mr. Modi and Mauritian Prime Minister Aneerood Jugnauth signed five agreements, one on opening up the “ocean economy”, or “blue economy”.

  • Another is a key memorandum of understanding that will see India taking over responsibility to build transport infrastructure (sea and air links) for the Agalega Islands.

  • This agreement would give India a strategic advantage in the Indian Ocean region, working closely with the Mauritius Defence Forces guarding the outer islands. In addition, India has extended a $500-million Line of Credit for development or security projects that Mauritius will decide on.

  • The highlight of India’s push for maritime heft during the visit will be the commissioning of a 1,300-tonne, Indian-built coastal patrol vessel, MCGS Barracuda . The ship will showcase India’s commitment on maritime security, particularly along the African coast that faces the threat of piracy.

  • It is also part of the government’s “Make in India” programme. Ahead of Mr. Modi’s visit, two Indian warships, the destroyer INS Delhi and the hydrographic survey ship INS Sarvekshak , have arrived off the coast of Port Louis as further evidence of Indian presence and assistance in the region.

  • India’s security cooperation agreements in the Seychelles have set the course for Mr. Modi’s foreign policy initiative for India to become a “net security provider” in the Indian Ocean region, in a bid to counter China’s increasing influence there.

  • During Mr. Modi’s visit, India is expected to offer expertise and funding to help Mauritius move from its traditional economy of sugarcane crops and tourism.

  • “We have worked very closely in civilian structures, in building infrastructure, in health, in science and technology, in IT — India built the first cyber city — and in building up Mauritius’s capacities as a financial services hub, as well as now a petroleum hub,” said Secretary (East) Navtej Sarna at a briefing .

  • Mr. Modi will attend the National Day celebrations as chief guest and address the National Assembly.

  • During his address, he is expected to invoke the close connections between India and Mauritius, where more than 68 per cent of the inhabitants are of Indian origin. He will inaugurate a building of the World Hindi Centre.

SC upholds life term in Manjunath murder case (Register and Login to read Full News..)

:: International :

Rushdie to join journalism faculty of NY university

  • Controversial India-born author Salman Rushdie will join the journalism faculty at the New York University later this year to teach courses and advise graduate students.

  • Mr. Rushdie will join the New York University (NYU) journalism faculty as a ‘Distinguished Writer in Residence’ at the Arthur L Carter Journalism Institute of the Faculty of Arts and Science in September, 2015.

  • Over the next five years, Mr. Rushdie would be teaching courses in the Institute, providing public readings and advising graduate students, the institute’s director Perri Klass said in a statement.

  • Mr. Klass said that as a “brilliant writer and prominent public intellectual”, Mr. Rushdie exemplifies the mission of the Journalism Institute, which is a centre for research and teaching in the city that is a cultural hub and media capital.

  • He will join the institute’s ranks of writers, reporters, producers, and critics, to engage and inform the local community in journalism and beyond.

  • Mr. Klass expressed confidence that Mr. Rushdie would be an “outstanding addition” to the journalism institute.

  • A Fellow of the British Royal Society of Literature and the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Mr. Rushdie won the 1981 Booker Prize for Midnight’s Children.

  • Mr. Rushdie had spent nearly a decade in hiding after Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khomeini had issued a fatwa against him in 1989 following the publication of his book ‘The Satanic Verses’, which was considered offensive to Islam.

‘Time to replace 13th Amendment with a more dynamic system’ (Register and Login to read Full News..)

:: Business & Economy ::

Work on GST rollout on track, says Shaktikanta Das

  • The Narendra Modi government is working on full throttle to implement the Goods and Services Tax (GST), a key indirect tax reform, from April 1, 2016, said Union Revenue Secretary Shaktikanta Das.

  • He also pointed out that several committees and sub-committees, comprising Centre and State finance and taxation officers were working on aspects such as business processes and reporting systems. A special purpose vehicle was working on the IT backbone for the rollout, he added.

  • “Doubts have been raised about the implementation timeline. I want to confirm that work related to implementation is very much on,” Mr. Das said at an interactive session, organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).

  • Mr. Das said all States and political formations were on board. He was hopeful that the bill on GST would go through in the current session of Parliament.

  • Mr. Das also said that there would not be much revenue loss due to transition to GST.

  • “States were apprehensive about loss of revenue when the value added tax was implemented. However, the quantum of loss, which was compensated for VAT by the Centre across the country, was only Rs.33,000 crore. In GST also, there will not be much loss,” he added.

  • Mr. Das said the government had agreed to compensate States for GST loss for the first five years on a differing basis. He also pointed out that the manufacturing States would lose more than the consumption States. That was why a one per cent origin-based tax had been included with a sunset clause of two years, he pointed out.

  • He also said that GST would be tax buoyant while terming the 42 per cent devolution of Centre’s net taxes to the States as a big bang reform.

  • Mr. Das also said the plan to reduce corporate tax rates was done to make India competitive with other ASEAN countries as an investment destination.

LIC to invest Rs.1.50 lakh crore in Railways

  • The Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) will provide Rs.1.50 lakh crore in the next five years to the Railways for funding projects.

  • The move is in line with Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu’s plan to look for funds outside of budgetary support and tap low-cost long-term funds. The Railways will need Rs.8.50 lakh crore in the next five years for various projects.

  • “There would be a five-year moratorium on interest and loan repayment, and the rest of the terms would be negotiated while signing the finance assistance agreement,” a press statement said.

  • As per the memorandum of understanding signed between the two parties, the LIC will make available the funds to the Railways and its entities from 2015-16.

  • According to the latest Railway budget, its total Plan budget is Rs.1 lakh crore for 2015-16.

RBI issues new norms for sale of bad loans (Register and Login to read Full News..)

IMF raises India growth forecast to 7.2 % this fiscal (Register and Login to read Full News..)

:: Science & Technology ::

Malaria: people with blood group A more vulnerable to severe disease

  • A protein produced by some strains of the malaria parasite can cause red blood cells, especially in blood group A individuals, to form clumps, thereby increasing the severity of disease, according to research just published.

  • When certain strains of Plasmodium falciparum , the single-celled parasite that is responsible for the most dangerous forms of malaria, get into red blood cells, those cells start sticking to other red blood cells as well as to walls of blood vessels.

  • The resulting obstruction to blood flow can damage tissues and lead to severe malaria that is life-threatening.

  • Previous research had implicated the ‘ P. falciparum erythrocyte membrane protein 1’ (PfEMP1) in red blood cells forming clumps. (Such clumps are called ‘rosettes’).

  • Once the parasite infects red blood cells, this protein that it produces appears on the outer surface of those cells. The protein then latches on to receptor molecules found on other red blood cells, creating rosettes.

  • However, when PfEMP1 was removed from red blood cell surfaces using enzymes, rosette-formation was reduced only in those of blood group O but not blood group A.

  • This indicated that PfEMP1 may not be the only molecule involved in rosette formation, noted a Scandinavian team of scientists in a Nature Medicine paper.

  • With a series of experiments, the team showed that another protein could have a hand too, principally affecting individuals of blood group A.

  • The RIFINs too are secreted by the parasite and then get to the surface of red blood cells. There are 150 rif genes that carry the genetic information for RIFINs.

  • One P. falciparum parasite examined by the team carried 85 such genes, but with just one of those genes being responsible for much of the RIFINs it produced.

  • The RIFINs were thought to act as decoys, making it difficult for the human immune system to detect and destroy parasite-infected red blood cells, commented G. Padmanabhan of the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore, who has studied the malaria parasite over many decades but was not involved in the research that led to the Nature Medicine paper.

  • Those cells, with the RIFIN protein on their surface, “bound large numbers of group A RBCs [red blood cells],” the scientists noted in their paper.

  • The rosette formation with group O RBCs was “less pronounced.” Moreover, when molecular tags that marked RBCs as belonging to group A were removed, their binding to cells bearing RIFIN were similar to those of group O.

  • Only RIFINs of sub-group A, which accounts for about 70 per cent of these proteins, led to rosettes being formed.

  • The protection offered by blood group O could “explain why the blood type is so common in the areas where malaria is common,” said Mats Wahlgren, the study's principal investigator, in a press release.

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Sources: Various News Papers & PIB

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