Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 13 June 2015

Current Affairs for IAS Exams – 13 June 2015

:: National ::

Musicians, film-maker chosen for Sangeet Natak Akademi fellowships

Musicologist S.R. Janakiraman, film-maker M.S. Sathyu, classical singer Vijay Kichlu and musician Tulsidas Borkar have been chosen for the prestigious Sangeet Natak Akademi fellowships for the year 2014.
Akademi ratnas, or fellowships, and awards for 2014 were decided by the General Council of the Sangeet Natak Akademi, also known as the National Academy of Music, Dance and Drama, at its meeting.
The fellowship of the Akademi is considered a rare honour and restricted to a small group at a given time. At present, there are 40 fellows.
The General Council also selected 36 artists from the fields of music, dance, theatre and puppetry for the Sangeet Natak Akademi Awards (Akademi Puraskar) for the year 2014.
Nine eminent artists in the field of music — Ashwini Bhide Deshpande, Ustad Iqbal Ahmed Khan and Nath Narelkar for Hindustani vocal; Pandit Nayan Ghosh (tabla) and Ronu Majumdar (flute) for Hindustani instrumental music; Neyveli Santhanagopalan for Carnatic vocal; T.A. Kaliyamurthy (Thavil), Sukanya Ramgopal (Ghatam) and Dwaram Durga Prasad Rao (violin) for Carnatic instrumental music — have bagged awards.
In the field of dance, Adayar Janardanan (Bharatanatyam), Uma Dogra (Kathak), Amusana Devi (Manipuri), Vedantam Radhesyam (Kuchipudi), Sudhakar Sahoo (Odissi), Anita Sharma (Sattriya), Jagru Mahto (Chhau), Navtej Singh Johar (contemporary dance) and Varanasi Vishnu Namboothiri (music for Kathakali) have been selected.
The eight theatre persons chosen for awards were: Asgar Wajahat, Surya Mohan Kulshreshtha, Chidambar Rao Jambe, Debshankar Haldar, Ramdas Kamath, Amod Bhatt, Manjunath Bhagwat Hostota and Amardas Manikpuri.
For their contribution to traditional/folk/tribal music/ dance/theatre and puppetry, eight artistes have been selected. They are: Puran Shah Koti, K. Kesavasamy, Kalamandalam Ram Mohan, Reba Kanta Mohanta, Abdul Rashid Hafiz, K. Shanathoiba Sharma, Ramdayal Sharma and Thanga Darlong.
Director, playwright and writer Akshara K.V. and musician Indudhar Nirody will receive awards for Overall Contribution/Scholarship to Performing Arts. The honour of Akademi fellow carries a purse of Rs. 3,00,000, and Akademi awards Rs.1,00,000.

Govt. moves to re-impose ban on NSCN(K) (Register and Login to read Full News..)

:: International ::

Strauss-Kahn acquitted

A French court acquitted former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn of pimping charges, drawing a line under a series of legal woes over his sexual escapades.
The 66-year-old economist merely nodded his head in acknowledgement of the verdict, the finale of a colourful trial which dragged intimate details of his sex life into the public eye.
His acquittal on the charge of “aggravated pimping” did not come as a surprise after the prosecutor called for him to be let off due to lack of evidence at the end of the three-week trial in February.
Chief judge Bernard Lemaire ruled that Mr. Strauss-Kahn was not the “instigator” of orgies attended by prostitutes but merely the “beneficiary of group sex”.
In France, while prostitution is legal, procuring and benefiting from the practice is punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
Mr. Strauss-Kahn’s veteran lawyer Henri Leclerc (84) said the verdict proved his assessment that there was “no fact of any nature proving” his client’s guilt.
The trial was the latest in a long series of high-profile corruption or sexual scandals that have landed Mr. Strauss-Kahn in the dock in the past 15 years only to fizzle out.
Most recently, Mr. Strauss-Kahn saw his high-flying career at the head of the International Monetary Fund — and his French presidential prospects — implode when a New York hotel maid accused him of sexual assault in 2011.
Not long after those criminal charges were dropped and the case settled in a civil suit, his name cropped up in a probe into a prostitution ring in northern France, which provided sex workers for orgies he attended.

McDonald’s, Twitter declare support for same-sex marriage

Corporate giants McDonald’s, Twitter and the big four banks are among 154 of the nation’s biggest household brands to declare their support for same-sex marriage.
The companies, also including Telstra and Airbnb, will feature in full-page ads in Weekend Australian magazine calling for marriage equality. They have also signed a joint letter calling on federal parliament to act.
Advocacy group Australian Marriage Equality (AME), which organised the ad, said the outpouring of support showed how important marriage equality was for workplace equity, jobs in the wedding sector and Australia’s international reputation.
“The message is clear: the country is ready for change,” director Rodney Croome said. The ad was paid for by contributions from featured firms.
Acting CEO of Australian law firm Slater and Gordon, Hayden Stephens, said legalised discrimination in one area allowed discrimination to flourish in other areas. An open letter of support posted on the Australian Marriage Equality website features 183 signatories from across the corporate world.
“Equality in the workplace works; discrimination does not,” it states. “We support the right for all our employees to have equal opportunities in life. We therefore support marriage equality.” In May, business leaders, including the CEO of Australia’s national airline, Qantas, voiced their support for marriage equality at a panel in central Sydney. The event, organised by AME, was titled “Does marriage equality matter to corporate Australia?”
The CEO of Qantas, Alan Joyce, said the company’s slogan, “Spirit of Australia”, reflected a commitment to represent the Australian community in his 28,000-strong staff. That included members with backgrounds from more than 250 different countries and a “huge gay community”.

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:: Business and Economy ::

TCS, Infosys to face probe on visa violation

India’s largest and the second largest IT services companies, TCS and Infosys, have come under the scanner of a U.S. investigation team.
According to media reports, the U.S. Department of Labor has opened a probe against the two companies for alleged H1-B visa rule violations.
According to industry experts, the U.S. investigation is an indication of stricter and more stringent rules for onsite workers in the U.S.
According to the New York Times (NYT) on June 11, “The Department of Labor has opened an investigation into two India-based outsourcing companies for possible violations of rules for visas for foreign technology workers under contracts they held with an electric utility, Southern California Edison.”
Of late, Indian IT services companies have been facing the heat in the U.S. for alleged H1-B visa violations. This particular visa is a non-immigrant one that allows American companies to employ foreign workers in highly skilled jobs. Indian outsourcing companies are the largest recipients of this kind of visa, and for Infosys and TCS, more than 60 per cent of their revenue comes from the U.S. market.
The NYT report further said that Southern California Edison had recently laid off more than 500 technology workers, many of whom claimed they were made to train their replacements who were immigrants on the temporary work visas brought in by the Indian firms.
When contacted Infosys said, “Infosys is committed to complying with U.S. immigration laws. The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) regularly selects a percentage of visa and labor condition applications for extra scrutiny in this industry, and we work closely with the DOL to assist them in this activity in the ordinary course of our business. We have received no indication of any broader investigation of Infosys visa practices.”
The investigation from the Labor Department comes as a blow to Infosys, after a U.S. district court dismissed the company’s plea to dismiss a case filed against the company.
Last month, the U.S. court accepted a case filed by four American IT workers alleging Infosys of showing discrimination in hiring.
In October 2013, the Bengaluru-based company had paid around $34 million as settlement amount for settling a visa-related issue with the U.S. government.
Meanwhile, TCS which is also facing the investigation, said in an email, “TCS maintains rigorous internal controls to ensure we are fully compliant with all regulatory requirements related to US immigration laws including those related to H-1B visas.”
The new investigation comes at a time when Steven Heldt, a former TCS employee has filed a suit in San Francisco Federal Court accusing TCS of favoritism towards Asian workers.
On the backdrop of the U.S. investigation on IT majors, the shares of all major IT companies witnessed a drop in Friday’s trade.
On BSE, TCS closed at Rs.2,512.05 down 2.29 per cent, while Infosys closed at Rs.1,976.65 down 1.26 per cent.

NCDEX launches gold delivery centre

NCDEX, a commodity exchange, announced the launch of a new national market for gold, with Chennai as delivery centre.
Addressing presspersons here, Suresh Devnani, Head-Business, NCDEX, said the first exchange-traded deliverable gold forwards, called ‘Gold Now’, was an initiative towards encouraging domestic supply of gold by providing an impetus to the gold-recycling industry consisting of 17 refineries in India.
“With the launch of Gold Now national marketplace, we are creating an ecosystem that is on par with international standards which will help the South Indian bullion and jewellery industry improve its efficiencies,” he said.
Under Gold Now, forward contracts in bullion would be available in 1 kg and 100 gram with daily delivery facility through T+1 and T+2 settlement system.
The platform would accept gold recycled in exchange-approved refineries as good delivery.
Mr. Devnani said South India accounted for around 40 per cent of the country’s gold consumption with the share of Tamil Nadu at more than 70 per cent.
This necessitated the need to offer an exchange-traded forward contract in gold with Chennai as delivery centre, he said.

Yahoo to host developer meet in India (Register and Login to read Full News..)

:: Science and Technology ::

Smart cities scheme to take off on June 25

India has asked all the countries keen on partnering with it in the ‘smart cities’ initiative to ready the blueprints for the projects they want to undertake, to avoid delay in execution.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will announce the scheme along with the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation on June 25. So far, 14 countries have shown interest in sharing their expertise in building components that are prerequisites for a smart city.
Sources said each State will be given a month to draw up a list of cities eligible for works under the scheme. Each State will have at least one smart city, with the bigger States being eligible for 10.
The total number across the country will be 100. “Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh have signed agreements with the U.S. for non-financial assistance; some agreements have been inked with Sweden and China, but work will pick up by end of July,” a government official told.
Denmark is the latest to join the list of countries that have offered know-how in building smart cities.

:: Sports ::

Interpol suspends deal with FIFA

International police body Interpol announced it was suspending a 10-year partnership deal with FIFA worth $22 million following a corruption probe into football’s world governing body.
Interpol boss Juergen Stock said he was suspending the deal set up in May 2011 to create a 10-year “Integrity in Sport” programme.
“In light of the current context surrounding FIFA, while Interpol is still committed to developing our Integrity in Sport programme, I have decided to suspend the agreement,” said Stock in a statement.
“All external partners, whether public or private, must share the fundamental values and principles of the organisation, as well as those of the wider law enforcement community,” added Stock.
Interpol noted that the agreement with FIFA included a clause stating that “the funding party declares ... that its activities are compatible with the principles, aims and activities of Interpol.”

Sanjeet wins gold

Sanjeet added a gold medal to India’s tally on the second day of the Asian cadet wrestling championship, with Japan and Iran dominating proceedings at the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium.
Sanjeet dominated his Iranian opponent Hamed Manafian Darband in the final of the 76 kg freestyle bout, winning 10-4 on points to clinch the gold. India added one silver and two bronze medals to its tally in the eight weight categories that were completed in the day. Sachin Rathi managed a bronze in the 69 kg category. The Greco-Roman wrestlers disappointed, however, with none managing to reach the medal rounds.
Among the women, Kiran narrowly lost to O. Kyong Ryong of North Korea in the title bout of the 49 kg category and had to settle for silver. Anju managed to finish on the podium in the 43 kg category with a bronze.