Current Affairs for IAS Exams – 14 November 2015

:: National ::

Diversity is our pride, strength said PM Modi in UK

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi, said on Friday that diversity is India's “strength and pride” and underlined the importance of peaceful co-existence. “India is full of diversity.

• This diversity is our pride and it is our strength. Diversity is the speciality of India,” Mr. Modi said, adding that despite the country being home to diverse religions, over 100 languages and 1,500 dialects, Indians have shown how to live together.

• The Prime Minister was addressing thousands of people of Indian origin, at a Grand Community reception in his honour at the iconic Wembley Stadium, home to rock concerts and England's national soccer team.

• The event was themed ‘Two Great Nations, One Glorious Future.'

• The PM also had “quiet lunch”, as officials termed it , with Queen came after a day of packed engagements and several speeches on Friday.

• Their Royal Highnesses The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (William and Kate) will visit India in the spring of 2016. The visit is being undertaken at the request of Her Majesty's Government and will be the first time The Duke and Duchess have visited the country.

Reforms to continue even after defeat in Bihar election, says Nirmala Sitharaman

• The NDA government’s latest move to liberalise the foreign investment regime is part of an ongoing process and such economic reforms will continue irrespective of any adverse State-level poll outcome for the alliance or the BJP in future.

• Ms. Sitharaman said the FDI reforms are not just a public relations exercise.

• Turning to the defence sec-tor, the Minister said the condition — that foreign investments above 49% would be considered on a case-to-case basis and only where investment resulted in access to state-of-the-art technology – held good in the new policy, even in cases where the investment was 100%.

• Also on the decision to do away with the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) clearance — in cases of foreign investment proposals in excess of 49% in the defence sector — and instead allow the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) to approve such proposals, the Minister said it was done for the sake of ease of do-ing business. “Defence and Home Ministries are represented in FIPB also. They will take care of all the security and technology related issues,” Ms. Sitharaman said.

Ecological norms are diluted in kerala (Register and Login to read Full News..)

Chetia likely to join peace process (Register and Login to read Full News..)

:: International ::

Suu Kyi set to form govt.

• Myanmar democracy champion Aung San Suu Kyi's Opposition party on Friday clinched enough seats in Parliament to elect a President and form a government when incoming lawmakers convene next year.

• As of Friday afternoon, the country's election commis-sion had announced the election results for 452 of the 491 Parliamentary seats contest-ed in the election. The National League for Democracy won 364 seats compared with the governing party's 40. Smaller parties took the rest.

• The confirmation came five years to the day since the junta released Suu Kyi from house arrest. She had been confined for the best part of two decades. The triumph of the charismatic Nobel Peace Prize laureate sweeps out the old guard of former generals that has run Myanmar since President Thein Sein ushered in democratic and economic re-forms four years ago.

• Despite the landslide, Suu Kyi cannot become President herself under a Constitution drafted by the military before the end of nearly 50 years of rule. She has said she will run the country anyway, through a proxy chosen by her party.

:: India And World ::

Mr. Modi’s Diaspower

• The Wembley event is unique in many ways, still it is part of a planned series of diaspora events PM Modi has undertaken in the past year. From San Jose to Sydney, from Madison Square Gardens in New York to Dubai’s Sport City cricket stadium, and from Shanghai to Toronto.

• Mr. Modi’s NRI outreach through massive arena functions is unique, no other Indian PM has attempted on this scale.

• In November alone, Wembley was the first of three such events, with rallies planned in Kuala Lumpur and Singapore for audiences of 20,000 each.

• As they queue up for their passes to enter the Wembley arena, many tell us what draws so many NRIs to Mr. Modi’s speeches. Some say it is his “positive vibe”, while others refer to the “high expectations he has generated for India”.

• For decades, emigrating Indians have faced some shame for “abandoning the motherland”, say NRIs Piyush Gohil and Avinash Varia, “Made in India” sweatshirt-wearing volunteers on Mr. Modi’s welcome committee in the UK.

• “We always lived with a corner of guilt in our hearts,” says Mr. Gohil, who has run a small business in London for 12 years. “But by attending Mr. Modi’s rallies, we still feel a part of India, and we feel reassured that our values, our bonds are intact.” Mr. Modi’s message to NRIs as a “brain gain, not a brain drain,” has particularly struck a chord with them.

• Forsome businessman it is PM Modi’s message of Hindutva and Indian values and traditions that draws them.

• “There’s an inherent conservatism to any diaspora,” explains one of Britain’s most famous NRIs, Lord Meghnad Desai. “Add to that, a large chunk of them are businessmen or business professionals who aren’t very political. That’s the core of PM Modi’s support base amongst the diaspora, as his twin messages of pushing trade, while retaining religious conservatism and right-wing beliefs perfectly align with theirs.”

• While a more politically involved diaspora, of the kind perhaps only Israel has at present, seems attractive for Mr. Modi and the BJP’s campaigns, there are signs that there may be some unease from host countries of the Indian diaspora over any “show of strength” or “muscle-flexing” during the PM’s rallies abroad.

• As a result, the “Namo in Singapore” website only accepts registrations after people submit their Indian passport details. While Singaporean officials haven’t explained their reasons officially, diplomats say the measure was a result of the sometimes “hyper national” tone of Mr. Modi’s speeches, and given Singapore’s long and tenuous history of inter-racial tensions, these may not go down as well with the larger population.

• Officials reportedly studied the PM’s rally in Dubai this august, where similar tensions persist, especially amongst blue-collar workers, and decided on the measure. When asked, Mr. Ram Madhav denies there is any squeamishness over the events from the host countries in question. In any case, Mr. Madhav points out, apart from East Africa and the Caribbean, the PM has already visited all the countries that have big diasporic populations, hinting there may be less occasion for such NRI extravaganzas in the future.

Pak. to avoid talks on nukes during Army Chief's U.S. visit (Register and Login to read Full News..)

:: Business And Economy ::

PM vows to work towards a globally integrated economy

• Top CEOs from India and the U.K. on Friday pitched for a more transparent and consistent deci-sion-making regime as also a uni-form treatment of corporates across the world, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi vowed to work “ceaselessly” towards Indian economy's integration with the rest of the world.

• A reconstituted India-UK CE-Os Forum, during its first meet-ing, identified six overarching themes as important areas of collaboration to take forward — smart cities and the digital economy, healthcare, education and skills, engineering, defence and security, and financial and professional services.

• The meeting took place in the presence of Mr. Modi as well as his British counterpart David Cameron. “We are confidently, consistently and ceaselessly working to integrate our economy with the world,” Mr. Modi told the gather-ing at 11 Downing Street, next door to Mr. Cameron's offIce in London. Mr. Cameron encouraged the company chairs and chief executives to identify the “best ways to build new trade partnerships and investment opportunities and use the strength of existing commercial relationships to identify and build more partnerships between innovative Indian and U.K. companies.”

• The forum was co-chaired by Tata Group chairman Cyrus Mis-try on the Indian side and Standard Life chairman Sir Gerry Grimstone on the U.K. side. “The common ask of the industry in both countries is a business environment characterised by simplicity in structures and processes, clarity and transparency in decision-making and uniformity and consistency in the treatment of corporates and people across borders,” Mr. Mistry said.

• “The new UK-India CEOs Fo-rum provides a powerful foundation with which to implement initiatives that will bring our two countries closer together, based on mutual respect and shared values,” said Mr. Mistry, who was joined by the likes of Bharti Enter-prises chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal, Tata Consultancy Services CEO & MD N. Chandrasekaran and Bharat Forge Chairman Baba Kalyani.

• “Today's meeting was a great opportunity to celebrate the success of the UK-India commercial relationship. India is the third largest investor in the U.K., and the U.K. is the largest G20 investor in India,” Mr. Gerry Grim-stone said. “This forum will forge deeper collaboration in areas where there is scope to take relationship to the next levels,” said Mr. Grim-stone, whose U.K. team included leading British company representatives like Vodafone chief executive Vitorio Calao, BAE CEO Ian King and Rolls-Royce CEO Warren East.

• The U.K. is the largest G20 investor in India, with 535 U.K. businesses employing 6,91,000 people across the country in sectors as diverse as retail, infrastructure, construction, information and communications technology, creative industries and health-care. In the U.K., around 800 In-dian businesses employ 110,000 people.

Royal dining at Buckingham Palace

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Queen Elizabeth II over lunch at the Buckingham Palace on Friday.

• The Prime Minister arrived in a Jaguar, and the 89-year-old Queen greeted Mr. Modi at the Grand Entrance of the palace, shaking hands with him before they moved on to inspect items from the Royal Collection, brought out specially for the Prime Minister's visit.

• While a ceremonial ride in a gilded carriage with the Queen associated with an official state visit was missing for Mr. Modi, the more intimate setting of a lunch with her had been stressed upon as an indication of the closeness of ties between India and the U.K. Mr. Modi was hosted at Chequers, the British Prime Minister's country residence in Buckinghamshire, on Thursday

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Sources: Various News Papers & PIB

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