Current Affairs for IAS Exams – 15 November 2015


Current Affairs for IAS Exams – 15 November 2015


:: National ::

Terrorist attacks killed 130 in France

  • In a deadly terror strike similar to Mumbai on November 26, 2008, suspected Islamic State gunmen launched a coordinated assault on Paris late on Friday night, leaving 129 dead and 352 injured.

  • This was the worst terror attack in France's history far bigger than the shooting inside the Charlie Hebdo newspaper office in January, which killed 12 and injured 11.

  • French President Francois Hollande announced that he held the IS responsible for the attack and France considered it “an act of war”. He announced a state of emergency, the first in France since 2005, and the deployment of 1,500 soldiers.

  • The attack was carried out on six locations, one being the French national stadium Stade de France where France and Germany football teams were playing a friendly before an 80,000-strong crowd.

  • Mr. Hollande, who was among the spectators, was evacuated immediately following security protocol. As many as 89 people were killed in the attack at the Bataclan Theatre during a concert by the band Eagles of Death Metal.

  • The gunmen entered the 1,500-seat venue and began shoot-ing without warning. The police said the assailants were killed. A Syrian passport was found on one of the attackers.

Islamic State poses danger to India as well

  • With its global appeal, low-cost, high-impact tactics and swelling ranks, the Islamic State is turning out be the deadliest terrorist organisation of modern times, outranking groups such as Al-Qaeda.

  • The Friday evening attacks in Paris, the earlier incidents in France, and the lone wolf attacks taking place in various countries, including Bangladesh, are warnings to India to be on alert to a wave of possible attacks in the coming days.

  • While Indian agencies are ruling out any immediate threat, it is clear a new version of the IS style of attacks, very low cost, but high impact, is a high possibility in the country.

  • The growing scale of IS attacks and the appeal of its twisted ideology are reasons enough to believe that the group could end up being the deadliest terrorist organisation in modern his-tory. Its brutality and scaleof attacks could soon eclipse those of Al-Qaeda, of which it was once a mere splinter group in Iraq.

  • IS is not chasing grand attacks the way Al Qaeda did and is focussed on the immediate — to establish a caliphate, to take on enemies such as Shias and other minorities. However, its ability to attract so many followers in many countries means it is now a violent global ideology, though it may not be a cohesive global network.

Paris, Syria to dominate G-20 talks

  • The Paris terror attacks have added fresh urgency to the scheduled talks on terror, a key theme on the agenda at the two-day Group of 20 Summit starting here on Sun-day.

  • Leaders of the 20 major economies (G-20), including the U.S., China, Japan, Russia, Cana-da, Australia and Brazil, will dis-cuss climate change and global cooperation to unearth black money, but the talks are set to be dominated by the attacks in Paris and the war in Syria.

  • The leaders will discuss terrorism and migrationat a working dinner on Sunday, but following the Paris attacks, the deliberations can be moved forward if such a proposal is moved by the Turkish presidency.

LPG subsidy likely to be limited to households below 10 lakh income

  • The Union government is actively examining discontinuation of subsidies such as the one given on domestic LPG cylinders to all households having an annual income of Rs. 10 lakh and above.

  • Union Minister for Urban Development, Housing and Poverty Alleviation M. Venkaiah Naidu said the government was also planning to give other subsidies such as the one on urea directly to farmers, instead of giving it to fertilizer companies.

  • He also said that government should be given more time for their policies to show result on ground.

The sun shines on India's Aditya (Register and Login to read Full News..)

PM's praise strengthens Imran's cause for education (Register and Login to read Full News..)

India to push for inclusive view in G-20 summit (Register and Login to read Full News..)

:: International ::

Hollande vows to punish IS for attacks

  • French President Francois Hollande vowed to attack the Islamic State group without mercy as the jihadist group claimed responsibility on Saturday for orchestrating the deadliest attacks on France since World War II.

  • The Islamic State group's claim of responsibility appeared in Arabic and French in an online statement circulated by IS sup-porters. It was not immediately possible to confirm the authenticity of the admission, which bore the group's logo and resembled previous verified statements from the group.

  • Officials said a Syrian passport was recovered from the remains of one suicide bomber outside the stadium and that a suicide bomber at the concert hall was identified as a young Frenchman flagged in the past for links with an Islamic extremist activity.

  • Prosecutor's office spokes-woman Agnes Thi-baultLecuivre said authorities couldn't rule out the possibility that other militants involved in the attack remained at large.

  • The violence raised questions about security for the millions of tourists who come to Paris and for world events routinely hosted in the normally luminous capital, where 1,500 troops were deployed to support police in restoring order and re-assuring a frightened populace.

Vienna talks agree on concrete calendar for transition in Syria (Register and Login to read Full News..)

:: India And World ::

Western Intelligence taps India for inputs on IS

  • Ever since the Islamic State burst into the global stage in the summer of 2014, when it announced the establishment of a caliphate, Western intelligence agencies have been scrambling for information on the group and its sympathisers.

  • One of the key sources of information for them, incidentally, is India because of several factors. The key factor is that Indian agencies have sizeable da-ta on Indians who have gone to the IS battlefields, or who were radicalised by IS handlers.

  • Indian agencies have interrogated or accessed information about dozens of youths who have either been to Syria-Iraq or were intercepted while on their way to the Iraq-Syria battlefield.

  • According to one source, 65 persons are undergoing de-radicalisation after being in touch with the IS, while an-other 55 could be under watch. About 20 are thought to be with the IS now, half a dozen are dead, and a couple of them have returned to India.

  • European and U.S. intelligence agencies have been struggling to stop further flow of their residents to the IS. According to a French Senate report in April, of the over 3,000 European IS members, 1,430 are from France.

  • A news report said that the French intelligence was monitoring another 1,570 people, and a further 7,000 are considered at risk of radicalisation.

:: Business And Economy ::

China's yuan takes another step towards SDR basket inclusion

  • China’s currency, the yuan, took an-other step forward towards join-ing the elite group of global re-serve currencies on Saturday when the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) staff on Saturday recommended that the Chinese currency be included in the IMF's benchmark foreign exchange basket, a move that will indirectly benefit India as well.

  • Managing Director of the IMF Christine Lagarde also endorsed the yuan's inclusion in the IMF's Special Drawing Rights basket.

  • The staff of the IMF has today issued a paper to the Executive Board on the quinquennial re-view of the SDR (Special Drawing Rights). A key focus of the Board review is whether the Chinese renminbi (RMB), also meets the other existing criterion, that the currency be ‘freely usable', which is defined as being ‘widely used' for international transactions and ‘widely traded' in the principal foreign exchange markets.

  • SDR are not a currency them-selves, but are a certain number of rights given by the IMF to countries who, in a crisis, can draw up-on any of the reserve currencies in the basket — currently the dollar, euro, yen and pound.

  • The inclusion of the yuan in this basket has been endorsed by almost all of the major economies of the world, including Germany, Britain, France and Italy.

  • The U.S. was historically cautious about this, but recently softened its stance in September when President Obama said the U.S. would support China's bid for inclusion in the SDR basket as long as it met the IMF's technical specifications, which it now has.

India aims to triple its steel production (Register and Login to read Full News..)

:: Sports ::

Saina enters final

  • Defending champion SainaNehwal is just one step away from retaining her women’s singles title at the $700,000 China Open Super Series Premier badminton.

  • The Olympic bronze medal-list on Saturday sealed the final spot after notching up a 21-13, 21-18 win over China's Yihan Wang, a 2011 World champion and 2012 London Olympics silver medal-list, in the semifinals.

  • Up against one of her toughest rivals, who has beaten her nine times, Saina showed her prowess as she fought back from 2-4 down in the opening game and prevailed in a gruelling battle in the second to outclass Wang.

  • The top-seeded Indian will next take on Olympic champion Li Xuerui of China, an opponent against whom she has lost nine times and the only wins coming during the 2012 Indonesia Open and Singapore Open Super Series in 2010.

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Sources: Various News Papers & PIB

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