Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 17 June 2015

Current Affairs for IAS Exams – 17 June 2015

:: National ::

Congress demands SIT probe

  • The Congress sought an independent investigation into the Lalit Modi controversy by a Supreme Court appointed and monitored Special Investigation Team.

  • The party said the Modi government was ‘complicit’ in protecting the former IPL chief, wanted by Indian law, and did not expect it to conduct a fair probe.

  • The party also sought to know who in the government had decided not to appeal against the court’s decision to release Mr. Modi’s passport.

  • “The Government of India did not oppose the case before the Division Bench of the High Court. The court ordered re-issuance of the passport and even then they did not appeal against it,” Congress leader Anand Sharma said. He said the sequence of events “established that there are friends of Lalit Modi trying to help him.”

  • The matter did not “simply pertain to a travel document but the complicity at the highest levels in the government that needs probing,” Mr. Sharma said.

  • He asserted that Ms. Swaraj in helping Lalit get a travel document to Portugal had subverted due process. He should have appealed to the Indian embassy in the U.K. instead of Ms. Swaraj “extending suo motu help and an unacceptable concession to a person who should have been extradited,” Mr. Sharma said.

Sushma keeps reporters off at yatra launch

  • External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj appeared her usual poised self as she flagged off the first batch of pilgrims for the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra from the new and less arduous route of Nathu La, but restrictions imposed on presspersons in covering the event were perceived as an indication of her unease.

  • The flagging off ceremony was Ms. Swaraj’s first public appearance following the controversy over her recommendation to the U.K. for travel documents for ex-IPL chief Lalit Modi. The Minister, who posted tweets to defend her decision on Sunday, has maintained silence since, even as the Congress has mounted a campaign seeking her resignation.

  • Ms. Swaraj spoke with satisfaction at having fulfilled a promise made a year ago to find a way for the aged and the infirm to undertake the pilgrimage.

  • Only photographers were allowed to capture the Minister speak as there were clear instructions not to let reporters into the Ministry.

  • The opening of the new, motorable route through Nathu La in the Himalayas will enable those who cannot go on foot to Kailash was confirmed during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to China.

  • The new route, she stressed is an important milestone in India-China relations as it builds on an important aspect of diplomacy, people-to-people contact.

  • Ms. Swaraj also assured the pilgrims that the government would monitor their safe passage to Kailash.

  • While two officials will accompany them, arrangements have also been made to ensure they face no difficulties en route .

  • A total of 18 batches, each comprising 60 pilgrims, will visit Kailash Mansoravar through the existing route of Lupulekh Pass and five batches of 50 members each will travel through the Nathu La route, beginning Wednesday, she said.

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:: International ::

Russia to get 40 new ICBMs this year

  • Russia’s military this year alone will receive over 40 new intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of piercing any missile defences, President Vladimir Putin said in a blunt reminder of the nation’s nuclear might amid tensions with the West over Ukraine.

  • Mr. Putin made the statement at the opening of an arms show at a shooting range in Alabino just west of Moscow, a huge display intended to showcase the nation’s resurgent military might. Speaking at the arms show, He vowed to continue a big arms modernisation programme despite the nation’s economic downturn.

  • He also noted that the military was to start testing its new long-range early warning radar intended to monitor the western direction and later will deploy another one in the east.

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:: Business and Economy ::

ADB to increase India lending by 50 % to $12 b by 2018

  • Asian Development Bank proposes to increase lending to India by almost 50 per cent to $12 billion by 2018, ADB President Takehiko Nakao said.

  • “ADB aims at increasing its sovereign and non-sovereign lending from the present $7-9 billion in three years from 2015 to 2017 to $10-12 billion between 2016 and 2018 using ADB’s expanded lending capacity,” he said.

  • He was talking to reporters here after meeting Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Urban Development Minister Venkaiah Naidu.

  • “We are now targeting higher numbers... We will increase the numbers by about 50 per cent or little bit less but roughly we will try to increase lending to India by about 50 per cent,” said the ADB chief.

  • ADB’s annual lending capacity, he added, was expected to increase to as much as $20 billion a year from the current level of $13 billion based on the merger of its Asian Development Fund lending operations with its Ordinary Capital Resources balance sheet.

  • Answering question on India’s growth prospects, Mr. Nakao said the country’s growth rate was expected to exceed that of China in this year. India’s projected growth rate of 7.8 per cent for the 2015-16 fiscal was higher than China’s estimated 7.2 per cent in 2015 calendar year, he said.

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:: Science and Technology ::

BSNL to set up 40,000 Wi-Fi hotspots

  • Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. plans to set up 40,000 Wi-Fi hotspots across the country in three years at a cost of Rs. 6,000 crore to provide seamless Internet connectivity.

  • The plan is part of efforts to revive the company, Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said on the sidelines of the launch of Wi-Fi at Taj Mahal. Anupam Srivastava, Chairman and Managing Director, BSNL, said the tender for the project was likely to be floated by July.

  • The company will set up another 2,500 Wi-Fi hotspots in 250 tourist and religious locations at a cost of Rs. 500 crore by next March. At Taj Mahal, the company’s Wi-Fi service will be free for 30 minutes during a 24-hour block three times a month, which visitors can utilise in multiple sessions.

:: Sports ::

AIBA forms ad-hoc panel for India

  • The International Boxing Association (AIBA) has constituted an ad-hoc committee to run boxing in India.

  • The AIBA has appointed Kishan Narsi, as chairman of the committee in which the other members are Jay Kowli , Manisha Malhotra and Injeti Srinivas.

  • The AIBA has asked the ad-hoc committee to appoint a national coach with its approval. Narsi is an international referee and he has officiated in four Olympics. He was also a former vice-chairman of the Executive Committee of the AIBA.

  • The AIBA has also appointed senior IOC member and former IOA Secretary General, Randhir Singh as advisor.

  • The ad-hoc committee is likely to recommend the name of G. S. Sandhu, former national coach as the fifth member of the committee.

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Sources: Various News Papers & PIB

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