Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 17 November 2014

National

PM’s ‘Make in India’ road show heads to Sydney

• After a high-profile G20 summit for India, at which member countries backed New Delhi’s campaign to retrieve black money, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will canvass support for his “Make in India” initiative among Australia’s large Indian community in Sydney.
• Mr. Modi is expected to roll out his invitation to expatriates to invest in India, as he did in the U.S., at the Allphones Arena in Sydney’s Olympic Park.
• He will attend a special reception for nearly 200 prominent businessmen and professionals of Indian origin.
• “The enthusiasm is particularly remarkable given that the population of the community is 300,000, about one-tenth of the Indian-American population,” said BJP leader Ram Madhav, who is in Sydney to oversee the arrangements. Mr. Madhav had also helped organise a similar event in New York recently.

Connaught Place is connected with Wi-Fi

• Visitors to Connaught Place can now stay connected to the Internet while they eat, work, shop or just lounge around Central Park as the entire market is now a Wi-Fi zone.
• Member of Parliament from New Delhi constituency Meenakshi Lekhi launched the service on Sunday evening at an event organised at central park.
• The project has been taken up by Tata Teleservices Limited as part of their corporate social responsibility in association with New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC).The service was initially supposed to be launched by Lieutenant-Governor Najeeb Jung but the BJP MP took his place instead.
• After launching the service, Ms. Lekhi tested the quality of the connection provided by streaming the song ‘Happy’ by Pharrell Williams on the loudspeaker for the audience to enjoy. The stream was seamless and the representatives of Tata Teleservices cheered along with the hundreds of people that had gathered at the event.
• The foot-tapping music encouraged others to log on the Wi-Fi and try it out for themselves as well. The NDMC had launched a pilot project at Khan Market a few months back but the project at Connaught Place had been plagued by delays.
• Speaking at the event Jalaj Srivastava, Chairman, NDMC said the Connaught Place project faced challenges as the buildings in the market had very thick walls. Also the sheer size of the market with its various lanes was difficult to cover.
• The NDMC plans to extend the services to all markets under their jurisdiction soon. Mr. Srivastava hoped that the connection would encourage transparency and help the NDMC be more efficient in delivery of their services.

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Persons in news

Raghuram Rajan on shortlist for BRICS’ NDB President

• Reserve Bank Governor Raghuram Rajan, a Union Cabinet Minister and a well-known banker in infrastructure finance have figured so far in discussions on possible candidates for BRICS’ New Development Bank president.
• This shortlist is not final; the Modi government is scouting for more names before it takes a decision on the nomination, a Finance Ministry source told. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his opening statement at the BRICS leaders’ meet in Brisbane, proposed that 2016 be set as the target for the inauguration of the BRICS Bank.
• “We hope to ratify the agreement by the end of the year… We would soon nominate our candidate for the post of the presidency,” Mr. Modi said. The BRICS nations — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — had agreed at their sixth Summit in Fortaleza that India will nominate the first president of the bank and that its headquarters will be located in China.
• The government has not formally reached out to Mr. Rajan, the source said. He also indicated that ultimately it might become difficult for India to spare Mr. Rajan for the role.
• Volatility in the rupee has reduced and external account stabilised over the first 14 months of Mr. Rajan’s tenure at the Reserve Bank.

International

G-20 decided to set up Global Infrastructure Hub

• The G20 leaders decided to set up a Global Infrastructure Hub to help reduce barriers to investment and improve information sharing for channelising funds into the sector.
• Located in Sydney, the Hub will contribute to developing a knowledge-sharing platform and network between governments, the private sector, development banks and other international organisations.
• “The Hub will foster collaboration among these groups to improve the functioning and financing of infrastructure markets,” said the communiqué released at the end of two day G20 meeting in Brisbane.
• “With a four year mandate, the Hub will work internationally to help countries improve their general investment climates, reduce barriers to investment, grow their project pipelines and help match investors with projects,” according to Australia, which holds the G20 Presidency.
• The B20, a grouping of business leaders of G20 nations, have estimated that the Hub could help unlock an additional $2 trillion in global infrastructure capacity by 2030.
• Countries like the United Kingdom, China, Saudi Arabia, New Zealand, Korea, Mexico and Singapore have given their financial commitment for establishing the Hub.
• “The Australian Government will be a major contributor to the Hub with other contributions coming from G20 members, non-member countries, international organisations, non-government stakeholders and the private sector,” Australia said in a statement on the G20 website.
• Stressing on the need for global investment in infrastructure to boost growth and job creation, the G20 said it will work with the multilateral lending agencies and encourage national banks to provide additional lending to the sector.

G20 leaders vow to implement an anti-corruption action plan

• G20 leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, vowed to implement an anti-corruption action plan as part of a drive against the use of shell companies and trusts to engage in tax evasion and money laundering.
• “We endorse the 2015-16 G20 Anti-Corruption plan that will support growth and resilience,” the leaders said in a communiqué released at the end of the two-day summit.
• A set of principles for governments to follow that aims to make it easier to find out who is the beneficial owner of entities which are stated to facilitate hundreds of billions of dollars in illicit financial flows was unveiled by the G20 and contained in annexures to the communiqué.
• “Our actions are building cooperation and networks, including enhancing mutual legal assistance, recovery of the proceeds of corruption and denial of safe haven to corrupt officials,” the communiqué said.
• “We commit to improve the transparency of the public and private sectors, and of beneficial ownership by implementing the G20 High-Level Principles on Beneficial Ownership Transparency,” it said.
• The anti-corruption plan seeks to ensure investments by corporates or individuals and the details of it are shared between developing and developed countries.

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Sports

Snehlata Rajawat wins trap gold

• Snehlata Rajawat beat Varsha Varman 13-11 for the gold medal in women’s trap in the National shotgun championship at the Moti Bagh Gun Club range.
• In an equally impressive fare, Rajeshwari Kumar beat former national champion Shreyasi Singh in the bronze medal contest.
• The results: Women: Trap: 1. Snehlata Rajawat 13 (12) 63; 2. Varsha Varman 11 (11) 61; 3. Rajeshwari Kumari 11 (10) 62;
• Juniors: 1. Mallika Wig 10 (10) 58; 2. Aakriti Khapra 9 (11) 53; 3. Anam Basit 10 (8) 57.
• Skeet: Rashmee Rathore 11 (13) 62; 2. Arti Singh 10 (14) 63; 3. Shreiya Chowdhary 11 (12) 53.
• Juniors: 1. Maheshwari Chauhan 60; 2. Jasmeen Kaur 57; 3. Shambhavi Kumari 42.

Srikanth, Saina win China Open

• Olympic bronze-medallist Saina Nehwal clinched the $ 700,000 China Open Super Series Premier tournament after beating young Akane Yamaguchi of Japan in the summit clash, in Fuzhou.
• The World No. 5 Indian prevailed over the 17-year-old Akane 21-12 22-20 in the women’s singles finals which lasted 42 minutes at the Haixia Olympic Sport Centre.
• Young Indian shuttler K Srikanth clinched his maiden Super Series title after defeating two-time Olympic champion Lin Dan of China in the men’s singles events of China Open Super Series Premier.
• The 21-year-old from Andhra Pradesh showed nerves of steel to produce a dominating performance which helped him see off five-time world champion Lin 21-19 21-17 in the men’s singles final which lasted 46 minutes.
• Srikanth, who won the Thailand Open Grand Prix Gold last year, had finished runners-up at the 2014 India Open Grand Prix Gold event in Lucknow and was a quarter-finalist in this year’s Malaysian Open.
• He was also a part of the Indian badminton contingent that reached the semifinals of the mixed team event at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games.
• This is the first time any Indian male shuttler has won a Super Series Premier event ever since the Super Series and Premier tournaments were introduced.
• This is Saina’s third title of the year as the Indian had won the Australian Super Series in June, besides clinching the Syed Modi International Grand Prix Gold early in the year.
• In her sixth appearance in the prestigious tournament, Saina had to draw from her reservoir of experience to stave off the challenge of the athletic Akane.
• In the opening game, Saina led 3-1 early on and extended it to 8-4. She lost few points due to miscued strokes but the Indian managed to go into the interval with a four-point lead with the help of an angled stroke and down the line smash.

Bafna assured of title in National karting championships

• Ameya Bafna of Mumbai and Bengaluru’s Ricky Donison and Yash Aradhya won the titles in the Senior Max, Junior Max and Micro Max events respectively at the 11th JK Tyre-FMSCI National karting championships, which concluded with the fifth and final leg.
• Bafna (Rayo Racing) played it safe in the final leg and finished fourth to make sure of the overall championship.
• Championship winners:
• Senior Max: Ameya Bafna (Rayo Racing); Junior Max: Ricky Donison (BFC Racing); Mirco Max:Yash Aradhya (MECO Racing) 196 points.
• Final leg results: Senior Max: 1. Chittesh Mandody (Mohite’s Racing); 2. Nayan Chatterjee (Rayo Racing); 3. Dhruv Mohite (Mohite’s Racing).

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Business & economy

Indian IT services export industry to grow at steady pace

• The Indian IT services exports industry was pegged at $50 billion in 2013-14. After growing at a robust pace of 17-18 per cent until 2011-12, growth slowed down to 11-14 per cent in 2012-13 and 2013-14 amid lower discretionary spending across companies.
• The industry has shown signs of recovery in volume terms in 2013-14 and 2014-15 due to greater need for regulatory compliance in the banking and financial services sector (example: the Dodd-Frank Act and the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act), increase in offshoring by emerging verticals such as retail and healthcare and adoption of new technologies such as social, mobility, analytics and cloud.
• But, billing rate pressures continue in a highly competitive environment, even as global economic growth is perking up. Consequently, CRISIL Research forecasts the industry growth rate to remain below 15 per cent annually over the next two years.
• According to the disclosures made by Tier-I IT companies, volume growth (in terms of man-month billing) bottomed out since the second half of 2012-13. CRISIL Research expects that growth in volumes will be the only means for Indian IT companies to boost revenues in the medium-term.
• Mid-tier players have lagged larger players in overall revenue growth recovery in the past few quarters. Taking into consideration the interactions with players and their guidance, CRISIL Research expects mid-tier players to grow faster than Tier-I players in the second half of 2014-15 (over a low base).
• Tier-I players grew by 12.5 per cent in the first half of 2014-15, while mid-tier players grew by around 7.5 per cent on a year-on-year basis in dollar terms. However, Tier-I players, who have registered healthy growth rates in the first half, are not confident of growing faster in the second half due to softness in insurance and retail segments.
• In the first half of 2014-15, the impact of wage hikes and stable billing rates was offset by the benefits arising from the rupee’s depreciation (by around 2 per cent against the dollar) and improvement in employee utilisation (by around 280 bps) resulting in net improvement of around 95 bps in margins. In the second half of 2014-15, CRISIL Research expects margins to take a hit of 150-200 bps in the absence of benefits arising from the rupee’s depreciation; in fact, the pressure on profitability is already evident in the results for second quarter of 2014-15.

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Science & technology

Philae successfully plants thermometer on a comet

• The good news- The spacecraft that landed on a comet has begun drilling beneath the surface to see what secrets the celestial body can reveal.
• The bad news- Scientists at the European Space Agency still don’t know exactly where the lander is on the comet and are anxiously hoping its batteries hold out long enough for them to get the mining data and adjust the spacecraft’s position.
• It was a race against time Friday for the Philae lander, which became the first spacecraft to touch down on a comet. Since then it has sent astonishing images from the icy, dusty comet, 67P/Churyumov—Gerasimenko, and generated some data from instruments such as one that measures temperatures.
• All this is taking place 500 million kilometers from Earth on a comet hurtling 66,000 kph through space.
• Material beneath the surface of the comet has remained almost unchanged for 4.5 billion years, making those mining samples a cosmic time capsule that scientists are eager to study.
• Mission controllers said Philae was able to bore 25 centimeters into the comet to start collecting the samples, but it’s unclear whether it has enough power to deliver any information on them.
• The lander has an estimated 64 hours of battery power but has to rely on solar panels to generate electricity after that. Scientists hoped the batteries would still have some juice the next time the lander was due to make contact, late Friday night. The agency said it would provide an update on that over the weekend.

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Sources: Various News Papers & PIB

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