Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 18 November 2014

National

Centre wants to lower age limit for civil service aspirants

• In a move that could affect thousands of civil service aspirants across the country, the Centre intends to reduce the upper age limit and number of attempts of applicants with effect from 2015.
• Going by the new norm, the upper age limit will be 29 years for SC/ST candidates, 28 years for OBC and 26 for the unreserved category.
• There will be an additional two years for physically challenged candidates in each category. At present, the upper age limit for SC/ST, OBC and unreserved candidates is 35, 33 and 30 years respectively.
• According to information published on the website of the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances, the number of attempts allowed for candidates appearing for the Civil Services Examination would also be reduced to six for SC/ST candidates, five for OBC and three for unreserved candidates.
• The measures, recommended by the Second Administrative Reforms Commission (ARC) and almost entirely accepted by the government, were put up on the website a few months ago.
• The Centre has decided to retain August 1 in the examination year as the cut-off date for eligibility and not to review the structure of the examination (both preliminary and main) since this was only recently changed.

PM promises visa-on-arrival facility

• India's Prime Minister Narendra assured Australia a visa-on-arrival facility for tourists, and announced a two–month deadline for the long–pending merger of OCI and PIO status to woo the Indian diaspora from whom he sought support for his Swachh Bharat Abhiyan.
• Addressing a frenzied crowd of around 20,000 in the packed Allphones Arena here, Mr. Modi took a dig at the previous governments saying while they were happy to make laws he was “happier to remove” them.

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International

India-Australia seek early closure of civil nuclear deal

• India and Australia sought early conclusion of negotiations for a comprehensive economic partnership agreement and a closure on the civil nuclear deal as Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his counterpart Tony Abbott held talks in Canberra.
• After the two leaders held talks, India and Australia signed five pacts on social security, transfer of sentenced prisoners, combating narcotics trade, tourism, and Arts and Culture.
• “We also agreed on seeking early closure on the civil nuclear agreement, which will give Australia a chance to participate in one of the most secure and safe nuclear energy programme in the world,” Mr. Modi said in a statement to the media at a joint press conference with Abbott.
• Later, while addressing the Parliament, Australian Prime Minister Abbott said, “If all goes well, Australia will export uranium to India under suitable safeguards because cleaner energy is one of the most important contributions that Australia can make to wider world.”
• Mr. Modi, while talking about India-Australia ties, said, “This is a natural partnership, arising from our shared values and interests, and our strategic maritime locations. India and Australia have a great economic synergy.”
• “There are huge opportunities for partnership in every area we can think of — agriculture, agro-processing, resources, energy, finance, infrastructure, education, and science and technology,” Mr. Modi said.
• Mr. Abbott, in Parliament, said, “By the end of the next year we will have a Free Trade deal with what is potentially the world’s largest market.” Mr. Modi emphasised that the economic climate in India has changed.

Chuck Hagel credits US military with Ebola progress

• U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said there are encouraging signs of progress against the Ebola virus in West Africa, and he said the U.S. military can take some credit for containing it. “We’re not at the end yet,” he said.
• One soldier who has completed his training for deployment to Liberia, Sgt. Matthew Bartlett, told reporters his wife and children are “nervous, apprehensive” about him going.
• A veteran of two tours in Iraq and one in Afghanistan, Bartlett, 31, said he considers the Ebola mission less stressful by comparison. “There is no one shooting back at us,” he said.
• Brig Gen. Mark Stammer, the 101st Airborne’s deputy commanding general for operations, said spouses of troops deployed in Liberia are keenly focused on the issue of monitoring the soldiers after they return home to ensure they are symptom-free, but said “they understand perfectly why that is” necessary.
• There currently are about 2,200 U.S. military members in Liberia and Senegal as part of the international response mission. About half of them are from Fort Campbell, he said.
• That number will rise to about 2,899 by December, but is well below the original plan to deploy up to 4,000 troops to do logistical and security support for medical teams fighting the virus that has killed thousands in West Africa. Recently, the numbers of new infections has begun to drop.
• “There are some positive trend lines with Ebola in West Africa,” Hagel said, adding that it’s too early to say what the future holds for the military’s role there.
• “The question is obvious- What is our military doing involved in a mission like Ebola?” he said. The answer, he said, is that the world faces an increasingly diverse set of threats, and pandemic diseases are among them.

35.8 million People living as slaves across the world

• Almost 36 million people are living as slaves across the globe with an index listing Mauritania, Uzbekistan, Haiti, Qatar and India as the nations where modern-day slavery is most prevalent.
• The Walk Free Foundation, an Australian-based human rights group, estimated in its inaugural slavery index last year that 29.8 million people were born into servitude, trafficked for sex work, trapped in debt bondage or exploited for forced labour.
• Releasing its second annual index, Walk Free increased its estimate of the number of slaves to 35.8 million, saying this was due to better data collection and slavery being uncovered in areas where it had not been found previously.
• For the second year, the index of 167 countries found India had by far the greatest number of slaves. Up to 14.3 million people in its population of 1.25 billion were victims of slavery, ranging from prostitution to bonded labour.
• Mauritania was again the country where slavery was most prevalent by head of population while Qatar, host of the 2022 World Cup, rose up the rank from 96th place to be listed as the fourth worst country by percentage of the population.
• “From children denied an education by being forced to work or marry early, to men unable to leave their work because of crushing debts they owe to recruitment agents, to women and girls exploited as unpaid, abused domestic workers, modern slavery has many faces,” the report said. “It still exists today, in every country — modern slavery affects us all.”
• The index defines slavery as the control or possession of people in such a way as to deprive them of their freedom with the intention of exploiting them for profit or sex, usually through violence, coercion or deception. The definition includes indentured servitude, forced marriage and the abduction of children to serve in wars.
• For the first time, the index rated governments on their response to slavery. It found the Netherlands, followed by Sweden, the United States and Australia as some of the countries that had the strongest response. At the opposite end of the scale, North Korea, Iran, Syria and Eritrea had the worst responses.

Musharraf warns of proxy war with India in Afghanistan

• The departure of Nato combat forces from Afghanistan could push India and Pakistan towards a proxy war in the troubled state, Pakistan's former military ruler General Pervez Musharraf warned in an interview with AFP.
• As Pakistan's ruler, Musharraf was a key US ally in its "war on terror", but he now lives under tight security in his Karachi home, facing Taliban death threats and a litany of criminal cases dating back to his near decade-long rule that ended in 2008.
• The 71-year-old — who seized power in a bloodless coup in 1999 — praised new Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, who made his first official trip to Pakistan last week in a bid to reset fractious ties with Islamabad.
• Pakistan's support is seen as crucial to Afghan peace as US-led forces pull out by the end of this year after 13 years battling the Taliban.
• But the former strongman said calming tension between India and Pakistan — running high at the moment after some of the worst cross-border firing in years — is key to peace in Afghanistan.
• "The danger for Pakistan is... the Indian influence in Afghanistan," he told AFP at his house in Karachi.
• "That is another danger for the whole region and for Pakistan because Indian involvement there has an anti-Pakistan connotation. They (India) want to create an anti-Pakistan Afghanistan."

India-China armies begin exercise in counter-terrorism

• With the aim of getting acquainted with each other’s operating procedures in counter-terrorism, Indian and Chinese armies began their fourth joint training exercise, Hand-in-Hand, in Pune.
• The objective of the training is to enhance the confidence and trust between the two armies, which may be called upon to grapple with anti-terrorism operations even under the U.N. mandate.
• Conducting joint military exercises is also an important step to uphold the values of peace, prosperity and stability in the region by jointly eradicating terrorism, the Army PRO told the media.
• The 12-day schedule is focused on training in crossing obstacles, special heliborne operations, firing of weapons, handling and neutralisation of improvised explosive devices and conducting cordon and search operations in the environment facing insurgency and terrorism. The exercise will end on November 25.

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Persons in news

Hyderabad duo win ‘Aegis Graham Bell Award’

• Imagine wearing Google glass and focussing it on a brand new electronic gadget, only to see the screen of the head-mounted device getting filled up with the technical directions needed to operate the gadget. The concept may look futuristic and straight out of sci-fi movies.
• However, such an innovation is very much possible, thanks to Augmented Reality (AR), the technology based on which two youngsters from Hyderabad have developed a unique product.
• Their tech innovation on AR platform has recently fetched Hasan Ali Khan and Vaishali Neotia, ‘Aegis Graham Bell Award’, constituted by Aegis Graham Bell Business School and Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI).
• Their work has also been nominated in best innovation in IT category of The Institute of Engineering and Technology (IET) Innovation Awards, London, scheduled to be held on November 19.
• “Generally, companies give manuals or booklets on new gadgets. But we have developed a system where users can see the manual instructions on the screen of a tab, a phone or Google glass when they point it at the gadget.
• This will make the whole learning experience easy and interesting,” they explained. Of the 400 innovations received worldwide, their product was nominated for IET Innovation awards, London. “The nomination reflects the growing interest on Indian start-ups.
• The IT department of Telangana has assured support so that one of us can travel to London to take part in the awards ceremony,” Ms. Vaishali said.

Business & economy

Rate cut by RBI will give good fillip to economy says Jaitley

• Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has said that since inflation has moderated, “if RBI [Reserve Bank of India], which is a highly professional organisation, in its wisdom decides to bring down the cost of capital [it] will give a good fillip to the Indian economy.”
• The Finance Minister was delivering the key note address at the Citi’s Investor Summit: ‘India – Poised for Higher Growth’. Also present were Finance Ministry officers and RBI Deputy Governor S.S. Mundra.
• Mr. Jaitley said though the disinvestment targets for the current financial year were quite ambitious, he hoped to achieve them or at least come close to achieving them. He also said road shows for the planned disinvestments were under way in many parts of the world.
• Later, Mr. Mundra told reporters that the recent cooling of retail inflation was a combined outcome of factors, including a favourable statistical effect of a high base last year, a downturn in global commodity prices and easing of vegetable prices.
• Official data released earlier this month showed retail inflation too had slowed in October to 5.5 per cent, against 6.5 per cent the previous month. The Finance Minister has on several occasions called for lower interest rates. Domestic and international investors attended the summit.
• Mr. Jaitley said the government had taken a series of measures for tackling infrastructure sector challenges and that many more measures were in the offing. He said he was in discussion with the Opposition members to make the necessary procedural changes in the Land Acquisition Act to avoid delays in the implementation of infrastructure projects.
• He also said that the government through its Budget had laid down a direction in which the economy is likely to proceed to restore investors’ confidence and assured them that there would not be any movement in the contrary direction.

Vibrant Gujarat is now set to take a new avatar

• Having established itself as a preferred investment destination, Gujarat is now projecting it as a global platform for exchange of ideas and to attract investment for all Indian States.
• The transformation will be seen from the forthcoming Vibrant Gujarat Summit 2015 scheduled in Gandhinagar from January 11 and 13. Aptly the theme is Empowering India.
• Calling Gujarat as the Davos of the East, State Minister for Finance, Energy & Petro chemicals Saurabhbhai Patel said the State started on a small note with respect to Vibrant Gujarat, but today the event had emerged as one of the world’s successful global investment summits.
• “We are not limiting this summit as a business destination for the State. Any Indian State can attract investment from here. We are not here to attract investment from Maharashtra to Gujarat.
• We are here to invite the businessmen of Maharashtra to come to Vibrant Gujarat and find partners, meet delegates from different parts of the country and the world and have joint ventures even in Maharashtra. We are making it a big platform for business,” Mr. Patel told.
• Gujarat Chief Secretary D. J. Pandian said: “We want to make Vibrant Gujarat a global knowledge forum where everybody can come, share knowledge and know how to do business and how to invest.
• Our emphasis is on inclusive growth. We are not at the stage of attracting investment to Gujarat any more. Gujarat is on auto mode to attract investment.”

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Sports

Tough draw for Srikanth; easy for Saina in Hong Kong Open Super Series

• After their triumphant campaign in China, where Saina Nehwal and Kidambi Srikanth won titles, the Indian contingent arrived in Kowloon for the Hong Kong Open Super Series which begins with the qualifying round.
• The Indian team will also be bolstered by the arrival of two-time bronze medallist at the world championships PV Sindhu. The teen opted out of the China Open due to illness.
• The draw for the girls looks better than that of the men. It may be difficult to stop Saina Nehwal until the semifinal. The ace shuttler, who won her third title of the year, will open against Jamie Subandhi of USA.
• The third seeded Indian is likely to square up against two-time All England champion Shixian Wang of China in the semifinal.
• With world No. 1 Li Xuerui skipping this tournament, Shixian is the top seed in women's singles. Sindhu got a comparatively difficult draw in the tournament. Sindhu, who is in the bottom half of the draw, will face Busanan Ong bumrungpan of Thailand in the first round.
• Sindhu, who is seeded seventh here, may face former world champion and fourth seed Ratchanok Intanon of Thailand in the quarters. Ratchanok is struggling to regain form after an injury break. A victory here may pit Sindhu against second seed Wang Yihan of China.
• Srikanth and other men got a tough draw at the event. The 21-year-old, who is unseeded at the event, will face seventh seed Tien Chen Chou of Chinese Taipei in the first round.

Virat Kohli second in ODI rankings

• Thanks to their solid performances in the five-ODI home series against Sri Lanka, India duo Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma have gone up in the latest rankings for batsmen with the former taking the second spot. Bowlers Umesh Yadav and Akshar Patel also reaped the rewards of their good showing.
• Umesh, who took 10 wickets in the series, climbed eight places to 40th, while Akshar, after claiming 11 wickets, moved 11 places to a career-high 71st.
• Among the Sri Lankans, Angelo Mathews was the biggest beneficiary as, for the first time in his career, he took the number one spot in the rankings for allrounders.
• Kohli, who piled 329 in five matches at 82.25 with 139 not out being his highest score, went one place up leaving the third spot for South Africa's Hashim Amla, whose team-mate AB de Villiers is at the summit.