Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 19 September 2014


Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 19 September 2014


National

Indo-China Audio-Visual Co-production Agreement

  • India made a strong pitch with the visiting Chinese delegation to get actor Jackie Chan to attend the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) due to start in Goa on November 20.

  • India has already decided to have a China focus at IFFI with a dozen Chinese films lined up for screening. Participation of stars from China would be a major attraction, Mr. Javadekar said.

  • The two sides signed an Indo-China Audio-Visual Co-production Agreement through which India hopes to secure Indian filmmakers a foothold in the Chinese market.

  • As per a commitment to WTO, China imports only 34 films a year. This quota is strictly applied in case of foreign films that opt to release in China via the revenue-sharing model.

  • The other route is outright sale where the Chinese distributor buys a film for a fixed price and retains the profits.

  • India is hopeful that the Chinese will at some point agree to extend the revenue sharing model to Indian films made under the co-production agreement as the film exhibition industry in China is already double of the size of India’s and set to boom over the next decade.

India Newborn Action Plan

  • The Centre launched a programme to reduce infant mortality and bring down the number of deaths to a single digit by 2030 from the current 29 deaths per 1,000 live births.

  • The ‘India Newborn Action Plan (INAP),’ inaugurated by Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan, is the first step towards arresting infant deaths.

  • Asserting that India can reduce the deaths through “simple, cost-effective interventions” before and immediately after delivery, Dr. Vardhan said of the 2.8 million who die at birth worldwide, India contributes seven lakh.

  • The programme will be implemented under the existing Reproductive, Maternal, Child Health and Adolescents Plus (RMNCHA+) framework.

To wipe out kala azar (Register and Login to read Full News..)   

International

sweeping a historic vote

  • Coup leader Voreqe Bainimarama was on the verge of sweeping a historic vote to become Fiji’s first elected leader in eight years, as international observers gave the ballot a stamp of approval.

  • With 70 per cent of the vote counted following poll, Mr. Bainimarama’s Fiji First Party had 60.1 per cent, well clear of its nearest rival, the Social Democratic Liberal Party (Sodelpa) on 26.7.

liberal Professor of Islam shot dead

  • A professor of Islam known for his liberal religious views was shot dead in Pakistan’s port city of Karachi ,two years after he was labelled an “apostate” in a text message campaign.

  • Mohammad Shakil Auj (54), the dean of Islamic Studies at the prestigious University of Karachi was gunned down in his car while on his way to an Iranian cultural centre where he was invited as a guest of honour.

  • Mr. Auj, a recipient of a presidential medal of distinction, was known for his unorthodox views and was fighting a legal case against the originator of a widely circulated text message that called him an apostate.

16th Amendment to the Constitution (Register and Login to read Full News..)   

India and the World

Negotiated resolution of the border issue

  • China has called for a negotiated resolution of the border issue with India, shifting the focus on the root cause of the problem, following the latest incidents in Chumar and Demchok, along the Line of Actual Control (LAC).

  • In dealing with a complex relationship, with areas of agreement and differences, the Chinese appear to have pitched for a wide-ranging dialogue with India in the hope of building consensus.

  • In response to a question on the Maritime Silk Road (MSR) — an initiative, which many of its critics say has an element of Beijing’s alleged India-containment strategy — the spokesman said China and India should build consensus on this subject, based on dialogue.

  • Chinese officials say the latest initiatives of the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st century MSR will carry forward the earlier spirit of the peaceful exchanges between China and its neighbours along the ancient super-highway, linking Asia with Europe.

Business and Economics

Infosys global partnership with Huawei

  • Infosys announced a global partnership with Huawei to offer enterprise customers big data and communication solutions besides expansion of its existing engagement with Microsoft and Hitachi Data Systems.

  • Providing details, in separate press releases, Infosys said the IT solutions to be developed with Chinese multi-national ICT firm Huawei would be for enterprise customers looking to modernise operations with cloud infrastructure.

  • Both the companies will build reference architectures and standardised solutions for big data platforms on Huawei hardware infrastructure.

Mahindra and Mahindra (M&M) partnered Snapdeal (Register and Login to read Full News..)   

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Sources: Various News Papers & PIB

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