Current Affairs for IAS Exams – 20 September 2015

:: National ::

SC launches portal on pendency of cases

Inviting the public to keep tabs on the burgeoning case pendency rates in their local courts, the Supreme Court on Saturday launched the public access portal of the National Judicial Data Grid (NJDG) district courts in a step towards demystification of the judicial process for the ordinary citizen.
With this, the ambitious effort to digitise court system through the eCourts Project has reached the public, encouraging the litigants and the general public to watch the pendency graphs and, may be in the future, suggest solutions against delayed justice.
The NJDG already has information of 1.94 crore pending cases out of about 2.7 crore cases in district courts, except those in Madhya Pradesh and Delhi, where case data is being migrated to national version of case information software.
The public access portal, designed under the guidance of Chief Justice of India H.L. Dattu and inaugurated by Justice Madan B. Lokur, who is the apex court's eCommittee chief, will disseminate for the public national, State, district and court-wise information about institution and disposal of cases on a monthly basis. It would also separately provide data and details of cases filed by senior citizen and women.
Daily updates
The pendency statistics would be updated by district court complexes on a daily basis. The pendency would be broken into civil and criminal cases segregated into age-wise categories of up to two years, 2-5 years , 5-10 years and more than 10 years.
The NJDG page for public access will also disseminate national and State, district and court-wise information about institution and monthly disposal of cases and also the cases filed by senior citizen and women in the total pendency.
The public access page also has feature of monitoring alerts like all cases listed today across the country and the cases where no date is updated or a date more than three months later is updated.

:: International ::

Sisi swears in new Egyptian govt

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi swore in a new government on Saturday that included 16 new ministers, a week after the previous administration resigned following a corruption scandal.
Sharif Ismail, who served as petroleum minister in the last cabinet, was sworn in as prime minister in a ceremony shown on state television.
The ministers of foreign affairs, defence, interior, justice and finance have kept their positions in the new cabinet.
Former premier Ibrahim Mahlab’s government resigned on Sept 12 days after the arrest of agriculture minister Salah Helal as part of a corruption probe.

Refugees Blocked From Entering Austria's Southern Border (Register and Login to read Full News..)

:: Sports ::

Dhoni to lead India in T20s and ODIs against South Africa

MS Dhoni will lead India in three T20 matches and the first three One-Day Internationals against South Africa in a series beginning October, the BCCI announced on Sunday.
Young Punjab all-rounder Gurkeerat Singh today earned his maiden call-up into the Indian ODI team while Karnataka left-arm seamer Srinath Aravind was a surprise inclusion in the T20 squad picked by the selectors for the limited-overs leg against the Proteas.
The notable omissions from the ODI squad were left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja and pacer Dhawal Kulkarni, who were part of the team that had toured Bangladesh in June this year.
Leg-spinner Amit Mishra's good show against Sri Lanka was also rewarded as he found a place in both the squads. Opener Shikhar Dhawan, recuperating from a hand fracture he suffered during the first Test against Sri Lanka last month, was also included in both the squads.
After being rested for the Zimbabwe tour, seniors such as Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Ravichandran Ashwin and Suresh Raina were automatic selections in both squads and so were the likes of Ambati Rayudu and Mohit Sharma.
While Umesh Yadav has been included in the ODI squad, Varun Aaron was not considered for selection in any of the squads.
Fast bowler Mohammed Shami was not included in the squad as he is still undergoing rehabilitation for a knee injury he suffered during the tour of Australia in 2014-15. Shami last played for India during the 2015 World Cup and has since been ignored in competitive cricket.

Squads:

T20Is: MS Dhoni (captain and wicket-keeper), Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina, Ajinkya Rahane, Ambati Rayudu, Stuart Binny, R Ashwin, Axar Patel, Harbhajan Singh, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohit Sharma, Amit Mishra, S Aravind.
First three ODIs: MS Dhoni (captain and wicket-keeper), Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Ambati Rayudu, Suresh Raina, Ajinkya Rahane, Stuart Binny, R Ashwin, Axar Patel, Gurkeerat Singh Mann, Amit Mishra, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohit Sharma, Umesh Yadav.