Current Affairs for IAS Exams – 21 September 2015

:: National ::

Mohan Bhagwat pitches for review of reservation policy

Amid the continuing Patel quota stir in Gujarat, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat has pitched for a review of the reservation policy, contending it has been used for political ends and suggesting setting up of an apolitical committee to examine who needs the facility and for how long.
He said though "interest groups" do get formed in democracy, aspirations of one section should not be met at the cost of others.
He pitched for constitution of a committee with representatives from the civil society to go into the issue.
"We believe, form a committee of people genuinely concerned for the interest of the whole nation and committed for social equality, including some representatives from the society, they should decide which categories require reservation and for how long.
"The non-political committee like autonomous commissions should be the implementation authority; political authorities should supervise them for honesty and integrity," he said.
Arguing that the policy of reservations based on social backwardness being extended now is not in line with what the makers of the Indian Constitution had in mind, Bhagwat said had quotas been implemented as per the vision of the Constitution makers questions on the issue would not have surfaced.

:: International ::

Greek election, Tsipras returns in power

Greek leftist Alexis Tsipras stormed back into office with an unexpectedly decisive election victory on Sunday, claiming a clear mandate to steer Greece's battered economy to recovery.
The vote ensured Europe's most outspoken leftist leader would remain Greece's dominant political figure, despite having been abandoned by party radicals last month after he caved in to demands for austerity to win a bailout from the euro zone.
In a victory speech to cheering crowds in a central Athens square, he promised a new phase of stability in a country that has held five general elections in six years, saying his mandate would now see him through a full term.
He made no specific reference to the 86 billion euro ($97 billion) bailout, but Syriza campaigned on a pledge to implement it, while promising also to introduce measures to protect vulnerable groups from some aspects of the deal.

:: India & world ::

U.S. upbeat on India as economic partner

The India – U.S. Strategic and Commercial Dialogue (S and CD) is beginning in Washington from September 21 to 22. It would be co chaired by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman from the Indian side and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and U.S. Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker from the U.S. side.
Ease of doing business in India will be part of the discussion areas. Mr. Arun Kumar said there are a “number of areas where the U.S. can collaborate with India especially in infrastructure and information highways which would link up Indian villages and is in line with PM Modi’s Economic Vision.”
High-level sources said that the Indian tax regime would also be a topic of discussion as that directly impacts upon ease of doing business.
The Vodaphone retrospective tax issue continues to concern American companies and this is an issue on which a clarification is likely to be sought from the Indian side.
U.S. private industry sources said that of all the bottlenecks in India it is taxation which is of primary concern as “there are many areas of grey and American corporates are uneasy in working in that environment,” said one source.
The mood in Washington on the eve of this important Economic Dialogue is very positive. Observers say while it would be “early days” to bring in the China example the fact of the matter is that “Prime Minister Modi is committed to making India an attractive investor destination and American companies should be the first in the door to reap benefits.”
Overtly, there is no mention of China in this dialogue but some things are best conveyed unsaid, said a well-informed U.S. source.

:: Sports ::

Iron Man: Dalmiya passes away

The most abiding legacy of Jagmohan Dalmiya, the wily Marwari from Bengal, will remain in his successfully challenging the White hegemony over world cricket and providing India the financial muscle that helped it turn the cricketing hierarchy upside down.
Those who may have seen images of him on their television screens trudging into or out of meeting rooms with vacant eyes, searching cluelessly around, need to be told that Dalmiya at the peak of his powers in the nineties and early 2000’s, was a firm, ruthless man, who controlled the Indian Board with an iron hand.
No task was beyond him. If pragmatism did not work, then skulduggery would and the more powerful the opponent, the greater would be the manipulation employed to checkmate the resistance.
In many ways, N Srinivasan, out of power at present due to court intervention, may have learnt his initial lessons in boardroom games from the 'Don' Dalmiya himself.
The two could well be mirror images of each other, with Dalmiya streets ahead in his time, as the odds he faced to succeed were almost thought to be insurmountable.