Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 22 July 2014

No change in stand on Palestine: Govt.

The Government on Monday asserted in the Rajya Sabha that India’s policy on the Palestine issue remains unchanged but stonewalled demands for a unanimous resolution on the Gaza conflict.
Replying to a short duration discussion in Rajya Sabha on Monday, External Affairs Minister rebutted the Opposition’s call for suspension of all military purchases from Israel and raising the issue at the United Nations.
She said “We fully support the Palestinian cause while maintaining good relations with Israel,”.
Discussion took place under rule 176 under which no resolution can be taken.
Stating the Government’s position on the conflict in Gaza, Ms. Swaraj said peace would have been restored by now had Hamas accepted the ceasefire proposal from Egypt.
Israel’s assistance to India during the Kargil war was very helpful, when it supplied much needed artillery shells at short notice.

Central government officials to declare assets under new Lokpal rules

The Union government has notified rules on declaration of assets and liabilities of its employees under the Lokpal Act.
Though system of declaration of assets and liabilities has been in vogue, the Lokpal Act seeks to systematise it with additional information.
As per the new rules notified by the government, its employees have to file returns with details on cash in hand, bank deposits, investment in bonds, debentures, shares and units in companies or mutual funds, insurance policies, provident fund, personal loans and advance given to a person or any entity, among others.
The returns should give information about spouses as well. The employees’ need to declare motor vehicles, aircraft, yachts or ships, gold and silver jewellery and bullion possessed by them, their spouses and dependent children, according to the form.
The employees also to have to give details of their immovable properties along with statement of debts and other liabilities on first appointment or as on March 31 of every financial year.

Government promises broadband facility in every village

The Centre on Monday promised to extend broadband facility to every village in the country with the active cooperation of State governments.
More than 1.34 lakh internet enabled centres have been set up in rural areas to promote and develop information technology in rural areas of the country.
Problem of unavailability of bandwidth and regional language barrier have impeded thee-governance initiatives in India, government said availability of bandwidth to important places will be done on priority basis.
Mobile web in regional languages also has many challenges such as character encoding, bandwidth cost, presentation issues, device limitations, lack of standardisation, fonts, backward compatibility with legacy devices, rendering issues, lack of availability for all characters, issue of multiple scripts, standardization of glyph support, syllable composition and logic dependency on implementation level of handset manufacturer.

Storm over Katju’s exposé

Former Supreme Court judge Markandey Katju’s wrote in an newspaper that pressure from an alliance partner of the United Progressive Alliance forced three successive ex-Chief Justices of the apex court to give extensions to an additional judge of the Madras High Court.
He has an adverse Intelligence Bureau (IB) report against him, kicked up a political storm on Monday with disruptions in Parliament.
The Congress steered clear of the controversy despite the charge that the party gave in to an ally’s demands to save its government.

UN Security Council calls for ceasefire as Gaza toll rises to 501

The powerful 15-nation Council held an emergency meeting and expressed serious concern about the escalation of violence in and around Gaza.
The Palestinian death toll rose to 501 after bodies of 16 people who were killed in an Israeli air strike on a house in the south of the Gaza Strip were found this morning.
The members of the Security Council called for an immediate cessation of hostilities based on the November 2012 ceasefire agreement reached between Israel and Hamas.
The Council also emphasised the need to improve the humanitarian situation, including thorough humanitarian pauses, such as the five-hour truce brokered last week by the Secretary-General’s Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Robert Serry.
The emergency UNSC meeting came even as Mr. Ban is in the region as part of a visit aimed at expressing solidarity with Israelis and Palestinians and help bringing about a ceasefire.
Meanwhile U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry to Cairo to meet Egyptian and other officials on the volatile situation in the Gaza Strip and seek an immediate cessation of hostilities.
Mr. Kerry told that Israel is responding to an intransigent Hamas that it was offered a ceasefire and didn’t want to take it.

Typhoon Rammasun leaves 13 dead in Vietnam

The typhoon slammed southern China and the Philippines with torrential rain and gales before hitting Vietnam.
At least 94 people were reported killed in the Philippines and Twenty-six were killed in China.
Now thirteen people were killed and four remain missing after Typhoon Rammasun made landfall in northern Vietnam.
Heavy rain also caused landslides in Lang Son province, which borders China, killing five people.

Revenue collection expected to exceed target this fiscal: Jaitley

After missing target in the last financial year, the government on Monday exuded confidence that tax collection during the current fiscal would exceed budget estimate of Rs. 13.64 lakh crore.
During 2013-14, tax collection fell short of target by a whopping Rs. 77,000 crore. The government collected Rs. 11.58 lakh crore against the budget estimate of Rs. 12.35 lakh crore.
Mr. Jaitley emphasised that the credibility of Income Tax department is its greatest asset. “Credibility of income tax department is its greatest asset, that’s why highest standards of ethics are expected from officers of the department,”.
There are doubts about the meeting of indirect tax collection target for the current fiscal as there is slowdown in the economy. On income tax front, however, there is possibility of surpassing target.

Hubble telescope inspired technology helps restore eyesight

NASA’s telescopes are not just helping us look into the dark deep universe but have inspired surgeons to restore the eyesight of the elderly.
The tiny telescopes inserted in Phyllis Price (a 79-year-old woman can see again) eyes, magnified the images and also directed them away from diseased parts of the eye and onto healthier areas.
This “giant leap” in medical science holds hope to an optical disease that affects hundreds of thousands of elderly people.

TRAI paves way for sharing of all telecom spectrum

Telecom sector regulator TRAI has recommended allowing sharing of all categories of spectrum.
The move is likely to benefit major operators such as Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, Idea, Reliance Communications and Tata Teleservices, helping them reduce costs and at the same time improve service quality.
At present, telecom operators are allowed to share passive infrastructure such as mobile towers and have been demanding allowing of spectrum sharing for a long time.
All access spectrum i.e. spectrum in the bands of 800/900/1800/2100/2300/2500 MHz will be sharable provided that both the licensees are having spectrum in the same band.
According to the regulator, this will help operators achieve better spectral efficiency. Sharing can also provide additional network capacities in places where there is network congestion due to a spectrum crunch.
As per the guidelines, post-spectrum sharing, SUC (spectrum usage charges) will increase by 0.5 per cent for both the licensees. The guidelines also suggest a non-refundable processing fee of Rs 50,000 per operator for each service area in which they opt for spectrum sharing.

Shipping firms needn’t renew licences every year

The Ministry of Shipping has decided to reduce paperwork by scrapping the requirement of annual renewal of licenses for Indian ships and any other vessel charted by an Indian citizen or company.
Such licences will now be issued with a life-time fee instead of annual fee but the licence will be co-terminus with the certificate of Registry of the Ship.
The decision also provides for all the five Registrars of Ships at Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Goa and Cochin to issue these licenses under the provisions of the Merchant Shipping Act,1958.