Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 23 July 2014

We won’t bow our heads on border issue: Defence Minister

There have been as few as 19 ceasefire violations from the Pakistani side between May 26 and July 17.
Amongst all the years from 2004 onwards, the number of violations was [highest] in 2013. This year, compared to 2013, they are slightly less.
Mr. Jaitley said the government’s policy had been to take action proportionate to the extent of ceasefire violation; Where retaliations are required, retaliations are done; where preventive actions are required, preventive actions are done; where the tensions can be diluted by dialogue between the DGMOs, which is done on a weekly basis, it is done on that basis.

Govt may consider reducing age of juveniles

The government may consider the suggestion of reducing the age of juvenile and requested Ministry of Women and Child Welfare to look into it.
Juvenile’s age comes under the ambit of Women and Child Welfare Ministry.
Debates have been going on in different fora whether to reduce the age of juvenile from 18 years as there were reports of crime against women in the past where juveniles were found to be involved.

New national policy for senior citizens under finalisation: Govt

Government has informed the loksabha that The new National Policy for Senior Citizens is under finalisation.
Keeping in view the changing demographic pattern, socio-economic needs of the senior citizens, social value system and advancement in the field of science and technology over the last decade, the National Policy on Older Persons, 1999 has been reviewed and the new National Policy for Senior Citizens in under finalisation.
In order to improve the living standard of senior citizens, different ministries and departments of the Government of India, along with the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment are implementing various welfare schemes.

India home to one in every three child brides in world: UN

According to a United Nations report, India has the sixth highest prevalence of child marriages in the world, with one in every three child bride living in India.
Child marriage among girls is most common in South Asia and sub—Saharan Africa and India is among the top 10 countries with the highest rates of child marriage.
Worldwide, more than 700 million women alive today were married as children or before their 18th birthday.
In India, about 27 per cent of women aged 20 to 49 years were married before age 15. About 31 per cent of women in that age group were married after age 15 but before they turned 18.
The report added that in India, the median age at first marriage is 19.7 years for women in the richest quintile compared to 15.4 for the poorest women.

Don’t allow field trials of GM crops: farmers, activists

The recent decision of the Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC) to allow field trials of GM rice, mustard, cotton, chickpea and brinjal has been met with strong opposition from farmers’ groups and environmental activists.
Supreme Court was about to pronounce its orders on the issue of field trials of GM crops, based on the recommendations of the Court’s Technical Expert Committee (TEC).
Realising the potential of field trials to contaminate the seed, food supply chains and environment, and owing to the lack of a proper regulatory system, the TEC has recommended a moratorium on open-air field trials.

Jakarta Governor Widodo wins Indonesian presidential election

Jakarta Governor Joko Widodo, who won the hearts of Indonesians with his common man image, won Indonesia’s presidential election with 53 per cent of the vote.
The numbers were released shortly after his opponent, former general Prabowo Subianto, declared he was withdrawing from the contest, saying there was massive fraud during the election.

Over 1, 00,000 Palestinians seeking UN refuge

The UN agency assisting Palestinian refugees has said that over 100,000 internally displaced people are seeking safety in its facilities amid deteriorating security conditions in the Gaza Strip as it appealed for $ 60 million for urgent humanitarian needs.
It issued the emergency appeal for funds to respond to the urgent humanitarian needs of the people of Gaza, including tens of thousands who have fled their homes in the wake of the Israeli military offensive that has killed more than 550 Palestinians and wounded over 3,500.
UN chief Ban Ki-moon has urged all parties to rally around collective international efforts to obtain an end to bloodshed in Gaza and Israel and reach a ceasefire.
Mr. Ban was in Egypt on Monday on the third leg of a regional tour aimed at ending the two-week long violence.

Double digit growth for pharma industry in June

The Indian pharmaceutical industry, grappling with the addition of more than a 100 formulations in the National List of Essential Medicines (NLEM), which caps the price of drugs grew in double digits in June 2014.
Further, domestic pharmaceutical companies grew 12.8 per cent while multinational (MNC) pharma players grew at 2.8 per cent during the month.
Indian companies grew 15.3 per cent in the non-NLEM category, MNC pharma firms grew at 5.8 per cent.
Due to price caps, profit margins will be reduced and ‘breathing space’ for the industry has been effectively reduced. Manufacturers are expected to re-work their portfolios to include controlled and non-controlled drugs.

Six entities get permission to start airline operations

The Civil Aviation Ministry has issued No Objection Certificates (NOCs) to six entities whose applications to start airlines in India were pending for long. These six — Air One, Premier Air, Zexus Air (all national), Turbo Megha, Air Carnival and Zav Airways (all regional).
At present, India has eight airlines — Air India, Jet Airways, Jet Lite, IndiGo, SpiceJet, Go Air, Air Costa and AirAsia India.
In 2005 three new airlines — Kingfisher Airlines, Go Air and SpiceJet (re-launched) — commenced operations. In 2006, IndiGo joined them offering low fares.
In the last two years, air fares have gone up by 20-25 per cent, and this has resulted in a stagnated growth. With the new players, fares will see a correction of 20-25 per cent, which will help the market to revive.

TRAI suggests Rs.2,400-crore plan for two island chains

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), recommended a Rs.2,400-crore project to connect India’s two major outlying island chains ;Andaman & Nicobar Islands (ANI) and Lakshadweep, with stable and strong cable-based networks to replace the satellite mode of transmission.
The move is expected to encourage more operators to run services in these island chains. At the same time, the regulator has recommended the retention of the satellite option.
For ANI, TRAI has suggested connecting 22 islands, which included 18 islands with a population of above 100 and four islands which have the presence of police, forest camps and tourists. Only 29 out of 576 islands in ANI are inhabited and 90 per cent of the population lives on just three islands — North, Middle and South Andaman Islands.
For Lakshadweep, TRAI has projected connectivity in ten inhabited villages. Here, 11 out of 36 islands are inhabited. Lakshadweep is part of the Kerala circle and only two operators — BSNL and Airtel operate services — as against eight in mainland Kerala.

Exoplanet with 704-day-long year found

Using NASA’s Kepler spacecraft, researchers have discovered an exoplanet with the longest known year.
The newly discovered Kepler-421b circles its star in 704 days. It is the longest period of revolution known yet for a planet outside of our solar system.

India aims top three finish in Glasgow CWG

The unprecedented success achieved in the last edition in India would be hard to replicate this time after the dropping of a few disciplines, a 215-strong Indian contingent would nonetheless seek a top-five finish in the 20th Commonwealth Games.
India finished second behind Australia with a record 101 medal haul in New Delhi Games.
The Delhi CWG triggered an ascent in sports achievements with another record-breaking show in the 2010 Asian Games in Guangzhou where India won 65 medals. Two years later, the country won six medals in London, almost half of the individual medals won in the entire Olympic history.
The Games will see 4,500 athletes from 71 nations of the erstwhile British empire compete for the top honours with superstar sprinter Usain Bolt of Jamaica and middle and long distance king Mo Farah of England expected to set the Hampden Park Stadium ablaze.
India, which has sent 215 athletes in 14 sports, will be hit hard by the scrapping of archery and tennis from Glasgow Games and the reduction in the number of medal events in shooting and wrestling. The country had won a combined 12 medals from archery and tennis in 2010 while bagging 14 medals from the 18 events dropped this time from shooting. Greco-Roman category in wrestling, from which India won eight medals in 2010, has also been done away with in Glasgow.