Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 23 March 2015

:: National ::

Hyderabad funds case: setback to Pakistan

In a setback to Pakistan, a U.K. court has directed it to pay £1,50,000 to India as legal fees in the 67-year-old Hyderabad funds case involving the Nizam’s money while terming Pakistan’s behaviour “unreasonable.”
Holding that Pakistan had no “sovereign immunity” in the case, the judge ordered the Pakistan High Commissioner here to pay the legal costs incurred by the other respondents in the case relating to the ‘Hyderabad Funds’ which was currently valued at £35 million.
It is understood that the legal costs of the respondents — the Government of India, the National Westminster Bank & the Nizam’s heirs Mukkaram Jah & Muffakham Jah — are approximately £4,00,000.
Of this, India has been paid £1,50,000, the National Westminster Bank £1,32,000 and the Nizam’s heirs about £60,000 each respectively.
The immunity waiver under the verdict, which has opened the doors for India to recover the frozen funds through legal process, is irrevocable.
This case, known as the ‘Hyderabad funds case’, relates to transfer of £1,007,940 and 9 shillings to a London bank account in the name of the High Commissioner in the U.K. for the then newly formed state of Pakistan, Habib Ibrahim Rahimtoola, at the Westminster Bank (now Natwest) in 1948.
The money was transferred by an agent who appeared to be acting on behalf of the absolute ruler of one of the largest and richest of the Indian princely states, the seventh Nizam of Hyderabad.

‘Paramilitary forces to have 33 p.c. women’

Thirty-three per cent posts in Central paramilitary forces will be reserved for women, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh said.
“We have decided to increase the strength of women in paramilitary forces to 33 per cent,” Mr. Singh said at a function organised by the Border Security Forces (BSF) here.
At present, the total strength of women personnel in the paramilitary forces is less than five per cent.
There are seven paramilitary forces, also called the Central armed police forces, in the country.
The CRPF, the BSF, the CISF, the ITBP, the SSB and the NSG have women armed contingents while the Assam Rifles does not have women in combat duties.
The total strength of all paramilitary forces is around 8 lakh.
All these forces report to the Home Ministry.
Last week, the government decided to increase the strength of women in police forces in Union Territories, including Delhi to 33 per cent.

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:: International :

Fonseka becomes Sri Lanka’s first Field Marshal

Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena conferred the highest military rank of Field Marshal on retired army chief and politician Sarath Fonseka.
Speaking at a state ceremony, President Sirisena said he was unjustly treated by the previous government. Mr. Fonseka was sent to prison by the previous Rajapaksa regime for alleged treason.
Following former President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s defeat in the January elections, Mr. Sirisena, using his executive powers, cleared Mr. Fonseka of all allegations, including those of treason.
Ensuring justice for Mr. Fonseka was a “responsibility undertaken by the [new] government in our quest for justice for the whole of the army”, local reports quoted President Sirisena as saying.
Following a fallout with Mr. Rajapaksa, Mr. Fonseka was stripped off his rank and medals. He spent two years in jail and lost the right to contest elections for seven years.

:: Business and Economy ::

SEBI clears municipal bonds, IFSC norms

To deepen markets and help raise funds for business and infrastructure projects, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) announced a slew of measures including listing of municipal bonds and setting up of a global financial hub within India on the lines of Singapore and Dubai.
The markets regulator also made it easier for banks to acquire control in distressed listed companies, by converting their debt into equity, while it tightened the noose on entities indulging in market manipulation and insider trading by selective leak of information at the cost of investors.
Besides, it announced a road map for the new fiscal, beginning next month, with regard to new norms to help young entrepreneurs raise funds through listing of start-ups and crowd-sourcing, while it would streamline and strengthen its enforcement process for better efficiency.
Proposing a new avatar by adopting latest technologies, the SEBI said it would tap social media in a big way to reach out to the investors and make it easier for them through measures like e-IPO and Aadhar-based e-KYC initiatives.
The SEBI also pitched for allowing pension money into capital markets and creating an enabling environment for REITs (Real Estate Investment Trusts) to flourish, after Finance Minister Arun Jaitley addressed the board members and top officials of the regulatory authority in his post-budget meeting with them.
Mr. Jaitley reviewed the state of economy and the capital markets and explained his budget proposals. He discussed the capacity building and other infrastructure needs for merger of commodities regulator FMC with the SEBI to create a unified markets regulator.
To safeguard interest of investors, SEBI Chairman U.K. Sinha said listed companies would need to disclose their board decisions within 30 minutes, while all other ‘material information’ would need to be made public within 24 hours, failing which they would face strict penal action.

:: Science and Technology ::

Twitter can persuade youngsters to vote

Micro-blogging site Twitter can not only help political parties gauge the mood of youngsters but also persuade them to vote as elections approach, says a study.
The study involved 3,000 Twitter-users aged 18 to 34 in Britain. It showed that 74 per cent of those polled said they would vote in the next election. While 45 per cent said they became interested in or joined a political or social cause via learning from Twitter, 37 percent said they used the site to actively look for information about politics or the British general election, The Guardian reported.
“With more than 78 percent of MPs already on the platform, along with every major news outlet and political party in the country, we know Twitter is where the live conversation about the election is happening,” Adam Sharp, Twitter’s global head of news, government and elections, was quoted as saying.
While 70 per cent said they use Twitter to get information in a “simple to understand” way, 66 per cent use it to “get a more honest and unpolished perspective on politics.”
Nearly 44 per cent said they thought Twitter provided genuinely unbiased coverage.
There are more than 15 million Twitter users in Britain.