Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 24 February 2015


Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 24 February 2015


:: National ::

Swachh Bharat, food subsidy need huge funds

  • If an allocation of Rs. 40,000 crore is made in the Union Budget for 2015-16 for the Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan as required, there will be enough money to build toilets for India’s 12.3 crore households without them, but if this will achieve zero open defecation is a different story.

  • Not everyone with a toilet is convinced of the need to use one, yet the share of public outreach in the recast scheme’s Budget fell to under 10 per cent, Payal Hathi of the Research Institute for Compassionate Economics, which studies sanitation, found, and over half of this remains unspent, Accountability Initiative has shown.

  • The food subsidy, including the Public Distribution System, the mid-day meal scheme and other nutrition programmes cost the government Rs. 1.25 lakh crore in its last Budget, and would need to rise to Rs 1.5 lakh crore with an additional Rs. 12,000 crore in maternity benefits for the government to meet its obligations under the National Food Security Act.

  • However, whether this increase will be made is unclear; the government is contemplating amending the Act and restricting subsidies to targeted groups, a Food Ministry official said.

:: International ::

Ex-Pak Chief Justice Bhagwandas dead (Register and Login to read Full News..)

:: Business & Economy ::

Industrialist Bhadrashyam Kothari passes away (Register and Login to read Full News..)

:: Sports ::

Sports awards scheme revamped

  • In order to do away with controversies surrounding the selection process for the annual National sports awards in future, the Union Sports Ministry has revamped the scheme.

  • According to the new provisions, the selection committee for the Arjuna Award will be headed by a retired Supreme Court or High Court judge, and not more than one sportsperson/coach from a particular discipline shall be a member of the panel to avoid any bias towards any particular discipline.

  • A sportsperson of eminence/sports administrator/sports expert belonging to para sports will now be a member of the Arjuna Award selection panel.

  • Besides, the new provisions want the nomination agencies to send nominations of deserving sportspersons and coaches, irrespective of whether they have applied to these agencies for this purpose.

  • The ministry, which has accepted most of the suggestions given by last year’s Arjuna Award selection committee headed by Kapil Dev, has said that more marks will be given for medals won in individual events.

  • The ministry has reduced marks for weightage of performances from 90 to 80 per cent in case of Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, Arjuna and Dronacharya awards.

  • From now, the proceedings of the selection committees will be video-graphed, a detailed internal Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) will be followed to deal with nominations received from National Sports Federations and views of experts of various disciplines will be obtained for shortlisted nominations in team games.

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Sources: Various News Papers & PIB

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