Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 24 September 2014

Business

Government decided to give boost to inland waterways

• The Union Government has decided to give a boost to inland waterways in a big way to reduce the cost of transportation as well as to curb pollution. This was stated by Union Minister of Road Transport & Highways, Shipping, Rural Development and Drinking Water & Sanitation Nitin Gadkari.
• He said that the ministry had also been focusing on the ports sector. He said for road development the government was considering to use cement instead of bitumen to bring down construction cost.
• The Minister also said private sector was shying away from public private partnership (PPP) projects primarily because of high interest rates and reluctance of banks to fund such projects.

Nation

No government can force anyone to declare his religion: Bombay High Court

• No person in India can be compelled to declare his religion, the Bombay high court ruled while hearing a PIL seeking direction to the Maharashtra government to not insist on declaration of religion on official forms and documents.
• The petition was filed by Dr Ranjeet Mohite, Kishore Nazare and Subhash Ranaware, who claimed to be members of Full Gospel Church of God, which they said had more than 4,000 members. Though they believe in Jesus Christ, they do not believe in Christianity or any other religion.
• The court said that "every individual has the right to claim that he does not belong to any religion and that he does not practice or profess any religion".
• The HC reminded the governments that India is a secular, democratic republic with no state religion. The court held that no state authority could infringe upon a person’s fundamental right under the Constitution of India (Article 25) of freedom of conscience and freely practicing, professing or propagating a religion.
• The HC said that if an individual is told by the state to disclose his religion, he can say that he does not practice or belong to any religion.

BHEL will set up 2 power stations in Telangana (Register and Login to read Full News..)

Person in news

Economist Debroy to head new rail panel

• The government has set up a panel of experts to suggest ways for restructuring the Railway Board, a long pending issue, to infuse efficiency in the transport behemoth's top decision-making body and run it on professional lines.
• The seven-member committee, headed by economist Bibek Debroy, has been tasked to suggest measures to reorganize the Railway Board and its departments so that policy making is separated from day-to-day operations.
• The panel, which has former cabinet secretary K M Chandrasekhar as member, has also been mandated to estimate the financial needs of railways and ensure policies to raise resources, internally and otherwise to meet future demands.

Science & technology

ISRO: Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM)

• India created history on 24th September becoming the first country to successfully get a spacecraft into the Martian orbit on its maiden attempt.
• Indian Space Research Organization’s Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) spacecraft started orbiting the red planet at 7.47am, but it was only 12 minutes later —because of a time delay in radio signals travelling the 680 million km -- that scientists at ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network in Bangalore, could erupt in joy as Prime Minister Narendra Modi stood a happy witness.
• Through its journey since November 5, 2013 when PSLV-C25 lifted off from Sriharikota with the spacecraft in its nosecone, MOM has had a perfect journey.

Sports

Saurav Ghosal missed out on winning the gold medal for India

• It was Indian squash’s biggest moment at the Asian Games. Saurav Ghosal, who has been leading the charge here, was just a point away from winning a historic men’s singles gold. But the top seed slipped at the doorstep of victory as Kuwaiti Abdullah Al Muzayen grabbed the gold with a fighting 3-2 verdict at the Yeorumul courts.
• After winning the first two games in contrasting style, the 28-year-old Ghosal was on match ball at 10-8 but still could not pull it off. Abdullah grabbed the chance with both hands, took risks, raised his game impressively and raced to victory after that.

Abhinav Bindra’s first Asian Games individual medal (Register and Login to read Full News..)

International

Climate gathering: focus will be on “Right to grow”

• UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon opened the UN Climate Summit on 23rd september, as world leaders and several business executives gathered to announce their commitments to reduce the effects of climate change.
• The summit is not part of the negotiations that are taking place in the build up to a 2015 summit in Paris in 2015, in which a comprehensive deal is set to be decided. Mr. Ban has instead convened the event to build political momentum in favour of an agreement.
• The UN chief called on governments and private institutions to invest in climate solutions designed to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases. He also urged the implementation of carbon taxes.
US responsible for the delay in India Japan nuclear deal
• India's nuclear deal with Japan is not going to happen in a hurry. Neither will its nuclear agreement with Australia which was signed just weeks ago. The reason lies in Washington.
• India and the US are yet to complete the last bit of their nuclear deal, known as "administrative arrangements." This is necessary to operationalize the deal, but has been hanging fire.
• India says the US is responsible for the delay, but US officials say they are holding firm on their demand for end-user verification visits to Indian nuclear plants and more important, to track externally sourced fuel through Indian plants.
• This demand is at the heart of Japanese refusal to sign the nuclear agreement with India. Before Modi's visit, MEA had put a lot of pressure on the Japanese side to complete the deal.
• Japan has indicated clearly that it would wait for India to complete administrative arrangements with the US before they would consider the Indian deal.