Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 25 December 2014

National

Hudhud compensation yet to reach boat owners

• Delay and uncertainty mar the implementation of post-Hudhud compensation programme to mechanised boat owners even after two months of issuing GO Ms. No. 13.

• Though the government promised relaxation of norms for payment of compensation after issuing the GO on October 22, a record 10 days after the cyclone devastated the fishing harbour, so far not a single rupee has reached the boat owners.

• ‘Mission Hyderabad’ undertaken by the aggrieved boat owners from Visakhapatnam, Kakinada, and Machilipatnam on December 23 failed to produce any result except a promise by Fisheries Minister P. Pulla Rao and Excise Minister Kollu Rajendra, to take it up with Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu.

• “We want a list on factual position sent to the government by the local fisheries officials and the amended GO issued immediately.

• At the same time, the State government should also lobby for release of Rs.17 crore for three north Coastal Andhra districts for the cause of fishermen from National Disaster Relief Fund,” Association of Indian Fishery Industries president Y.G.K. Murty, who returned from Hyderabad.

• The team consisted of local MLA Vasupalli Ganesh Kumar, presidents of AP Mechanised Boat Operators’ Association P.C. Appa Rao and Dolphin Boat Operators’ Association Ch. Satyanarayana Murthy and representatives from various associations at Kakinada and Machilipatnam.

Center endorses SC guidelines on euthanasia

• Three years after a Supreme Court judgment legalised passive euthanasia under “exceptional circumstances,” the government has fully endorsed the apex court’s guidelines giving High Courts the power to decide on applications seeking permission to withdraw life support in the best interest of the patient.

• On March 7, 2011, a Bench of Justices Markandeya Katju and Gyan Sudha Misra set out a series of guidelines for High Courts to process applications seeking passive euthanasia by “near relatives or next friend or the doctors/hospital staff.”

• The Bench then observed that these guidelines would hold good until Parliament decides or passes a law on passive euthanasia. The court was deciding the case of Aruna Shaunbag, who was paralysed and slipped into a coma after a brutal attack on November 27, 1973 at Mumbai’s King Edward Memorial Hospital by a staffer

• • In his written reply in Rajya Sabha, Health Minister J.P. Nadda said the guidelines of the Supreme Court should be treated as law and made binding.

• Mr. Nadda said the matter of mercy killing was examined with the Law Ministry. There was no proposal to enact legislation in this regard at present, he said.

• The Bench defined passive euthanasia as a process when medical treatment is withheld or withdrawn leading to the death of a terminally ill person. Passive euthanasia can be both voluntary and non-voluntary. It is voluntary if the patient requests mercy killing.

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International

Russian Kalashnikov to register world trademark of AK-47

• The Russian manufacturer of Kalashnikov assault rifles has applied to register a word trademark of the world’s best-known weapon, the AK-47, including for toys, media reported on day citing court documents.

• Kalashnikov Concern has filed an application “for registration of a word trademark of AK-47 including for goods of 28 class under the International Classification of Goods and Services,” the documents read.

• Under the classification, established by the Nice Agreement of 1957, the goods of 28 classes are games and toys, gymnastic and sporting articles not included in other classes and decorations for Christmas trees, TASS news agency reported.

• The intellectual property rights court has rejected another claim of Kalashnikov Concern against MT Kalashnikov firm, owned by the relatives of late designer of Russia’s famed assault rifle, on suspending the legal protection for the “image of a rifle with AK-47 marking.”

• The company earlier this month launched a major re-branding drive of the rifles, popular with terrorists and national armies in Asia and Africa.

• The Siberian weapons maker paid more than USD 380,000 for the re-branding campaign that included a new logo “CK” written in black and red and melded into a single block. The logo stands for Kalashnikov Concern.

• The Kalashnikov, or AK-47, is one of the world’s most recognisable weapons. The gun is relatively cheap as well as easy to manufacture and maintain, contributing to its popularity with terrorists and national armies in Asia and Africa.

Business & Economy

Vysya Bank employees also want merger

• Speakers at a day-long convention of the All-India ING Vysya Bank Officers’ Association, as also those of the Employees’ Association, sought to highlight their demand that the proposed merger of the Bank with Kotak Mahindra Bank be taken forward only after they got a tri-partite agreement in writing on all assurances given to them.

• Among those who addressed a gathering, were General Secretaries K.J. Ramakrishna Reddy of the Officers Association and S.A. Sridhar of the Employees Association.

• The employees’ strength is an estimated 10,000-plus, including about 3,000 personnel on the bank’s rolls and the rest on contract. Mr. Ramakrishna Reddy and Mr. Sridhar said all they wanted was the agreement to be put in writing – whatever assurances were given to employees in the past and future settlements with the Indian Banks Association (IBA).

• Bi-partite negotiations with the IBA and the concerned banks happen once in four years and the next one is due in 2017, they said.

• Mr. Ramakrishna Reddy said that once the merger process was over, it would mean that Kotak Mahindra would have a share-holding of about Rs. 16,500 crore. The employees had already represented their concerns to the management but they are yet to be given convincing replies.

• Left with no alternative, they had decided to take to the agitation path, he said, adding that the first strike would probably take place in the first or second week of January.

• Mr. Sridhar said the points they wanted in writing included jobs and job security of all employees/officers including those on contract, honouring of service conditions and settlements/understanding with the associations and a commitment to honour all bi-partite demands at the industry-level and their implementation.

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Sources: Various News Papers & PIB

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