Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 25 January 2015

:: National ::

A simple device to curb female foeticide

A simple set top box is helping to prevent sex determination and female foeticide.
Taking its cue from Jhajjar, which had the worst sex ratio among the districts of Haryana before staging a remarkable recovery in the past three years, the Jind administration has made it mandatory for all ultrasound labs to install active tracking devices with their machines so as to make available the details of the tests online to the Chief Medical Officer (CMO).
Though Jind is not among the 12 districts identified for concerted action under the Beti Bachao Beti Padhao campaign launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi , the district administration has introduced the scheme to track ultrasound machines to curb their misuse for sex determination tests and to improve the sex ratio.
Deputy Commissioner Ajit Balaji Joshi, who had been instrumental in the introduction of the scheme in Jhajjar in 2011, said all the recordings of the ultrasound tests would be sent online to the CMO. This would help the administration monitor how the equipment was being used and what tests were being done.
Mr. Joshi said the plan would cover all the ultrasound machines in Jind. “A set top box is put along with every ultrasound machine, and the power supply to the ultrasound machine is routed through it. So, both would have to be switched on together. The set top box contains a GPRS-based SIM card which sends a message to the CMO and the Deputy Commissioner the moment it is switched on. It records the entire functioning of the ultrasound machine and sends a video in encrypted form to the CMO every day.”

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:: International ::

Consensus on implementing 13th amendment: Ranil

Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe said political parties have agreed to implement the thirteenth amendment as a solution to end the country’s over three-decade-old ethnic conflict involving the Tamil minority..

Power to Councils

He further said that all Provincial Councils will have equal powers now that the Tamil National Alliance has said that they are for a solution within an undivided Sri Lanka.
Provincial Councils became part of the Sri Lankan statute as a direct result of the landmark 1987 Indo-Sri Lanka accord, popularly known as the Rajiv-Jayawardane Accord, after its architects — Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and Lankan President J. R. Jayewardene.
Mr. Wickramasinghe also blamed the former President Mahinda Rajapaksa for failing to resolve the thorny issues concerning the Tamil minority despite having ended the two-and-a-half decade-old civil war with the LTTE in 2009.
On the U.N.’s human rights investigation on Sri Lanka, Mr. Wickramasinghe said it was the result of Mr. Rajapaksa’s mishandling of the issue.

:: Science & Technology ::

TRAI issues draft rules for full mobile number portability (Register and Login to read Full News..)

:: Sports ::

Venkaiah Naidu to be chief guest at opening ceremony

The Union Minister for Urban Development, M. Venkaiah Naidu will be the chief guest at the opening ceremony of the 35th National Games to be held at the new Greenfield Stadium on January 31.
Disclosing this at a press conference , the Kerala Sports Minister, Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan said the function, starting at 6 p.m., will be presided over by the IOA president, N. Ramachandran and attended by the Chief Minister, Oommen Chandy, the Leader of the Opposition, V.S. Achuthanandan and the entire top political brass of the State besides the Union Minister of State for Sports, Sarbananda Sonowal and Sachin Tendulkar, the goodwill ambassador of the Games.
The cultural extravaganza at the ceremony to be directed by T.K. Rajeev Kumar will feature over 5000 artists. The Games flame will be lit jointly by P.T. Usha and Anju Bobby George after receiving it from Sachin Tendulkar following its entry into the stadium.
The closing ceremony on February 14 will have the Governor Justice P. Sathasivam as the chief guest and the IOA president will declare the Games formally closed as has been the practice for sometime now.
The function is also likely to be attended by the Union Minister for Surface Transport, Nitin Gadkari.
A slew of inaugurations of the new stadia constructed for the Games will be held through the next four days. This is to include the new hockey stadium in Kollam (January 27), the shooting range in Vattiyoorkavu, Games Village and the renovated Chandrasekharan Nair stadium (January 28) and the Corporation stadium, Kozhikode (January 29).