Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 26 October 2014

:: National ::

PM lauds media role in Swachh Bharat Abhiyan

Seeking to quell criticism that there is no media interaction with the Prime Minister’s Office under the new National Democratic Alliance regime, Prime Minister Narendra Modi reached out to the media at a BJP function to mark Diwali and New Year “as celebrated in Gujarat.”
The Prime Minister chose his pet subject, the Clean India Campaign, for his outreach to praise the media for highlighting the importance of the campaign, particularly the lack of sanitation, as this was hurting India’s image abroad and spreading disease in the country.
Striking a friendly note, Mr. Modi said he was “obliged” that journalists had turned their “pens into brooms” and were contributing collectively to a national cause, which in any case was not the job of the government alone.
“Clean India is a precursor to a healthy India. Lack of sanitation not only hurts India’s image abroad but also breeds diseases. More important than healthcare is preventive health,” he said.
Much to the disappointment of those present, the Prime Minister did not take any questions from the invited galaxy of editors, owners of media houses and reporters but he did convey that he wanted to deepen and expand his earlier relationship with the media. “I remember laying chairs and waiting for you at the BJP headquarters,” he said amid laughter.

Coastal Gujarat to face Cyclone Nilofar

The coastal districts in Gujarat are taking steps to face Cyclone Nilofar, which has developed in the Arabian Sea and is expected to make landfall over the north-western region of the State in two days. The India Meteorological Department will give clear guidelines to the State on the progress of the cyclone on 28th.
“At present, the cyclonic storm is centred on the west-central and adjoining southwest area of the Arabian Sea. The exact situation — how and whether it will affect the Gujarat coast — can be ascertained, only after it moves from its current location. It may take 48 hours to ascertain that,” Additional Director of Ahmedabad Meteorological Centre Manorama Mohanty said.
“If it moves towards the Gujarat coast, then it may bring atmospheric changes such as rain and strong winds, but at present, it is difficult to say anything.”
Fishermen in Jamnagar, Porbandar and Kutch have been alerted to return from the sea, and the State administration has set up coordination networks up to the village level to meet any emergency.
“We were informed about Nilofar by the State control room. Everyone has been put on alert. Control rooms have also been set up at the village level. District officials from various departments till the taluk level have been alerted. At the moment, our State machinery is equipped. We also have the Indian Coast Guard, the Air Force and the Navy in Jamnagar,” Nalin Upadhyay, District Collector, Jamnagar, told.

Rajasthan is all to introduce pentavalent vaccine (Register and Login to read Full News..)

Step towards Cleaning Yamuna is being taken soon (Register and Login to read Full News..)

M. L. Khattar is new Haryana CM (Register and Login to read Full News..)

:: International ::

Egypt postpones Israel-Palestine ceasefire talks

An indirect dialogue, reinforcing a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Palestine, has been postponed, a Palestinian official said.
Khaled al-Batsh, a senior Islamic leader from Gaza, said in a statement that Egypt has postponed the dialogue between Israel and the Palestinian factions until further notice due to the security situation in the Sinai Peninsula, Xinhua reported.
He said that talks on restoring calm and peace in the Gaza Strip, building a seaport and an airport as well as the process of Gaza reconstruction, were scheduled to start in Cairo.
Citing “the state of emergency in the border area between Egypt and Gaza” and the closure of the Rafah crossing, a senior Egyptian diplomat said in Cairo that indirect talks between Israel and Palestinian factions would not resume in the coming week.
No new date for the negotiations was announced. The talks, focussed on preserving the August 26, 2014 truce that ended the five-week Gaza war and on opening the borders of the Egyptian and Israeli-blockaded territory, adjourned in late September for Jewish and Muslim holidays.
The ceasefire has been holding. An easing of frontier restrictions is crucial for reconstructing tens of thousands of homes in the Gaza Strip that were damaged or destroyed in the fighting between Israeli forces and Palestinian militants.

:: Persons in News ::

South Africa goalkeeper shot dead

The captain of South Africa’s national soccer team was fatally shot when armed men broke into the house where he was staying, police said.
Goalkeeper Senzo Meyiwa was killed around 8 p.m. after two gunmen entered a house in Vosloorus township near Johannesburg while an accomplice waited outside, the national police force said on its Twitter account. The three assailants then fled on foot, according to the police service, which offered a reward of nearly $14,000 for information leading to arrests in the case.
Police said there were seven people in the house during the attack, and that the shooting followed an “altercation.” Authorities said they would do everything possible to find the killers.
South Africa has a high rate of violent crime, but it was not immediately clear whether the house where Meyiwa was staying was targeted by thieves or gunmen with another motive. Solomon Makgale, a South African police spokesman, declined to comment, referring The Associated Press to updates on the police Twitter account.

Brazil's Dilma Rousseff wins second term (Register and Login to read Full News..)

:: Science & Technology ::

GSAT-16 in French Guiana ahead of launch

GSAT-16, the next national communications satellite, reached French Guiana and is on its way to the space port near Kourou ahead of an early December flight, European launch service company Arianespace has said.
The 3,150-kg satellite is scheduled to be flown on an Ariane-5 launcher numbered Flight VA221. Built at the ISRO Satellite Centre in Bangalore, GSAT-16 was sent on a chartered cargo plane to the French Guiana capital of Cayenne.
Over the coming weeks, a team of ISRO engineers will routinely check, test and fully ready it for launch. The satellite carries C-band and Ku-band transponders which will support VSAT (very small aperture terminal) services, television services and emergency communications across the country.
ISRO advanced the launch date of GSAT-16 by about six months to meet increasing demand for INSAT/GSAT transponder capacity from various industry and government users, ISRO Chairman K. Radhakrishnan recently told. It will replace INSAT-3E, which expired a little prematurely in April, at the same 55 degrees east orbital slot over India.
The assembly of the satellite, its foreign launch and insurance cost Rs.860 crore, more than half of it going towards the launch cost. ISROcontracted Arianespace to launch both GSAT-16 and later the GSAT-15 communication satellite. The national space agency is still perfecting its two-tonne-class launcher, the GSLV, and cannot launch these three-tonne-class spacecraft.

5 more Ebola vaccines to be tested soon: WHO (Register and Login to read Full News..)

:: Business & Economy ::

Government clears 20 FDI proposals worth Rs 988.3 crore

The Finance Ministry has cleared 20 FDI proposals including 6 in the pharma sector envisaging a total inflow of Rs 988.3 crore.
The proposals of Fresenius Kabi Oncology for Rs 119 crore and Amneal Pharmaceuticals Company’s for up to Rs 205 crore have been approved by the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB), a multi-department panel headed by Finance Secretary.
Indusind Bank’s proposal seeking increase in foreign investment in the bank to 74 per cent has also been cleared. The amount of fund flow would depend on when the actual transaction takes place in case of the bank.
The bank, according to a release today, sought “a specific request to grant post-facto approval for increase in foreign holding from 68.51 per cent to 72.07 per cent on June 30, 2014”.
These proposals were approved at the FIPB meeting held on September 16, it said. Tamil Nadu-based Equitas Holdings Pvt Ltd, with the largest proposed investment in the lot, would bring foreign capital of Rs 325 crore