Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 28 May 2015

Current Affairs for IAS Exams – 28 May 2015

:: National ::

India denies pressuring Swedish paper

India denied asking the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter (DN) to retract portions of its interview with President Pranab Mukherjee in which he had made references to the Bofors issue, because it could affect the state visit of the President.
The DN has said India’s Ambassador to Sweden and Latvia Bose Harrison has asked for a retraction, but it refused to do so and stood by its decision to run the statement of Mr. Mukherjee that since no Indian court had given its judgment on the Bofors issue, it could not be called a “scandal”. External Affairs Ministry sources told. “This is a case of miscommunication.
We did not ask for a retraction on the Bofors issue; we stand by what he has said.
Even though prior to the interview DN had said they will not ask questions on the Bofors issue, they still went ahead with it, but President Mukherjee answered that question. The retraction was about the off-record reference where President Mukherjee inadvertently mixed up Sweden and Switzerland.”Sources said the state visit would be held as scheduled, with Mr. Mukherjee leaving for Sweden on May 31.
New Delhi said it was “disappointed” that the focus of the visit had been shifted from India-Sweden relations. “The only concern that the government has is that we wanted the focus to be on the President’s visit and not on a story that is very old in India. We wanted to focus on India-Sweden relations in the present,” a Ministry source said.

Suggestions on land Bill welcome: Modi

Amendments to the land acquisition Bill in the interests of farmers, poor, villages and the nation will be accepted, said Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Referring to the land Bill on which he had been charged by the Opposition with favouring corporates, he said the subject of land was not with the Central government. All rights relating to land were with the States.
In a wide-ranging interview to PTI, Mr. Modi also hit back at Congress president Sonia Gandhi for her sharp attacks, and said she had been an “unconstitutional” authority exercising “real” power over the Prime Minister’s Office during UPA rule whereas power was now wielded only by constitutional means.
Dismissing criticism of his frequent foreign trips, he said “all recent surveys show that the highest approval rating is for our foreign policy.”

Centre-AAP spat reaches Supreme Court

The Union Home Ministry moved the Supreme Court against the observations made by the Delhi High Court terming “suspect” its May 21 notification on the powers of the Lieutenant-Governor even as the Delhi Assembly described the notification as a “dangerous precedent” arming the Lieutenant-Governor with absolute powers over a popularly elected State government.
The Assembly saw heated debates over two days of a special session convened by the Arvind Kejriwal government before the “Sense of the House” resolution was adopted.
The Home Ministry filed a Special Leave Petition in the Supreme Court challenging the stinging remarks made by the Delhi High Court in a May 25 order as “unconstitutional”.

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:: International ::

Blair resigns as West Asia envoy

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair resigned as envoy of the Middle East Quartet diplomatic group after eight years in the job, his office said. “Tony Blair has tendered his resignation in a letter to [U.N. Secretary General] Ban Ki-moon,” said a spokeswoman for Mr. Blair. Sources said he would officially step down next month.
Mr. Blair was appointed to the unpaid position in 2007 by the informal body comprising the United Nations, United States, European Union and Russia.

Work permit for H-4 visa holders

With a new rule that provides work authorisation to H-4 visa holders entering the implementation phase this week, over 179,600 potential applicants are said to be waiting in line, many from India, for what they are calling their “Independence Day.”
On a conference call, experts from South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT), a leading diaspora organisation, said many of them — spouses of H-1B visa holders — had not worked anywhere for up to 10 years, and it was with hope as well as trepidation that they were seeking to finally enter the workforce.
The change in the policy toward H-4 visa holders came about through action proposed by the Obama administration, initially in 2013 and then finally made a reality in May 2014, when the Department of Homeland Security announced the formal publication of the new rules.
This was followed by a 60-day public comment period, which implied that the extension of work authorisation to H-4 visas would only apply in the cases of H-1B visa holders who had begun the process of seeking “lawful permanent residence” in the U.S., in other words a ‘green-card’ application.
The ruling had particular salience for visa holders with Indian citizenship, particularly those working in the IT sector, as India receives the highest proportion of H-1B visas from the U.S. every year.
In 2013, its citizens received 99,705 H-1B visas, of a total of 153,223 issued globally, slightly over 65 per cent.
The changes were initially announced last year a few months after carried a series of articles that highlighted the problems faced by many ‘H-4s’.
Immigration specialists at SAALT noted that as the new rules came into force on May 26, many “thousands” of H-4 visa holders were still excluded and could not work, as their spouses were not on track to receive a green card.

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:: Business and Economy ::

BharatBenz buses set to hit Indian roads

After triggering a new wave of competition in the Indian truck market, Daimler has made a foray into the bus market with a promise to bring transformation in the segment.
Calling it a “new chapter of growth”, the Daimler India Commercial Vehicle (DICV), the Indian arm of the German auto major, on Wednesday, marked its entry into the Indian bus market with the unveiling of a new range of buses and commissioning of its new greenfield factory at the Oragadam commercial vehicle manufacturing complex by Daimler AG’s Member of the Board of Management, Dr.Wolfgang Bernhard.
It has made an investment of Rs.425 crore in the bus production project, which is expected to create 1,300 new jobs.
With this, the total investments at the Oragadam complex increases to Rs.4,825 crore and the total workforce will swell to about 4,300. The new bus plant will have an initial capacity of 1,500 units a year. This can be increased up to 4,000 units.
Daimler has come out with three types of buses for the Indian market now. Two buses – one each for school (49+1 seats) and staff or tourist transportation (26 +1 seats) segments – under the BharatBenz brand, and a 15-meter-long luxury coach (50-57 seats) in the premium segment for inter-city or long-distance travel under Mercedes-Benz brand.
These buses are expected to hit the Indian roads during the third quarter of this calendar year. Prices, which may come be slightly higher than competition, for the buses will be announced around the launch. “BharatBenz buses will come with advanced safety features and buses meant for school segment will be equipped with ABS (anti-lock braking system) as also individual seat belts,” said Markus Villinger, Managing Director, Daimler Buses India. BharatBenz buses (front-engined) will have the local content to the tune of 95 per cent.

TaxiForSure partners Paytm

Taxi aggregator TaxiForSure (TFS) has revamped its mobile application with a new feature, which will help customers book cab in less than seven seconds.
According to the company, the new app will enable booking of cabs in a single touch. Apart from, enhancing the existing app, the company has also partnered with mobile payment platform Paytm for the cash less payment for rides.
With the new partnership, the balance amount in company’s existing wallet will be converted to TFS credit.
Going forward, all the coupons, vouchers will be loaded to TFS credit and riders can avail the same for payment. For a user on a cashless ride, TFS credit can also be used as a payment mode.
Commenting on the move Arvind Singhal, CEO, TaxiForSure, said, as of now 80 per cent of our booking comes from mobile application and 35 per cent of the total payment is done through our wallet.
“With the partnership with Paytm, over 70 million Paytm users can pay TaxiForSure fare through mobile.”
When asked whether the company may look at app only model, he said, “We offer booking over call, through our website and also app and would continue to give all option to a cab for our users.”
Another app-based cab aggregator Uber uses Paytm as its only payment method.

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:: Science and Technology ::

Climate engineering may save coral reefs

A new technique involves injecting gas into the stratosphere, forming microscopic particles which reflect some of the sun's energy and so help limit rising sea surface temperatures, saving corals.

:: Sports ::

Ministry considers recognising regional federations

The Union sports ministry has decided to consider granting recognition to sports bodies dealing with indigenous disciplines as Regional Sports Federations (RSFs).
In a release, the ministry said in order to promote such disciplines and give them due acknowledgement it would take up the cases of such sports bodies and consider them for recognition with the approval of the competent authority.
However, the ministry said these bodies must fulfil some conditions. Accordingly, the sports disciplines (a) must be popular in a region/ state and played in one or more states, (b) should have been played in the region for at least last 10 years, (c) RSFs seeking recognition should have conducted championships at senior, junior and sub-junior levels and (d) in case there is an international federation for a discipline, the National body should have the recognition of the global outfit (in case there are several bodies at the international level for one sport and if more than one RSF apply for recognition, then the Government shall take a decision in the matter).
The ministry clarified that a particular condition, which required a National Sports Federation to have affiliated units in two-third of the state/ union territories, will not be applicable for the grant of recognition to RSFs.