Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 30 July 2014

Farmers deserve a standing ovation: Narendra Modi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday asked the scientific community to set specific goals for themselves to ensure that lab research reaches farmers and helps raise their incomes.
Mr. Modi said that Indian farmers deserve a standing ovation for providing for the nation and changing the face of the country in the food and farm sector. Yet, there is potential for more not only in crops but in fisheries and animal husbandry.
Bemoaning the supply-demand gap in pulses and edible oilseeds, Mr. Modi asked scientists to dedicate themselves in the research of suitable variety so that the country is not dependent on import of these commodities.
PM also highlighted the need to conserve the water, he sighted the example form the history of Mahatama Gandhi.

At a high-level meeting between the Law Ministry and eminent jurists , absolute consensus was reached that the collegium system should go.
The meeting saw parliamentarians and retired Chief Justices of India participating along with Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, Law Commission Chairperson Justice A.P. Shah, Attorney-General Mukul Rohatgi and Solicitor-General Ranjit Kumar attended.
The government was very clear in its assurance that it did not want to go back to the pre-collegium system days when the Executive had veto power over judges’ appointments.

NDA government managed the appointments of members to the various parliamentary committees “unanimously.”
All the parties agreed to choose members through consensus rather than insist on an election, the last time such an initiative was pulled off was in 1984.
Appointments have been made to 18 parliamentary committees and government bodies, which include the crucial committees – Public Accounts Committee, Public Estimates Committee, Public Undertaking Committee – and to the Committee on the Welfare of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Classes and the Official Languages.

Mr. Kerry will be meeting External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj along with a full delegation for the fifth Indo-U.S. Strategic Dialogue.
Mr. Kerry will also meet Mr. Jaitley, and sources said discussions on defence purchases that the U.S. is pushing, including helicopters, missiles, and ultra-light howitzer guns, are expected to be positive.
During the strategic dialogue, India and the U.S. will try and iron out the issues in conducting civil nuclear trade. Despite interest from companies such as Westinghouse and GE, trade has been blocked over U.S. concerns on India’s suppliers’ liability clause. India has already been able to cross similar hurdles with France and Russia.

A.P. Shah has recommended, Same retirement age of 65 for Supreme Court and High Court judges; a “cooling-off period” for judges after retirement; and a fixed tenure for Chief Justice of India.
Justice Shah reasons that the retirement age of Supreme Court judges was increased to 65 as an “incentive” for High Court judges to leave the comfort of their hometowns and come to New Delhi. This consideration is no longer relevant, the note says. The retirement age of High Court judges is 62. Elevation to the Supreme Court guarantees them an additional three-year tenure.
It recommends that the Chief Justice of India should get a fixed tenure of two years in case their tenure as CJI is less than two years. This step should be implemented from August 26, 2022 after the junior-most judge currently serving in the Supreme Court, and who is slated to be CJI, retires.
The note says the JAC should be a seven-member body with the CJI as chairperson, and three Supreme Court judges. Incidentally, the note has the Law Minister as the sole representative from the government side “to ensure that the executive has a meaningful voice”.

Amid spiralling violence in Libya, India’s mission in Tripoli advised its nationals to leave the strife-torn country using all available means and not to travel to that country.
Andhra Pradesh government wrote to External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj seeking the Centre’s intervention to evacuate people from the State who were working in the north African country.
Prior to the uprising in Libya, the number of Indians engaged there was estimated to be more than 18,000.

U.S. President Barack Obama said in a letter to his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in a letter on Monday that Russia had violated a 1987 arms control treaty when it allegedly ground-launched a cruise missile.
The Obama administration’s charge against Russia, described as the “most serious allegation of an arms control treaty violation,” made to date, follows reports by U.S. officials that Russia began testing cruise missiles as far back as 2008.
The INF Treaty was signed on December 8, 1987 by erstwhile U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, and was considered to be an agreement that would limit the risk of strikes against Europe.
This risk increased after the Soviet Union achieved “rough strategic parity” with the U.S. in the mid-1970s and then began replacing older intermediate-range SS-4 and SS-5 missiles with a new intermediate-range missile, the SS-20.

Israel unleashed its heaviest bombardment in a three-week-old war against Hamas, striking symbols of the militant group’s control in Gaza and firing tank shells.
The heavy strikes, which came a day after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned of a “prolonged” campaign against Hamas, were a new blow to international efforts to reach a sustainable truce in the fighting.
On Tuesday, Israeli warplanes carried out dozens of attacks, levelling the home of the top Hamas leader in Gaza, Ismail Haniyeh, and damaging the offices of the movement’s Al-Aqsa satellite TV station, a central mosque in Gaza City and government offices.