Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 30 March 2015

:: National ::

Soon, Lutyens’ Zone to be named Imperial City of Delhi

New names for heritage tag:Besides Lutyens’ Zone, the nomenclature the Old Delhi is set to be changed to the Imperial City of Shahjahnabad.
The Lutyens’ Bungalow Zone synonymous to New Delhi – the political seat of power and home to the high and mighty — is all set to get a new name under the Master Plan of Delhi-2021.
Following a proposal from the Delhi government, the Delhi Development Authority is likely to amend the nomenclature of the area from Lutyens’ Bungalow Zone (LBZ) to the Imperial City of New Delhi.
Besides Lutyens’ Zone, the nomenclature the Walled City of Delhi, Shahjahanabad (Old Delhi) is set to be changed to the Imperial City of Shahjahnabad.
The LBZ and the Walled City of Delhi are two of the six heritage zones notified in MPD 2021.
Sources said the proposal, which is likely to come up for clearance in the Authority’s board meeting this week, has been mooted with an eye on the efforts to earn ‘heritage tag’ for the area from the UNESCO.
“The nomination dossier, seeking heritage tag for Lutyens’ Zone, sent to UNESCO by names the area as Imperial City of New Delhi. Similarly, the Walled City of Delhi, Shahjahanabad is named in the dossier as the Imperial City of Shahjahanabad. In order to weed out any inconsistency when the UNESCO team is going through the verification process, a request has been made to the Authority to rename these areas in the MPD-2021,” an official said.
The proposal was sent to the Authority few weeks back and it was further discussed by the board for settling any ‘claims and objections’. Sources said the proposal is likely to be cleared by the Board in its upcoming meeting this week. Once cleared, a notification would formalise the process.
The MPD -2021 has notified six zones across the Capital as heritage zones. It includes the Lutyens’ Bungalow Zone, Walled City of Delhi, Shahjahanabad, Nizamuddin, Humayun’s Tomb complex, Mehrauli, Vijay Mandal, Bugumpur, Sarai Shahji, Lal Gumbad and Chirag Delhi.

Sudhakar Reddy is CPI general secretary again

S. Sudhakar Reddy was re-elected general secretary of the Communist Party of India (CPI) at its 22nd national congress that concluded. Gurudas Dasgupta was elected deputy general secretary.
The members of the central secretariat are Mr. Reddy, Mr. Dasgupta, D. Raja, MP, Shameem Faizee, Amarjeet Kaur, Atul Kumar Anjaan, Ramendrakumar, Pannian Ravindran, and K. Narayana from Andhra Pradesh.
The congress also elected a 31-member national executive and a 124-member national council.
Mr. Reddy told reporters that the CPI had decided to re-establish the independent image of the Communist party as the champion of the poor by organising various struggles. “We want Left unity to defend secularism, democracy and independence and the freedom of speech.”
He said the party will observe May 14 as an all-India protest day, when party workers would stage a demonstration against the Land Acquisition Amendment Bill.

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:: International :

Russia, Australia, Netherlands to join AIIB

A late surge among top European countries, including Germany, France, Britain, and now Russia along with Australia to join the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), has imparted a new sense of realism to Beijing’s Silk Road plans.
If implemented, they are likely to shift the global balance of economic power towards Eurasia.
Russia, Australia and the Netherlands, announced its decision to join the China-led AIIB. The decision of key European powers along with South Korea to join the bank, overriding strong objections from the United States, has split the Atlantic Alliance on this issue.
“I would like to inform you about the decision to participate in the AIIB,” which was made by Russian President Vladimir Putin, said Russian Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov during the annual meeting of the Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) — China’s Davos-style meeting of top decision makers that takes place in Hainan island, in the country’s south.
Mr. Shuvalov said that Moscow welcomes China’s Silk Road Economic Belt initiative and is happy about stepping up cooperation.
The Russian Minister was referring to China’s “One belt One road” initiative, which envisages connecting the Pacific coast with Europe by an extensive transport, cyber and energy network along the Eurasian corridor.
Inter-linked with the land route, China wants to establish the 21st century Maritime Silk Road (MSR) , which would connect China with a string of ports, from where would radiate economic corridors, in Southeast Asia, South Asia, West Asia and Africa. The MSR would terminate in Europe.
In his inaugural address at the BFA, Chinese President Xi Jinping advocated in reference to the AIIB, the “creation of a regional hub for financial cooperation,” apart from strengthening “pragmatic cooperation in monetary stability, investment, financing, credit rating and other fields”. He also spoke about the emergence of a multi-polar world.
The AIIB’s apparent success has now brought into sharper focus China’s ‘One belt One Road’ initiative which requires massive investment, including finance from the $40 billion Silk Road fund, which the Chinese have separately established.
In order to ensure that there are no funding shortfalls, an action plan released by the Chinese government has asked countries along the Belt and Road to ensure that currency swap arrangements for payments are encouraged, and a bond market in Asia is fully developed.
Analysts point out that the ‘One Belt One Road’ initiative, backed by a solid financial institutional network, once implemented, is expected to accelerate the shift of geo-economic power away from the United States, towards Eurasia.
More than 4.4 billion people, or 63 per cent of the global population countries, are expected to benefit from China’s game-changing plans.
The ‘One Belt One Road’ initiative, backed by a solid financial institutional network is expected to accelerate the shift of power away from the U.S. towards Eurasia.

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:: Science and Technology ::

Upgraded interceptor missile to be test-fired on April 6

A newly configured version of an interceptor missile, designed to improve its efficacy, will be test-fired against an electronic target missile from Wheeler Island on April 6.
As part of India’s plans to deploy a two-tier Ballistic Missile Defence system to protect important cities and installations, missile technologists of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) have conducted nine interceptor missile tests.
Six of the tests were conducted in the endo-atmosphere (below 40 km altitude) and three in exo-atmosphere (above 80 km). Eight of the tests were successful.
In the upcoming test to be conducted in the endo-atmosphere, the reconfigured version of the interceptor missile (AAD) would be launched to validate its capability to carry a bigger warhead and minimise the mis-distance, among other parameters.
Another crucial feature — that of powering the missile when the target missile is detected with a reduced reaction time would also be tested during the mission.
Since the entire exercise from detection till the terminal event is automated, the crucial capability to power the missile after detecting the target would prevent unnecessary powering of the missile, while keeping it alert mode.
While an actual AAD missile would be launched after the take-off of a target missile is simulated on April 6, scientists plan to carry out another exercise by April end in which both the interceptor and target missile would launched with warheads in a real, battle-like scenario, DRDO sources told.

:: Sports ::

Mangaluru getting ready to host Federation Cup

The city is getting ready to host the 19th Federation Cup or National Senior Athletics Championship 2015 at Mangala Stadium for five days from April 30.
Karnataka is hosting it for the first time and more than 700 athletes will take part in it.

Andhra is South Zone champion

Andhra brought up its maiden South Zone triumph with a 28-run win over Tamil Nadu in its final league match.
After sinking to the bottom of the zone last year, Andhra hit a new high in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy South Zone T20 cricket championship.
Andhra suffered a batting collapse in the league decider but still found the ammunition to jolt Tamil Nadu by 28 runs for its maiden South Zone triumph at the St. Paul’s College ground, Kalamassery.
Andhra topped the six-team league with 16 points from four wins, and qualified for the championship’s national inter-zone phase, which begins in Cuttack on April 1.
There was a three-team race for the second all-India berth and Hyderabad, with a better net run-rate than Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, grabbed it.
This was the day when tails wagged furiously. Andhra, which lost the toss, was in deep trouble at 98 for eight but a 36-run unbroken stand for the ninth wicket helped it finish with a decent score.