Current Affairs for IAS Exams – 31 January 2016

:: NATIONAL ::

After 14 years of debates and several draft Bills, the government has said it is ready to frame a law on passive euthanasia, the act of withdrawing medical treatment with the deliberate intention of causing the death of a terminally ill patient.
The affidavit filed by the Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry in the Supreme Court on January 28, 2016, provides the first clear insight into whether the government considers euthanasia (which means “good death”) as manslaughter or an act of mercy.
The Ministry informed the Court that an expert panel had made changes and cleared the formulation of a law on passive euthanasia after extensive debates from July 2014 to June 2015.
The committee, however, rejected legalising “active euthanasia” — an intentional act of putting to death a terminally ill patient — on the ground that this would lead to potential misuse and was practised in “very few countries worldwide”.
The government’s perceptions about euthanasia changed in 2011 when the Supreme Court issued comprehensive guidelines allowing passive euthanasia in the tragic case of the bed-ridden former Mumbai nurse Aruna Shanbaug.

No lessons were learned; in fact it is unlikely that any can be learned from the Delhi Government’s odd- even experiment earlier this month as air quality data from the 15-day period has thrown up inconclusive results.
After being pulled up by courts for Delhi’s abysmal air quality, the government had announced on December 4, 2015, that it would conduct an experiment to reduce vehicular traffic, thereby reducing pollution.
From January 1 to 15, private cars that had registration numbers ending in odd and even numbers were allowed to ply on odd and even numbered days respectively.
Now that the dust has settled, the government’s own report on air quality during the odd-even experiment shows that particulate matter increased in many locations, even though fewer vehicles were on the roads.
Mobile monitoring by the the variation of PM levels across the city, with the PM2.5 concentration ranging from 150 to a whopping 1,000 micrograms per cubic metre. The standard for PM2.5 is 60.
According to sources in the government, the data of ambient air quality collected during the period will be shared with experts at the Indian Institute of Technology-Kanpur for analysis.
The IIT-Kanpur has already carried out a study for the Delhi government on the sources of particulate matter. That report is yet to be released.

A U.S. warship sailed within 12 nautical miles of an island claimed by Beijing in the South China Seas, in an operation intended to underscore America’s right to access the disputed waters.
China claims most of the South China Sea, through which more than $5 trillion of world trade is shipped every year. Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, the Philippines and Taiwan have rival claims.
Pentagon said the operation was carried out near Triton Island in the Paracel Islands, “to challenge excessive maritime claims of parties that claim the Paracel Islands.”
US says that the excessive claims regarding Triton Island are inconsistent with international law as reflected in the Law of the Sea Convention.
This operation was about challenging excessive maritime claims that restrict the rights and freedoms of the United States and others, not about territorial claims to land features.

Fighting terror, visa liberalisation and improving India-Afghanistan business ties are on the agenda as Afghanistan Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah lands in Delhi.
Dr. Abdullah’s visit comes a month after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s unannounced visit to Kabul on Christmas day, when he had also travelled to Lahore.
This is the first meeting between the Indian and Afghanistan leadership since the attacks on the Pathankot airbase and the Indian Consulate in Mazar-e-Sharif.
Dr. Abdullah is down to deliver the key- note address at a counter-terrorism conference in Jaipur, which he will attend along with President Pranab Mukherjee.
During his talks with Mr. Modi and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, Dr. Abdullah is expected to discuss leads in the attacks, cooperation on counter-terror operations, as well as the latest round of the four-nation Taliban talks that concluded this month.
The two sides are expected to sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for visa exemption on diplomatic passports.
Another MoU will be signed between the Afghan Chamber of Commerce and ASSOCHAM.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has stressed that structural reforms addressing infrastructure, irrigation, farm productivity and manufacturing can help boost growth by about 1-1.5 percentage points.
India has the potential to grow at between eight and nine per cent, Mr. Jaitely said while addressing delegates at a global business summit.
A higher economic growth can end poverty and with the benefit of the slump in global oil and commodity prices and good monsoons, which hopefully are better than the last two years, the target will not be very difficult or impossible for India to achieve.
India is one of the few economies in the world that survived crises in 2001, 2008 and 2015.
Economies the world over are doing badly because of the plummeting oil and commodity prices but the slump “suits us because we are net buyers of these” and it is an advantage that can help the government in its efforts to “put our house in order”.

On a night when steffi Graf loomed large over Rod Laver Arena, an inspired Angelique Kerber stunned Serena Williams in a three-set classic to win the Australian Open and become Germany’s first Grand Slam champion in 17 years.
In the ultimate tribute to her childhood hero, Kerber foiled Serena’s bid to match the German great’s tally of Grand Slam titles, closing out a magnificent 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 win in her first major final.
The seventh seed’s triumph secured her nation’s first Grand Slam win since Graf raised her 22nd and final trophy at the 1999 French Open.