Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 4 June 2015

Current Affairs for IAS Exams – 04 June 2015

:: National ::

Ex-IB chief is PM’s special envoy on counter-terror

Signalling its growing concern over IS terror and radicalisation, the government has appointed the former Intelligence Bureau Chief Asif Ibrahim to a key post in the Prime Minister’s office.
Mr. Ibrahim, who retired in December 2014, will be the PM’s ‘Special Envoy on Countering Terrorism and Extremism,’ with a charter to liaise with governments in West Asia, Af-Pak and South East Asia, senior officials told.
“Mr. Ibrahim is one of the most well-informed officials when it comes to the Islamic world and its political structures,” an official, who confirmed the appointment, told, “His role will include both the international and domestic dimensions of countering international terrorism, which is of great concern to the government.”
As Director IB, Mr. Ibrahim started work on the government’s new counter radicalisation strategy in 2014, which was triggered by the Islamic State takeover of parts of Iraq and Syria, after it emerged that at least a dozen men of Indian origin had joined the terror group. He is also known to have negotiated with the top leadership in Saudi Arabia and Malaysia on terror cooperation.

India signs pact on automatic exchange of tax information

In keeping with what was decided at the G20 Finance Ministers meeting in September last year, India joined the Multilateral Competent Authority Agreement (MCAA) on Automatic Exchange of Financial Account Information. The declaration to comply with the provisions of the agreement was signed in Paris by the Indian ambassador to France, Mohan Kumar.
Prior to agreement, 54 countries had joined the MCAA. India is among six countries that joined this pact in Paris, taking the number to 60. The target is to reach 94 countries by 2017.
The new system, dubbed the Common Reporting Standards (CRS) on Automatic Exchange of Information (AEOI), is very wide in scope and obliges the treaty partners to exchange a wide range of financial information, including that about the ultimate controlling persons and beneficial owners of entities.
To be able to comply with the new system, amendments have been made to section 285BA of the Income Tax Act, 1961. Necessary rules and guidelines are being formulated in consultation with financial institutions.
Previously, information was exchanged between countries on the basis of specific requests relating to cases of tax evasion and other financial crimes. AEOI, when fully implemented, sets up a system wherein bulk taxpayer information will periodically be sent by the source country of income to the country of residence of the taxpayer.
According to Gaurav Karnik, Partner-Tax and Regulatory Services, Ernst & Young LLP, such an agreement will definitely help India curb tax evasion. “If countries that were previously reluctant to provide such information are forced to comply, then that is a good thing. It will work in helping the Indian government curb tax evasion and track funds leaving the country,” he said.

Knowledge network to be open to all SAARC nations

India is in the process of extending its National Knowledge Network to all members of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) to allow students unimpeded access to digital libraries and network resources, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said.
At the groundbreaking ceremony of South Asian University (SAU) here, Ms. Swaraj said the Ministry was carrying out the instructions of the Prime Minister to have the university connect with at least one university in every SAARC nation.
“As Prime Minister [Narendra] Modi said in his speech at the 18th SAARC summit, India’s vision for the region rests on the pillars of trade, investment, assistance, cooperation, people-to-people contacts and connectivity. In the coming days and years, we will work assiduously to make the region more connected and more prosperous,” Ms. Swaraj said.
At the 13th SAARC summit in Dhaka, India offered to host the SAU. The university, mooted as one dedicated to the region, has had its share of teething troubles, mainly on account of financial constraints.
While India has offered to pay the capital cost of $198 million for its establishment, apart from providing close to 40 hectares for the campus, Pakistan is yet to pay its share. In 2014, a Parliamentary Standing Committee asked the Ministry to expedite the process of seeking funds from Pakistan. Its report said the neighbouring nation owed $7.8 million towards the project since 2010.
A SAU official told that the issue had been raised with Pakistan and the process of reclaiming the dues initiated.
“All other members have been paying their share. We have taken up the issue with Pakistan, and it is being sorted out.
Earlier, there used to be no representatives of Pakistan present on the governing board; that too has changed now,” the official said.

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:: International ::

BBC apologises after accidental tweet

The BBC apologised and launched an internal inquiry after a tweet sent from the account of one of its producers said Queen Elizabeth II had died, during a test of coverage for a royal death.
The first of a series of tweets was sent from the account of broadcast reporter Ahmen Khawaja at around 9.30am (0830 GMT), and said: ‘BREAKING: Queen Elizabeth is being treated at King Edward 7th Hospital in London. Statement due shortly.’
Khawaja then added: “Queen Elizabrth (sic) has died,” according to a screen shot published by British media.
The tweets sparked a storm on social networks and the rumours about the queen’s health were picked up by some international media outlets, including Germany’s Bild.de and CNN affiliate service CNNNewsource.
Khawaja, a producer for BBC’s Urdu-language service, apologised immediately for the “false alarm” and deleted the messages, saying: “Phone left unattended at home. Silly prank, Apologies for upsetting anyone!”.
The corporation later announced that it had launched an investigation as part of its disciplinary process.
“During a technical rehearsal for an obituary, tweets were mistakenly sent from the account of a BBC journalist saying that a member of the royal family had been taken ill. The tweets were swiftly deleted and we apologise for any offence,” it said.
Coincidentally, the queen was in hospital for a check-up, leading Buckingham Palace to send a rare statement on the monarch’s health.

Political formation for Indian Tamils launched

Weeks ahead of the forthcoming parliamentary elections, a new political formation — Tamil Progressive Alliance (TPA) — was formally launched to highlight issues and problems of Indian Tamils, who, according to leaders of the Alliance, accounted for 1.6 million.
The TPA comprises Democratic People’s Front (DPF) of Mano Ganesan; Up Country People’s Front of V. S. Radhakrishnan and the National Union of Workers (NUW) of Palany Thigambaram.
According to the 2012 Census [as hosted in the website of the Department of Cenus and Statistics of Sri Lanka], the strength of the Indian Tamils, also known as Upcountry Tamils, was around 8.4 lakh, about 4.12 per cent of the total population of the country.
The three leaders asserted that the Alliance was formed not meant for the polls but out of the realisation that a “unified and cohesive force” would ensure the accomplishment of more concessions and rights for the Indian Tamils.
Mr. Radhakrishnan said the launch of the Alliance was a natural corollary to the collaboration among the three parties for the last three-four months. To a query whether the TPA would work together with the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) which represents Tamils of the Northern and Eastern provinces, Mr Ganesan said the question should be posed to R. Sampanthan, the leader of the TNA.

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:: Business and Economy ::

Bharat Electronics develops phones for Army use

Secure, custom-made CDMA phone sets developed by Bharat Electronics Ltd. (BEL), are undergoing trials with the Army. The phones, without camera, have in-built safety features and may be deployed in a year or two across the Army’s various units, BEL’s Chairman and Managing Director S.K. Sharma told.
With work initiated more than a year ago, the handsets are said to replace imported ones that are not encrypted and are vulnerable to eavesdropping by unauthorised people. The Army’s request for information mentions base transmission stations to be set up in three north-eastern stations. The Navy is also said to be a potential customer.
The indigenous version enables high data transmission and its evaluation is in an advanced stage, said Ajit T. Kalghatagi, Director (R&D), adding BEL was geared up to manufacturing them in large numbers.
The phone sets are made at the Ghaziabad unit of BEL.
On the defence front, Mr. Sharma said the focus was on indigenisation in radars, electronic warfare devices, avionics, network communication or C4i. Telecommunication was also an important initiative in non-defence business. BEL was pursuing civil sector business areas such as solar energy, e-governance and smart cards besides inland security that falls outside the purview Ministry of Defence.
It planned to generate 50 MW of solar power along with other PSUs under the national solar scheme over three-to-five years and would invest Rs.300 crore in the projects, Mr. Sharma said.
The defence electronics major makes electronics, communication, radars and imaging hardware for the three Armed Forces.
It has declared an audited 2014-15 net profit of Rs.1,167 crore and a turnover of Rs.6,695 crore. For the fourth quarter, the net profit and the turnover were Rs.722 crore and Rs.3,067 crore respectively.

:: Science and Technology ::

Indian Ocean warms as Pacific cools

Though surface heat of Earth has stabilised since 1999, studies have found that atmospheric heat continues to rise unabated with the oceans absorbing a large amount of this heat and warming in the past decade (2000-2012).
However, a new study by Sang-Ki Lee of the University of Miami, U.S., and others has found that the Indian Ocean has been warming the most rapidly while the adjoining Pacific Ocean has been getting cooled during the past decade. The study was published in a recent issue of the journal Nature Geoscience .
In fact the Indian Ocean accounts for 70 per cent of all the global oceans heat gain up to 700 metres depth during the past decade.
The analysis shows that the abrupt increase of the Indian Ocean Heat Content at 700 metres depth (OHC{-7}{-0}{-0}) during 2003-2012 was not due to surface heating, but rather due almost entirely to horizontal advective heat convergence (caused by winds and resulting currents). Further heat budget analysis indicates that inter-ocean heat transport from the Pacific Ocean to the Indian Ocean via the Indonesian passages was the main cause of the increased Indian OHC{-7}{-0}{-0}; it greatly increased during 2003-2012, overcompensating for the slightly increased southward heat transport from the Indian Ocean to the Southern Ocean.
The study found that the La Nina-like conditions in the Pacific Ocean, caused by a number of La Nina events in the last decade have caused the cooling of the Pacific ocean by transfer of heat to the Indian Ocean, warming the latter.
The La Nina conditions cause strong easterly winds to blow from the western Pacific Ocean and these winds cause currents to flow westward conveying the heat of the Pacific Ocean into the Indian Ocean through what is known as the Indonesian Throughflow (ITF).
The easterlies are formed due to a pressure gradient between the Pacific and Indian Oceans caused by cold conditions in the east and warm wet conditions in the west during a La Nina. Also during a La Nina, the walker circulation — an ocean-atmospheric phenomenon of the Indian Ocean — is strengthened.
The walker circulation leads to abnormally high sea surface temperatures in the western Indian Ocean which in turn leads to copious rainfall in the western Indian Ocean at the cost of the Indian subcontinent and results in a weak monsoon. In contrast to this, as there were relatively much fewer La Ninas in the previous decade (1990-99) there was much less warming in the Indian Ocean.

:: Sports ::

Windies lose three wickets

West Indies reached 85 for three at lunch after opting to bat against Australia on the opening day of the first cricket Test at the Windsor Park.
Debutant Shane Dowrich, undefeated on 15, and Marlon Samuels (batting 3) took the hosts to the interval.
Josh Hazlewood, Nathan Lyon, and Mitchell Johnson each claimed a wicket.
Brathwaite and Hope added 23 for the opening wicket after captain Denesh Ramdin won the toss. Fast bowler Hazlewood drew a tentative stroke from Brathwaite, who edged to wicketkeeper Brad Haddin.
Lyon, chosen as the only specialist spinner, induced an edge from Bravo and captain Michael Clarke lunged low to his left to pluck a brilliant one-handed catch.
Johnson removed Hope who drove loosely outside the off stump and Shaun Marsh took a fine diving catch at gully.