Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 5 April 2015

:: National ::

Commonwealth Speakers’ meet in Vizag from April 8

Presiding officers of parliaments of 10 countries and 20 States in India along with Chairpersons of Legislative Councils and Assembly Secretaries are participating in the three-day Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) conference to be held from April 8.
The CPA holds in conferences in different Commonwealth countries every year and the theme of Visakhapatnam conference, being organised by the AP chapter of CPA, is ‘Parliament and Media Law’, Speaker Kodela Sivaprasada Rao said at a press conference.
"Discussions would be held on different aspects relating to the theme during the conference and the resolutions made by the delegates would be forwarded to the CPA,” Dr Sivaprasada Rao said. About 200 delegates are attending. All would reach here by April 7.
All MPs, MLCs and MLAs of Andhra Pradesh have been invited to participate in the conference.
Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu will inaugurate the conference on April 8 at Hotel Novatel. Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan and Union Minister for Parliamentary Affairs M. Venkaiah Naidu would also attend. The second day's deliberations would be at APTDC resort at Rushikonda the delegates would move to Araku Valley for the final day's meeting.
Cultural programmes reflecting the culture and traditions of A.P. are being organised every evening. Some folk troupes from other States are also participating, Minister for Panchayati Raj Ch. Ayyanna Patrudu said.
The Commonwealth conference would bring Visakhapatnam once again into international focus and help in its bid to attract foreign investment, Mr. Patrudu said and thanked Mr. Naidu and the Speaker for selecting Visakhapatnam as the venue of the conference.
Earlier, Dr. Sivaprasada Rao held a meeting with Collector N. Yuvaraj, Commissioner of Police Amit Garg, VUDA VC T. Baburao Naidu, other officials and MP of Anakapalle M. Srinivasa Rao and MLAs and finalised the arrangements for the conference.
The topics are the CPA and Parliament and media; the role of media as the fourth estate; Parliament and media: legal framework; Parliament and media; working groups; how has the social media impacted the institutions of Parliament and Parliamentarians; access to Parliamentary information; overview of access and rights to information; medial as accountability tool: collaborative governance across the national budget cycle.

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:: International :

Kenyatta vows harsh action against Shabab

Kenya’s President has vowed to take harsh measures against Islamist militants after they attacked a school near the Somali border, killing 148 people.
President Uhuru Kenyatta warned in a nationally televised address that the planners and financiers of attacks like the one in Garissa town are “deeply embedded in our communities.”
Mr. Kenyatta said his administration “shall respond in the severest ways possible” to the Garissa attack, which occurred when four gunmen entered a campus and slaughtered students. The military moved in hours later and the gunmen were killed.
“We will fight terrorism to the end,” said Mr. Kenyatta. “I want you to know that our security forces are pursuing the remaining accomplices. We will bring all of them to justice ... We are also in active pursuit of the mastermind [of the Garissa attack] and have placed a reward for his capture,” he said. He also declared three days of national mourning over the Garissa attack.
Mr. Kenyatta’s nationwide address came after Somalia’s Islamist extremist group al-Shabab warned of more attacks in Kenya like the assault on Garissa University College.
Five people have been arrested on suspicion of involvement in the Garissa attack, a Kenyan official said.
Kenyan security agencies arrested three people trying to cross into Somalia, said Interior Ministry spokesman Mwenda Njoka in a Twitter post.
He said the three are associates of Mohamed Mohamud, also known as Dulyadin Gamadhere, a former teacher at a Kenyan Madrassa Islamic school who authorities say coordinated the Garissa attack. Kenyan authorities have put a $220,000 bounty for information leading to Gamadhere’s arrest.
Two other suspects were arrested at Garissa college.
A survivor of the killings at Garissa University College was found, two days after the attack by Islamic extremists killed 148 people.

:: Business and Economy ::

Talks on over a BRICS rating agency

After successful moves to form the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), China, along with experts from the Brazil, Russia, India and South Africa, is holding talks to form a BRICS rating agency that will break the monopoly of the Big Three — Fitch, Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s.
Russia’s Sputnik, its own agency, quoted Russian Sous-Sherpa for BRICS, Vadim Lukov, as saying that China’s Dagong rating agency and the Russians are at the heart of the talks for creating a new independent agency.
The demand for a parallel rating agency escalated after Western agencies downgraded the creditworthiness of Moscow following the crisis in Ukraine.
Xinhua news agency quoted Guan Jianzhong, the president of Dagong, as saying that the lowering of Russia’s credit ratings by three Western rating agencies was politically motivated.
Mr. Guan said that while arriving at a country’s credit rating, the U.S.-based rating agencies applied the criteria of political system, per capita GDP, independence of a country’s central bank, economic system and the level of market privatisation, as well as the right to issue international currency reserves.
“They are all ideological criteria and have nothing to do with a central government’s ability to generate revenues and its ability to repay debts. If one uses these standards to assess credit risks of the United States, one may come to the conclusion that the U.S. economy would never default, because they can repay their debts by printing more money. It is obvious that these criteria are unfair,” said the president of Dagong.
Mr. Lukov pointed out that the Big Three have also published negative 2015 outlook for Mercosur countries — a sub-regional economic bloc comprising Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela alongside associate countries Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru.
The Financial Times had earlier reported that BRICS countries have long deliberated on plans to establish their own rating agency, along with the formation of the new development bank.

:: Science and Technology ::

Ambitious DNA research logs in to Facebook

As part of a large project aimed at discovering new links between certain genetic variants, health and disease, scientists have turned towards an unusual partner — Facebook.
The researchers, with an aim to screen the genes of at least 20,000 people, have developed a Facebook app to recruit people for the study, BuzzFeed News reported.
The scientists behind the project titled “Genes for Good” hope that Facebook users will send a tube of their spit to a laboratory at the University of Michigan and use a free Facebook app to fill out periodic surveys about their health, habits and moods.
The scientists will screen the volunteers’ DNA to try to discover new links between certain genetic variants, health and disease. To rigorously establish these links, the researchers will need to enlist tens of thousands of volunteers from a wide variety of backgrounds.
“We’re really hoping that the main reason people will join is to say, ‘Hey, my health and genetic information is valuable. I would like to share it and put it to good use,’” said project leader Gonalo Abecasis.

:: Sports ::

Ban on women attending matches lifted

A senior Iranian sports official says the country’s authorities have partially lifted a ban on women attending men’s sports matches.
Deputy Sports Minister Abdolhamid Ahmadi is quoted by the official IRNA news agency Saturday as saying that Iran’s State Security Council has approved a plan by his Ministry to allow women and families to attend some sports events.
The announcement comes after FIFA President Sepp Blatter urged Iran earlier this year to end the ban on women watching football in stadiums.