Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 6 June 2015

Current Affairs for IAS Exams – 06 June 2015

:: National ::

India to take up rebels issue with Myanmar

Even as the security agencies are on the hot pursuit of those behind the ambush by insurgents in Manipur, the Defence Ministry has initiated an internal enquiry into the procedural and intelligence failure that led to the killing of 18 soldiers.
The lapses could be either with the road opening parties which failed to detect the Improvised Explosive Device (IED), or intelligence failure in ascertaining that insurgent groups had conducted reconnaissance over a period of time to zero in on a stretch, where the Army convoys could be targeted in Chandel.
While the Khaplang faction of the Naga insurgent outfit, National Socialist Council of the Nagaland (NSCN), has claimed responsibility for the ambush, security agencies believe that members of Meitei groups the Kanglei Yawol Kanna Lup (KYKL), the United National Liberation Front (UNLF) and the United National Liberation Front (UNLF) were also involved.
As the insurgents are suspected to have crossed over to Myanmar, India will soon share fresh information on their camps, including images, with the Myanmar government seeking a prompt crackdown. The Indian Army is gearing up for a coordinated action with their counterparts in the neighbouring country.
Following a high-level meeting with Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar, Home Minister Rajnath Singh and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, Army Chief General Dalbir Singh rushed to Chandel to review the ground situation.

India, Netherlands to fight terrorism

India and the Netherlands will collaborate on fighting terror and cyber crime and have decided to set up a joint working group on counter terrorism, which will hold its first meeting on June 19.
This was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday, after his meeting with Prime Minister of the Netherlands Mark Rutte who is in India on a two-day visit.
Mr. Modi said both countries agreed that they stand to benefit from closer bilateral and multilateral collaboration in areas of countering terrorism and extremism.
The two nations, which are keen to forge an alliance to fight terror and cyber crime, are also looking to increase bilateral trade and will sign as many as 18 agreements for water management, infrastructure development, defence and maritime cooperation.
“We have the experience in fighting the IS in Iraq. India has experience in fighting terrorism as well, we will exchange information on how to deal with terror and share our experiences,” Mr. Rutte said addressing the media here.
The Netherlands is part of the group of countries led by the United States that is helping to break the fighting power of the IS terrorist organisation; it has deployed military trainers to help Iraqi and Kurdish armed forces, personnel and F-16s for air strikes.
The visiting Dutch delegation offered its expertise in flood waters control and for cleaning the river Ganga under the ‘Namami Gange programme.’
“India’s economy is growing faster than China, and though it has its challenges, there is scope for the Netherlands and India to work together. Right now our trade is at six billion Euros and over 200 Dutch companies are already working here, but we are looking at possibilities in other areas,” Mr. Rutte said.
The Netherlands which has supported New Delhi’s bid for permanent membership of a reformed United Nations Security Council is also looking at collaboration with India in the defence sector and infrastructure development, particularly in Mumbai.
India, which is the fifth largest source of investments for the Netherlands, for its part has announced e-visas for Dutch visitors to give tourism as fillip.
The two countries will sign agreement on manufacturing of dredgers in India at the Cochin shipyard, on manufacturing of measles and rubella vaccine with transfer of technology, and collaborate on developing coastal roads and metro lines in India, borrowing Dutch expertise.

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:: International ::

Strike against Tata’s pension scheme

Workers from Tata Steel U.K. Ltd, who are members of Unite, Britain’s largest union, have voted overwhelmingly in favour of industrial action over the company’s pension plans.
They join the other three workers unions, namely, Community, GMT and Ucatt, which have already voted for strike action.
In the vote that took place at Unite, 70 per cent backed strike action on a turnout of 66 per cent. The date of the strike, to protest against the plans by Tata to abandon the British Steel pension scheme (BSPS) thus forcing employees to work five more years to get their full pension, will be decided after the unions meet next week.
“Unite along with other steel unions, Community, GMB and Ucatt has already offered pension savings of £850 million to the company after five months of intensive negotiations. Despite this Tata Steel U.K. is seeking to plough ahead with changes forcing employees to work an extra five years until they are 65 to receive their full pension,” a press note from Unite has stated.
“At present, workers can retire at the age of 60 without an actuarial reduction. Instead the company is insisting that workers wishing to retire at 60 will lose five per cent of each year of early retirement — 25 per cent in total.”
Unite national officer for steel Paul Reuter said: “We have offered Tata Steel U.K. the savings it says it needs.”A company spokesperson for Tata Steel said the company would be “announcing new measures to lessen the impact of the proposed pension changes particularly on our longest-serving employees nearing retirement age,” after receiving 4000 letters and e-mails from 5000 employees whom company officials engaged with in “face-to-face pension roadshows.”

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:: Business and Economy ::

Gadkari hints at new routes to upgrade ports, services

With employees opposing ports corporatisation, Union Shipping Minister Nitin Gadkari said attempts were being made to find alternatives to upgrade ports and their services, beyond bringing them under the purview of the Companies Act as announced in the Budget.
“Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had told us (in the Budget) about the Companies Act, but we are looking at other alternatives beyond the Companies Act to modernise and develop the ports,” Gadkari told reporters at a Mumbai Port Trust event here.
He said his ministry was in discussions and seeking guidance from the Finance Ministry on the alternatives, but did not elaborate on what those alternatives might be.
In the Budget, Mr. Jaitley had announced the government intention to corporatise ports, saying, “ports need to attract investments as well as leverage the huge land resource lying unused with them and to enable us to do so, ports in the public sector will be encouraged to corporatise and become companies under the Company’s Act.”
Managements of major ports, including the largest container port JNPT, have welcomed the move. However, employee unions are opposed to the move and threatened to go on an indefinite strike, which was cancelled following interventions by labour commissioners and a specially constituted panel.
“All the five employee unions are still opposed to corporatisation, but we have been assured by the Indian Ports Association that our interests will be protected,” the All-India Port & Dock Workers Federation had said in a statement after withdrawing the strike call in March.
Gadkari on Friday sought to allay the fears, asserting that equity would not change hands under the corporatisation move.
“Basic concept is development and modernisation. We don’t want to privatise, nor do we want to give any equity to the private people.
“We want to modernise, protect the interest of labour, and ports and at the same time improve the services of the ports to boost business and do good profits,” Mr. Gadkari said.
Speaking to reporters after inaugurating an oil spill response facility for the Mumbai Harbour, Mr. Gadkari said the 12 major ports would be investing Rs.1,000 crore to set up clean power facilities and reduce their reliance on the grid power.
“The government has sanctioned a 150-MW plan for green power for ports,” he said, adding generating the required finance would not be difficult.
Citing the example of the JNPT, he said it was paying up to Rs.13 per unit of grid power and had a requirement of 25 mw.
Under the plan, a hybrid project involving setting up solar and wind capacities on rooftops as well as windmills on the sea would be done, he said.
The government had also appointed a consultant to check the feasibility of generating power by installing windmills on the sea, Mr. Gadkari said, adding such a technology had immense possibilities for a city like Mumbai.
“There are working projects where power is produced through four different clean sources — including solar, wind, wind inside the sea and tidal energy — at a single location and adopting those can help eliminate the financial capital’s reliance on the grid,” Mr. Gadkari said. He said he would will be visiting one such project during his upcoming Japan visit.
Mr. Gadkari said the government was also planning to plant 5 crore trees along the 1 lakh km network of National Highways.

SBI to hold e-auction of stressed assets

State Bank of India (SBI) said that it has planned a mega e-auction of its stressed assets worth Rs.1,300 crore from June 12.
“We will be auctioning a total of around 480 properties, which include around 250 residential properties and around 230 commercial properties,” said an official of the State Bank of India, who preferred anonymity.
“These properties include assets of retail and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) located around 40 different cities,” he added.
In the earlier mega auction on March 14, the bank had put on auction around 300 residential and commercial properties worth around Rs 1,200 crore.
However the bank could sell only about 130 properties, realising around Rs.100 crore.

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:: Sports ::

Kashyap stuns world No. 1 Long

P. Kashyap rallied to shock world No. 1 Chen Long, continuing his giant-killing spree to enter the men’s singles semifinals even as Saina Nehwal bowed out with a loss to familiar foe Wang Shixian in the Indonesian Open Super Series badminton tournament.
Kashyap, ranked 12th in the world, came from behind to beat the top-seeded Chinese in a contest that lasted an hour and three minutes.
The Commonwealth Games gold-medallist was consistent with his smashes and impeccable with his net play against a more fancied opponent.