Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 9 June 2015

Current Affairs for IAS Exams – 09 June 2015

:: National ::

L-G appoints new ACB chief

  • In what the Delhi Government described as a bureaucratic coup, a Joint Commissioner of the Delhi Police was ‘unilaterally’ placed at the helm of the Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB) by Lieutenant-Governor Najeeb Jung.

  • Seven Inspectors were also transferred to the anti-graft body ‘against actual requirement expressed by the Government,’ a source said.

  • Mr. Jung cleared the appointment of Mukesh Kumar Meena, an IPS officer of the 1989 batch currently in-charge of the New Delhi Range, “without keeping the Chief Minister's office or the Government in the loop.”

  • “What is the conspiracy behind the sudden creation of the post of Joint CP (ACB)? One should remember that the same officer (Mr. Meena) had penned the bogus script of my involvement in the suicide of farmer Gajendra Singh at Jantar Mantar,” Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia tweeted.

  • The Hindu had reported that close to half a dozen bureaucrats of the AGMU cadre were stuck in limbo across the country due to the impasse between the Delhi Government and the Union Ministry of Home Affairs.

  • Mr. Meena had been transferred out of Delhi and was awaiting posting in Arunachal as per MHA order issued on April 8.

  • The anti-graft body is currently headed by S.S. Yadav, an Additional Commissioner of Police.

HRD Ministry under fire for choice of Urdu Council head

  • Academics at Delhi University have questioned Human Resource Development Minister Smriti Irani’s choice of Professor Syed Ali Karim as director of the National Council for Promotion of Urdu Language, of which she is the chairperson.

  • Prof. Karim, an associate professor in the Urdu Department of Delhi University, was appointed last week to the Council, which is an autonomous body under the HRD Ministry.

  • Concerns over Prof. Karim’s appointment stem from charges including sexual harassment and financial irregularities against him.

  • In the first incident nearly 10 years ago when Prof. Karim was teaching in the Urdu Department of Delhi University, a young research scholar suffered a mental breakdown, attributed to acute harassment from him.

  • The charges of harassment — led to the setting up of a committee as per the Vishaka guidelines.

  • Upon examining the allegations, the committee recommended the following measures: a warning letter be issued to Prof. Karim, no female research student be sent to study under his supervision, and no administrative work be allotted to him.

  • A member of the committee confirmed that though a report was sent to the apex committee of the Urdu Department which forwarded it to the university authorities for action, no further action was taken.

  • The student never recovered from the mental breakdown.

NJAC is the will of people: Centre in SC

  • Terming that the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) as the “will of the people,” the Centre referred to how the perception among lawmakers is that the Supreme Court Collegium followed a procedure of “you scratch my back,

  • I scratch yours” while recommending judges’ names for appointment.
    The comment set the tempo for the constant to-and-fro between the Supreme Court and Attorney-General Mukul Rohatgi on the first day of hearing into the merits of the NJAC law, which replaced the Supreme Court Collegium system of judicial appointments.

  • The court had resumed the hearing after a break of hardly a month, following its decision to not refer the petitions challenging the validity of the NJAC law to a higher Bench for the time being.

  • In a session which continued through the day, Mr. Rohatgi led detailed arguments to convince the five-judge Constitution Bench led by Justice J.S. Khehar that the “wisdom of Parliament in choosing one model [of judicial appointments] over the other is not open to judicial review.” “There cannot be a debate on which system is good or which system is bad.

  • Parliament decides on a particular model which meets constitutional requirements,” Mr. Rohatgi submitted.

  • He said 20 States had by now ratified the Constitution Amendment incorporating the NJAC into the Constitution and the law had become the “will of the people.”

  • Reading out from the discussions held on the NJAC on the floor of Parliament, the AG said these were the “people’s perceptions ... and these perceptions across party lines show there is a requirement for change.”

  • When Justice Khehar said there was no word among the parliamentarians about “procedure” of the Collegium, Mr. Rohatgi responded “procedure is you scratch your back, I will scratch yours.”

  • Mr. Rohatgi played on the front foot by submitting that there was no primacy for the judiciary in the Constitution. He said independence of judiciary “predominantly” starts only after judges were appointed.

Two-finger test: Delhi drops move after flak

  • The Delhi government was forced to issue a fresh advisory to all hospitals in the city prohibiting the ‘two-finger’ test on rape victims to ascertain sexual assault, after a previous circular allowing the controversial procedure drew sharp attack.

  • In its new advisory, the Health Department said medical professionals should not perform the ‘finger test’ on victims of sexual assault while insisting that its earlier directive was misinterpreted.

  • “It is now clarified that medical professionals should not perform the ‘finger test’ for ascertaining the habituation of the sexual assault victim/survivor to sexual intercourse. “All hospital authorities in Delhi are advised to adhere to the same,” the advisory said.

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:: International ::

China’s actions cause for concern: Australia

  • India, Japan and Australia discussed concerns over Chinese reclamation in the South China Sea, and hoped a “code of conduct” would be agreed to between China and the ASEAN countries to calm tensions in the region.

  • Speaking to, Australia’s top diplomat Peter Varghese, who is in Delhi for the first India-Japan-Australia high-level trilateral talks, confirmed the discussion on regional security had included concerns over the South China Sea.

  • “It’s the pace and the scale of China’s reclamation which is causing some anxiety in the region. This is something we’ve expressed publicly, and ASEAN countries have expressed,” Mr. Varghese said in the interview.

  • While India has made no comment so far on the reclamation, the government has voiced concerns several times on what it sees as China’s restrictions on freedom of movement.

:: Business and Economy ::

Regulators should coordinate to end ponzi scheme menace, says RBI

  • The Reserve Bank of India stressed the need for more coordination between financial sector regulators to stop the menace of ponzi schemes.

  • “One important thing we have seen in recent deliberations is that many of these activities are falling under a regulatory vacuum which means in whose turf it falls many times is a grey area and is not very clear,” said S. S. Mundra, Deputy Governor, RBI, while speaking at a workshop on ponzi schemes organised by Multi-Disciplinary School of Economic Intelligence (MDSEI) at the NACEN (National Academy of Customs, Excise and Narcotics) here.

  • “These schemes usually escape the regulatory radar. One of reason is owing to the time of origination they are typically very localised and at a very small scale,” he added.

  • Each financial sector regulator operates over a certain jurisdiction in India. “We have an institution-specific regulation rather than the activity-based regulation and this leave the scope of some activities falling on fringe, to be left out of the regulatory radar,” Mr. Mundra added.

  • Ponzi schemes are fraudulent investment schemes, wherein people are promised high returns without having to assume commensurate level of risks. Mr. Mundra said that regulators are conscious of this aspect and quickly move to bridge any regulatory gap under the inter-regulatory forum such as FSDC and its sub-committee.

  • He said that unauthorised collection of deposits happen in Tier-II and Tier-III cities where the regulator do not have the presence. Hence they do not come to know of such un authorised collection of deposit unless they start receiving complaints from the investors.

  • “It is here that the role of state and local administrative machinery assumes significant importance,” said Mr. Mundra, adding, “the unauthorised collection of deposit is any way a state subject and the local police have the power to prosecute the offenders. It is important that the market intelligence gathering is strengthened by the state governments.”

  • According to him, there is a need to establish an effective two-way communication between the state machinery and the regulators whereby either party should immediately inform the other about any illegal, unauthorised and suspicious financial activities coming to their notice.

  • Mr. Mundra said that the forum of State Level Co-ordination Committee is a very important forum and there is a need to make it a more active and effective.

  • The enforcement agencies also do not see the problem until it reaches a much significant proportion and the number of complaints grow.

  • “Even when these activities come to fore, lack of co-ordinated effort from the investigative agencies and protected legal proceedings fail to create enough deterrence for the fraudster or the potential fraudsters,” said Mr. Mundra , adding, “hence, it is essential that agencies follow a co-ordinated approach to quickly get to the bottom of the problem and bring the culprits to the book and meet out an exemplary punishment.”

:: Science and Technology ::

All macaroni, pasta brands to be tested

  • After Maggi, quality testing was ordered for noodles, pasta and macaroni brands of seven companies, including Nestle, ITC and GlaxoSmithkline, across the country to check for health hazards.

  • Listing out 32 such brands, including Maggi, Top Ramen, Wai Wai, Yummy and Foodles, Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) also ordered immediate recall of all instant food products that did not have any product approval and were being sold in an “unauthorised and illegal” manner.

  • In its order for quality testing by all States and Union Territories, the central food safety regulator said that “various test results on Maggi and some other products have raised serious health concerns” and therefore it was necessary to test other similar products.

  • In the circular, the FSSAI has also listed the detailed parameters on which such tests would need to be conducted.

:: Sports ::

Cash awards for medal winners

  • All the 13 Indian medal winners at the 21st Asian athletics championships which concluded in Wuhan, China, will receive cash awards from the sports ministry for their achievements.

  • The 59-member Indian team finished third overall with four gold, five silver and four bronze, behind China and Qatar.

  • Under the revised scheme of the Sports Ministry, gold winners in the Asian championships, held once in two years, will get Rs. 7.5 lakh, while silver and bronze medallists will get Rs. 5 and 2.5 lakh respectively.

  • Lalita Babar (3000m steeplechase), Tintu Luka (800m), Vikas Gowda (discus) and Inderjit Singh (shot put) bagged gold medals.

  • The silver medal winners are M.R. Poovamma (400m), G. Lakshmanan (10,000m), Liksy Joseph (heptathlon), Jinson Johnson (800m) and the women’s 4x400m relay team.

  • Dharambir Singh (200m), Lakshmanan (5,000m), Purnima Hembram (heptathlon) and Sarbani Nanda (200m) won bronze medals.

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Sources: Various News Papers & PIB

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