Current Affairs for IAS Exams – 04 January 2016

:: NATIONAL ::

Centre’s eagerness to claim credit for what it said was a successful coordinated response to the terrorist attack on the Pathankot airbase lay in tatters on Sunday morning with the discovery of two more terrorists in action, death of a seasoned NSG commando and injury to many of his colleagues.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi landed in the national capital on Sunday evening, and directly went into a huddle with senior officials including National Security Adviser Ajit Doval, Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar and others to discuss the terror strike.
The morning began peacefully in Pathankot airbase, and there was no inkling of the dramatic events that were to unfold over the next several hours.
Around 10 a.m., Lieutenant Colonel Niranjan Kumar and his team from the National Security Guard were examining the body of a terrorist killed the previous evening, and probably trying to defuse an explosive attached to it, when the device detonated, killing him and injuring the others.

Even as the operation against terrorists at the Pathankot airbase continued on Sunday, the Indian consulate in Mazar-e- Sharif in Northern Afghanistan came under attack from four armed terrorists.
The commandos of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) force, which guards the consulate building, were the first to engage with the terrorists for almost an hour and were able to thwart the attack.
Firing was directed at the consulate from an adjacent building and there were at least four armed men.

The Sri Lankan government would not act “in haste” on the issue of setting up a special court on allegations of violations of human rights in the last stages of the civil war, according to President Maithripala Sirisena.
As for the move to draft a new Constitution, the President pointed out that he would make a statement in Parliament on January 9, initiating the process.
However, he clarified that only after a “comprehensive, organised and nationwide” debate among different sections such as constitutional experts and civil society organisations, would a decision be taken whether a fresh Constitution was needed or amendments to the existing Constitution were sufficient.
On repealing the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), a long-standing demand of human rights activists, he said there was a commonly held view that the Act had to be repealed.

The latest edition of ‘Sahyog-Kaijin,’ the Indo-Japan Coast Guard Joint Exercise, will begin in the Bay of Bengal of the Chennai coast on January 12.
The five-day event would witness seminars and exercises involving strategic assets of both the countries, besides meeting of high-level officials in Delhi and Chennai, sources said.
While one ship would represent the Japanese side, five to six ships are expected to participate from the Indian Coast Guard.
The Commandant of the Japan Coast Guard would also meet his Indian counterpart in Delhi and later arrive in Chennai.
This would be the second time in the last three months that a ship from Japanese military is participating in an exercise with India in the Bay of Bengal.
During the visit of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to India last month, he said that Japan would be a permanent partner in the Malabar naval exercise along with India and U.S. navies.
Japan is also likely to send its maritime assets to participate in the International Fleet Review to be conducted at Visakhapatnam next month.
Sahyog-Kaijin is held once in two years and the venue would shift between India and Japan on alternate occasions. India’s ICGS Samudra Paheredar participated in the 2014 edition held at Yokohama in Japan.

Chief Executives of companies such as Google’s Sundar Pichai, Tesla’s Elon Musk and Apple’s Tim Cook, who met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in San Jose last September, are among the 2,000 startup invitees expected for unveiling the government’s Start Up India initiative on January 16.
Prime Minister Modi is expected to address the concluding session of the work-shop, where he will unveil the government’s action plan for promoting such enterprises based on a slogan he coined in his Independence Day Address last year — Start Up India, Stand Up India.
Indian startups received $9 billion in funding in 2015, which is half the total amount they could raise in the five years preceding 2015.
Among the various initiatives that the PM could announce include a new law that makes it easier to start and ex- it a venture and additional support for ‘innovative startups’.

Sunil Chetri scored one of the most important goals of his career when his 101st-minute strike snatched an unlikely win for India in the final of the SAFF Suzuki Cup football tournament against Afghanistan.
The Indian skipper cashed in on some poor defending by the Afghans to squeeze the ball into the net past goalkeeper Azizi in the 11th minute of extra-time.
The Indians then withstood a barrage of attacks to lift the trophy for the seventh time, and after a gap of four years.