Sports

• Sochi Olympics and India (Free Available)

• Dipika Pallikal returns to top 10 (Free Available)

• Exhibition match to celebrate the 200th anniversary of Lord’s (Free Available)

• Ranji title 2014 (Only for Online Coaching Members)

• PGTI Eagleburg Open (Only for Online Coaching Members)

• Tie-up amongst Vodafone-Star Sports (Only for Online Coaching Members)

• Delhi Open (Only for Online Coaching Members)

• Two ICC awards for Afghanistan (Only for Online Coaching Members)

• 12th consecutive Test 50 of A.B. de Villiers (Only for Online Coaching Members)

• Brendon McCullum scores triple hundred (Only for Online Coaching Members)

• Himanshu Thakur finishes last (Only for Online Coaching Members)

• Afghanistan in current ODI Rankings table (Only for Online Coaching Members)

• Under-19 World Cup (Only for Online Coaching Members)

• International Premier Tennis League (Only for Online Coaching Members)

• Mexican Open (Only for Online Coaching Members)

• Somdev’s new ATP rankings (Only for Online Coaching Members)

Sochi Olympics and India

The names adorning just about every available spot on Indian luger Shiva Keshavan’s speedsuit are written in faint gray letters, barely visible to those even nearby. They are not insignificant. For the Sochi Olympics, those names are essentially Keshavan’s flag. India is not officially at the Sochi Games, the nation suspended by the International Olympic Committee after it refused to ban corruptiontainted officials from running for
elections. The suspension is expected to be lifted after new elections in the coming days, but likely not come in time for Keshavan and two other athletes from India - both skiers - to actually represent their country.

So instead, they will all race under the Olympic flag in Sochi. And in an effort to find a way to represent his country without a flag, Keshavan offered donors a chance to be listed on his uniform. Some of those who
backed his quest for the Sochi Games have their names on the white suit that he will wear on race days.

Person in News

• J Prithviraj (Free Available)

• Satya Nadella (Free Available)

• Malik Ishaq (Free Available)

• David Stern (Free Available)

• N. Ramachandran (Free Available)

• Mark Zuckerberg (Only for Online Coaching Members)

• Sonia Gandhi (Only for Online Coaching Members)

• Wendy Doniger (Only for Online Coaching Members)

• K.T. Thomas (Only for Online Coaching Members)

• Wayne Rooney (Only for Online Coaching Members)

• N. Kiran Kumar Reddy (Only for Online Coaching Members)

• Sheila Dikshit (Only for Online Coaching Members)

• Matteo Renzi (Only for Online Coaching Members)

• Sushilkumar Shinde (Only for Online Coaching Members)

• D.K. Joshi (Only for Online Coaching Members)

• Rashid Latif (Only for Online Coaching Members)

• Chandi Prasad Bhatt (Only for Online Coaching Members)

J Prithviraj

• The Federation of Motor Sports Clubs of India (FMSCI) has announced J Prithviraj as the new president, while Tutu Dhawan will be the vice-president after the Madras High Court directed the body to make their December election results public.

• The elections were held at the FMSCI’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) on December 23, but the results were withheld due to a pending lawsuit filed by Shrikant Karani of Sportscraft (Mumbai) against the national sporting authority.

Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 04 June 2014

Road safety in India

• Every four minutes a life is lost in a road accident in India with 1,40,000 deaths recorded in 2012 alone. In the past decade, over a million people have lost their lives in road accidents in the country and over 5 million have been left seriously injured or permanently disabled.

• According to Save LIFE Foundation, an advocacy group which aims to reduce the high number of road accident deaths in India through rapid emergency care for injured victims, “road safety has been a victim of India’s policy paralysis since 2001”.

• The World Health Organization 2013 Global Status Report on Road Safety indicates that worldwide the total number of road traffic deaths remain unacceptably high at 1.24 million per year.

• Only 28 countries, covering 7 per cent of the world’s population, have comprehensive road safety laws on five key risk factors: drinking and driving, speeding, and failing to use motorcycle helmets, seat-belts, and child restraints.

• For India, the report notes the rising fatalities in road accidents – rising from 8 deaths per lakh of population to nearly 12 in 2010. Sixteen per cent of all such deaths occur in four wheeled cars and 32 per cent in two or three wheelers.

Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 03 June 2014

Demise of Union Minister Gopinath Munde

• President Pranab Mukherjee has condoled the untimely demise of Union Minister Gopinath Munde and said the country has lost a veteran leader who always worked for the common man.
• Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he was extremely saddened by the demise of his “friend” and cabinet colleague Gopinath Munde, whom he hailed as a “true mass leader.“
• The party and government, he said, stands by the bereaved family members of the 64-year-old leader.
• The President, expressing his shock, grief and sorrow over the death of Munde, said that his passing away is a huge loss for the people of Maharashtra and India.
• Munde, the Rural Development Minister and the OBC face of BJP in Maharashtra, died apparently of shock and cardiac arrest suffered during a road accident.
• Munde, who made his entry into the Union Cabinet for the first time after the Lok Sabha polls, was on his way to the airport when his car was hit by another vehicle.

Plea of Campa Cola residents

• The Supreme Court has dashed any remnant of hope residents of Campa Cola Compound had by dismissing their fresh plea against demolition.

• The Campa Cola Residents Association had filed a new petition to stop the demolition on the grounds that BMC be allowed to regularize the 35 illegal floors across seven buildings in the Worli society.

• Their first prayer was that the SC prevent the BMC from going ahead with the demolition till the outcome of the present petition. The BMC said the residents had earlier too made several attempts to delay deadlines and sought extensions through various pleas filed in courts.

• The residents said new facts had emerged through Right to Information queries made from the BMC about its plans to regularize the illegal flats earlier. Their plea in court was for directions to the BMC to "adhere to their decisions of regularising the construction as revealed from the letters dated July 3, 1986 and minutes of meeting dated July 23, 1985."

• An alternate demand raised by the residents was to have the matter "remanded to the Bombay high court of Mumbai for fresh hearing on the basis of new facts procured under RTI in the interest of justice".

Union Public Service Commission

Notification Preliminary Examination - 2014

F. No. 1/5/2013-E.I(B) : Preliminary Examination of the Civil Services Examination for recruitment to the Services and Posts mentioned below will be held by the Union Public Service Commission on 24th Aug., 2014 in accordance with the Rules published by the Department of Personnel & Training in the Gazette of India Extraordinary dated 31st May, 2014.

(i) Indian Administrative Service.
(ii) Indian Foreign Service.
(iii) Indian Police Service.
(iv) Indian P & T Accounts & Finance Service, Group ‘A’.
(v) Indian Audit and Accounts Service, Group ‘A’.
(vi) Indian Revenue Service (Customs and Central Excise), Group ‘A’.
(vii) Indian Defence Accounts Service, Group ‘A’.
(viii) Indian Revenue Service (I.T.), Group ‘A’.
(ix) Indian Ordnance Factories Service, Group ‘A’ (Assistant Works Manager, Administration).
(x) Indian Postal Service, Group ‘A’.
(xi) Indian Civil Accounts Service, Group ‘A’.
(xii) Indian Railway Traffic Service, Group ‘A’.
(xiii) Indian Railway Accounts Service, Group 'A'.
(xiv) Indian Railway Personnel Service, Group ‘A’.
(xv) Post of Assistant Security Commissioner in Railway Protection Force, Group ‘A’
(xvi) Indian Defence Estates Service, Group ‘A’.
(xvii) Indian Information Service (Junior Grade), Group ‘A’.
(xviii) Indian Trade Service, Group 'A' (Gr. III).
(xix) Indian Corporate Law Service, Group "A".
(xx) Armed Forces Headquarters Civil Service, Group ‘B’ (Section Officer’s Grade).
(xxi) Delhi, Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Lakshadweep, Daman & Diu and Dadra & Nagar Haveli Civil Service, Group 'B'.
(xxii) Delhi, Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Lakshadweep, Daman & Diu and Dadra & Nagar Haveli Police Service, Group 'B'.
(xxiii) Pondicherry Civil Service, Group 'B'.

• The number of vacancies to be filled on the result of the examination is expected to be approximately 1291 which includes 26 vacancies reserved for P.H. Category, i.e. 12 vacancies for LDCP, 2 Vacancies for B/LV and 12 Vacancies for H.I. The final number of vacancies may undergo change after getting firm number of vacancies from Cadre Controlling Authorities.
• Reservation will be made for candidates belonging to Scheduled Castes. Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Classes and Physically Disabled Categories in respect of vacancies as may be fixed by the Government.

The Gist of Science Reporter: May 2014

• Turning Off ‘Aging Genes’ (Free Available)

• Gene that Influences the Ability to Remember Faces Identified (Only For The Subscribed Members)

TURNING OFF ‘AGING GENES’

Calorie restriction has been shown to prolong lifespan in yeast, worms, flies, monkeys, and, in some studies, humans. Now Keren Yizhak, a doctoral student at Tel Aviv University’s Blavatnik School of Computer Science, and her colleagues have developed a computer algorithm that predicts which genes can be “turned off” to create the same anti-aging effect as calorie restriction.

The fi ndings, reported in Nature Communications, could lead to the development of new drugs to treat aging. Yizhak’s algorithm is the fi rst to look for drug targets not to kill cells, but to transform them from a diseased state into a healthy one. The algorithm, called a “metabolic transformation algorithm,” or MTA, can take information about any two metabolic states and predict the environmental ‘ or genetic changes required to go from one state to the other. “Gene expression” is the measurement of the expression level of individual genes in a cell, and genes can be “turned off” in various ways to prevent them from being expressed in the cell.

Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 02 June 2014

First CM of Telangana

• Telangana Rashtriya Samiti (TRS) chief K Chandrashekhar Rao was sworn in as the first Chief Minister of Telangana, which became the 29th state of India.
• Eleven ministers have also taken oath in K Chandrasekhar Rao's Cabinet in the new state of Telangana.
• Rao hoisted the tricolour and took salute at an impressive parade held at Parade Grounds, Secunderabad.
• In his first public address as the CM, Rao vowed to make Telangana a model state in all respects and said that welfare and development would be the two driving forces of his government.
• The Telangana government would maintain cordial relationship not only with the Centre but also neighbouring states.
• Rooting out "political corruption" would also be top on his agenda to ensure transparent governance.

Execution of death row convict Yakub Memon

• The Supreme Court has stayed the execution of death row convict Yakub Abdul Razak Memon, a key conspirator along with Dawood Ibrahim in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case.
• The mercy plea of Memon was rejected by President Pranab Mukherjee on May 21.
• The decision was taken by the President following recommendations of the Maharashtra government and the Union home ministry that the mercy petition of Memon be rejected.
• A bench comprising justice JS Khehar and justice C Nagappan issued a notice to the Maharashtra government and others on the plea of Memon and said "execution proceedings will remain stayed".
• The court also referred to a Constitution Bench a plea of Memon that review petitions in death penalty cases should not be heard by the apex court in chamber proceedings and be decided in open court.

Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 01 June 2014

Focus of Budget 2014

• Union Finance Minister Arun Mr. Jaitley has begun budget meetings with Ministry officials ahead of his first budget likely to be presented to Parliament in July.

• The UPA government’s interim budget estimates presented in Parliament in February had put the Centre’s total borrowings requirement for 2014-15 at Rs. 5,96,083 crore or 4.6 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

• Interest payments on borrowings to fund past expenditure were estimated at Rs 4,27,011 crore or 43.3 per cent of the total tax revenues. Subsidies were estimated at Rs. 2,55,708 crore or 26 per cent of the budgeted tax revenues.

• In fact, the UPA government’s interim budget estimates showed that 80 per cent of the Centre’s net tax revenues would go towards interest payments, subsidies and pensions of government employees. In other words, the Interim budget estimates provide barely 20 per cent of the tax revenues for spending on governance and development by the new government.

Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 30 May 2014

Sir C.V. Raman award

• Satish Adiga, professor in Clinical Embryology at Kasturba Medical College (KMC), Manipal, and Dr. T.M.A. Pai Endowment Chair in Manipal University, has been selected for the Sir C.V. Raman State Award by the Karnataka government for excellence in medical research.

• With a view to recognise and honour scientific and technological talent, the government has instituted this award for young scientists and engineers who have made significant contributions towards the development of the State in various fields of science and technology.

‘Rediscovered’ speech of Tagore

• Nearly a century after Rabindranath Tagore mesmerized his audience at the Assembly Hall of Berlin’s Friedrich Wilhelm University, (today’s Humboldt University), his speech has been rediscovered in the University archive.

• This speech was given on June 2, 1921. Tagore visited Germany twice more — in 1926 and 1930 when he also met Albert Einstein.

• Tagore’s concept of ‘one world’ held his audience spell-bound.

• Although India was under a colonial power at the time of the delivery of the speech, the great philosopher that Tagore was, he spoke in a different tenor saying that the idea of freedom to which India aspired, was based upon realisation of spiritual unity.

• Incidentally, the German consulate here, which has circulated the sound clip, has described Tagore in glowing terms as a great Indian poet, a novelist, philosopher and ecologist.

Indian Forest Service Examination, 2014

F.No.13/1/2014-EI(B): The Union Public Service Commission will hold a Screening Test for selection to Indian Forest Service (Main) Examination, 2014 through Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination, 2014 which will be held on 24th August, 2014, in accordance with the Rules published by the Ministry of Environment and Forests in the Gazette of India dated the 31st May 2014.

Union Public Service Commission

(Final Result) NDA & NA (II),2013

The following is list, in order of merit of 570 candidates, who have qualified on the basis of the results of the Written Examination held by the Union Public Service Commission in 11th August, 2013 and the subsequent Interviews held by the Services Selection Board of the Ministry of Defence for admission to the Army, Navy and Air Force wings of National Defence Academy for the 132nd Course and Naval Academy for the 94th Indian Naval Academy Course (INAC) commencing from July, 2014. For detailed information regarding the actual date of commencement of the above courses, please visit the websites of Ministry of Defence i.e www.
joinindianarmy. nic.in or indianarmy .gov.in.

2. The results of Medical Examination have not been taken into account in preparing these lists.

3. The candidature of all the candidates is provisional, subject to their submitting the requisite certificates in support of date of birth and educational qualifications etc., claimed by them, directly to the Additional Directorate General of Recruiting, Adjutant General’s Branch , Integrated Headquarters, Ministry of Defence (Army), West Block No. III, Wing-1, R. K. Puram, New Delhi-110066, wherever this has not already been done, and NOT to U.P.S.C.

4. In case, there is any change of address, the candidates are advised to promptly intimate directly to the Army Headquarters at the address given above.