Weekly Current Affairs Update for IAS Exam

VOL - 6 (6th January 2014 TO 12th January 2014)

Issue : VOL - 6 (6th January 2014 TO 12th January 2014)

File Type: PDF ONLY "NO HARD COPY"

Covered Topics:

• National 

• NATIONAL PORTAL OF INDIA

• Ministry of External affairs

• Planning Commission of India

• International

• Economy

• India And The World

• Sports

• In The News

• Science and Technology

• Burning Issues (Editorials From Different Newspapers)

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NATIONAL PORTAL OF INDIA

A GLINT OF INDIA

THE LIST OF PRESIDENTS AND VICE-PRESIDENTS OF INDIA SINCE 1947 TILL DATE

(Courtesy: NATIONAL PORTAL OF INDIA)

Ministry of External affairs

President Park Gyun-hye’s forthcoming State Visit to India

• The first lady President of the Republic of Korea, HE Park Gyun-hye is visiting India on 15 – 18 January 2013 at the invitation of President Pranab Mukherjee. The visit would be a major landmark in the rapidly deepening bilateral relationship between the 3rd and 4th largest economies of Asia. The visit of President Park in the very first year of her 5 year term is a forceful iteration of her administration’s commitment to the strong ties forged with India by her predecessor President Lee Myung – bak.

• India had acknowledged the importance of India – ROK relations by inviting former President Lee Myung – bak as the Chief Guest at the 61st Republic Day celebrations in January 2010. During the visit the bilateral relationship was raised to the level of "Strategic Partnership” from the "Long Term Cooperative Partnership for Peace and Prosperity” declared at the time of President Rho Mou-hyun’s state visit to India in 2004. President Rho was from the liberal side and Presidents Lee and Park are from the conservative party. It is reassuring to note that in both the countries there is complete bipartisan support to a strong friendship between India and ROK. President Lee Myung inspecting the Guard of Honour at Rashtrapati Bhawan in New Delhi in January, 2010.

• Over the years, India and ROK relations have passed through several distinct phases. The 1950s were a period of estrangement between democratic India and authoritarian South Korea. 1960s and 70s also witnessed only a limited engagement as ROK continued to be authoritarian. In the 1980s, ROK’s remarkable economic progress caught the attention of Indian leadership. Once ROK embraced real democracy in the late 1980s the bilateral relations grew rapidly.

• The visit of Prime Minster P.V. Narasimha Rao to ROK in 1993 paved the way for the entry of Korean Chaebols into India. Over time Korean companies like Samsung, LG and Hyundai Motors have become household names in India. Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao visited Republic of Korea in 1993.

(Courtesy: Ministry of External affairs)

Planning Commission of India

Education Division

Through the various Five Year Plans, the scope of work of the Education Division covers the following:

• Different stages of education such as Pre-primary, formal and non-formal Education, Secondary, Senior Secondary, University and Technical Education.

• Special areas such as that of girls' education, Education for the children of scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and other backward classes.

• Adult Education and Education in the backward areas.

• The major Education programs relate to achieving the aim of Universalisation of Elementary Education through Sarva Siksha Abhiyan, Adult Education, Vocationalization of Education, Teacher Education, Science Education, Educational Planning, Administration and Supervision, Physical Education, Games and Sports, Scholarship, Language Development, Book Promotion, Libraries, Youth Service Schemes, Cultural Institutions and activities etc.

• The Education Division performs the following functions, within the areas of its concern.

• Formation of long-term, medium-term and annual plans for the Central and the State/Union Territories levels, defining the phases in which they should be implemented, assigning their inter-se priorities and resource allocation.

• Coordination of the education plans of the States/Union Territories and the central agencies including the University Grants Commission and the National Council of Education Research & Training as well as of the national-educational plan with the development plans in other sectors, assessing and indicating adjustments needed in the plan policies, programs and priorities so as to achieve national goals and objectives.

(Courtesy: Planning Commission of India)

NATIONAL EVENTS

Pre-marital sex immoral

• Pre-marital sex is “immoral” and against the “tenets of every religion”, a court of Delhi said while holding that every act of sexual intercourse between two adults on the promise of marriage does not become rape.

• Additional Sessions Judge Virender Bhat also held that a woman, especially grown up, educated and office-going, who has sexual intercourse on the assurance of marriage does so “at her own peril”.

• According to the court, “When a grown up woman subjects herself to sexual intercourse with a friend or colleague on the latter’s promise that he would marry her, she does so at her own peril. She must be taken to understand the consequences of her act and must know that there is no guarantee that the boy would fulfill his promise. He may or may not do so. She must understand that she is engaging in an act which not only is immoral but also against the tenets of every religion. No religion in the world allows pre-marital sex.”

Panel on sexual harassment

• The Aam Aadmi Party has announced the setting up of an internal committee on sexual harassment as per the Vishaka guidelines of the Supreme Court.

• The panel will comprise Atishi Marlena, Preeti Sharma Menon and Leela Ramdass.

• Giving the information Dilip Pandey, a member of the Political Affairs Committee said while Ms. Marlena and Ms. Menon are members of the party, Ms. Ramdass is a social activist.

• The AAP, claimed Mr. Pandey, is the first party to set up such a committee.

• The Vishaka judgment by the Supreme Court laid down the guidelines for employers for dealing with complaints of sexual harassment/assault at the workplace, and stipulated the formation of committees to dispose of complaints from victims.

INTERNATIONAL

Confiscated ivory

• In an unprecedented move, China publicly destroyed 6.1 tonnes of confiscated ivory to shed its image as the world’s biggest market for smuggled elephant tusks and discourage illegal trade and poaching.

• The public event was held in Dongguan city of the booming Guangdong Province in southern China, considered a key area where illegal trade of ivory is widely reported.

• The event, the first public ivory destruction in China, was the country’s latest effort to discourage illegal ivory trade, protect wildlife and raise public awareness.

• China’s move came two months after the United States destroyed its stockpile of ivory for the first time in 25 years of collecting items sold in the illegal ivory trade.

• Conservation groups have been saying that China, which has a vast middle class with growing spending power, is the world’s biggest market for ivory.

• The international ivory trade was banned in 1989, but black markets still thrive in parts of the world, and poachers kill an estimated 96 elephants in Africa a day to obtain their tusks, according to the Wildlife Conservation Society.

• Increasing demand for ivory is fuelling a brutal slaughter of African elephants.

China-Japan feud

• Diplomats from China and Japan were invoking the evil Lord Voldemort from the bestselling “Harry Potter” series in their feud over the Yasukuni war shrine in Tokyo.

• China said the shrine, which Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visited, glorifies Japan’s militaristic past.

• Writing in The Telegraph last week, China’s ambassador to the United Kingdom said- “If militarism is like the haunting Voldemort of Japan, the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo is a kind of horcrux, representing the darkest parts of that nation’s soul.”

• A horcrux contains part of Voldemort’s soul, and all seven horcruxes must be destroyed to kill him.

• In response, the Japanese ambassador said China plays “the role of Voldemort in the region by letting loose the evil of an arms race and escalation of tensions.”

INDIA AND THE WORLD

India-Japan Defence Deal

• India and Japan resolved to continue their defence consultation and cooperation, including in maritime security, at a meeting of their Defence Ministers A.K. Antony and Itsunori Onodera.
• Mr. Onodera briefed the Indian delegation of Japan’s National Security Strategy and National Defence Program Guidelines, which were adopted in December last.

ECONOMY

Flow of credit to SHGs

• Disproportionate credit disbursement and weak bank credit linkages remain a persistent challenge for several States including Bihar, Jharkhand and Gujarat. Taking note of this, the Government has stepped in and is taking several steps to improve bank linkages of Self Help Groups (SHGs) across the country.

• This lopsided focus reportedly is mostly due to credit disbursement remaining confined to the ‘usual gang of four States’ - Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala of this (SHG) credit.

• As per the figures presented in NABARD’s report, “Status of Microfinance in India 2012-13”, over 35 lakh SHGS were saving linked and 68 per cent were credit linked in the Southern States. The corresponding figures for Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Maharashtra and Gujarat are over 20 lakh and 47 per cent respectively.

• More specifically, Swarnjayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana has been restructured as the National Rural Livelihoods (NRLM). NRLM, through a dedicated implementation mechanism under the State Rural Livelihood Missions (SRLM) is focusing on improving the quality of SHGs.

• Under the Women Self Help Group (WSHG) scheme administered by NABARD, in 150 districts over 80,000 SHGs have been formed of which 20,000 have been credit linked.

Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 08 March 2014

International Women's Day

• Google is celebrating International Women's Day with a homepage doodle featuring footage of women from around the world including the education rights campaigner Malala Yousafzai and the British businesswoman and charity worker, Camila Batmanghelidjh.

• The search engine's creative team put together the doodle, which features 27 female chromosomes and a video package with the faces of more than 100 women as well as a musical soundtrack from the Belgian-Congolese vocal group Zap Mama. Others who make an appearance include the President of Lithuania, Dalia Grybauskaitė.

• The doodle was designed by Google with the intention of providing "a glimpse" of what some women across the world are doing and to focus in a positive way on their lives.

• International Women's Day has been observed since in the early 1900s, a time of turbulence in the industrialized world that saw booming population growth and the rise of radical ideologies. The first National Woman's Day (NWD) in the US was observed across the United States on 28 February, 1909.

India’s final call on UNHRC resolution

• External Affairs Ministry said that India was yet to take a final call on the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) resolution on Sri Lanka.

• There was an Indian initiative to try and build on the existing confidence-building measures between itself and Sri Lanka.

• Currently, they have a form which is a single-entry thing. Because there is now trade going on, they require more than one entry.

• Referring to the stalling of trade because of the arrest of a Pakistani truck driver for narcotic smuggling, India informed Pakistan that there was no provision in the standard operating procedures for intra-Kashmir trade that entailed the release of a driver or anyone else who came across the LoC if he was involved in criminal activities.

Free Digital Magazine: Civil Services Mentor, February 2014

Issue : February 2014
Size: 3.95 MB
File Type: Zipped PDF
Publisher : UPSCPORTAL.COM 

Table of Contents:

Articles:

• Devyani Issue & Indo-US Relation
• WTO Bali Package: An Analytical Review
• Thailand in Crisis
• Towards Double-Digit Inclusive Growth
• 14th Finance Commission : Gender Issues
• Selected Articles from Various Newspapers & Journals

Current Affairs:

• National Issues
• International Issues
• Economy
• India & The World
• Science & Technology
• Sports
• Awards & Prizes
• Persons in News

Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 07 March 2014

The Indian Ocean-centred maritime security trilateral

• The Indian Ocean-centred maritime security trilateral between India, Sri Lanka and the Maldives will be expanded to include two more island countries.
• Seychelles and Mauritius attended the third meeting of the trilateral as they were very interested to participate in future interactions.
• Beginning in 2011 as a concept, the trilateral has reached a state of preparedness from where it is capable of responding to illegal activity such as piracy.
• By training people to work together, the trilateral has also built up capacity in responding to search and rescue and oil spills. Sri Lanka and India have also expanded their joint naval exercises to include Maldives.

PIOs coming for surrogacy don’t need visas anymore

• Overseas Citizens of India (OCIs) and Persons of Indian Origin (PIOs) can now fly to the country without a medical visa for commissioning surrogacy. Foreigners will, however, have to continue obtaining a visa.

• A Home Ministry order says a couple with an OCI or PIO card, married for at least two years, would have to take permission only from the Foreigners’ Regional Registration Office (FRRO) or the Foreigners’ Registration Office (FRO). However they must, carry a letter from their country, issued by the Foreign Ministry or the Embassy here, saying it recognised surrogacy and that the child born thus would be permitted entry as the couple’s biological offspring.

• The OCI card is issued to foreign nationals who were eligible to become citizens of India on January 26, 1950, or were Indian citizens on or after that date with eligibility based on lineage. The PIO card is issued to a person of Indian origin who is a citizen of any country other than Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Afghanistan, China or Nepal or who has held an Indian passport at any time or is the spouse of an Indian citizen or a Person of Indian Origin.

Emergency rule lifted in Tunisia

• Tunisia's president has lifted a state of emergency in force since the 2011 uprising that ousted dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali , despite a string of recent jihadist attacks.
• The country has been rocked by sporadic violence since the January 2011 revolution, which ignited the Arab Spring across North Africa and the Middle East.
• In November, Marzouki extended the emergency rule for eight months, meaning it has ended four months earlier than scheduled.
• The end to the state of emergency however "does not limit the capacity of the security services to implement the law and does not preclude any request for military support should it be needed,"
• Emergency rule amounted to "a restriction of rights, freedoms, the movement of people and goods" as Tunisia's political crisis was ending and security conditions improving.
• Much of the deadly violence witnessed in Tunisia since the uprising has been blamed on Ansar al-Sharia, a hardline Islamist movement accused of having links to Al-Qaeda.

PM's speech for IAS probationers

Following is the text of the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh's remarks to IAS probationers in New Delhi today:

"Long ago, Jawaharlal Nehru mentioned that serving the people of India is a privilege. And that service of India essentially means, serving those who suffer from ignorance, from poverty, from disease. And you have a unique opportunity to contribute your might to dealing with these chronic problems of mass poverty, ignorance and disease that have afflicted the people of India for centuries. Since independence, a lot of progress has been made in dealing with these maladies. But I will be the first one to recognize that a lot remains to be done. There are still too many people with tears in their eyes. And our task will not be complete till we wipe out the tears from the eyes of every suffering citizen of our country. You have a unique opportunity to contribute to that process of social and economic change – social and economic development. 

Development is the prime necessity of a poor country like India. And you will have important opportunities to complete your training by dealing with issues of mass poverty when you go to districts for training. It is, of course, quite a cliché, that development requires a lot of investment. We are able today to invest very large amounts of money in the development processes. We have an investment rate of about 35 percent of our GDP, we have a savings rate of about 30-32 percent of our GDP. And that gives us a maneuverability to deal with problems of development, both social and economic. 

But development does not take place in a vacuum. And today, there are many challenges which can affect the pace of development. The law and order situation is a prime concern of the state. And therefore, whatever disturbs the law and order situation has also to claim your attention. What are the challenges in the sphere of law and order? As you all know, in some parts of our country, insurgency has come to stay. We have to work hard to root it out. In some parts of our country, terrorism is affecting the lives of ordinary people. We have to deal with problems of coping with terrorism and getting rid of terrorism. We have to also worry about communal violence which raises its ugly head from time to time. And therefore, whether it is terrorism, whether it is naxalism, whether it is communalism, we have to understand the forces which give rise to these abnormal tendencies in our country, and what we can do as administrators, to ensure that terrorism, communal violence, insurgency and left-wing extremism do not derail the processes of social and economic development of our country.

With regard to issues other than law and order, our task is to ensure that the fruits of development are equitably distributed. Ours is a country of great diversity, a country of great complexity, and therefore, processes of development also have to cope with these processes of diversity. It is in this context that we have to pay special attention to the problems of the underprivileged sections, the Scheduled Castes, the Scheduled Tribes, the Minorities. 

These are some of the issues which we have been grappling with right from independence. We have considerable progress to report. But a lot more has to be done to ensure that the fruits of development are equitably distributed; to ensure that development is sustainable, in the sense that the environmental concerns are also equally important as far as sustainable development is concerned. 

Therefore, you have a unique opportunity to grapple with some of the foremost issues of our times. These are exciting times to be living in India, particularly since development, which is a complex process, is gathering pace. And understanding the development process is in itself a challenging task. But those who are grappling with the process on the ground, they are indeed very privileged. And you are really privileged people, who have been charged with the responsibility to contribute to the process of development - a process which must be equitable, a process which must be sustained, a process which reduces regional disparities between various sections of our society. So I wish you all the very best in meeting these challenges. 

I am very happy that a very large proportion of probationers now happen to be women. Women occupy 50 percent of the space of population of our country. And there can be no development which does not pay particular attention to the well-being of our women. And therefore it is a very good development, that in recent years, more and more women are joining the central services, and among these the IAS is the most privileged. 

Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 06 March 2014

The Indian state rich in marine sand

• The offshore areas of Kerala hold enough sand resources to meet the requirements of the construction industry in the State for about 50 years,according to a study by the Geological Survey of India.

• The authors, including A.C. Dinesh, P. Praveen Kumar, N.M. Shareef and C. Jayaprakash of the Marine and Coastal Survey division, GSI, have identified five sectors in the offshore waters of Kerala, namely Ponnani, Chavakkad, Alappuzha, Kollam North, and Kollam South, with an estimated resource of 2,030 million tonnes of sand suitable for construction industry.

• The study came in the wake of resistance by fisherfolk to a proposal by the State government to exploit sea sand resources as a substitute for river sand to feed the construction industry.

India-Pakistan-Iran pipeline

• India is looking for an undersea route to source gas from Iran, bypassing Pakistan in the process, that is called “Peace Pipeline”. This pipeline, was now technically feasible after the success of the North Sea undersea pipeline.

• If Iran was looking at the cheapest way to get gas to customers, it would prefer European customers. But what Iran had in mind was providing spillover benefits of the surface pipeline to the region it passes through, especially the Makran Plateau common to both Pakistan and Iran and where poverty has fuelled subversive tendencies.

• And, the sources suggested that the future of the IPI pipeline was entwined with the Chah-bahar port as Iran was keen to ensure that this town and the surrounding region of Sistan-Baluchistan Province also gained from the availability of gas.

• Just 72 km from the Pakistani port of Gwadar being built with Chinese help, the first phase of developing the Chah-bahar port is nearly over.

• India and Iran have held several rounds of talks on sharing operations and developing the port.

• The biggest problem is despite deep energy and civilisational links, India and Iran are unfamiliar with each other’s processes and systems of doing business in other areas.

Union Public Service Commission

(Final Result) Indian Economic Service / Indian Statistical Service Examination, 2013

Based on the results of the Indian Economic Service/Indian Statistical Service written examination 2013 held by the UNION PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION in November 2013 followed by interviews for Personality Test held in February 2014, the following are the lists, in order of merit, of candidates who have been recommended for appointment to posts in Indian Economic Service and Indian Statistical Service.

Against 20 vacancies [11 General, 05 OBC, 03 SC and 01 ST] which include 1 PH-1 & 1 PH-3 vacancies in Indian Economic Service, a total of 20 candidates [09 General (including 1 PH-1), 07 OBC, 03 SC and 01 ST] have been recommended for appointment.

Against 36 vacancies [10 General, 07 OBC, 12 SC and 07 ST] which include 2 PH-1 & 1 PH-3 vacancies in Indian Statistical Service, a total of 20 candidates [08 General, 09 OBC, 03 SC] have been recommended for appointment.

Appointments to the various posts will be made according to the number of vacancies available and subject to the candidates fulfilling all the prescribed eligibility conditions and all verifications, wherever due, being completed satisfactorily.

The candidature of 13 recommended candidates with following Roll Nos. is provisional:

Indian Economic Service (05 Nos.)

001531
001636
005711
006596
014342

Indian Statistical Service (08 Nos.)

000829
000943
002978
004620
004867
005303
007422
007953

Union Public Service Commission has a ‘Facilitation Counter’ near Examination Hall Building in its Campus. Candidates may obtain any information/clarification regarding their Examination/recruitments on working days between 10:00 A.M. and 05:00 P.M. in person or over Telephone Nos. 011-23385271 and 011-23381125 from this Counter. The result will also be available on the U.P.S.C. Website i.e. www.upsc.gov.in

The mark sheet is expected to be available on the website www.upsc.gov.in after around fifteen days from the date of publication of results for a period of forty-five days. Candidates can access the mark sheet after keying in (i) their Roll Number and (ii) the date of birth. Printed copy of the mark sheet can be issued to the candidates on a specific request received with self-addressed envelope duly affixed with postage stamps, within a period of thirty days.

INDIAN ECONOMIC SERVICE

S.NO. ROLL NO NAME

1 002141 APARAJITA SINGH
2 004762 TULSIPRIYA RAJKUMARI
3 002733 NITIKA PANT
4 006260 PREETI
5 009127 ARUN C ADATTE
6 012989 JYOTI SHARMA
7 003683 DEEPIKA SRIVASTAVA
8 012884 GURVINDER KAUR
9 002772 SIKTA PATNAIK
10 001326 AKHILESH KUMAR
11 006651 SHAMIM ARA
12 005711 ARYA B K
13 000051 RAJ KUMAR
14 015122 RAKESH KUMAR
15 014342 ABHISHEK ANAND
16 002898 MOHIT VERMA
17 001531 BIKRAM NATH
18 001636 KIRTI
19 006586 KHAYI LEISHINGAM
20 006596 ABU HUZAIFA

INDIAN STATISTICAL SERVICE