Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 05 January 2017

:: National ::

Justice Jagdish Singh Khehar, the seniormost judge of the Supreme Court, was sworn in as the 44th Chief Justice of India by President Pranab Mukherjee.
Justice Khehar will have a tenure for over seven months till August 28, 2017. He assumed office as a judge of the Supreme Court on September 13, 2011.
On his first day in office, Justice Khehar presided over courtroom one with Justices N.V. Ramana and D.Y. Chandrachud flanking him.
Justice Khehar is known for his firm and decisive approach to cases.
His appointment comes at a time when the relationship between the government and the judiciary remains tense over an unprecedented number of judicial vacancies (400) in the HCs and eight in the SC.

A new hurdle has come in the way of the marquee Ken-Betwa river interlink project in its terms of financing.
The NITI Aayog has recommended that Madhya Pradesh contribute 40 per cent of the project cost, with the Centre contributing 60 per cent.
The Ministry of Water Resources (MoWR) has opposed this and requested that 90 per cent of the funds be routed through the Centre.
A lack of clarity on the funding pattern could mean more delays to the Rs. 10,000-crore project that would be the first ever inter-State river interlinking project.
The project was given a go-ahead by the National Board for Wildlife (NBWL) at a meeting chaired by Minister of State for Environment and Forests, Anil Madhav Dave, last August.
A separate committee that determines forest clearance to such projects, is yet to take a call.
This will be the first time that a river project will be located within a tiger reserve.
The Rs. 10,000-crore Ken-Betwa project will irrigate the drought-prone Bundelkhand region but, also submerge about 10 per cent of the Panna Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh, feted as a model tiger conservation reserve.
The main feature of the project is a 230-km long canal and a series of barrages and dams connecting the Ken and Betwa rivers that will irrigate 3.5 lakh hectares in Madhya Pradesh and 14,000 hectares of Uttar Pradesh in Bundelkhand.

India said that China is following “double standard” on terrorism and asked Beijing to support its campaign to blacklist Pakistan-based terror mastermind Masood Azhar.
Minister of State for External Affairs M.J. Akbar said China’s block at the 1267 committee of the UN Security Council that prevented India from blacklisting the terror boss was “self-defeating”.
Mr. Akbar said, “as a responsible and mature nation, China will understand the double standards of this self-defeating purpose,”.
Govt acknowledged that despite tranquillity on India-China border, there remained “divergences” in bilateral ties, including China’s stand on Pakistan-based terror outfits such as Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM).
India, however, was not in favour of stalling dialogue with Pakistan on the need to stop cross-border terrorism as it had delivered the necessary message to Pakistan and the world, with the surgical strike of September 28, Mr. Akbar said.
Mr. Singh also highlighted that the surgical strike of September 28, ten days after the Uri attack, had delivered the expected results.
“The aim of the surgical strike was — we have sent a message to the whole world that terrorism will not be acceptable as the new normal,” said Mr. Singh.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India issued a consultation paper on the issue of net-neutrality as it looked to formulate “final views on policy or regulatory interventions” on the subject.
The regulator, given the complexity of the subject, had decided to undertake a two-stage consultation process.
The earlier issued pre-consultation, released in May 2016, was an attempt to identify the relevant issues in all the areas on which the Department of Telecom had sought TRAI’s recommendations.
The purpose of this second stage of consultation is to proceed towards the formulation of final views on policy or regulatory interventions, where required, on the subject of net neutrality.
The last date for public comments on the paper is February 15 and for counter comments is February 28.
TRAI has sought comments on what principles for ensuring non-discriminatory access to content on the Internet could be in the Indian context.
Also as to how Internet traffic and providers of Internet services should be understood in the context of net neutrality.
It has also raised the issue of traffic management practices, seeking comments on approaches that would be preferable, defining what constitutes reasonable traffic management practices.

HDFC Bank, the second largest private sector lender of the country, has decided to reduce its marginal cost of funds-based lending rate (MCLR) by 75 to 90 bps across various loan tenures.
Accordingly, its one-year MCLR rate will be 8.15 per cent as compared with 8.9 per cent while its six-month MCLR will be 8 per cent as against 8.85 per cent earlier.
The new rates come into effect from January 7. Public sector lender Canara Bank has also reduced its MCLR by about 70 basis points and its one-year MCLR stands at 8.45 per cent.