Current Affairs for IAS Exams – 09 May 2016

Current Affairs for IAS Exams – 09 May 2016

:: National ::

CJI again reiterate need to improve Judge-population ratio

• Continuing to express the need to improve the judge-population ratio in the country, Chief Justice of India T. S. Thakur said access to justice was a fundamental right and the governments could not afford to deny the people their fundamental rights.

• CJI had an emotional outburst over the problem of ‘shortage of judges’ in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi at a conference last month.

• The CJI once again raised the issue while addressing a large gathering of legal luminaries on the occasion of centennial celebrations of circuit bench of High Court.

• Justice Thakur alleged saying around 170 proposals for appointment of High Court judges were currently pending with the government.

• This matter was brought to the notice of the Prime Minister recently with a request to make appointments quickly, Justice Thakur said. people could not be denied justice.

• Shortage of judges was one of the formidable challenges the judiciary was facing, the CJI said disclosing that out of some 900 sanctioned posts of judges in different High Courts, there were over 450 vacancies, which needed to be filled immediately.

Nihal Bitla, the country’s first progeria patient, is no more

• Nihal Bitla, the country’s first progeria patient, is no more. The 15-year-old breathed his last following dehydration at his native Poosala village of Sultanabad mandal in Karimnagar district.

• Nihal and his parents Bitla Srinivas and Sridevi, who had migrated to Bhiwandi in Maharashtra a decade ago, came to their native village on April 18 to attend a marriage on April 23 and stayed back to spend some time with relatives.

• Due to the severe heat wave conditions prevailing in the region, he developed diarrhoea and was shifted to a private hospital here but died while undergoing treatment

• The youngster, who is the face of ‘progeria’ patient in India and one who inspired Amitabh Bachchan to essay a similar role in reel life, in the 2007 production ‘Paa’, was actually a big fan of Aamir Khan and loved him for ‘TaareZameen Par’.

• “Though my son is no more, I will continue my campaign to educate people about the proper treatment of people suffering from Progeria,” father said.

Introducing a noise net around airfields could save lives and money (Register and Login to read Full News..)

After completing visits to Gulf regions, PM to begin outreach to Africa (Register and Login to read Full News..)

:: International ::

Kim Jong-un said North Korea will not use nuclear weapons first

• North Korean leader Kim Jong-un said his country will not use its nuclear weapons unless its sovereignty is invaded and announced a five-year economic plan at the congress of North Korea’s ruling party.

• Mr. Kim said he is ready to improve ties with “hostile” nations, and called for more talks with South Korea to reduce misunderstanding . He also urged the United States to stay away from inter-Korean issues.

• He announced a five-year plan starting this year to develop the North’s moribund economy, and identified improving the country’s power supply and increasing its agricultural and light-manufacturing production as critical parts of the plan.

• He also said the country must secure more electricity through nuclear power.

China digging cultural roots to revive ancient Silk Road (Register and Login to read Full News..)

:: Business and Economy ::

Facebook loses first round in suit over storing biometric data

• Facebook Inc lost the first round in a court fight against some of its users who sued the social networking company, alleging it ‘unlawfully’ collected and stored users' biometric data derived from their faces in photographs.

• The judge in a California federal court last week turned down Facebook's motion seeking dismissal of the suit.

• Facebook filed the motion arguing that the users could not file a complaint under Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) as they had agreed in their user agreement that California law would govern their disputes with the company.”

• The court found that Illinois law applies and that the plaintiffs have stated a claim under BIPA.

• The complainants alleged that Facebook's face recognition feature that suggests ‘tags’ on photos unlawfully collected and stored biometric data, in violation of the BIPA.

Direct benefit transfer reaches more than 60000 crore

• The government has electronically transferred more than Rs.61,000 crore in the last financial year to March 30 through the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) scheme, Finance Ministry data showed.

• According to the data presented in Parliament, Rs.61,824.32 crore was transferred to 30.8 crore beneficiaries in 59 schemes.

• Out of this, Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) payments made up Rs.25,800 crore, or 42 per cent of total DBT schemes.

• This also means that 85 per cent of the MGNREGA payments made in 2015-16 were done directly into the beneficiary's bank accounts.

• The second largest head under which DBT transfers were made was the PAHAL scheme for the electronic transfer of LPG subsidies.

• The government transferred Rs.21,400 crore under the PAHAL scheme in 2015-16, which is 35 per cent of the total amount transferred through DBT.

• The Finance Ministry data also showed that 3.34 crore duplicate, fake, or inactive consumers were blocked under the PAHAL and related schemes as of April 1, 2015. That number may have increased since then.

• The savings in LPG subsidy on account of this blocked customers, calculated at an average cash subsidy of Rs.150 taking the average cylinders used by a consumer at 6.5 comes to an estimated savings of Rs.3,300 crore in 2015-16.

• The Department of Higher Education (Rs.1,975 crore), Ministry of Minority Affairs (Rs.1,134 crore) and the Ministry of Tribal Affairs (Rs.955 crore) were the other government agencies that made substantial payments using the DBT model.

Govt proposed a mechanism for the issue of non-payment by Venezuelan importers (Register and Login to read Full News..)

Click Here to Register for Full News

Click Here for Archive

Sources: Various News Papers & PIB

This is a Part of Online Coaching Programme for IAS Exam