Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 10 July 2018

Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 10 July 2018

::NATIONAL::

Live streaming of supreme court proceedings soon

  • The Supreme Court said on Monday that it is ready to go live on camera while the government mooted a separate TV channel for live-streaming court proceedings.
  • A three-judge Bench said that a livestream is only an extension of the ‘open court’ system, where the public can walk in and watch court proceedings. However, with court proceedings beamed live on air, litigants, law students and the public can watch them as they happen.
  • Chief Justice Misra said a livestream would help litigants follow the proceedings in their case and also assess their lawyers’ performance.
  • People from far-flung States such as Tamil Nadu and Kerala will not have to travel all the way to the national capital for a day’s hearing.

Centre to amend visa rules for Indians marrying abroad

  • The government is changing the visa rules to help Indians who get married on foreign soil.
  • According to the visa manual, a tourist visa can be converted into a X2 visa only when a marriage takes place in India and gets registered within the validity of the present tourist visa.
  • The Home Minister has directed the MHA [the Ministry of Home Affairs] to amend the visa rules and streamline the process. This change will facilitate the conversion of tourist visa into X2 [visa] even when the marriage takes place on foreign soil.
  • However, the facility will not be offered to the nationals of Pakistan, Afghanistan, Sudan and Iraq, and people of Pakistani origin and stateless persons.

Centre directs chemists to display generic medicines

  • The chemists across the country will have to prominently display generic medicines — medicines that are off-patent, locally manufactured and much cheaper than the original formulations they’re based on — in a dedicated rack in their shops.
  • The push for generic medicines has been growing since Prime Minister NarendraModi, last April, said the government was contemplating a law requiring doctors to prescribe generics.
  • However, doctors and pharmaceutical associations have mixed opinions. Several manufacturers of generic drugs do not meet the necessary quality standards.

::ECONOMY::

World’s largest mobile factory up in Noida

  • The mobile factory , set up on an investment of Rs. 4,915 crore, the South Korean electronics major plans to make India an export hub, with 50% of its overall production coming from here in the next three years from the present 10%.
  • Speaking at the event, Mr.Modi said the government’s ‘Make in India’ initiative was not just an economic policy measure, but also a commitment of better ties with friendly nations like South Korea.
  • He added that 30% of the phones made at the Noida plant would be exported.

Idea-Vodafone merger gets approval from DoT

  • The telecom ministry on Monday approved the merger of Vodafone India and Idea Cellular that will create the country’s largest mobile services operator, an official source said.
  • The department has asked Idea Cellular to pay Rs. 3,926 crore in cash for Vodafone’s spectrum and furnish a bank guarantee of Rs. 3,342 crore, the source further said.
  • The combined operations of Idea and Vodafone will create the country’s largest telecom operator worth more than $23 billion (or over Rs. 1.5 lakh crore), with a 35% market share and a subscriber base of about 430 million.

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::INTERNATIONAL::

Tariffs on indian cancer drugs reduced by china

  • India and China have reached an agreement to reduce tariffs on Chinese imports of Indian medicines, particularly cancer drugs, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson HuaChunying said.
  • Indian drugs are in big demand in China as they are far cheaper than their western counterparts;the move will further increase cohesion between indian&chinese firms in the current trade war & protectionist climate worldover.

China to face U.S trade war with EU support

  • China has begun to actively court Europe, as the trade war with Washington intensifies and the hunt for new supply chains and markets outside the U.S. accelerates.
  • China sees Germany as its key partner for transitioning its economy towards Internet-based “smart manufacturing”. The Made-in-China 2025 strategy is based on Germany’s Industry 4.0 model.
  • Beijing willaslo host a summit of EU leaders on July 16-17, apparently, as a stepped up effort to build a coalition to counter U.S. protectionism.

::SCIENCE& TECHNOLOGY::

7 new wasp species discovered

  • An international team of researchers has discovered seven new wasp species belonging to the genus Clistopyga from Peru, Venezuela and Colombia.
  • The most notable among them is Clistopygacrassicaudata , named after its distinctly thickened ovipositor. The ovipositor is a tube-like organ present in many insects that helps in laying eggs and also in injecting venom.
  • The biology of these seven new species is really unknown but other species of this genus, and other genera of Ichneumonidae lay their eggs into spiders or egg-sacs.

::SPORTS::

Luis Enrique appointed as Spain coach

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