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Current Affairs for IAS Exams – 11 May 2016

:: NATIONAL ::

Tina Dabi, a 22-year-old Delhi girl, has topped the civil services examination for 2015, the results of which were declared.
A graduate from Lady Shri Ram College, Tina cracked the examination, arguably the toughest in the country, in her first attempt.
Athar Aamir Ul Shafi Khan, 23, from Jammu and Kashmir, came second while the third position went to another Delhiite, Jasmeet Singh Sandhu, an Indian Revenue Service officer.
An ecstatic Tina told she was not expecting the first rank. “I am very happy. I cannot express my feeling in words. I would say the key to my success has been patience, focus, discipline and the support of my family.”
She credited her mother, a former Indian Engineering Service officer, for her success and said she was the one who motivated her to pursue humanities in Class XII even when other toppers from her school were opting for science and commerce.
Tina’s interest and hard work paid off and she scored 100 per cent in political science in Class XII. She also topped her batch in Lady Shri Ram College last year.
Tina has chosen Haryana as her cadre because she wanted to contribute in empowerment of women there.

Making it clear that its final objective is a gradual phase out of diesel taxis, the Supreme Court tweaked its April 30 blanket ban to allow diesel-run All India Travel Permit taxis to operate till the expiry of their existing permits.
The ban on plying of diesel taxis in Delhi from May 1 had led to widespread protests, forcing the AAP government and the Centre to urgently approach the Supreme Court for modification of its order.
The Centre argued that the ban on diesel cabs with All India Travel Permits (AITP), numbering over 64,000, would severely cripple the burgeoning BPO businesses located mostly in the National Capital Region (NCR).
BPOs contract AITP operators to conduct point-to-point ferrying of employees numbering to several thousands from Delhi to Gurgaon, in neighbouring Haryana, and other NCR areas.
The ban — both on diesel taxis and fresh registration of diesel vehicles over 2000 CC engine capacity — has left many BPO and taxi operators in dire straits.

Barack Obama will become the first U.S. President to visit Hiroshima, the first target of an atomic bomb 70 years ago, the White House announced..
Mr. Obama will fulfil a desire he had expressed in 2009 — to travel to either of the two Japanese cities on which the U.S. dropped atomic bombs in 1945. Many historians believe it was necessary to end the Second World War. Jimmy Carter visited Hiroshima in 1984, after he had left the White House
President Obama will be travelling to Japan for his final G-7 summit.
Only months ahead of the November presidential election, Mr. Obama’s trip to Hiroshima is fraught with serious risks — to his own legacy and the chances of the Democratic nominee.
The Republicans have accused Mr. Obama of being on a perpetual global apology tour — referring to his various remarks that sought to recalibrate U.S. positions towards Europe, the Muslim world and the war on terror.
In a preemptive move, the White House said the President would not revisit the decision to use the atomic bomb.
The Hiroshima bombing and America’s relations with Japan have cropped up in the ongoing presidential campaign.
Mr. Trump has said he would rather allow Japan and South Korea to develop their own nuclear arsenals than having U.S. deployment in the region to provide them protection.
Mr. Obama’s visit to Hiroshima will highlight America’s commitment “to pursue the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons,” Mr. Rhodes said.

Starting next year, the Centre will tax capital gains on investments from Mauritius, the tiny island from where India has received nearly a third of its total FDI inflows since 2000.
The source of the leak in tax revenue was plugged after the two countries signed a protocol at Port Louis, Mauritius.
The protocol amends the convention for the avoidance of double taxation and the prevention of fiscal evasion with respect to taxes on income and capital gains.
However, following the agreement, Mauritius could cease to be the preferred route for FDI and portfolio investments into India.
The amendment will tackle long-pending issues of treaty abuse and round-tripping of funds, attributed to the India-Mauritius treaty.
It will also curb revenue loss, prevent double non-taxation, streamline the flow of investment and stimulate the flow of exchange of information between India and Mauritius.
The 1983 Double Taxation Avoidance treaty made Mauritius, which taxes capital gains at near-zero rates, an attractive “post box address” for foreign investors to route investments into India.

India has the largest offline population in the world with nearly a billion Indians still not able to tap the benefits of a digital economy, the World Bank said.
At least 8 in 10 individuals in India own a mobile phone and digital technologies are spreading rapidly, but the aggregate impact of digital technologies has fallen short and is unevenly distributed, noted a 2016 development report on Digital Dividends released by the Bank.
The opportunities for increasing access to digital technology for creating higher growth, more jobs, and better public services are significant for India.
At the end of 2014 India had more than 200 million Internet users, compared to 665 million in China, according to the report.

Sources: Various News Papers & PIB

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