Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 14 APRIL 2019

::NATIONAL::

Nation pays tribute to the architect of constitution

• President Ram NathKovind today led the nation in paying homage to the architect of the Indian Constitution Dr BR Ambedkar on his 128th birth anniversary.
• Mr Kovind paid floral tributes at the statue of Dr Ambedkar at the Parliament House Lawns in New Delhi this morning.
• Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu today remembered Bharat Ratna Dr BR Ambedkar on his Jayanti. In a tweet, Mr Naidu said, Dr Ambedkar left an indelible footprint on the sands of contemporary Indian history. He said, a social reformer, legal luminary and an erudite scholar, Dr Ambedkar was a champion of people’s rights.
• The Vice President said, Dr Ambedkar relentlessly campaigned against social discrimination and inequalities and was a firm believer in the empowerment of women through education.
• He said, Dr Ambedkar's contribution to nation building is invaluable and his ideas will continue to inspire every Indian for all times. Prime Minister and LokSabha Speaker also paid floral tributes at the portrait of Dr Ambedkar inside the Parliament House.

Opposition accuses government for crony capitalism

• The Congress on Saturday reiterated its accusation that the NarendraModi government had written off Rs. 5.5 lakh crore in loans of its “blue-eyed boys” and said it was the worst example of crony capitalism.
• “Crony capitalism’s worst example is this. In the last 10 years, the total write off was Rs. 7 lakh crore. Out of this Rs. 5.5 lakh crore has been written off under Modiji. This means 80% write offs have happened during the Modi government’s tenure.
• “The excuse given frequently is that writing off loan in the books does not mean that the loan is waived. But, that is a very illusory, a very tactical argument. The reality is that when a bank writes off a loan, the incentive to recover is virtually nil,” he said.
• Alleging that the Modi government rested on the twin pillars of “cronyism and loot”, Mr.Singhvi challenged the government to reveal the names of those whose loans have been written off.
• “This is nothing but one-sided favouritism of your blue-eyed boys, the blue-eyed corporate and I call upon the government to reveal the names of those in respect of whom Rs. 5.5 lakh crore has been written off. Please do not throw some rule book or guidelines at us.
• Mr.Singhvi then went on to give a breakup of the write offs, claiming that out of the loans written off by the Modi government, Rs. 1.56 lakh crore has been written off in the last one year alone, “just as elections are approaching”.

::ECONOMY::

India to launch coffee consumption language

• India will plan and roll out a coffee consumption campaign on behalf of global coffee growers who suffered huge financial losses on account of falling coffee prices and soaring labour cost.
• The context is that coffee growers around the globe are going paupers and turning poverty stricken. As per International Coffee Organization (ICO), 25 million farmers, including more than 3,00,000 in India, produce coffee in 60 counties.
• Over 90% of these growers are smallholders and are forced to sell their coffees at a price much below the cost of production. This scenario has led to socio-economic issues. These growers and their families have gone deeper into debts. Many even have abandoned their farms and migrated to cities.
• To bring world coffee producers, including Indian growers, out of this appalling situation, The World Coffee Producers Forum has decided to reach out to the coffee consuming countries around the world.
• The campaign will address a population of 450 million, mostly school and college students, in India. Carlos Brando, who ran various coffee projects in more than 50 countries including Brazil’s famous coffee campaign that significantly pushed up the country’s consumption in 1990 — will be actively involved in the India campaign that will be ready for launch by mid 2020.
• The plan was to import excess coffees from Brazil, Colombia and Vietnam, provided the government of India waives off the import duty on coffee which is 105%, he added.
  India becomes net steel importer this fiscal
• India was a net importer of steel during the 2018-19 fiscal year, the first time in three years, as the country lost market share among its traditional steel buyers and imports jumped on demand for higher quality steel domestically.
• The country’s finished steel exports fell by 34% in the fiscal year that ended in March to 6.36 million tonnes, according to preliminary government data given to Reuters. During the same period, finished steel imports rose 4.7% to 7.84 million tonnes.
• India’s exports during the fiscal year declined after rival steelmakers in China, Japan, South Korea and Indonesia, blocked from markets in the United States and Europe by tariffs and other protectionist measures, ate away at the country’s markets in the Middle East and Africa, according to an Indian government official with close knowledge of the matter.
• Imports from the four Asian countries also climbed as they diverted supply into India, the source said.
• Imports of value-added steel, primarily for the auto sector and high-end electrical steel, were the biggest source of imports, the source said.
• “The imports for producing value-added steel for the auto sector is mainly by foreign steelmakers like POSCO,” the source said, declining to be identified.

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::INTERNATIONAL::

India to work for extension of Iran oil sanctions waiver

• Far from the din of elections, Indian officials are working closely with U.S. officials to ensure that two upcoming deadlines in early May, for the extension of the Iran oil sanctions waiver, as well as the final decision on withdrawing India’s preferential Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) status, end positively for the government, multiple sources in Delhi and Washington confirmed.
• While the decision on the GSP could be deferred until after elections, the discussions on the Iran oil sanctions waiver have indicated an extension is likely, with India allowed a lower quantity of oil imports from Iran.
• India, Turkey and China remain the only countries with significant imports. After initial defiance where it said it only recognised “UN sanctions, not unilateral sanctions”, the Modi government has softened its stand in negotiations for the sanctions waiver from America.
• According to informed sources, the U.S. is considering an extension of the six-month waiver, but reducing the quantity of oil India can import from the previous allowance of nine million barrels a month.
• The U.S. also remains concerned about duties and regulations in the Information Technology industry an issue for which the EuropeanUnion has filed a case against India at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) this week. In addition, officials said the U.S. is watching India’s decision on 5G technology closely, particularly the fate of the bid byChinese company Huawei, given the U.S.’s cases against it.

New government sworn in west bank based Palestinian authority

• A new government for the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority has been sworn-in.
• President Mahmoud Abbas picked Mohammed Ishtayeh as the Prime Minister, a move that is being said to have deepened the internal Palestinian divide at a time when prospects for a peace deal with Israel are possibly at their lowest point ever.
• A longtime adviser to Abbas and a senior member of his Fatah party, Ishtayeh and his 24-member cabinet took the oath of office at Abbas' headquarters in Ramallah.
• The new cabinet replaces a technocratic government formed by Rami Hamdallah in 2014 after an agreement between Fatah and Hamas, the militant group that has run the Gaza Strip after ousting Fatah and evicting the Palestinian Authority in 2007.
• The UN Middle East envoy NickolayMladenov has expressed hoped that the new government would receive support to overcome internal divisionsLast year, US recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital, triggering the Palestinian Authority to sever its ties with Washington.

::SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY::

Tb treatment reaches new heights with new drug administration method

• The treatment of tuberculosis is becoming more difficult as most patients don’t adhere to the treatment regimen which includes six to nine months of daily antibiotics. This also contributes to emergence of multidrug-resistant bacteria.
• Now, researchers from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, U.S., have developed a coil loaded with antibiotics that can stay in the stomach for up to a month and release the necessary drugs in the required doses.
• This eliminates the need for daily administration and also brings down the cost of treatment. The coil is made of a nickel-titanium alloy (nitinol) and looks like a small slinky toy.
• After reaching the stomach, the tube coiled up, stayed in the stomach and released drugs for 28 days. Endoscopic evaluation showed that having such a large coil in the stomach did not cause any injury or ulcer. There was also no weight loss or limitations in the passage of food and water.
• The researchers spoke to 300 tuberculosis patients and over 100 TB health providers in India and noted that most of them were open to the idea of a monthly administration using this coil.

::SPORTS::

MeenaKumari clinches gold in boxing world cup

• India bagged a Gold and two Silver medals at the Boxing World Cup at Cologne in Germany yesterday. MeenaKumariMaisnam claimed the coveted yellow metal in the 54 kg category.
• The 2014 Asian Championships bronze medallist with three National Championships titles to her credit, defeated Thailand'sMachaiBunyanut in the Final.
• It was the only bout of the tournament for the Manipur pugilist as she had been directly placed in the final due to a smaller draw.

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