Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 15 July 2018


Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 15 July 2018


::NATIONAL::

Social survey demands removal of hateful content

  • Amid debate over tackling the spread of hate speech and misinformation via social media platforms, a recent poll has found that 78% respondents believe the platforms should be held responsible for taking action against accounts engaged in trolling, abuse and harassment.
  • Issues such as trolling, abuse and spread of misinformation is rising exponentially, leading to lynching and in cases, riots.
  • When asked what was the most practical solution for social media platforms to tackle these issues, 59% respondents said real identity should be made mandatory for all accounts, while 26% said the abusive account should be immediately blacklisted.
  • Malicious actors can create troll groups to harass their opponents using these abusive ways

Southern states to form consensus on FTA’s

  • The Kerala government is reaching out to other south Indian States in a bid to create lobbying power to influence the Central government policy on international trade treaties and cushion the impact of Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) on various domestic sectors.
  • Official sources said efforts were on to reach a consensus with other States on the need for wider consultations on trade pacts that affected the market and impacted on the livelihood security of farmers, fishers and other vulnerable sections.
  • Officials said the initiative was driven by the growing public hostility to trade treaties such as the Indo-ASEAN FTA and Indo-Sri Lanka FTA. Kerala, they pointed out, was one of the worst-affected States, with domestic production and export of cash crops such as pepper and rubber taking a hit.
  • Experts felt that the agricultural sector in India was poised to take a big hit as RCEP opened up trade ties with China. The liberalised import of milk and dairy products from Australia and New Zealand and fish, soyabean oil, rubber, rice, palm oil, tea, coffee, pepper, and poultry from ASEAN countries was also seen as a big threat.

India to help in rohingya repatriation

  • Promising to help repatriate Rohingya to Myanmar, Home Minister Rajnath Singh told Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Saturday that India would provide relief supplies for the refugees in Bangladesh and build homes for them in Rakhine state of Myanmar.
  • The home minister said India was prepared to “step up” assistance to approximately 7,50,000Rohingya refugees who had fled the violence in Myanmar, and provide food, medical or relief supplies needed.
  • Later, Mr. Singh and his Bangladesh counterpart, Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal, inaugurated the largest Indian visa centre in the world at about 18,500 sq.ft in Jamuna Future Park in Dhaka. It replaces four visa centres in the capital and will serve visa seekers with 48 counters. The Indian High commission issued l.4 million visas last year.

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::INTERNATIONAL::

Protests rise aftermath sharif’s arrest

  • Around 1,500 Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) workers and leaders, including former Prime Minister ShahidKhaqanAbbasi and Shahbaz Sharif, were booked on Saturday under terrorism and other charges for taking out a rally here in support of ousted Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.
  • Thousands of party workers had tried to take out a march to the AllamaIqbal International Airport here on Friday to welcome Mr. Sharif and his daughter Maryam Nawaz arriving from London to face jail terms of 10 and seven years, respectively, in the Evenfield properties corruption case.
  • According to the police, Mr.Shahbaz, the PML-N president and younger brother of Mr. Sharif, led the rally here in violation of Section 144 that stops assembly of five or more people at one place at a particular time.

Eritrea to resolve dispute with Ethiopia

  • Eritrean President IsaiasAfwerki pledged to resolve his country’s dispute with Ethiopia on Saturday, in a historic visit to Addis Ababa aimed at cementing peace less than a week after the nations declared an end to their two decades of conflict.
  • Mr.Isaias arrived in the Ethiopian capital just five days after Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed visited Eritrea as part of a dizzying peace process aimed at ending years of violence and animosity between the neighbours who were once part of the same nation.
  • Eritrea was once part of Ethiopia and comprised its entire coastline on the Red Sea until it voted for independence in 1993 after decades of bloody conflict.

::SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY::

Scientists decode mustard plant’s salt toleration

  • Using molecular biology tools, scientists from Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), Mumbai have reported how this treatment altered the plant RNA and hormones to facilitate this survival in mustard plants grown with high salt stress (125-150 milliMolarNaCl).
  • Various studies have shown that thiourea is a good redox stabiliser as it scavenges multiple reactive oxygen species including hydrogen peroxide. The researchers carried out studies to understand how this thiourea activates the tolerance mechanisms.
  • Plant hormones such as ABA, Auxins, jasmonates which have been shown to play important roles in salt tolerance were all found to be co-ordinately regulated upon thiourea treatment.

New volcano on jupiter’s moon

  • Using data collected by NASA’s Juno spacecraft, scientists have got clues to a previously undiscovered volcano on the Jupiter moon Io.
  • With its Jovian InfraRedAuroral Mapper (JIRAM) instrument, the Juno spacecraft found a new heat source close to the south pole of Io, NASA researchers said.
  • Past NASA missions of exploration that have visited the Jovian system (Voyagers 1 and 2, Galileo, Cassini and New Horizons), along with ground-based observations, have located over 150 active volcanoes on Io so far.

::SPORTS::

Angelique Kerber wins Wimbledon title

  • Angelique Kerber blew away Serena Williams 6-3, 6-3, ending the American’s imperious run in this tournament to become the Wimbledon singles champion.
  • Kerber broke a second time in the first set to go up 4-3 and then — to the astonishment of an audience that was expecting a comeback from the American — broke Williams a third time to wrap it up 6-3.

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