Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 17 APRIL 2019

::NATIONAL::

EC acts against communal speeches after supreme court directives

•  The Supreme Court on Tuesday took note of the Election Commission of India (ECI) quickly changing tack on April 15 to pass a flurry of restraining orders against leading political candidates for their communally provocative and divisive speeches.
•  The ECI orders came shortly after the poll body invited the court’s wrath for describing itself as “toothless” in the face of hate.
•  On Monday, the ECI had claimed it was mostly helpless if candidates engaged in communal diatribe during their campaign speeches. This stand of the ECI had riled Chief Justice Gogoi, who initially threatened to have Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora in court in the next half-hour.
•  The court then decided to delve deep into the poll panel’s claims that its powers were “circumscribed”. It gave the Commission exactly 24 hours to be ready with a response. But within the next few hours on Monday, the ECI moved in to swiftly pass restraining orders against the four politicians.
•  The court said the ECI was “duty-bound” to act promptly against hate speech given in violation of the Model Code of Conduct under place in the 2019 LokSabha polls.
•  The court was hearing a petition filed by an NRI, HarpreetMansukhani, highlighting the increase in hate and divisive speeches in the name of religion in the LokSabha elections of 2019.

India Pakistan to discuss Kartarpur corridor issues

•  On Tuesday, India and Pakistan have held a meeting to discuss various issues related to the speedy completion of the proposed Kartarpur corridor from Dera Baba Nanak shrine in Gurdaspur district in Punjab to GurudwaraDarbar Sahib in Pakistan's Narowal.
•  Sources said that India had proposed the meeting and Pakistan agreed to it. They added that the implementation of the project is progressing with speed.
•  Experts and technicians from both countries discussed the timing of the completion of the bridge, alignment of roads and engineering aspects of the proposed crossing points.
•  Kartarpur is located in Pakistan's Narowal district across the Ravi, about four km from the Dera Baba Nanak. The first meeting to finalise the modalities for the corridor took place on the Indian side of the Attari-Wagah border on 14th of March.

::ECONOMY::

Cotton textile exports to China on the rise

•  Export of cotton textiles to China is seeing an upward trend, according to The Cotton Textiles Export Promotion Council (Texprocil).
•  “Raw cotton and yarn exports increased last financial year (2018-19). We are trying to push the exports of fabric too. Higher trade will bring in investments to India,” said Siddhartha Rajagopal, executive director, Texprocil.
•  Between April 2018 and February 2019, exports of cotton textiles increased 69% compared with the same period in 2017-18. “This shows there is potential for textiles in China,” he said.
•  K.V. Srinivasan, chairman, Texprocil, said in a statement that export of cotton textiles had also contributed to reducing the trade deficit between the two countries.
•  Welcoming the efforts taken by the Union government towards reducing the trade deficit, Mr.Srinivasan said export of cotton textiles could increase further if the tariff disadvantage of 3.5% to 10% suffered by India in comparison with Vietnam, Pakistan, and Indonesia on textile products was addressed.
•  Higher export of cotton textiles, mainly fabrics and made-ups, could contribute significantly to further reduction of the trade imbalance and attract investments from Chinese industries that were keen to shift from China, he said.

State owned BSNL to start work on 5G

•  Even as the State-owned telco BSNL is awaiting approval to get 4G spectrum from the government, it has begun work on making itself 5G-ready.
•  Stressing that the worst is over for the company, its chairman and managing director AnupamShrivastava said this fiscal, the focus would be on deploying new technologies with an aim to tap the nearly 50% of the population that is still “untouched by mobile phones.”
•  The PSU, which has a debt of about Rs. 16,000 crore, is likely to get 4G spectrum this year as part of a revival package being worked out by the Department of Telecommunications. BSNL had first raised a request for the spectrum in April 2015.
•  “New technology deployment was taken up for discussion in the board meeting today 4G will, of course, be predominant. We are also preparing for 5G roll-out. We should be potentially ready for 5G roll-out, so that we are not left behind,” he said.
•  He said that BSNL would be able to roll out 4G within 10 days of getting the spectrum. “All equipment is ready, most BTS’ are 4G-complaint. We only need a software update to get going.”

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::INTERNATIONAL::

EU condemns U.S measures on Cuba

•  The European Union has condemned a decision by US President Donald Trump's administration to open the way for lawsuits in American courts over property confiscated by Cuba.
•  The European Union is currently the communist island's biggest trading partner. President Trump will open the way for lawsuits in US courts over property confiscated by Cuba, enforcing a controversial law that angered European allies and could rattle the island's economy, after more than two decades of delay.
•  Ever since Congress passed the Helms-Burton Act in 1996, US presidents starting with Bill Clinton have used their power to suspend the key provision every six months, mindful of the international consequences.
•  A senior administration official said National Security Advisor John Bolton will formally unveil the shift today in a speech in Miami in which he will also outline actions on Venezuela and Nicaragua, two other countries in Latin America with leftist governments opposed by Mr.Trump.

Indonesia goes for presidential polls

•  In Indonesia, voting is underway to choose the next President. More than 190 million are eligible to vote.
•  A record 2,45,000 candidates are running for public office in the world's third-biggest democracy, from the presidency and parliamentary seats to local positions. Opinion polls show JokoWidodo is a clear favourite but he faces a tough challenge from ex-general PrabowoSubianto.
•  The polls present a huge logistical challenge in a country stretching 4,800 kilometres across more than 17,000 islands with a population of more than 260 million, including hundreds of ethnic groups and languages.
•  Preliminary results are expected within hours after polling ends but official results are not expected until May.

::SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY::

Study claims even remote peaks filled with microplastics

•  A secluded mountain region thought to be free of plastic pollution is in fact blanketed by airborne microplastics on a scale comparable to a major city such as Paris, researchers have found.
•  Over a five-month period in 2017-2018, an average of 365 tiny bits of plastic settled every day on each square metre of an uninhabited, high-altitude area in the Pyrenees straddling France and Spain, they reported in the journal Nature Geoscience .
•  “It is astounding and worrying that so many particles were found in the Pyrenees field site,” said lead author Steve Allen, a doctoral student at the University of Strathclyde in Scotland.
•  The study focussed on microplastics mostly between 10 and 150 micrometres across, including fragments, fibres and sheet-like pieces of film.By comparison, a human hair is, on average, about 70 micrometres in width.
•  “Our most significant finding is that microplastics are transported through the atmosphere and deposited in a remote, high-altitude mountain location far from any major city,” said co-author Deonie Allen, also from EcoLab. “This means that microplastics are an atmospheric pollutant.”
•  Analysing the pattern of air flows, they surmised that some particles had travelled at least 100 km. Samples transported by wind, snow and rain were collected at the meteorological station of Bernadouze at an altitude of more than 1,500 metres.

::SPORTS::

Lewis Hamilton wins Chinese Grand Prix

•  In motor racing, Lewis Hamilton won the Chinese Grand Prix for a record sixth time on Sunday.He seized the overall lead from his Mercedes teammate ValtteriBottas in Formula One’s 1,000th world championship race.
•  The comfortable win was the 75th of Hamilton’s career, and second in a row after his lucky triumph in Bahrain two weeks ago.
•  ValtteriBottas was second for his team’s third one-two finish in as many races this season. Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel took third place.

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