Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 18 February 2017

:: National ::

Proposal to build a wall along J&K dropped

• The Centre has given up its proposal to build a wall along the Pakistan border in Jammu, originally envisaged as a barrier to cross-border terror.

• The raised embankment, initiated by the UPA government in 2013 after the twin attacks in the Hiranagar/Samba sector, was to come up along 179 km of the International Border in Jammu.

• The wall proposal was opposed by Pakistan, which shot off letters to the United Nations Security Council in 2015 accusing India of converting what it called a “working boundary” into a “quasi international boundary.”

• Plan for raising an embankment was not materialising and that the government would instead depend on ‘technological solutions’ such as a ‘smart fence’, a seamless virtual fence with sensors to identify any infiltration.

• The Army too opposed the embankment, saying it would pose hurdles for their forward movement during military operations.

• Since 2014, when the NDA government came to power, there have been more than 900 ceasefire violations along the Pakistan border in Jammu.

• At the LoC, which is under the operational control of the Army, 541 violations were reported during the same period. In these violations, 57 locals and 26 security personnel were killed.

• The proposed embankment would have been about 135 feet (41 metres) wide and 10 metres high, and would have accommodated bunkers and border outposts.

• After the UPA government’s decision in 2013, officials, following the Israel model, wanted to seal the border. About 20 % of the land has been acquired for the project.

• The Home Ministry is now working on a Comprehensive Integrated Border Management System (CIBMS) for 24X7 surveillance.

Sureme court says there is no National song

• Orally noting that “there is no concept of National Song”, SC refused to direct the government to frame a national policy to promote and propagate the ‘National Song’, along with the National Anthem and the National Flag.

• A Bench of Justices Dipak Misra, R. Banumathi and Mohan M. Shantanagoudar, in a short order, said it should be clearly noted that Article 51A (a), citing the citizens’ fundamental duties, does not refer to ‘National Song.’

• Article 51A(a) mandates that citizens should abide by the Constitution and respect its ideals and institutions, the National Flag and the National Anthem.

• The petition also sought the court to “ascertain the feasibility of singing/playing the National Anthem and National Song in the Parliament/Assembly, public offices, courts and schools on every working day.”

• The court “kept alive” the portion of the prayer regarding schools, but dismissed it as far as other institutions are concerned. However, the court added that this “does not mean that we have expressed any opinion on the same.”

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:: International ::

Trump says he wants to reset relationship with Russia

• U.S. President Donald Trump reiterated that his push to reset the U.S. relations with Russia would continue regardless of the political blowback.

• The new administration’s efforts to start afresh with Russia, which is considered an irreconcilable adversary by the U.S. security apparatus, has prompted a media outcry leading to the ouster of Michael Flynn as the NSA.

• Mr. Trump’s impromptu press conference at the White House that lasted for 75 minutes was dominated by questions regarding alleged links of his advisers to Russia.

• The President defended his track record in office and accused the media and leaks from intelligence agencies of trying to undermine his policy initiatives.

• Mr. Trump said his former NSA Flynn was merely doing his duty by talking to the Russian envoy to the U.S., as he did with officials of 30 other countries.

• The President said he asked Mr. Flynn to quit because his recollection of the conversation to the Vice-President was inadequate.

• Mr. Trump also made light of the allegations that Russia has deployed cruise missiles in violation of an arms control treaty.

• Meanwhile, a National Public Radio report said Mr. Flynn did not make any promise on sanctions when he spoke to the Russian envoy.

• Mr. Trump said he has “inherited a mess” globally and domestically, but his administration has done more than any other President in the past to set things right in the first few weeks.

:: Science and Technology ::

Google a step closer to rolling out a network of balloons to provide Internet

• Researchers at Google have moved a step closer to rolling out a network of huge balloons to provide Internet connectivity to billions of people around the world, particularly those in difficult-to-reach rural areas.

• The Project Loon team, part of the company’s X research lab, said it can now use machine learning to predict weather systems.

• The advance means Google has much more control over where its balloons reach, making it possible to focus on a specific region, rather than circumnavigating the globe.

• “Real users” will be able to make use of the system in the “coming months”, however, the company did not specify where the initial roll-out would take place.

• The company has experimented with beaming down connectivity from a network of huge, tennis-court sized balloons rather than undertaking huge construction projects to replicate connectivity networks in the developed world.

• The balloons float in the stratosphere around 18 kilometres high. By raising or lowering altitude, the balloons can be caught in different weather streams, changing direction.

• By using machine-learning algorithms, Google thinks it has found a way to predict weather with enough accuracy to make it possible to hover balloons over a relatively small area for a long period of time.

• The firm was last year able to keep a cluster of balloons over Peru for three months.

:: Business and Economy ::

TRAI issued a consultation paper for review of tariff assessment process

• Amid an ongoing war between incumbent telcos and new entrant Reliance Jio over its predatory pricing and promotional offers, TRAI issued a consultation paper to undertake a review of the tariff assessment process.

• The paper, sought views on which offers should qualify as promotional offers, what should be the features of a promotional offer, and whether there is a need to restrict the number of promotional offers.

• The consultation paper comes after the three incumbent operators – Airtel, Idea and Vodafone, moved TDSAT against TRAI alleging that the regulator failed to prohibit Reliance Jio from violating the tariff regulations.

• In response to complaints, TRAI had said that Reliance Jio’s promotional tariff plans comply with existing regulations and tariff orders, allowing promotional offer that provides free unlimited data and calling to users till March 31.

Finance minister says remonetisation was very difficult

• Finance Minister said it may be easy to criticise the Centre’s demonetisation and remonetisation drive, but tough to implement, and it has been largely incident-free mainly due to the round-the-clock functioning of printing presses.

• “It was among the biggest exercises of demonetisation and remonetisation in the world,” Mr. Jaitley said.

• “Many people said it would take around seven months to one year to bring back normalcy and to ensure that there is no shortage of currency notes, but they were done in a few weeks and that too without any major incidents.”

• The currency printing presses include those of the Government-owned SPMCIL, and of the Bharatiya Reserve Bank Note Mudran Pvt Ltd and the Mysuru facility of the Bank Note Paper Mill India Private Limited.

• Terming the employees of these presses as the “unsung and unknown heroes” who silently and tirelessly worked 24x7 without a break and by maintaining secrecy in order to ensure normalcy quickly.

• Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das said SPMCIL needed to leverage its debt-free status to modernise its operations and increase its productivity by using most modern equipments.

• SPMCIL currency presses had airlifted 60 million numbers of Rs. 500 notes amounting to Rs. 21,500 crore to different parts of the country to expedite remonetisation efforts.

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