Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 22 October 2018

::NATIONAL::

Women stopped by protesters enroute to sabarimala

With hardly 24 hours left for the closure of the Sabarimala temple in Kerala after the five-day rituals, the hilltop shrine continued to witness unruly scenes.
Protesters prevented as many as four women in the age group of 10 to 50 from entering the temple on Sunday, in violation of the Supreme Court order. The police had a tough time in managing the situation when women below the age of 50 reached the pilgrim centre, which by custom denies permission to women of menstruating age.
The pilgrims’ protest was spontaneous as a vigilante group descending the hills spotted two women in their 40s among a group of eight pilgrims from Andhra Pradesh at Neelimala-Bottom, another pathway to the shrine, around 10 am.
The protesters detained the two women for some time till the duo returned to the pilgrims’ base camp at Nilackal, 16 km away from Pampa, in a police jeep. The other six pilgrims in the group proceeded to the Sannidhanam, later.
The Aadhaar card produced by the woman showed her age as 46 and a 1000-strong mob assembled there to block her entry to the Nadappanthal (sheltered walkway) leading to the Lower Tirumuttom (sacred courtyard). Meanwhile, the woman fainted and the police shifted her to Pampa in an ambulance, later.
The police have also tried to convince women devotees in the ‘restricted age group’ on the risk involved in their trek to the forest shrine, braving the heavy downpour and the irate protesters.

Assam to block citizenship bill rally

The Assam government has said it would not allow a proposed rally of 27 Bengali organisations in support of the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 that seeks to grant citizenship to non-Muslim refugees from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan.
This followed a State-wide shutdown call by a conglomerate of 42 organisations of indigenous communities on October 23, coinciding with the scheduled meeting of the Joint Parliamentary Committee with officials of the Home and External Affairs Ministries on the controversial Bill.
The Citizens’ Rights Protection Forum-Assam, an umbrella organisation of Bengali groups, had proposed the pro-Citizenship Bill rally in Guwahati on November 17.
The pro-talks faction of the United National Liberation Front had warned the forum against organising the rally. “We will not allow the proposed rally because of possible law and order problem,” Additional Director-General of Police (Special Branch) Pallab Bhattacharya said. Several NGOs and political parties had asked the State government to clear its stand on the rally that they deemed intimidating.
Former Chief Minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta said the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) would contest the next panchayat poll on its own if New Delhi went ahead with its plan to clear the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill.

::ECONOMY::

India emerges as fastest growing low cost carrier market

India has emerged as the fastest growing low-cost carrier (LCC) market in the world by recording the largest increase (an additional 15.6 million) in departure seats in the first nine months of this year, aviation consulting and research firm Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation (CAPA) said.
Indian has also reinforced its position as the second largest LCC country market, it said.
“It [the LCC market in India] also had the largest year-on-year rise among the top ten country markets, up 20.7%,” CAPA said in a report. Double-digit rises were also recorded in the top ten by China (+19.1%), Germany (+18.7%) and Thailand (+16.5%). The U.S., where the model was born, remains the largest LCC market at more than two-and-a-half times the size of the emerging Indian market.
CAPA said almost 115 million additional seats were offered by LCCs around the world during the first nine months of 2018, versus the same period last year. This is a 10.1% rise to over 1.25 billion global seats (over 4.5 million seats per day).
In the first nine months of 2018 South Korea has seen the fourth largest rise in LCC seats (over 100,000 departure seats per day) behind India, USA and China and in the process has jumped ahead of both France and Malaysia in terms of LCC market size, CAPA said.
Other markets that stand out in performance include Vietnam (+20.1%), Turkey (+16.8), Malaysia (+14.6%), Philippines (+14.2%), Japan (+12.3%), Mexico (+12.3%), Canada (+11.8%) and Poland (+11.4%).

Insolvency Law Committee submits its 2nd Report

The Insolvency Law Committee (ILC) constituted by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs to recommend amendments to Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code of India, 2016, has submitted its 2nd Report to the Government, which deals with cross border insolvency. The Report was handed over today to Shri Arun Jaitley, Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs by Corporate Affairs Secretary, Shri Injeti Srinivas.
The UNCITRAL Model Law has been adopted in as many as 44 countries and, therefore, forms part of international best practices in dealing with cross border insolvency issues. The advantages of the model law are the precedence given to domestic proceedings and protection of public interest.
The other advantages include greater confidence generation among foreign investors, adequate flexibility for seamless integration with the domestic Insolvency Law and a robust mechanism for international cooperation.
The model law deals with four major principles of cross-border insolvency, namely direct access to foreign insolvency professionals and foreign creditors to participate in or commence domestic insolvency proceedings against a defaulting debtor; recognition of foreign proceedings & provision of remedies; cooperation between domestic and foreign courts & domestic and foreign insolvency practioners; and coordination between two or more concurrent insolvency proceedings in different countries.
Although the proposed Framework for Cross Border Insolvency will enable us to deal with Indian companies having foreign assets and vice versa, it still does not provide for a framework for dealing with enterprise groups, which is still work in progress with UNCITRAL and other international bodies.
The inclusion of the Cross Border Insolvency Chapter in the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code of India, 2016, will be a major step forward and will bring Indian Insolvency Law on a par with that of matured jurisdictions.

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::INTERNATIONAL::

Gandhi jayanti event at Iran creates confusion

A fortnight after the Indian Embassy in Tehran was forced to cancel a Gandhi Jayanti event on the Indian Community Cremation Ground of the city, the Ambassador has triggered a fresh controversy after he presided over a “tree plantation” event at the venue to honour the Mahatma.
Ambassador Saurabh Kumar presided over a tree plantation programme on October 19 as part of the celebrations to mark the beginning of the 150th birth anniversary fete of Mahatma Gandhi.
“The relationship between Iran and India has a long history that is always friendly and I hope it will continue that way,” Mr. Kumar said at the programme.
Some Indians said that the event was not organised with the support of the majority, as most opposed the idea of hosting events for the Mahatma on the cremation ground.
Reports suggest that the event was organised by a prominent member of the Indian community.However, the presence of the Ambassador and the prominent use of the logo of the 150th birth anniversary celebrations of Mahatma Gandhi has given this event official status.
The cremation ground for Indians has been in existence since the era of the Shah of Iran and pre-dates the current Islamic government which has been in place since 1979.

Maldive’s top court upholds poll result

The Maldives Supreme Court on Sunday rejected a petition by outgoing President Abdulla Yameen to annul the September presidential election, clearing the way for transfer of power to joint opposition candidate Ibrahim Mohamed Solih.
Mr. Yameen’s claim that the poll was rigged was not substantiated with evidence, the five-member bench ruled, underscoring the comfortable majority that Mr. Solih won in the high-stakes election.
Many Maldivians feared that the September 23 poll may not be free and fair, given Mr. Yameen’s authoritarian tendencies. However, the election was largely peaceful, with complaints mostly pertaining to a rather slow voting process that forced people to wait in long queues for hours.
Meanwhile, Mr. Solih’s Maldives Democratic Party (MDP) has sought a travel ban on Mr. Yameen, so that he can face investigations into alleged graft cases. “A travel ban against President Yameen must be instituted. There are several cases pending investigation, including cases of corruption,” MDP Chairman Hassan Latheef told mediapersons, according to a report by Reuters.
After Maldivians voted for change, dissident Opposition leaders, who were either jailed by Mr. Yameen or in exile, are hopeful of release and return. Last week, a Maldivian court overturned the jail term of former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, a month after Mr. Yameen, his estranged half-brother, lost the election. Exiled former President Mohamed Nasheed has vowed to return to Male on November 1 “come what may”.

::SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY::

Immunotherapy may help combat breast cancer

Women with an aggressive type of breast cancer lived longer if they received immunotherapy plus chemotherapy, rather than chemo alone, a major study has found.
The results are expected to change the standard of care for women like those in the clinical trial, who had advanced cases of “triple-negative” breast cancer. That form of the disease often resists standard therapies, and survival rates are poor. It is twice as common in African-American women as in white women, and more likely to occur in younger women.
Researchers said the new study was a long-awaited breakthrough for immunotherapy in breast cancer. These findings may lead to the first approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for an immunotherapy drug to treat breast cancer. But the approval would likely be limited to a certain type of aggressive cancer.
Although triple-negative tumours occur in only about 15% of patients with invasive breast cancer in the U.S. (or nearly 40,000 each year), they account for a disproportionate share of deaths, as many as 30 to 40%.
The immunotherapy in the study was atezolizumab (brand name Tecentriq), which belongs to a class of drugs called checkpoint inhibitors; the chemotherapy was nab-paclitaxel (Abraxane).
The drugs generally work for fewer than half of patients, but can bring lasting recoveries even to people who were severely ill. Side effects can be dangerous, even life-threatening, and treatment costs over $100,000 a year.

::SPORTS::

Lewis Hamilton clinches pole in U.S Grand prix

Lewis Hamilton secured pole position for the United States Grand Prix by just 0.061 seconds on Saturday with another record-breaking performance for Mercedes in a tense qualifying session.
It was Hamilton’s third successive pole at the Circuit of the Americas and the 81st pole of his career.
The 33-year-old championship leading Briton topped the times with a late flying lap that kept him narrowly ahead of his only remaining title rival Sebastian Vettel of Ferrari who, after taking a three-place penalty, was relegated to fifth.
Kimi Raikkonen was third-fastest in the second Ferrari ahead of Valtteri Bottas in the second Mercedes with Daniel Ricciardo fifth for Red Bull.