Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 31 MARCH 2019

::NATIONAL::

Vice president urges for speedy disposal of cases against political leaders

•  The Vice President of India, Shri M. Venkaiah Naidu has called for speedy disposal of election petitions and criminal cases against political leaders pending before various courts. He also suggested the setting up of separate benches to expedite all such cases within six months or one year.
•  The Vice President also wanted the presiding officers of legislative bodies to decide anti-defection cases within three months.
•  Pointing out that a large amount of money was locked up in long pending tax-related litigations, the Vice President said that delays in judicial litigations and proceedings could affect the image of the country.
•  Expressing concern over pendency of 3.12 crore cases at various courts, Shri Naidu urged upon the Courts and the Bar Associations to seriously dwell on the matter and see that pendency was reduced.
•  Quoting a popular adage, ‘Justice delayed is justice denied’, Shri Naidu emphasized the need to undertake reforms to improve the functioning of judicial institutions to ensure speedy justice and equitable justice particularly to the common man.
•  Saying that Indian Constitution envisages independence of judiciary, Shri Naidu said that the all the three organs - the Legislature, Executive and Judiciary must share healthy and mutual respect and complement the role of each other. No one should encroach into others’ domains, he added.

EC seeks help of community radios for spreading voter awareness

•  Community radio stations across the country have assured the Election Commission to contribute their best for voter education and awareness.
•  The Commission organised a workshop in New Delhi yesterday for training and capacity building of the community radios for voter education and awareness.
•  Senior Deputy Election Commissioner, UmeshSinha in a statement said the community radio is one of the best medium to reach the last voter of the country.
•  He said, Community Radio can play an important role in strengthening democracy by developing content in their local dialects and deepening the process of voter awareness.
•  Deputy Election Commissioner Chandra Bhushan Kumar said that effort of the poll body is to ensure fair and fearless elections and Community Radios can play an important role in this endevour.
•  Community Radio is one of the best medium to reach to the last voter of the country. It can play an important role in strengthening democarcy by developing content in their local dialects and deepening the process of voter education and awareness upto the grass root level.
•  Election Commission ensures fair and fearless elections and Community Radios can play an important role in assisting the Commission.

::ECONOMY::

Vijaya and Dena bank to merge with Bank Of Baroda from April1

•  In a first three-way amalgamation, Vijaya Bank and Dena Bank will merge with Bank of Baroda from tomorrow to create the third-largest lender of the country.
•  The Reserve Bank of India had said in a statement on Saturday that customers including depositors of Vijaya Bank and Dena Bank will be treated as customers of Bank of Baroda with effect from 1st April this year.
•  To make merger a smooth affair, the government last week decided to infuse 5,042 crore rupees in Bank of Baroda to enhance its capital base to meet additional expense.
•  According to the Scheme of Amalgamation, shareholders of Vijaya Bank will get 402 equity shares of Bank of Baroda for every 1,000 shares held. In the case of Dena Bank, its shareholders will get 110 shares of Bank of Baroda for every 1,000 shares.
•  The government in September last year announced the first-ever three-way consolidation of banks in India, with a combined business of 14.8 lakh crore rupees, making it the third-largest bank after State Bank of India and ICICI Bank.

GSP withdrawal by U.S may affect India’s plastic exports

•  The move by the United States (U.S.) to terminate India’s designation as beneficiary developing country under the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) programme because it no longer complied with the statutory eligibility criteria, is likely to affect plastic exports from India said a trade body.
•  In 2018, India and the U.S. reported a bilateral trade (only merchandise goods) worth $84.9 billion, up 20% from the previous year.
•  The trade was in favour of India, which reported a surplus of $17.9 billion during 2018, down 15.1% from $21.1 billion a year earlier.
•  Peeved by the fact that India and some other countries were enjoying a trade surplus with U.S. without giving an ‘equal access’ to American goods in their respective countries, the Office of the United States Trade Representative on March 4 issued a press release stating that United States would terminate India’s designation as beneficiary developing country under the GSP programme because it no longer complied with the statutory eligibility criteria.
•  Under the GSP programme, certain products could enter the U.S. duty-free if beneficiary developing countries met the eligibility criteria established by the Congress. According to the United States Trade Representative (USTR), the total U.S. imports under GSP in 2017 was $21.2 billion, of which India was the biggest beneficiary with $5.6 billion.

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::INTERNATIONAL::

Amid sanctions, Iran wants improved ties with India

•  Amid U.S. sanctions, Iran is exploring ways to increase its bilateral trade with India, including expanding banking channels.
•  “The volume of trade between Iran and India stands between $10 billion and $13 billion, which has tremendous potential for improvement.
  “The Iranian Parliament recently ratified an agreement to avoid double taxation between Iran and India,” he said.
•  Talking about U.S. sanctions, Mr.Fouladgar said, “We are paying the price for our freedom in the form of restrictions and sanctions. This is in spite of the fact that we have fulfilled all our commitments towards the nuclear deal. However, the U.S. continues not to fulfil its commitment.
•  “The IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency] had inspected our facilities 14 times and agreed that Iran had fulfilled all its commitments towards the nuclear deal but the U.S. is now putting pressure on Iran in the name of human rights violations.”
•  Early this year, India had taken over operations of the strategic Chabahar in Iran opening a new strategic route connecting Iran, India, and Afghanistan, bypassing Pakistan.
•  “The Chabahar Port will be helpful for India to access central and west Asia. With Chabahar Port, India and Iran can start luxury ships for tourism, which will take 72 hours. It’s a very inexpensive route compared to [doing it by air]. Chabahar is connected to Tehran through rail. There is a plan to introduce a special tourist train throughout Iran,” Mr.Fouladgar added.

Australia set to tighten social media laws

•  Australia pledged on Saturday to introduce new laws that could see social media executives jailed and tech giants fined billions for failing to remove extremist material from their platforms.
•  The tough new legislation will be brought to Parliament next week as Canberra pushes for social media companies to prevent their platforms from being “weaponised” by terrorists in the wake of the Christchurch mosque attacks.
•  Mr. Morrison, who met with a number of tech firms on Tuesday said Australia would encourage other G20 nations to hold social media firms to account.
•  Attorney-General Christian Porter said the new laws would make it a criminal offence for platforms not to “expeditiously” take down “abhorrent violent material” like terror attacks, murder or rape. Executives could face up to three years in prison for failing to do so, he added, while social media platforms would face fines of up to 10% of their annual turnover.
•  “Mainstream media that broadcast such material would be putting their licence at risk and there is no reason why social media platforms should be treated any differently,”Mr. Porter said. The government was so far “underwhelmed” by the response from tech giants at their Tuesday meeting with Mr. Morrison, Communications Minister Mitch Fifield told reporters Saturday.

::SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY::

Climate change might affect India’s wind power generation

•  Increased warming in the Indian Ocean and the resultant weakening of the Indian summer monsoon may come in the way of India’s goal of leading the world's wind power generation.
•  Analysing the available wind and atmospheric data from 1980-2016, researchers from Harvard University, U.S., and National Climate Center in Beijing, China, found the potential electricity production of windmills across India had decreased by about 13%. And this trend might continue.
•  In the paper published last December in Science Advances, the researchers showed a decline in electricity production in the States of Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Gujarat, and Karnataka. No significant decline was seen in Tamil Nadu, which is located on the east coast and, thus, had different wind conditions during summer
•  Summer winds in India are driven by the temperature contrast between the Indian subcontinent and the Indian Ocean, and the warming in the Indian Ocean reduced this contrast. Also, warming of the Equatorial Indian Ocean resulted in a decline in the wind speed.
•  The Indian government has set a target of 60 GW of cumulative wind power capacity by 2022. The researchers say that this goal can be beneficial only if planners in India take these historical reconstructions into account while setting up wind power installations in the future.

::SPORTS::

India loses to south Korea in Azlan shah cup finals

•  India has lost to South Korea in the final of Sultan Azlan Shah Hockey tournament at Ipoh in Malaysia today. South Korea lifted the title, defeating India in a shoot out 4-2.
•  Till the stipulated time both the teams had a score of 1 goal each. Even India was leading with one goal till half time. Simaranjit Singh hit a goal for India. Jang Jong Hyun scored the goal for South Korea.
•  Hosts Malaysia defeated Canada 4-2 and secured the 3rd place. Asian games Gold medalist Japan stood at 5th place, defeating Poland 6-1.

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