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Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 02 April 2014

The Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) system

The Election Commission has chosen Jadavpur Lok Sabha constituency in West Bengal for the launch of the Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail system in EVMs on an experimental basis.
The Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) system will enable a voter to get the proof that his vote has gone to the candidate of his choice against the right symbol.
As the voter presses the EVM button, a paper slip will come out of the VVPAT attached to the EVM exhibiting the name and symbol on which vote has been cast. The slip will be detached immediately to be dropped in a secret box attached to the machine.
Jadavpur was the only constituency in the state where the system would be experimentally launched keeping in mind the level of education among the voters and its congested character.
The system was developed by the Bharat Electronics limited, Bangalore and the Electronics Corporation of India Limited (ECIL). It has undergone extensive evaluation by a Technical Experts Committee.

Dismissing the Centre’s plea, the Supreme Court refused to review its verdict commuting the death sentence of three convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case to life imprisonment.
The bench was led by Chief Justice P. Sathasivam and comprised of Justices Ranjan Gogoi and S K Singh. The government is now left with the only legal option of moving a curative petition against the dismissal.
Significantly, the apex court is yet to deliver its verdict on a related matter wherein the Centre has challenged the Tamil Nadu government’s decision to remit the sentences of all seven convicts in the 1991 assassination case. A status quo has been ordered regarding the release of the convicts.
The Centre filed a comprehensive writ petition challenging the state government’s authority to release the convicts, and also moved a review petition in the specific case. In its review petition, the Centre said the apex court had passed the order “without jurisdiction”.

Australia’s highest court recognised a third category of sex other than male or female.
The case was brought by Norrie May-Welby, who identifies as neuter, and had fought for years to have an option other than male or female on official records, preferring the term “non-specific.” The Australian registrar of births, deaths and marriages argued in court that the law only allows the choice of male or female on official forms.
The High Court disagreed, reaching a unanimous decision that the law does recognise a person may be neither male nor female.
The ruling only applies to what a person can put on their official certificate for births, deaths and marriages.
Eleven years ago Australia issued the first passport to a person of indeterminate sex with just an X marked in the gender column.

Tsunami waves generated by an earthquake measuring 8.3 on the Richter Scale that hit off the Chile coast struck some areas in the north of the country.
The Chilean National Office for Emergency Tuesday organised an evacuation of more than 10,000 people in some coastal areas.
According to the University of Chile Seismological Service, the major tremor hit off the Chilean coast at 8.46 p.m. (11.46 p.m. GMT) and the epicentre, with a depth of 44 km, is located 99 km northwest of the mining port of Iquique, near the border with Peru.
Thousands have lost power, and hundreds of thousands of Chileans are spending the night away from their beds due to the evacuation order, which remains in effect for northern Chile.
The U.S. Geological Survey initially reported the quake at 8.0 magnitude.
So far, at least 10 strong aftershocks, including a 6.2-magnitude tremor, have occurred.

Five girls from the city of Madurai have won the third prize in the Space Settlement Design Contest 2014, co-sponsored by NASA Ames and the National Space Society (NSS), under the Literary Merit category.
The girls from Sri Saradha Vidyalayam Matriculation Higher Secondary School, Madurai have bagged the prestigious prize for their fictional work titled 'Cronus-The Utopia'.
The team is made up of Class XI students - SB Vishaka Nandini, M Shenbagam, K Kamali, P Dhivya Priya and SG Yogalakshmi. In the competition, they describe their idea of Cronus- a fictional space orbit of Saturn, as a human settlement in deep space in the year 2250 as a result of depletion of natural resources on Earth.

Reserve Bank of India (RBI), has kept the indicative policy rate (repo) unchanged at 8 per cent while taking measures to provide longer term liquidity in the system.
Repo rate is the rate at which banks borrow funds from the central bank.
In pursuance of the Urjit R. Patel Committee’s recommendation to de-emphasise overnight “guaranteed-access” windows for liquidity management and progressively conduct liquidity management through term repos, the RBI has decided to further reduce access to overnight repos , while compensating fully with a commensurate expansion of the market’s access to term repos from the Reserve Bank.
The RBI Governor said that real GDP (gross domestic product) growth was projected to pick up from a little below 5 per cent in 2013-14 to a range of 5-6 per cent in 2014-15, albeit with downside risks to the central estimate of 5.5 per cent.

Indian squash player Dipika Pallikal has dropped a rung to 12th in the latest world rankings for women in which Malaysian squash legend Nicol David has retained the top spot.
Dipika, however, remains the highest-ranked Indian in the Women's Squash Association rankings.
David has maintained the top spot despite her unexpected loss in the semifinals of the World Championship held last month.