Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 02 June 2014
Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 02 June 2014
First CM of Telangana
- Telangana Rashtriya Samiti (TRS) chief K Chandrashekhar Rao was sworn in as the first Chief Minister of Telangana, which became the 29th state of India.
- Eleven ministers have also taken oath in K Chandrasekhar Rao's Cabinet in the new state of Telangana.
- Rao hoisted the tricolour and took salute at an impressive parade held at Parade Grounds, Secunderabad.
- In his first public address as the CM, Rao vowed to make Telangana a model state in all respects and said that welfare and development would be the two driving forces of his government.
- The Telangana government would maintain cordial relationship not only with the Centre but also neighbouring states.
- Rooting out "political corruption" would also be top on his agenda to ensure transparent governance.
Execution of death row convict Yakub Memon
- The Supreme Court has stayed the execution of death row convict Yakub Abdul Razak Memon, a key conspirator along with Dawood Ibrahim in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case.
- The mercy plea of Memon was rejected by President Pranab Mukherjee on May 21.
- The decision was taken by the President following recommendations of the Maharashtra government and the Union home ministry that the mercy petition of Memon be rejected.
- A bench comprising justice JS Khehar and justice C Nagappan issued a notice to the Maharashtra government and others on the plea of Memon and said "execution proceedings will remain stayed".
- The court also referred to a Constitution Bench a plea of Memon that review petitions in death penalty cases should not be heard by the apex court in chamber proceedings and be decided in open court.
A new U.S.-Russia proxy war
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With Russia and the United States as far apart as ever on ways of resolving the crisis in Ukraine’s southeast, its outcome may well be decided on the battlefield.
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Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has not spoken with U.S. President Barack Obama since Kiev launched its “anti-terrorist operation” against anti-government protesters in Russian speaking regions in the east six weeks ago.
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While Moscow denounces the Ukrainian crackdown in the east as a “punitive operation” against the civilian population, Washington maintains that Kiev’s authorities “have every right to take steps to maintain law and order in their own country.”
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The Ukrainian border guard service has reported several convoys of trucks with militants and weapons crossing the porous border from Russia in recent weeks.
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Russia has refrained from openly supporting separatists in eastern Ukraine and still hopes to persuade Kiev to resolve the conflict by granting broad autonomy to the region.
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The conflict in the east is fast morphing into civil war. This was in stark display earlier this month in Odessa, a peaceful multiethnic Ukrainian port city on the Black Sea, where a group of ultranationalists from western Ukraine burnt alive and clubbed to death at least 48 pro-Russian activists.
Restrictions on foreign exchange proprietary trades
- A stronger rupee has paved the way for high-street banks to have a greater play in the currency market, with last year's unnerving choppiness suddenly looking like a thing of the past.
- The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) recently told several large lenders that they are free to carry out foreign exchange proprietary trades in which bank treasuries bet on the dollar-rupee movement.
- The move will deepen the currency market and offer finer foreign exchange rates to customers, particularly large corporates with regular exports, imports and dollar borrowings.
- The RBI allows each bank a certain net open position (NOP) limit for prop (or, proprietary) trades; the limit varies from $20 million to $100 million, depending on a bank's size and level of treasury activity.
- In 2013, when the rupee buckled under speculators' attack, the limits were whittled down by banks to $5 million and even zero at the RBI's instruction.
Sun-observing IRIS
- Nasa’s sun-observing IRIS (Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph) spacecraft has captured its first stunning close-up of a colossal coronal mass ejection(CME) erupting from the sun.
- The field of view for this imagery is about five times the width of earth and about seven-and-half times its length, a tremendous sheet of solar material can be seen erupting in a latest video released by Nasa.
- The view is unprecedented for IRIS which was launched in June last year to observe the lowest levels of the sun’s atmosphere with better resolution than ever before.
- IRIS must commit to pointing at certain areas of the sun at least a day in advance, so catching a CME in the act involves some educated guesses and a little bit of luck.
Champions of IPL 7
- Manish Pandey played an absolute blinder as Kolkata Knight Riders held their nerves to beat a spirited Kings XI Punjab by three wickets in an exhilarating summit clash to win the seventh edition of the Indian Premier League in Bangalore.
- This was KKR's second IPL trophy, the only team apart from Chennai Super Kings to achieve the feat.
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Sources: Various News Papers & PIB