Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 03 March 2014

BIMSTEC summit

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh arrived in Myanmar to attend the BIMSTEC Summit, making a strong pitch for giving a fillip to India’s Look East policy and explore ways to enhance connectivity, transport, trade, tourism and other linkages to all the northeastern states.
Dr. Singh, who is travelling to Myanmar after a gap of nearly two years to attend the two-day summit, is accompanied by National Security Adviser Shivshankar Menon.
BIMSTEC is an expression of India’s Look East Policy of the 1990s, coinciding with Thailand’s Look West Policy.
The seven members -- India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Myanmar, Bhutan and Nepal -- bring together over 20 per cent of the world population, which is about 1.5 billion, and a GDP of over USD 2.5 trillion.
The Summit is expected to discuss steps to bolster cooperation in counter-terrorism. India has led negotiations and finalised the BIMSTEC Convention on Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters.
India also wishes to see BIMSTEC promote economic and energy cooperation, encourage cultural links and strengthen security contacts.

Jat leaders has welcomed the decision of the Union Cabinet to include Jats in nine states in the central list of Other Backward Classes and said the move will help youths from the community in getting jobs.
Ghatwala khap council head Harkishan Singh Malik and Balyan khap council head Naresh Tikait said it was the best gift for the Jat community and would help them in employment and improve their living standards.
The Union Cabinet has approved the inclusion of the Jat community in the Central list of OBCs for the states of Bihar, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttarrakhand, Uttar Pradesh and the National capital territory of Delhi.
An approximate number of nine crore Jats are living in nine states.

Dozens of Libyans stormed the building of the parliament in the capital Tripoli in protest against the extension of its mandate..
Earlier in the day, anti-parliament activists had blocked roads to the parliament to protest an attack by Congress’ supporters on protesting campers outside the building.
The Congress, Libya’s highest authority, has recently extended by one year its mandate, which was originally due to expire in February.
Libya has in recent weeks seen mass protests against the parliament and the interim government due to a lack of security in the country.

With seven Oscars including a history-making best director award for Alfonso Cuaron, the force of Gravity exerted itself at the 86th annual Academy Awards.
The searing slavery drama “12 Years a Slave” has won the Academy Award for best picture.
Jared Leto, a strong favourite, won the first trophy of the night for his role of a transgender AIDS patient in Dallas Buyers Club.
Frozen defeated The Croods, Despicable Me 2, Ernest & Celestine and The Wind Rises to score in the animated category.
Gravity which has maximum nominations with The American Hustle won its first award of the night in the best visual effects category while the best costume design went to The Great Gatsby.
Dallas Buyers Club took home the best make-up and hairstyling trophy.
Best animated short film Oscar went to Mr Hublot while Helium was named best live action short film.
20 Feet from Stardom was named the best documentary feature and best documentary short went to The Lady in Number 6: Music Saved My Life.

India is home to the fifth largest group of billionaires in the world and Mukesh Ambani, chairman of Reliance Industries (RIL), is the country's richest man with a personal fortune of $18 billion.
According China-based research firm Hurun's 2014 global rich list, Mukesh Ambani was ranked 41st in the list that was topped by Bill Gates, whose personal networth stood at a whopping $68 billion.
Other noted Indians in the list include Lakshmi N Mittal ranked 49th with a personal net worth of $17 billion.
Dilip Sanghvi of Sun Pharmaceutical Industries and Wipro's Azim Premji both ranked 77th with a personal wealth of $13.5 billion each. Tata Sons' Pallonji Mistry ranked 93rd with a personal wealth of $12 billion.
SP Hinduja & family was ranked 93rd on the list, with a net worth of $12 billion.

In 2015, China is expected to launch its next space laboratory.
Tiangong 2 will follow on from the Tiangong 1 module, which was launched in 2011 and is still in orbit at the time of writing.
Tiangong 1 received two crews of astronauts and carried out China's first space dockings.
It is a small, roughly cylindrical module with a crew cabin and a service module featuring solar panels. Although Tiangong 1 is officially designated as a "space laboratory", it is really a small space station.
The launch of Tiangong 2 has been expected for a long time, but space analysts are puzzled by the nature of this spacecraft.
Originally, China planned to launch three Tiangong modules, and Tiangong 2 was expected to be a marginally improved version of the Tiangong 1 spacecraft.
Later, China seemed to drop plans for three Tiangongs and launch just two.