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Current Affairs for IAS Exams – 03 March 2016

:: NATIONAL ::

In yet another bid to release the seven convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, the Tamil Nadu government wrote to the Centre, seeking its views on its decision to free them.
Under Section 435 of the Cr.PC, the State has to consult the Centre before releasing prisoners prosecuted by the CBI or under a Central law.
In December last year, the Supreme Court had ruled that the State government had no power to release the convicts without the Centre’s concurrence.
In 1999, the Supreme Court found the seven guilty of con- spiring to assassinate Rajiv Gandhi in May 1991.
The State government’s earlier attempt in 2014 to release the seven failed, as itscommunication to the Centre gave only three days’ time for a response.
The main petition questioning the legality of the government’s order of release is still pending before a three-judge Bench of the SC.

For the second year in a row, the Modi government has reduced fund available to child health interventions, with a massive cut — from Rs. 15,483.77 crore last year to Rs. 14,000 crore in the latest budget.
The National Family Health Survey (NFHS)-4 data for 15 States shows that 37 per cent of children under the age of five are stunted; 22 per cent are wasted while 34 per cent under the age of 5 are under weight.
The Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) has seen a 7 per cent reduction in fund.
The scheme, implemented by the Women and Child Development (WCD) Ministry, is the country’s flagship intervention to improve child nutrition in the country.
That’s not all — the percentage share of the Mid-Day Meal (MDM) scheme in the total Union Budget allocation has gone down from 0.74 per cent in 2014-15 (BE) to 0.49 perCent in 2016-17 (BE).
The allocation for the MDM scheme for 2016-17 stands at Rs. 9,700 crore (2016-17 BE).
The budget comes a week after the Economic Survey states that India needed to increase investments on child nutrition programmes if it were to capitalise on the demographic advantage offered by its young population.
The total amount spend on child health by the government would be Rs. 65,758 crore. Over the last two years, allocations for ICDS has seen a sharp decrease, maintain experts.

Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton won seven States each among the 11 States their respective parties contested in and placed themselves far ahead of their rivals in the race for Republican and Democratic presidential nominations.
Mr. Trump, whose highly controversial and confrontational campaign has deeply divided the Republican leadership as well as electorate, sought to bridge that gap by declaring himself as the “unifier and the most inclusive candidate in the field”
Mr. Trump lost four States — three to Texas Senator Ted Cruz and one to Florida Senator Marco Rubio — but these losses only take him closer to the nomination.
Neither Mr. Cruz nor Mr. Rubio will quit the race, and is certain to go for each other’s throat, after a week of coordinated attacks against Mr. Trump
Ms. Clinton, now confident that she is closer to the nomination than ever before, made a victory speech that for the most part sounded like Mr. Sanders’s previous speeches.

In the fourth attack since 2007, heavily-armed terrorists, including suicide bombers, struck the Indian consulate in Afghanistan’s Jalalabad city, killing nine persons, including an Afghan security person and causing damage to the chancery.
All Indians in the mission were safe and six terrorists, who carried out the attack, were dead.
While two terrorists blew themselves up, four militants were killed by the Afghan police. Two civilians were also killed in the crossfire.
The attack on the Indian consulate was part of a trend of such operations launched from Pakistan.
They are simply attacking India’s presence in Afghanistan, whenever they get the opportunity.
The whole spectrum of the India- Afghan relations, the relationship itself, is the target of the attacks.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said that the government would take a final decision on his budget proposal to tax 60 per cent of employees’ provident fund (EPF) savings of those earning over Rs.15,000 per month, before it responds on the issue during a debate on the Finance Bill in Parliament.
The finance ministry had issued a clarification that EPF savings won’t be taxed at retirement, if the retiring employee opts to use 60 per cent of his EPF account balance to buy an annuity product that provides them a monthly pension.
The Budget had announced that 40 per cent of EPF savings will be tax-free at the time of withdrawal on retirement. Till now, EPF savings are tax-exempt at the time of retirement.
Mr. Jaitley said that the tax proposal was not aimed at revenue generation, but help everyone get a pension in their old age.
“The balance 60 per cent (of EPF savings) if converted to annuity and used for a regular pension will not be taxed. The objective is to incentivise people to get pension and disincentivise consumption of savings,” he said.
Stressing that the proposal would only impact high-income private sector employees, the minister said that nearly three crore active EPF members receive monthly salaries of less than Rs.15,000 and would not be affected by the tax.

Bangladesh quelled the demons within to surpass Pakistan's modest total and ensure its first T20I final entry, at the Sher- e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium.
The hosts returned from the edge of the precipice playing out a dramatic 19th over, where fortunes swung like a pendulum, to overhaul the target of 130 with five wickets and as many balls to spare.
Rendering the rest of the league phase inconsequential, Bangladesh will now play India in the final on Sunday.