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Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 04 August 2014

Kosi floods: Centre rushes relief teams to Bihar

The Centre rushed in essential supplies, relief teams and other assistance to Bihar to deal with Kosi flood situation and put on standby several aircraft to deal with any emergency.
An assessment team comprising experts from different fields is in Nepal to oversee the situation as an artificial dam created there on a Kosi tributary following a massive landslide has sparked fears of floods in Bihar.
Government also said eight National Disaster Response Force teams have already been deployed and seven will soon be sent.
44,000 persons had been evacuated by the Bihar government and the state administration was urged to speed up the process, adding that 107 relief camps had been set up. One composite column (100 personnel) of army and air force had reached Supaul and one Saharsa in the state and three more columns mobilised from Sukna have gone to Katihar.

A committee under the chairmanship of the Attorney General (AG) has been formed by the Centre to look into the amendments in Lokpal search panel rules, which were notified by the last United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government.
The search panel is mandated to recommend names for appointment of chairperson and members of the Lokpal. This panel has faced some objection in the past, the search panel has to choose these persons from among the panel provided by the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT).
As per the existing rules, an eight-member search panel is tasked to draw up a panel of persons for consideration by the selection committee led by the Prime Minister for appointment of chairperson and members of the Lokpal.
The government is likely to empower the search committee to also include people from outside the list to be provided by the DoPT for consideration by the selection committee.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi wants to open a new chapter in India-Nepal relations , while hoping to connect lives across our open borders seamlessly.
Mr. Modi is the first Indian Prime Minister to pay a bilateral visit to Kathmandu in 17 years. The visit is significant, given he will return to Kathmandu later this year for the SAARC Summit.
In his statement, Mr. Modi outlined the areas he hoped to forge agreements on: “trade and investment, hydropower, agriculture, environment, tourism, education, culture and sports.”
The two sides are expected to announce a power trading agreement, which will lead to the signing of a 900-MW hydropower agreement during the visit.

Country’s first multi-sensor moored observatory IndARC was successfully deployed in Kongsfjorden Fjord of the Arctic roughly halfway between North Pole and Norway.
This observatory, designed and developed by ESSO-NIOT and ESSO-NCAOR with ESSO-Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS), Hyderabad, was deployed from the Norwegian Polar Institute’s research vessel R.V. Lance.
A team of scientists from the Earth System Science Organisation-National Institute of Ocean Technology (ESSO-NIOT) Chennai and ESSO-National Centre for Antartic and Ocean Research (NCAOR) termed the same as a milestone in India’s scientific endeavours in the Arctic region.

July 28 clashes in a remote town of the western Xinjiang region had left close to 100 people killed, marking the worst violence to hit the Muslim-majority region in more than five years.
A large mob armed with knives and axes attacked government offices, police stations and majority Han Chinese residents in two townships in Yarkand (Shache in Chinese), a county in the Kashgar Prefecture in Xinjiang’s west.
Officials said the group had “set roadblocks” on highways to stop vehicles, and attacked passengers with knives. Some were seen carrying banners declaring “holy war”.
The violence in Yarkand is the biggest since July 2009, when large scale riots between Uighurs and Han Chinese left at least 197 people killed. The government has blamed the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) and other groups for organising the attacks.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday expressed India’s commitment and assistance to Nepal’s development and promising to take the two countries’ relations to a new height.
Mr. Modi referred to the Nepal-India relationship as “older than the Himalayas and the Ganga,” even as he announced a $1 billion Line of Credit for Nepal’s infrastructure development. Mr. Modi also promised to help Nepal in the field of hydropower, infrastructure, space technology and agriculture.
He assured that the work on Pancheshwar Multipurpose Project would begin in a year. After years of negotiations, work on this joint venture project has not begun. Nepal could prosper by selling electricity to India.
The Indian Prime Minister assured Mr. Koirala that the ongoing peace process in Nepal was entirely a Nepali matter and should be concluded as per Nepal’s requirements.
In the presence of the two Prime Ministers, the officials signed three memorandum of understanding (MoU) – tourism development in Nepal, Goitre Control Programme in Nepal, and co-operation between the state-controlled television channels – Doordarshan and Nepal Television (NTV). They also exchanged terms of reference (ToR) on Pancheshwar Development Authority.
Mr. Modi would offer prayers at the Pahuspati Temple on Monday before heading to the President’s Office to meet President Dr Ram Baran Yadav.

Sources: Various News Papers & PIB

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