Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 07 March 2014

The Indian Ocean-centred maritime security trilateral

The Indian Ocean-centred maritime security trilateral between India, Sri Lanka and the Maldives will be expanded to include two more island countries.
Seychelles and Mauritius attended the third meeting of the trilateral as they were very interested to participate in future interactions.
Beginning in 2011 as a concept, the trilateral has reached a state of preparedness from where it is capable of responding to illegal activity such as piracy.
By training people to work together, the trilateral has also built up capacity in responding to search and rescue and oil spills. Sri Lanka and India have also expanded their joint naval exercises to include Maldives.

Overseas Citizens of India (OCIs) and Persons of Indian Origin (PIOs) can now fly to the country without a medical visa for commissioning surrogacy. Foreigners will, however, have to continue obtaining a visa.
A Home Ministry order says a couple with an OCI or PIO card, married for at least two years, would have to take permission only from the Foreigners’ Regional Registration Office (FRRO) or the Foreigners’ Registration Office (FRO). However they must, carry a letter from their country, issued by the Foreign Ministry or the Embassy here, saying it recognised surrogacy and that the child born thus would be permitted entry as the couple’s biological offspring.
The OCI card is issued to foreign nationals who were eligible to become citizens of India on January 26, 1950, or were Indian citizens on or after that date with eligibility based on lineage. The PIO card is issued to a person of Indian origin who is a citizen of any country other than Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Afghanistan, China or Nepal or who has held an Indian passport at any time or is the spouse of an Indian citizen or a Person of Indian Origin.

Tunisia's president has lifted a state of emergency in force since the 2011 uprising that ousted dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali , despite a string of recent jihadist attacks.
The country has been rocked by sporadic violence since the January 2011 revolution, which ignited the Arab Spring across North Africa and the Middle East.
In November, Marzouki extended the emergency rule for eight months, meaning it has ended four months earlier than scheduled.
The end to the state of emergency however "does not limit the capacity of the security services to implement the law and does not preclude any request for military support should it be needed,"
Emergency rule amounted to "a restriction of rights, freedoms, the movement of people and goods" as Tunisia's political crisis was ending and security conditions improving.
Much of the deadly violence witnessed in Tunisia since the uprising has been blamed on Ansar al-Sharia, a hardline Islamist movement accused of having links to Al-Qaeda.

A team of Michigan State University computer scientists led by Indian Institute of Technology(IIT) Kanpur alum Anil Jain have built the first three-dimensional model of a human fingerprint.
Jain, a University Distinguished Professor of computer science and engineering, and his team did was develop a method that takes a two-dimensional image of a fingerprint and maps it to a 3-D finger surface.
The 3-D finger surface, complete with all the ridges and valleys that make up the human fingerprint, is made using a 3-D printer. It creates what Jain's team called a fingerprint "phantom."
While the 3-D model doesn't yet have the exact texture or feel of a real finger, it could advance fingerprint sensing and matching technology.

The Reserve Bank said that India is fully committed to bring in reforms in the over—the—counter (OTC) derivatives markets, but its pace and nature will depend on the domestic market conditions.
However, the pace and scope of reform implementation depend on the domestic market conditions and characteristics,” it said in a report on ‘OTC Derivatives Market Reforms’
In response to the financial crisis that began in 2008, G—20 had initiated a series of reforms designed to strengthen regulation and oversight of the financial system and tasked the Financial Stability Board (FSB) with coordinating the reforms and assessing their implementation.
In India, the OTC derivative products were introduced by RBI in a phased manner, keeping in view the hedging needs of the real sector.

India’s top badminton star Saina Nehwal laboured past American Beiwen Zhang in testing three games to reach the women’s singles quarter-finals of the All-England badminton championships.
The Commonwealth Games gold medallist next faces fourth seed Chinese Wang Shixian, brushed aside the challenge of Ireland’s Chloe Magee of 21-15, 21-12 in her second round match.
Saina is the only Indian left in the championships.