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Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 07 May 2014

Increase in Mullaperiyar water level

In a major victory for Tamil Nadu, the Supreme Court declared as unconstitutional the law passed by Kerala in 2006, constituting the Dam Safety Authority to prevent the State from raising the water level in the Mullaperiyar dam from 136 ft to 142 ft.
A five-judge Constitution Bench of Chief Justice R.M. Lodha and Justices H.L. Dattu, C.K. Prasad, Madan B. Lokur and M.Y. Eqbal, allowing the suit filed by TN permanently restrained Kerala from interfering with the rights of Tamil Nadu from raising the water level in the dam from 136 ft to 142 ft.
Justice Lodha, who wrote the judgment, also restrained Kerala from enforcing its law on Tamil Nadu. By enacting the law and fixing the storage height of the dam at 136 ft, Kerala had nullified the 2006 judgment and usurped judicial power and thus interfered with the judicial functioning.
The Bench said the Legislature could only amend the law but could not invalidate a judgment or a decree passed by the court. The law enacted by Kerala legislature was an attempt to interfere with the judicial functioning, the Bench said and struck the law as unconstitutional and void.
On a suit filed by Tamil Nadu, the apex court in 2006 permitted the State to raise the water level from 136 ft to 142 ft. Within 15 days of the verdict, Kerala enacted a law and constituted Dam Safety Authority to prevent Tamil Nadu from raising the water level beyond 136 ft. In April 2006, Tamil Nadu filed a fresh suit to declare the law as unconstitutional. After eight years the apex court decreed the suit in favour of Tamil Nadu.

Political violence index

India's long-drawn election campaign may have seen rhetoric reach new extremes of divisiveness but the risk of conflict and political violence in the country has significantly declined relative to others, according to a global index that has red-flagged rising terror attacks in China as a growing cause of concern for prospective investors.
India remains a high-risk country and is rated 18 on the places most risky to do business in according to the Conflict and Political Violence Index for 2014 compiled by London-based risk analytics firm Maplecroft. But this is an improvement from ninth place on the political violence front among 197 countries in 2011, when it was categorised as an "extreme risk" nation.
While Syria, Iraq, South Sudan, Afghanistan and Pakistan are among the most conflict-ridden and violent countries to do business in, what should worry investors is the surge in such risks across the world, from Ukraine to the Arab Spring countries as well as major growth economies such as China, Nigeria, Thailand, Indonesia and Turkey.
China's ranking on the index for instance has risen five places in just six months, owing to a major spurt in fatalities due to terrorist attacks perpetrated by Uighur separatists. While corruption and labour standards are currently more immediate concerns for investors in China, this growing trend is a cause for concern, the risk report noted.

Change in U.S. Climate

The effects of human-induced climate change are being felt in every corner of the United States, with water growing scarcer in dry regions, torrential rains increasing in wet regions, heat waves becoming more common and more severe, wildfires growing worse, and forests dying under assault from heat-loving insects.
Such sweeping changes have been caused by an average warming of less than 2 degrees Fahrenheit over most land areas of the country in the past century, the scientists found. If greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and methane continue to escalate at a rapid pace, they said, the warming could conceivably exceed 10 degrees by the end of this century.
Climate change, once considered an issue for a distant future, has moved firmly into the present.
The report is the latest in a series of dire warnings about how the effects of global warming that had been long foreseen by climate scientists are already affecting the planet. Its region-by-region documentation of changes occurring in the United States, and of future risks, makes clear that few places will be unscathed — and some, like northerly areas, are feeling the effects at a swifter pace than had been expected.
Alaska in particular is hard hit. Glaciers and frozen ground in that state are melting, storms are eating away at fragile coastlines no longer protected by winter sea ice, and entire communities are having to flee inland — a precursor of the large-scale changes the report foresees for the rest of the United States.

First ‘Born Free’ election

South Africans voted in the first “Born Free” election , although polls suggest the allure of the ruling African National Congress as the conqueror of apartheid will prevail even among those with no memory of white-minority rule.
Opinion polls suggest there is no doubt about the overall result, with ANC support estimated at around 65 percent, only a shade lower than the 65.9 percent it won in the 2009 election that brought President Jacob Zuma to power.
The resilience of ANC support has surprised analysts who a year ago were saying it could struggle at the polls as its glorious past recedes into history and voters focus instead on the sluggish economic growth and slew of scandals that have typified Zuma’s first term.
Africa’s most sophisticated economy has struggled to recover from a 2009 recession - its first since the 1994 demise of apartheid - and the ANC’s efforts to stimulate growth and tackle 25 percent unemployment have been hampered by powerful unions.
South Africa’s top anti-graft agency accused Zuma this year of “benefiting unduly” from a $23 million state-funded security upgrade to his private home at Nkandla in rural KwaZulu-Natal province that included a swimming pool and chicken run.

Prepayment fee on floating rate term loans

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said that banks cannot levy charges on individual customers if they choose to close their floating rate loans.
Some banks charge a fee if an individual borrower chooses to close his or her loan. This fee varies from bank to bank, and is mostly in the range of 1-3%.
In its first bi-monthly monetary policy review on 1 April, RBI had indicated that in the interest of their consumers, banks should consider allowing their borrowers the possibility of prepaying floating rate term loans without any penalty.
Accordingly, it is advised that banks will not be permitted to charge foreclosure charges/pre-payment penalties on all floating rate term loans sanctioned to individual borrowers.

Most searched IPL player

Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) skipper Virat Kohli takes the top spot as the most searched IPL player this season, closely followed by Chennai Super Kings (CSK) captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni.
Yuvraj Singh from Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) captured the third position.
With one of the most stunning catches taken in cricket history against Royal Challengers Bangalore to his credit, IPL debutant Chris Lynn (KKR) takes the fourth spot as the most searched player.
Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) lead batsman Virendra Sehwag may not have scored big runs on the ground yet, but continues to attract a lot of queries from his fans on Google Search, thus puttting him up at the fifth spot.
Royal Challengers big man Chris Gayle, Chennai Superkings Suresh Raina, and Sunrisers Hyderabad skipper Shikhar Dhawan are also among the top 10 trending IPL players on Google Search.