Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 09 April 2014

Jats in the OBC category

Observing that the Centre had sufficient prima facie materials, the Supreme Court has refrained from staying the government’s poll-eve decision to include Jats in the Other Backward Classes (OBC) category in nine states. The decision by the UPA-II government was seen as an attempt to appease the community, which has strong social and political clout in western Uttar Pradesh and its bordering areas of Uttarakhand, Delhi, Haryana and Rajasthan besides also being present in Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh.
A Bench led by Chief Justice P Sathasivam however asked the government to place on record a comprehensive affidavit detailing the reasons to add Jats in the list. The court also said that any decision on providing reservation benefits shall be subjected to its final order on a batch of petitions, some of which favour the inclusion and others oppose it.

In a first for the domestic retail industry, the world’s largest retailer, Wal-Mart, plans to set up an online marketplace model in its cash-and-carry stores in the country.
The company is entering the wholesale e-commerce space and will extend the business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce platform to its Best Price Modern Wholesale store members.
The platform will provide them with a convenient online shopping opportunity. As an exclusive virtual store for its members, the e-commerce platform will provide a similar assortment of products, as well as special items. Online retail, at present, accounts for less than 1% of the total market in India, but this space is slated to grow at 50-55% over the next three years to reach R50,400 crore by 2016, according to a report by Crisil.

Searchers have picked up fresh signals in the Indian Ocean believed to be from the lost Malaysian Boeing 777 aircraft, making them confident that they are on the verge of finding its remains.
Two more signals from what are thought to be one of the downed aircraft’s black box flight recorders were detected by the Australian Navy ship Ocean Shield recently.

Amid much fanfare and grand show of support, Bharatiya Janata Party prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi filed his nomination papers from the Vadodara Lok Sabha constituency and invoked the legacy of education and good governance of the Gaekwad dynasty.
Mr. Modi, who is representing Vadodara for the first time, sought to underscore his ties with the region known for its royal family.
Calling Vadodara his “karmabhoomi”, Mr Modi thanked his party for giving him the opportunity to represent the constituency.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) moved an application before the Supreme Court seeking transcripts of audio tapes containing statements of Board President N Srinivasan and Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, recorded by the Mukul Mudgal Committee which probed allegations of IPL spot and match fixing.
The plea was mentioned before a bench headed by Justice A K Patnaik which posted the matter for hearing on April 11.
In the application, the BCCI has also sought the transcripts of statements by Sundar Raman, the Chief Operating Officer of IPL.