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Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 10 April 2015

:: National ::

Raju gets 7 years for Rs. 7,000-cr. fraud

Former chairman of Satyam Computer Services Ltd. B. Ramalinga Raju and nine others, two of them family members, were sentenced to seven years rigorous imprisonment in the country’s largest-ever corporate fraud.
The special court imposed a fine of Rs. 5.5 crore each on Raju and his brother Rama Raju, ex-managing director, and about Rs. 50 lakh each on their sibling Suryanarayana Raju and seven others.
A confessional statement by Raju on fudging of accounts by his company on January 7, 2009, following the aborted acquisition of Maytas Properties and Infra, shook the corporate world as his meteoric rise had made him a household name among stock market investors.
Raju, seated in the accused box, looked calm as Judge B.V.L.N. Chakravarthi delivered the verdict. Initially, the judge who pronounced them guilty, did not disclose the quantum of punishment as he wanted to hear the accused and their counsel.
He delivered the sentence after the lunch break. Only the lawyers and accused were allowed inside the court hall while media personnel waited in the corridor outside.
The court found the accused guilty under 14 counts for various offences and sentenced them to imprisonment for different periods besides imposing fines.
The sentences will run concurrently and the maximum punishment each accused will get is seven years.
Raju has already spent nearly 29 months in jail.

Direct flights to Colombo, Macau, Bangkok on cards

The decision of IndiGo airlines to make Visakhapatnam International Airport a hub for its operations will put it in the fast track mode of development, according to Minister for HRD Ganta Srinivasa Rao.
He was at the airport in connection with the flagging of the Air India flight to Port Blair by Union Minister of Civil Aviation P. Ashok Gajapathi Raju.
Around 30 flights, including three to international destinations, were operating from Visakhapatnam to various destinations every day. Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu was committed to making Visakhapatnam destination for IT and Tourism and industry hub. Air traffic growth augured well for all this, Mr. Srinivasa Rao said in an informal chat with media persons.
He said efforts were being made to introduce direct flights to Colombo, Macau and Bangkok.
He expressed the view that the day would not be far off when 100 flights took off everyday from the Visakhapatnam Airport.
IndiGo, which had planned to operate from Visakhapatnam to Tiruvananthapuram via Chennai, with effect from March 29 had postponed the same reportedly due to technical problems.
“They had given us the schedule but postponed the launch,” Airport Director C. Pattabhi said. The flight is now expected to begin operations on April 15.

Govt. freezes Greenpeace accounts

The Union Home Ministry suspended the registration of Greenpeace India under the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) for six months and froze its seven accounts, prohibiting donations from abroad.
This follows allegations about the organisation’s involvement in encouraging “anti-development” campaigns across the country.
The action is being viewed as part of the government’s policy to clamp down on advocacy groups which, it says, have been indulging in acts prejudicial to national economic security.
Greenpeace India has been served with a show-cause notice asking why its registration should not be cancelled.
Citing various grounds for suspension of its FCRA registration, the Ministry of Home Affairs alleged that the organisation did not inform the authorities about transfer of foreign contributions received in the designated account to the FCRA utilisation account and then to five other accounts.

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:: International :

Arunachal status still a bone of contention: China

China has backed Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s remarks on the Sino-Indian border issue, but, in response to a question, observed that the status of Arunachal Pradesh continues to remain a bone of contention between the two sides.
“We have taken note of remarks made by Prime Minister Modi. China has always taken a positive attitude on the China-India boundary question,” China’s foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said.
Ms. Hua’s response comes on the eve of the Annual Defence Dialogue (ADD), which is expected to consider new confidence building measures to impart stability to the borders.
During his interview, Mr. Modi had said: “Insofar as the border is concerned, the most important point right now is that peace and tranquillity must not be disturbed. That would create conditions for us to arrive at a mutually-acceptable solution.
This is a complicated and old problem and needs to be addressed with care and with deliberation. President Xi (Jinping) also shares my optimism.”

Pak. court frees Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi

A Pakistani court set free Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, the 2008 Mumbai attacks mastermind and LeT operations commander, suspending the Punjab government’s detention order against him under a public security act, drawing India’s ire.
Justice Muhammad Anwarul Haq of Lahore High Court suspended the detention of Lakhvi (55) under Maintenance of Public Order after the government failed to present sensitive records against him in the court.
The judge ordered Lakhvi to submit two surety bonds worth Rs.1 million each for his release.
“The law officer had submitted important information about Lakhvi, but the court did not accept this and declared the evidence unsatisfactory,” an official of LHC told.
Justice Muhammad Anwarul Haq on the last hearing on April 7 had directed the government’s counsel to submit record of secret documents about activities of Lakhvi on Thursday. Lakhvi had challenged the March 14 order of Punjab government’s District Coordination Officer, Okara to detain him for 30 days.
Lakhvi’s counsel Raja Rizwan Abbasi argued that after the LHC’s earlier direction he had filed a representation before the Punjab home secretary against his “illegal” detention but the home secretary dismissed it and upheld the 30-day detention order issued by District Coordination Officer, Okara.
Mr. Abbasi pleaded that a person could not be detained beyond 90 days without obtaining an order from review board and the detention period of his client had gone beyond 90 days. A provincial review board comprises judges of the High Court. He pointed out that though the trial court had released Lakhvi on bail in December 2014, District Magistrate of Islamabad issued detention order against him.
Later, the Islamabad High Court set aside Lakhvi’s detention and ordered the government to release him.
However, another detention order was issued by the DCO, Okara and he was not released, the counsel argued.
He had pleaded the court to strike down the impugned order and order the government to release Lakhvi.
Lakhvi and six others have been charged with planning and executing the Mumbai attacks in November, 2008 that left 166 people dead.

Plan to build Tibet-Nepal rail through Everest

China plans to build a 540-km strategic high-speed rail link between Tibet and Nepal passing through a tunnel under Mt. Everest, a move that could raise alarm in India about the Communist giant’s growing influence in its neighbourhood.
“A proposed extension of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway to the China-Nepal border through Tibet would boost bilateral trade and tourism as there is currently no rail line linking the two countries,” state-run China Daily reported.
The rail line was expected to be completed by 2020.
However, there was no word on the cost of the project.
The 1,956-km long Qinghai-Tibet railway already links the rest of China with the Tibetan capital Lhasa and beyond.
Wang Mengshu, a rail expert at the Chinese Academy of Engineering, said that engineers will face a number of difficulties once the project begins. “If the proposal becomes reality, bilateral trade, especially in agricultural products, will get a strong boost, along with tourism and people-to-people exchanges,” he said.
Mr. Wang said that the project is being undertaken at Nepal’s request and that China has begun preparatory work.
Losang Jamcan, Chairman of the Tibet Autonomous Region, told Nepalese President Ram Baran Yadav during his visit to Tibet’s provincial capital Lhasa last month that China plans to extend the Tibet railway to Kermug, the Chinese town nearest to Nepal border where a border trade port has been built.
Besides Nepal, China had earlier announced plans to extend its Tibetan rail network to Bhutan and India.

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:: Business and Economy ::

Moody’s ups India outlook

Moody’s, a global ratings agency, raised India’s rating outlook to “positive” from “stable” on Thursday, but retained the Baa3 rating.
All rating agencies maintain India at the last rung of investment grade.
Moody’s is the first to give the country a positive outlook after downgrading it as the economy sagged.
The change in outlook, its release said, has been driven by the view that there is an increasing probability of actions by policymakers enhancing India’s economic strength. “India has grown faster than similarly rated peers over the last decade due to favourable demographics, economic diversity, as well as high savings and investment rates.
Moody’s expects these structural advantages, supported by relatively benign global commodity prices and liquidity conditions, will keep India’s growth higher than that of its peers over the rating horizon,” the release said.
The rationale for affirming the Baa3 rating, it said, reflects India’s weaker performance, relative to peers, on fiscal, inflation and infrastructure-related metrics. Chief Economic Adviser Arvind Subramanian said the upgrade validated the direction of the Centre’s reform programme.
“It confirms something that we have been saying that the growth prospects and the macro-economic prospects for the economy are improving.”

Roaming calls to be cheaper from May 1

From next month, mobile phone users will be charged less for national roaming calls. While outgoing roaming calls will be cheaper by up to 23 per cent, SMS will cost about 75 per cent less.
Roaming charges are paid by subscribers when using services outside their home telecom circle.
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India reduced the ceiling tariff for outgoing local calls during roaming to 80 paise a minute from Re. 1. STD call rates have been cut to Rs 1.15 a minute from Rs 1.50.
For incoming calls, it has been brought down to 45 paise a minute from 75 paise now. Likewise, operators can now charge a maximum of 25 paise and 38 paise for every outgoing local and STD messages on roaming.
The changes will come into effect from May 1, 2015.

EPFO suspends pension scheme

The Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has suspended the Rs. 1,000 minimum monthly pension scheme from this month, a decision which will hit about 32 lakh pensioners.
The scheme was launched with effect from September 2014, hiking the pension amount to a flat Rs. 1,000 per month for those who were getting lower amount earlier.
With the suspension of the scheme, the beneficiaries will get pension at earlier rates.
In a circular to its field offices, the EPFO said it has decided to suspend the scheme in the absence of any direction from the government to continue this benefit beyond March 31.
According to the government notification issued on August 19 last year, the benefit of minimum pension was made effective from September 1 to March, 2015.

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:: Science and Technology ::

Dhanush successfully test-fired

Three days after the failure of an interceptor missile trial, India successfully test-fired the nuclear-weapons capable Dhanush missile for its full range of 350 km off the Odisha coast.
Personnel of the Strategic Forces Command (SFC) picked up the missile randomly from a production lot and launched it at 11.02 a.m. from Dhanush Platform, an offshore patrolling vessel, about 150 km from the shore, according to missile scientists of the Defence Research and Development Organisation.
After a flight of 500 seconds, the missile splashed down near the target point in the sea with an accuracy of less than 30 metres, the scientists said, describing it as a “perfect mission.”

:: Sports ::

Chennai Super Kings wins a thriller at Chepauk

The thriller at Chepauk twisted and turned before exploding at the finish.
Delhi Daredevils was one hit away from victory with a wicket and a delivery remaining.
With a six required off the last ball, the rampaging Albie Morkel bludgeoned seamer Dwayne Bravo past covers for a heart-breaking boundary.
Chennai Super Kings, defending 150, was home by a run at the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium. Daredevils needed 19 off the last over. The rampaging Morkel (73 not out) clubbed a six, smashed two fours and ran a brace and a single but came up just short.
This was a game where Daredevils may have also blundered tactically. Holding back its most influential batsmen, Yuvraj Singh and Jean-Paul Duminy, till the fall of the fourth wicket was a high-risk gamble in such a shortened format.
Yuvraj arrived after 13.1 over had been bowled; the score was 87 for four. With pressure mounting, Yuvraj (9) was done in by a deceptive short-pitched ball from Bravo. Soon, the left-handed Duminy (5) played on to seamer Ishwar Pandey.
The side simply did not give its best batsmen time and space to build an innings and assume control.