(FREE) UPSC Current Affairs 2024 PDF

Current Affairs for IAS Exams – 10 December 2015

:: NATIONAL ::

India and Pakistan to resume talks

Seven years after the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, India and Pakistan have agreed to resume struc-tured dialogue.
India and Pakistan have decided to restart the Comprehensive Bilateral Dialogue. The dialogue that was earlier known as Composite Dialogue and later on as Resumed Dialogue willnow be known as the Comprehensive Bilateral Dialogue
If its taken along with FS Jaishankar’s visit to Islamabad, then the Ufa meeting, it is the third attempt by the Modi government to reachout to Pakistan

TAPI Project

India and Pakistan will participate in another ground breaking event at the highest levels.
Vice President Hamid Ansari will travel to Ashgabat from December 11-13 for the inauguration of the $10 billion Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India pipeline (TAPI) project
The inauguration will take place on December 13, with all three leaders hosted by Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymuhamedov.
While the TAPI project has been discussed by Turkmenistan, which has the world’s fourth largest reserves of natural gas, since 1995, India only joined the project formally in 2008. The project has been stalled over the years over gas price negotiations, transit fees, and the problems of security in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Calling TAPI “the most significant initiative in our relationship,” Mr. Modi had said it could “transform regional economic cooperation and bring prosperity along the route.”
Unless the security situation in Afghanistan is stable, this project won’t work. Particularly with the splitting of Taliban, rise of the ISIS, and the government’s inability to exert control in the western and southern parts, which does not look likely to be resolved anytime soon
The TAPI pipeline is expected to be completed by 2020, although operationalisation could take a few years more, and is expected to transport about 90 million standard cubic meters of gas per day. India’s share of 38 mmscmd would account for about 25% of its current gas requirements. The 1800km pipeline project contract would provide energy to Afghanistan, Pakistan and India for 30 years, with Turkmengaz extracting the natural gas at a shared cost from the Galkynysh field, the world’s second-largest reservoir of natural gas.

:: INTERNATIONAL ::

Draft Paris Out-come

A ‘Draft Paris Out-come’ providing the final base text for the 195 countries of the UN Framework Convention on ClimateChange to craft the Paris agreement was released on 9th December.
Document will now be taken up for discussion overnight on the key questionsof finance, loss and damage payments to developing countries, emissions cutting obligations for emerging nations and the frequency and nature of review.
France, as the chair ofthe Conference of the Parties (CoP21) of UNFCCC in Paris, hopes to pull of a major victory with an agreement that has been in the making for six years after the failure of the Copenhagen summit.
On the long term temperature goal, the outcome contains three optional provisions to reflect the1.5 degrees C temperature limit; to reaffirm the below 2degrees C limit and to express the goal as well below 2 degrees C; to have below 1.5 degrees C as the temperature limit. The last option is accompanied by a provision emphasising use of the best available science, equity, sustainable development, and the need to ensure food security.
Draft includes Loss and Damage that will pay developing countries to respond to the effects of climate change is included as Article 5 tentatively, and the Warsaw International Mechanism is to serve the Agreement on the subject.
Mitigation of Greenhouse Gases, which in the short term lies mostly in the realm of developed countries, is also up for intensive discussions, as peaking of global GHGs is to be done “as soon as possible” with the developed countries doing more initially and developing countries taking longer. Emissions cuts for a later period are in a suggested a range: [40 - 70 per cent] [70per cent] [70-95 per cent] below 2010 levels by 2050

Angela Merkel-Time‘Person of the year 2015’

U.S. magazine Timeon Wednesday named German Chancellor Angela Merkel as its “Person of the Year2015,” hailing her leadership during Europe’s debt, refugee and migrant crises, as well as Russia’s intervention in Ukraine.
Time named Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, leader of the Islamic State (IS) extremist group, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, America’s Black Lives Matter activists campaigning against inequality against AfricanAmericans and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani as its runners up.

:: BUSINESS ::

Pharma to have a separate ministry

Union Fertilisers Minister Ananth Kumar said there would be a separate ministry for pharma and medical devices sector in the next one year, and assured that the government will soon implement the Katoch panel recommendations to cut bulk drugs import from China.
Government recognises the pharmasector as a ‘sunshine industry’having a tremendous poten-tial for growth.
In order to benefit the domestic pharma industry, the government plans to implement the recommendations by the Ka-toch Committee in the next 100 days.
The government had set up a committee headed by V. M.Katoch, Secretary, Health Research, to suggest ways to reduce the dependence on bulk drug imports from China.
India currently meets about 80 per cent of its demand of bulk drugs or API,used as raw materials by the pharmaceutical industry, from Chinese imports
Government, for the betterment of people, is in the process of revising the National List of Essential Medicines (NLEM)2011.

Ship building industry gets Rs. 4000 crore package

The Union Cabinet cleared a Rs.4,000crore package to spur India’s ship building industry, combined with a slew of incentives which include the right of first refusal on all government purchases for Indian shipyards, tax incentives and the ‘infrastructure’ status for ship building and ship repair industry that would help them tap easier financing.
This package comes at the back of an exemption granted by the finance ministry in late November on all raw materials and parts used in the manufacture of ships/vessels/ tugs, and others, from customs and central excise duties.
The ship building industry is strategically important industry due to role in energy security and maritime defense and for developing heavy engineering industry,”