Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 12 March 2014

Chhattisgarh Naxal attack

Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde and Chhattisgarh chief minister Raman Singh paid tribute to 11 CRPF jawans who were among 16 people killed in a Naxal ambush in Jagdalpur.
Speaking to reporters after paying tribute, Mr Shinde vowed revenge for the attack.
The Home Minister said that contrary to reports, there was no specific intelligence input about the attack.
With the general election round the corner, the Centre has decided to send additional forces to the state, which votes on April 10 and 17.
On 11th of March, 70-100 well-armed Naxals ambushed a joint 50-member joint team of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and the state police, leading to a three-hour gun battle. 15 jawans and a civilian were killed.
A review of standard operating procedures and the deployment pattern in the state, considered a Maoist stronghold, is expected to follow but questions about frequent lapses on part of the security forces will continue to haunt the government.

Human development indicators across the poorer States with a high concentration of marginalised groups are catching up with the national average, according to the latest figures released by the Institute of Applied Manpower Research (IAMR) under the Planning Commission. The data suggest that these socially disadvantaged groups are starting to share benefits of the process of human development.
However, when comparing the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes with Muslims in terms of human development input and outcome indicators, Muslims have consistently improved better than other marginalised groups.
The eight poorer States — Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand — are home to nearly 48 per cent of all the SCs, 52 per cent of all the STs and 44 per cent of all Muslims in the country.
The report — an updated version of the Human Development Report-2011: Towards Social Inclusion — ranks Delhi, Kerala, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana and Punjab among the best performing States in human development indicators, while Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand and Odisha are the worst performers. Most other States, including Gujarat, have more or less remained the same.

The Supreme Court has asked the Law Commission to look into the issue of hate speeches being made by leaders of political, social and religious outfits and consider framing guidelines to regulate such provocative statements.
A bench headed by justice BS Chauhan, while refusing to frame guidelines itself, asked the commission to look into it and give its recommendation to the Centre.
The court passed the order on a PIL by NGO Pravasi Bhalai Sanghatan alleging that there was a need for guidelines as hate speeches destroy the fabric of democracy and violate the provisions of the Constitution.
The PIL had named Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh as respondents, as the two states witnessed incidents of alleged hate speeches.
It had referred to the alleged hate speeches made by Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray and claimed that no FIR was registered in the state.

Two Indian CEOs have been named among America's most powerful CEOs under the age of 40 - who head publicly-traded companies with highest market values - in the Forbes magazine list that is topped by Google CEO and co-founder Larry Page.
Website hosting company Endurance International Group CEO and founder Hari K Ravichandran (38) has been ranked 19th, while asset management firm Altisource Asset Management (AAMC) CEO Ashish Pandey (38) is ranked 20th.
The 20 CEOs on the list head publicly-traded companies with the highest market capitalisations.
For the third consecutive year, Page has topped the list.
The youngest CEO on the list is Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, 29, remains in the second place.
For the second consecutive year, Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer, 38, holds third place and remains the only woman on this list.
Eight CEOs are new to the list this year, including Burger King Worldwide head Daniel Schwartz, 33, who is one of the youngest on the list.

Downgrading of India’s aviation safety ratings by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) may impact domestic aircraft chartering business in the long run.
India does not have adequate number of personnel to carry out regular inspections, aviation companies may tend to become complacent.
Recently FAA said that it has downgraded India’s aviation safety rating from the top to the second category.
The downgrade from Category I to II means that Indian aviation regulator does not meet the safety standards set by the UN agency, International Civil Aviation Organisation.
Bali said if any country has weak safety oversight, then people will hesitate to charter planes from that country as it may tend to sudden checks when the aircraft flies to some other country, forcing unexpected delays.
This dismal performance is due to poor induction of aircraft to the existing fleet and large number of de-induction.

United Arab Emirates will stage the initial phase of the IPL while Bangladesh was kept on standby for some of the matches by the BCCI, ending weeks of speculation over the venues of the high-profile event which was scheduled from April 16 to June 1.
The initial phase of the tournament would be played out at three venues in the UAE -- Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Sharjah from April 16 to 30.
Due to the lesser number of teams, the duration of the league has also been shortened this time to 47 days and 60 matches -- much less than the 76 games played last season which was spread over 54 days.