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Current Affairs for IAS Exams – 12 October 2015

:: International ::

Aleksandr Lukashenko of Belarus Wins Fifth Term as President

Aleksandr G. Lukashenko, the authoritarian president of Belarus, who suffered the indignity last week of seeing one of his sharpest critics win the Nobel Prize in Literature, won a prize of his own on Sunday: the presidency of Belarus, though that outcome had never been in doubt.
Mr. Lukashenko, a former collective farm director who has led Belarus for 21 years, got nearly 83.5 percent of the vote, the Central Election Commission reported late Sunday, trouncing three token competitors and winning a fifth term.
Analysts of the country’s political system said the results, like those of many elections in the old Soviet Union, had been determined long before voters marked their ballots.
The election, in fact, would not have drawn much attention but for the announcement on Thursday that Svetlana Alexievich, a Belarussian journalist and nonfiction writer, had won theNobel Prize. She has long been a prominent critic of Soviet and post-Soviet governments, including the one in Belarus.
Aleksandr G. Lukashenko, who has led Belarus for 21 years, with his youngest son, Nikolai, at a polling station in Minsk. CreditPool photo by Andrey Stasevich
Speaking to reporters in Berlin on Saturday, Ms. Alexievich, who has spent periods of her life in exile, described Sunday’s election as a rigged contest that Mr. Lukashenko was sure to win, as always.

:: Business ::

Kingfisher diverted bank loans to tax havens

Kingfisher Airlines had allegedly diverted a substantial chunk of Rs 4,000 crore in loans secured from public sector banks to tax havens which has now come under the scanner of the CBI that has expanded its probe in the matter.Reuters
The material recovered during searches on Saturday indicated that the airlines, which stopped flights in October 2012, has allegedly diverted part of loans taken from 11 nationalised banks, with total exposure of Rs 4,000 crore, to tax haven countries for different purposes not specified in loan applications, sources claimed.
They claimed that the agency will be expanding the ambit of the probe from Rs 900 crore loan from IDBI Bank to loans received from 10 other public sector banks as well which have total additional exposure of Rs 3,100 crore to the company.
They said the allegations of diverting the loan amount from specified purposes to tax havens for different reasons will also be probed by the agency.
The consortium of 17 banks had an outstanding of over Rs 7,000 crore on loans to Kingfisher with State Bank of India having the highest exposure of Rs 1,600 crore.
The 10 public sector banks whose loans have come under the scrutiny of CBI, besides IDBI, are UCO bank, Punjab National Bank, State Bank of India, Vijaya Bank, Bank of Baroda, Corporation Bank, Bank of India, United Bank of India, State Bank of Mysore and Indian Overseas Bank.
The banks will have to explain reasons for extending the loan to the airlines, ignoring its own internal report which has warned against such a move.
The sources remained tight lipped about the countries where such transfers were made as they feel it might compromise the information that they might be seeking through Letters Rogatory, judicial requests, from these countries.

:: Sports ::

India loss to SA in 1st ODI

It has been the talking point for a while, whether Mahendra Singh Dhoni still carries his hitting ability. On Saturday, the skipper again ended up spooning a return catch after India entered the last over of the match needing 11 to win. His dismissal left India needing seven runs from three deliveries and they lost by five runs.
The Dhoni of old would have smashed young paceman Kagiso Rabada’s short delivery over midwicket for six.
This time, he got it too high on his bat. It could be wrong shot selection, but the situation left him with no other option as Dhoni, like on earlier occasions, had dragged the match to the last over.
Much as he would have wanted to avoid such a situation again by coming ahead of Suresh Raina, in the end he had adopted a gambit that has failed on the last few occasions.
For his lack of big hits, Dhoni ran phenomenally well to put pressure on the South Africa fielders. But he also needed his hands to pull off big shots. His legs could do only so much.
When he was in form, it was up to Dhoni how far he wanted to drag the match as he had tremendous ability to pull off victories.
It was he who began the trend of finishing very late, which led everyone to believe it’s possible every single time.
But the time has come to revisit that gambit. Once, even his teammate Gautam Gambhir had questioned that method in Australia. If you have wickets in hand and some overs are left, why drag it instead of going for the kill.