Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 14 April 2014

Interceptor missile test

India for the first time will be testing a state-of-the-art interceptor missile at supersonic speed that will seek to engage and destroy an incoming target missile at a very high altitude of 120-140 km over the Bay of Bengal. Entirely new interceptor and target missiles have been developed by scientists of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) for the upcoming engagement, to be conducted in exo-atmosphere (altitude above 40-50 km) on April 27 or 28. The test was originally planned to be conducted in November, 2013 but had been delayed since then.
Describing it as a “big challenge,” they said the interceptor’s “kill vehicle,” equipped with a dual seeker, would attack the payload (warhead portion) as it descends towards its intended target. The advantage of intercepting an incoming missile at such a high altitude was that the debris would not fall on the ground and there would be no collateral damage.
After some more trials, India plans to deploy a two-tiered Ballistic Missile Defence (BMD) system to protect important cities from external threats. In the first phase, incoming enemy missiles of 2,000-km range are envisaged to be waylaid and destroyed, while those with about 5,000-km range would be tackled by the interceptors in the second phase.
So far, six of the seven interceptor missile tests, carried out by the DRDO, have been successful. While two interceptions were conducted in exo-atmopshere (altitudes between 47 and 80 km) the rest were in endo-atmosphere (below 40 km altitude).

The recent U.N. Security Council meet

The U.N. Security Council recently metin emergency session amid growing violence in eastern Ukraine, with Western powers and Russia blaming each other for the deepening crisis.
Russia called the meeting hours after Ukrainian special forces exchanged gunfire with a pro-Russia militia in an eastern city, and at least one security officer was killed and five others wounded. Ukraine’s president accused its powerful neighbour of fomenting unrest, and announced that it would deploy armed forces to quash an increasingly bold pro-Russian insurgency.
Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin denied Western and Ukrainian claims that Moscow was behind the violence, and told U.N. diplomats that Ukraine has been using radical neo-Nazi forces to destabilize its eastern region.
Russia has tens of thousands of troops massed along Ukraine’s eastern border, and there are fears that Moscow might use the violence in the mainly Russian-speaking region as a pretext for an invasion, in a repeat of events in Crimea earlier this year.

India- China Strategic Dialogue

India has assured China of its commitment to consolidate strategic bilateral ties based on mutual trust as well as sensitiveness to each other's concerns and aspirations, as their top diplomats held the annual strategic dialogue here amid the Indian general elections.
Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh co-chaired the sixth round of the Strategic Dialogue with her Chinese counterpart Vice Foreign Minister Liu Zhenmin at the picturesque Diaoyutai guest house.
The talks were held as the long-running Lok Sabha elections, hailed as the world's biggest democratic exercise, got underway in India that will form a new government at the Centre.
Stating that the annual Strategic Dialogue is being held in less than a year, she told Liu that "it is symbolic of the fact that our relations are growing and our interactions are increasing".
China said it was "confident" that India will stay committed to strong bilateral ties irrespective of whichever party comes to power after the polls.

Global trade to increase

Global trade is expected to increase by 4.7 per cent in 2014, better than the average of 2.2 per cent in the past two years, on the back of projected improvements in the developed economies, according to the World Trade Organisation (WTO).
The world trade growth is projected to accelerate to 5.3 per cent in 2015.
Although the 2014 forecast of 4.7 per cent is more than double the 2.1 per cent increase of last year, it remains below the 20-year average of 5.3 per cent. For the past two years, growth has averaged only 2.2 per cent.
The sluggish pace of trade growth in 2013 was due to a combination of flat import demand in developed economies (0.2 per cent) and moderate import growth in developing economies (4.4 per cent).
On the export side, both developed and developing economies only managed to record small, positive increases (1.5 per cent for developed economies and 3.3 per cent for developing economies).
In 2013, the dollar value of world merchandise exports rose 2.1 per cent to $18.8 trillion, while the value of world commercial services exports rose 5.5 per cent to $4.6 trillion.
The trade forecast for 2014 is premised on an assumption of 3 percent growth in world GDP growth at market exchange rates, while the forecast for 2015 assumes output growth of 3.1 percent.

The link between tobacco and cancer in India

Every year nearly one million new cancer cases are diagnosed in India, the prevalence being 2.5 million. With mortalities of 6,00,000-7,00,000 a year, cancer causes six per cent of all adult deaths in the country.
The number of deaths per year is projected to shoot up to 1.2 million by 2035, according to a series of papers published in the Lancet Oncology journal.
Currently, people in the 30-69 age group account for over two-thirds of cancer deaths in India, with less than a third of the patients surviving more than five years after diagnosis.
The most common, nearly half of all, are cancers of the lung and oral cavity in men, and of the breast and cervix in women.
Tobacco use alone accounts for about 40 per cent of all cancers in India.
The geographical distribution of cancers is quite varied across the country. Based on the data from Chennai, cervical cancer was more prevalent (22.7 per 100,000) than breast cancer in Tamil Nadu, while oral cancer accounted for 243 per 100,000 men in Kerala.
With a rate of 215 per 100,000 women, Delhi had the highest incidence of gall bladder cancer in women in the world.

U.S. -Taiwan update

The United States has said it will help Taiwan to build diesel-electric submarines on its own.
Asked at the committee hearing whether a policy to build submarines locally has been finalized, Yen said Taiwan has launched a plan to build submarines domestically after trying to buy U.S. submarines without success for 13 years.
The Ministry of National Defense (MND) confirmed that it has begun preparations to build submarines on its own and that the chances for success would grow if the U.S. could help with project management and technology transfer or even engage in co-production.
The MND said Washington agreed to sell Taiwan submarines in 2001, but no progress has been made on the deal.
Pressured by lawmakers across party lines and the people of the country, the MND has decided to begin the pre-production phase of the process to show its resolve to defend itself.
The ministry said it has exchanged views with the U.S., and Washington has expressed its understanding of Taiwan's determination to build its own submarines.
It will also seek support from U.S. policymakers to help Taiwan with its plans through bilateral military exchanges.

Texas Open squash final

Deepika Pallikal stumbled on the final hurdle against Egyptian teenager Nour El Sherbini in the title clash of the Women's Champion Fiberglass Texas Open.
Eyeing maiden major title of her career, world No 12 Deepika faltered against the 18-year-old qualifier 7-11, 11-5, 7-11 to lose in 48 minutes.
The 22-year-old Deepika was celebrating the biggest Tour final of her career - while world junior champion El Sherbini was continuing the form of her life which had seen the youngster reach last month's WSA World Championship final after upsetting world No 1 Nicol David.