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Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 14 December 2014

National

Sepahijala sanctuary closed to tourists after rhino dies

The Sepahijala sanctuary near Agartala, a major tourist attraction, was closed to tourists after a rhino died of anthrax, senior forest officials said.
The lone male, a one-horned rhino named Pradip, died after it was seen bleeding from the rectum. Veterinary physicians could not save the animal, which was brought here from Assam’s Kaziranga sanctuary in 2001.
“The pathological test of rhino stool found anthrax bacilli. We are taking utmost care to check spread of the disease,” an official told newsmen. The rhino was burnt and buried deep. Anti-infection medicines were also sprayed.
Officials said experts and doctors from the Animal Resource department inspected the sanctuary on Friday and Saturday. Senior forest officials decided that animals and humans within a 5 km radius of the sanctuary would be tested for the bacteria.
Indefinite closure of the sanctuary during this peak tourist season is likely to cause huge financial losses. Tripura forest department had recently reached an agreement with the zoo authority of Haryana to buy a female rhino to end prolonged seclusion of the male rhino.

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Business & economy

Switzerland’s gold exports to India marked near Rs. 1 trillion in 2014

Amid concerns of bullion trade being used for routing of black money, Switzerland’s gold exports to India have risen further and fast approaching Rs. 1 trillion mark for the entire 2014.
The Swiss gold exports to India stood at over 2.8 billion Swiss francs (over Rs. 18,000 crore) in October, up from about 2.2 billion Swiss francs in the previous month, shows the latest data from the Swiss Customs Administration.
This has taken the total Swiss gold exports to India since January this year to 14.2 billion Swiss francs (nearly Rs. 93,000 crore), as per the data compiled by Switzerland’s cross-border trade monitoring agency.
This surge in gold shipments has made India the largest destination for the yellow metal exports from Switzerland.
There are concerns that gold trade could be a possible route for laundering of unaccounted wealth, suspected to be stashed by Indians in Swiss banks, although there has been no official word from either countries so far in this regard.
The Supreme Court-constituted SIT, however, said in its latest report on black money that a dedicated institutional mechanism needs to be put in place to examine “mismatch between export/import data with corresponding import/export data of other countries on at least a quarterly, if not a monthly basis.”
The SIT said that this suggestion has been made by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), while citing the Data Analysis and Research for Trade Transparency System adopted by US, to control over/under invoicing to some extent.
“It is established since years that over invoicing or under invoicing is known method for stashing black money outside the country.
Main question is how to control this malady. If there is proper vigilance to a large extent by the Customs Department, mis-invoicing can be controlled because; now-a-days, price of various goods/machineries is known in the international markets.”

Incentivise domestic savings to boost economy: RBI Chief

Reserve Bank Governor Raghuram Rajan cautioned the government on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Make in India’ mantra, suggesting that India would have to look for regional and domestic demand for growth — to make in India primarily for India.
Dr. Rajan said that at this stage, an exports-push strategy for growth would be ineffective; as the industrial world stagnated, many emerging markets were rethinking their export-led growth model, he said.
“There is a danger when we discuss ‘Make in India’ of assuming it means a focus on manufacturing, an attempt to follow the export-led growth path that China followed … But the world as a whole is unlikely to be able to accommodate another export-led China,” Dr. Rajan said.
Since the global economy was still weak, he argued, it would be much less likely to be able to absorb a substantial additional amount of imports in the foreseeable future.
“Export-led growth will not be as easy for India as it was for the Asian economies that took that path before.”
He also cautioned the Modi government against picking a particular sector such as manufacturing for encouragement, simply because it had worked well for China.
“India is different, and developing at a different time, and we should be agnostic about what will work … Such agnosticism means creating an environment where all sorts of enterprise can flourish,” the RBI Governor said.

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Sports

Pakistan wins a thriller, makes final in Champions Trophy

The blockbuster involving India and Pakistan had disappointment in store for the passionate home fans as the host lost 4-3 an evenly-contested, high voltage semifinal clash of the Champions Trophy hockey tournament at the Kalinga Stadium.
Incidentally, India had also lost to the same opponent in the last four of the 2012 edition in Melbourne. The defeat also meant that the third place finish in 1982 remains India's best ever performance in the Champions Trophy.
World No. 11 Pakistan, which reached the final after 16 years on the strength of Muhammad Arslan Qadir's brace, will take on Olympic champion and nine-time winner Germany. The world No. 3 edged past five-time defending champion Australia 3-2.
It was also a big achievement for Germany, which had struggled throughout the year and came into this event with a team which had several players from the 2013 Junior World Cup-winning squad, as it made the final after 2009.
As expected, Pakistan used its sharpened wings to cut through the Indian defence frequently and kept hitting into the circle from the right.
India, which kept its cool and tried to maintain its structure, was lucky that a few of the attempts did not find the target. P.R. Sreejesh again showed his alertness in blocking a few.
India's response was occasional, but one of it earned the breakthrough as Gurjinder Singh rolled wide and into the right corner of the Pakistan post to put India ahead off its first penalty corner in the 12th minute.

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International

Bangladesh launches manual campaign to clean up Sunderbans oil spill

Bangladesh launched an intensified manual campaign to clean up seepage following a huge oil spill in 34,000 hectares at the Sunderbans that threatened the world’s largest mangrove forest.
The manual cleanup campaign came as authorities on India’s eastern coast are on alert with Additional Director of Sundarban Biosphere Reserve Pradeep Vyas saying “We are taking all precautionary measures”.
Officials and witnesses said the forest department engaged nearly 100 boats to collect the furnace oil spilled from the tanker which sank in the Shela river in the Sundarbans after being hit by a cargo vessel.
“At least 200 hired workers in nearly 100 engine and country boats have started a campaign to collect the oil from rivers and channels,” a local resident told PTI over phone.
“The workers were loading the boats with the oil they were collecting manually using the traditional equipment and depositing those in tanks in nearby ferry terminals.”
“The oil collection will continue until further notice,” a forest official told a TV channel from the scene. Forest official Amir Hossain Chowdhury said they were expected to reach a decision on the modus operandi of the oil clean up by later today.
Director-General of Environment Department Mohammad Shahjahan told the media that they had sent the specimen of the chemicals for analysis to their own laboratory and the testing facilities of the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET).
“But we are yet to get their reports and suggestions. So until now we cannot give permission for its use in the Sundarbans,” he said.
The authorities earlier had asked local people to collect the furnace oil using fishing nets, sponges or any other manual means and sell it to the state-run Padma Oil Company.
The seepage spread in the Shela and the Pashur rivers and over 20 canals which crisscross the Sundarbans in the past four days while officials found four out of six chambers of the tanker carrying 358,000 litres oil damaged.