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Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 14 July 2014

BRICS summit to reflect new global political architecture

Global political issues such as the unrest in Iraq and Ukraine and the surveillance of world leaders by the U.S. National Security Agency are likely to find their way into the discussions at the BRICS summit.
In particular, BRICS countries will announce the BRICS bank and contingency reserve fund as a counterpoint to the U.S.-led World Bank and International Monetary Fund.
BRICS countries have areas of cooperation on various subjects, from energy to education, and there are new proposals, such as a Brazilian suggestion on the creation of a statistics platform different from the OECD methodology (The OECD analyses GDP, employment and other indices).

INS Kamorta, the first in series of anti-submarine corvettes indigenously built by Kolkata based Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers Ltd. (GRSE), was handed over to Indian Navy.
It is first Indian Naval warship ever built in the country with almost 90 per cent of indigenous content.
The Indian Navy has got its largest-ever destroyer after the addition of the 163 metre-long vessel Kolkata (D63).
Kolkata (D63) is India’s first domestically built guided missile destroyer to feature a Western-style air search radar and stealth technology.
Kolkata has an all-round capability against enemy submarines, surface warships, anti-ship missiles and fighter aircraft.
It incorporates modern weapons and sensors having advanced information warfare suite, an auxiliary control system with sophisticated power distribution architecture and modular crew quarters.

Disciplinary proceedings against an employee cannot be continued after his retirement in the absence of a specific clause in the employment rules providing for such enquiry.
Bench of Justices T.S. Thakur and C. Nagappan said once an employee retires from service there was no authority vested in the employer to continue the disciplinary proceedings even for the purpose of imposing any deduction in the benefits payable after retirement to the delinquent employee.

Afghanistan’s presidential candidates have agreed to an audit of all ballots cast on 14th june second round poll, in order to end the election deadlock.
The announcement was made by the two candidates — Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai and Abdullah Abdullah — and Mr. Kerry. Previously, Mr. Abdullah had accused the government, electoral authorities and Mr. Ahmadzai’s camp of being a “triangle of fraud”.
The auditing process will start from the Afghan capital, and ballot boxes from the provinces will be transported to Kabul by international security assistance forces.
Outgoing President Hamid Karzai was against foreign intervention in the election process, although he agreed with the candidates call for an expedient resolution of the election dispute.

Pope Francis appealed for peace between Israelis and Palestinians, calling on leaders to spare no effort to end the violence.
Pope Francis brought together Israeli President Shimon Peres and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas for an unprecedented prayer session at the Vatican in June.

Ignoring international appeals for a ceasefire, Israel widened its range of Gaza bombing targets to civilian institutions with suspected Hamas ties.
It was the first time that Israeli ground troops are known to have entered Gaza in the current offensive. But the operation was carried out by special forces and did not appear to be the beginning of a broad ground offensive.
United Nations Security Council called unanimously for a ceasefire also called for “the reinstitution of the November 2012 ceasefire,” which was brokered by Egypt, but gives no time frame for when it should take effect.
Israel has carried out more than 1,200 air strikes over the six-day offensive to try to diminish Hamas’ ability to fire rockets at Israel. Hamas, the Islamic militant group that controls Gaza, has fired nearly 700 rockets and mortars at Israel.
The offensive marks the heaviest fighting since a similar eight-day campaign in November 2012 to stop Gaza rocket fire. The outbreak of violence follows the kidnappings and killings of three Israeli teenagers in the West Bank, and the kidnapping and killing of a Palestinian teenager in an apparent revenge attack.

The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) has launched an advisory group on REITs (real estate investment trusts), which are aimed at attracting long-term funds to the cash-strapped realty sector from both foreign as well as domestic investors.
REITs can bring in USD 10 billion of foreign funds into the sector by the end of this fiscal.
REITs were originally announced in FY 2014 Budget, but at that time the government did not offer any tax sops to attract investors. But Arun Jaitley had announced tax incentives like exemption from long-term capital gains tax to popularise REITs.

S&P said Indian budget will not have ay impact on it's sovereign rating. With growth oriented budget India hoped for improvement in rating.
Good rating leads to lower interest rates on loans from outside the country.
S&P is the only one of the three major credit agencies to have a 'negative' outlook on India.