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Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 14 June 2014

Secure sea lanes and India’s growth story

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has conveyed his government’s sharp focus on modernising the country’s defence infrastructure and tying maritime security to India’s growth story.
Advocating infusion of new technology and indigenisation to produce weapons and platforms, Mr. Modi signalled that Indian-produced military hardware could find a niche in countries belonging to the global South.
By choosing the giant aircraft carrier as his first outing to a defence establishment, Prime Minister Narendra Modi seemed to convey that India’s long-held aspiration of establishing a footprint in the Indian Ocean — which was drawing several competing powers — had not been extinguished.

Appointments to nearly 50 posts, both of senior officials and those in offices and authorities attached to various Ministries, are stuck as Prime Minister Narendra Modi has returned the files to the Ministers. The appointments are for the ranks of Joint Secretaries and above.
Some of these appointments were approved by then Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh during the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) rule, but had not been notified. However, a bulk of them have been kept pending for the new government’s approval.
All other procedures had been completed, and approvals from the Civil Services Board too were in place. Only the approval of the Cabinet Appointments Committee is pending.
Those appointments that the new Ministers do not approve will go back to square one and the entire selection process will have to be restarted from scratch.
The source explained that some of these appointments are routine while others are of officials waiting for postings after the end of their tenure.

Three Indian-Americans and their associate have been charged by federal regulator in an insider trading scheme where they reaped $12 million in illegal profits by trading in shares of a discount clothing chain.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission alleged that Saleem Khan was routinely tipped by his friend Roshanlal Chaganlal, who was a director in the finance department at Ross headquarters in California.
Mr. Khan used the confidential information to illegally trade on more than 40 occasions ahead of the company’s public release of financial results.
The SEC’s complaint charges Mr. Khan, Chaganlal, Mendonsa, and Akbari with violating the antifraud provisions of the federal securities laws.

A nuclear deal between Iran and the West was possible within the next five weeks, according to Iranian President Hassan Rowhani .
The target date for a comprehensive agreement between Iran and six world powers — Britain, China, France, Russia, the United States and Germany — to end the decade—long row over Iran’s nuclear activities is July 20.
In November, the parties reached an interim deal under which Iran agreed to limit its uranium enrichment programme and reduce some levels of enrichment in exchange for some relief from international sanctions.
The US and its allies are seeking an agreement to guarantee that Iran will use its nuclear programme solely for peaceful purposes. Tehran has insisted that it is not seeking nuclear weapons.

Olympic gold medallists The Netherlands defeated Australia 2-0 in the title showdown to clinch the women’s hockey World Cup .
This was the fourth time these two nations met in the women’s World Cup final and The Netherlands has won three of them. Out of 13 women’s World Cups since its inception in 1974, the Dutch have won it seven times.
Captain Maartje Paumen, one of the four Dutch players winning her second World Cup gold, put her team ahead in the 12th minute with a penalty stroke conversion. The penalty stroke was awarded when Ross Dross was brought down by the goalkeeper and a defender inside the circle.

The Centre is in the process of reviewing all free trade agreements (FTAs) and special economic zones (SEZ) to see if they have provided the benefits for which they were created.
The government was also looking at changes to the Companies Act to ease the process of business-doing in the country.
Stating that the government was committed to tackle issues on all fronts to tap the full potential of the economy, she said scrutinising laws were also part of this strategy. In this regard, she said issues flagged by various quarters in the Companies Act would be looked into.