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Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 14 November 2014

National

U.S.-India pact paves the way for global trade deal

• Decks have been cleared for a possible global trade deal after India and the U.S agreed on the way forward to break the logjam in global trade negotiations. With the agreement in place, India is all set to move its proposal on food security before the WTO’s General Council at its next meeting scheduled for early December.
• This proposal will seek to make open-ended the interim protection of a ‘peace clause’ that was agreed to at the Bali Ministerial last December.
• The clause safeguards support prices for farmers against the WTO’s limits on agricultural subsidies. India was in danger of breaching these subsidy caps.
• India wants to make sure that this protection would be available in perpetuity, should a permanent solution to the problem of the WTO agriculture subsidy caps not be found. Whether the Bali Declaration provides that the ‘peace clause’ could be available beyond 2017 was open to interpretation.
• Announcing that an agreement had been reached with the U.S, Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Nirmala Sitharaman said on Thursday that the U.S had agreed that India’s right to protect its right to food security cannot be denied by the WTO, paving the way for removing the imperfections in the Bali Ministerial package.
• U.S Trade Representative Michael Froman also released a statement which said the agreement with India reflected shared understandings regarding the WTO’s work on food security.
• Sources on the Indian side indicated that the resolution was possible after an understanding was reached with the U.S that India’s subsidies are not trade-distorting and aimed at achieving food security. India, on the other hand, was able to reassure the U.S that it was not opposed to trade facilitation and in fact was on course to implement it.

‘Hindustan Times’ & ‘The Week’ win IPI Award

• The IPI India Award for Excellence in Journalism, 2014, has been awarded jointly to Hindustan Times and The Week for “outstanding journalistic work” during 2013.
• Hindustan Times has been chosen for the award for a series of stories it did last year on acid attacks on women, sufferings of the victims and how some of them carried on with the fight. The series culminated in a campaign called “Stop Acid Attacks” to enlist the support of society for the cause.
• The award went to The Week for an investigative feature on the plight of widows of Dardpora in Kashmir, who lost their husbands in the strife in the Valley.
• Justice A.S. Anand, former CJI, headed the jury. N. Ravi, Chairman, International Press Institute-India (IPI-India), and Editor-in-Chief, The Hindu ; M.K. Razdan, Editor-in-Chief, PTI; and Riyad Mathew, Senior Assistant Editor, Malayala Manorama ; were the jury members
• The award, comprising a cash prize of Rs. 1 lakh, a trophy and a citation for each winner, will be presented at a function here in December.

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Science & technology

Sunderbans Island shrinks by half: study

• In the year 1975, Ghoramara Island in the Sunderbans archipelago in West Bengal’s South 24 Parganas district covered an area of 8.51 sq km. Today it is less than 4.43 sq km.
• The fact that in 40 years the island has lost half of its landmass to the rising sea (Bay of Bengal) level is “an ominous sign” for things to come in the ecologically fragile region, researchers feel.
• A recent study by researchers at Jadavpur University, which reveals the startling figures, has been published in the book International Perspective of Climate Change: Latin America and Beyond by a Germany-based publisher, Springer.
• The research work also points out migration of people from the inhabited island. The scientists of the School of Oceanographic Studies of the University pointed out that despite 2.1 percent annual growth rate in the administrative area of the Island the population of Ghoramara is decreasing.
• “The population of Ghoramara has decreased from 5,236 in the 2001 census to 5,193 in 2011, which may be attributed to migration, in spite of existing growth rate within the same administrative area,” the study says.
• Research led by Tuhin Ghosh has pointed out that though actual record of migration is not available, “a majority of residents of Ghoramara (almost three-fourth) say that about 4,000 people from the island have migrated out.”
• It is learnt that at least five villages of the Island such as Khasimara, Khasimara char, Lakshmi Narayanpur, Bagpara and Baishnabpara are under water. Factors like severe erosion, embankment failure, cyclone and storm surge are leading to habitat loss, resulting in migration of people from the Island.

European Space agency published first picture from the surface of a comet

• The European Space Agency published the first image taken from the surface of a comet and said that its Philae lander is still “stable” despite a failure to latch on properly to the rocky terrain.
• The lander scored a historic first Wednesday, touching down on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko after a decade-long, 6.4 billion-kilometer (4 billion-mile) journey through space aboard its mother ship Rosetta.
• Scientists’ jubilation was slightly dampened because the harpoons which were meant to anchor the lander to the surface failed to deploy, causing it to bounce twice before it came to rest on the comet’s 4 kilometer-wide body, or nucleus.
• “Philae is stable, sitting on the nucleus and is producing data,” Gerhard Schwehm, a scientist on the Rosetta mission, told The Associated Press. “The lander is very healthy.”
• The photo sent back to Earth shows a rocky surface, with one of the lander’s three feet in the corner of the frame.
• Scientists are still analyzing what effect the two bounces had on the spacecraft and plan to release further details at a news briefing at 2 p.m.
• Communication with the lander is slow, with signals taking more than 28 minutes to travel some 500 million kilometres (300 million miles) between Earth and the Rosetta orbiter.
• Schwehm said it may still be possible to fire the harpoons but that this would be done only if it doesn’t imperil the lander.

Role of El Nino in heat build-up in Indian Ocean: Study

• The Indian Ocean has been warming at a rate faster than thought before (1.2 deg C during the past century). It is also the largest consistent contributor to the global ocean warming trends. Recent studies show that a warm Indian Ocean can in turn modulate the Pacific conditions including the El Nino events. So basically, such large warming over the Indian Ocean has implications on the global climate.
• The western Indian Ocean, traditionally thought to have cooler sea surface temperatures (SSTs) than the central and eastern Indian Ocean, is surprisingly showing an even stronger summer warming trend over the whole of the 20th century than the central and eastern Indian Ocean.
• The warming is significantly so large that it may alter the monsoon circulation, monsoon rainfall over the ocean and land, marine food webs and fisheries (western Indian Ocean is one of the most productive oceans) and global climate including the El Nino.
• A recent study focused on the causes for this warming and found that it was mainly due to El Nino events, which are getting stronger and more frequent during recent decades, possibly due to a changing climate.
• These El Nino events weaken the summer westerly (blowing from west to east) winds over the Indian Ocean.
• Winds have the effect of cooling the sea surface. Strong winds cause evaporation and loss of latent heat from the ocean leading to cooling. When the winds are weakened the opposite happens — the ocean warms.
• The study published recently in the Journal of Climate was undertaken by Dr. Roxy Mathew Koll of the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Pune and co-authored by Ritika Kapoor, Pascal Terray and Sebastien Masson.
• This work is part of an Indo-French collaboration, carried out under the National Monsoon Mission set up by the Ministry of Earth Sciences.

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International

IS flags hoisted near Islamabad

• Four flags of Islamic State (IS) have been confiscated near a highly sensitive ordnance unit close to Islamabad, setting the alarm bells ringing for the Pakistani security establishment.
• The presence of IS flags, though symbolic, on electricity poles in a closely guarded part of the historic city of Taxila, near the Pakistan Ordnance Factory (POF), has added to the fear that the terrorist outfit may exploit militant groups in the country.
• The flags came up after reports surfaced that a spokesman of the IS visited banned militant outfit Jundullah in the troubled southwestern Balochistan province.
• Jundullah is a branch of the Pakistani Taliban or the TTP, which recently sacked its spokesman for announcing allegiance to the IS. It has also claimed responsibility for the Wagah Border attack that killed at least 63 people.
• Law enforcement agencies confiscated four flags of the IS, Dawn reported.
• A senior Intelligence officer told the newspaper that a few flags, bearing the IS monogram, were found near the main entrance to the POF complex, while others were spotted on nearby electricity poles.
• So far, police and intelligence agencies do not know who put up the flags in the heavily-protected area.

Singapore defends mock riot with South Asian workers

• Singapore officials under attack by rights groups for using South Asian workers in a mock riot defended the exercise and said similar operations will be carried out to preserve law and order.
• The drill took place in a migrant workers’ dormitory on October 26, less than a year after South Asian workers staged the worst riot in the city-state since the 1960s.
• Rights groups have criticised it for “reinforcing stereotypes” and “dehumanising” the workers.
• In a joint statement, the Singapore Police Force (SPF) and Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) said such exercises are regularly conducted in worker dormitories to ensure processes are in place to deal with potential incidents.
• They said the workers involved were volunteers. “SPF and SCDF will continue to conduct similar exercises in other foreign worker dormitories around Singapore,” the statement said.
• National Development Minister Khaw Boon Wan set off a furore when he posted photographs on Facebook of the anti-riot drill featuring police, civil defence forces — and migrant workers playing the role of rioters.
• Responding to online criticism, Mr. Khaw took to Facebook again to reiterate that the exercise was a “meaningful collaboration” that was “well received by the various stakeholders”, including the workers.

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Business & economy

Power tariffs set to increase in the capital

• Prepare to shell out more for electricity. Power tariffs in the Capital have been revised to adjust variations in market-driven fuel costs.
• The enhanced tariffs come into effect and will add the Capital to a list of 21 States that allows Power Purchase Adjustment Cost (PPAC) variations in electricity bills.
• The Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) approved a fuel surcharge of 7 per cent for BSES Yamuna Power Limited (BYPL), 4.5 per cent for BSES Rajdhani Power Limited (BRPL) and 2.5 per cent for Tata Power. Tata Power supplies electricity to North Delhi, BRPL to South and West Delhi, and BYPL to East and Central Delhi.
• However, the DERC insisted the hike will have minimal effect on a majority of consumers.
• “As many as 80 per cent of power consumers in the Capital consume around 400 units of electricity and also get a subsidy of Rs.1.20 per unit. So, in absolute terms, the increase in electricity bills will either be non-existent or nominal at the most for these users,” said a senior DERC official.
• The DERC said the adjustment was in consonance with an order from the appellate authority that had declared a necessary review of power cost and tariffs every quarter depending on fuel costs.
• The power regulator had introduced PPAC in 2012 to help private power distribution companies recover additional cost on account of increase in coal and gas prices.
• The development, meanwhile, kicked up a political storm with both the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party alleging that the Bharatiya Janata Party is to blame for the soon-to-be-inflated power bills.

Govt. hikes Excise duty on petrol and diesel

• After six consecutive cuts in petrol prices and two in diesel, the government hiked the excise duty on petrol and diesel by Rs.1.50 per litre each.
• But, the hike is not expected to burden consumers as oil companies plan to adjust the excise hike with a reduction in retail rates that was due this weekend.
• “As of now oil companies will be absorbing the hikes...we won’t be passing these on to the consumers,” Indian Oil Corporation spokesperson Siddharth Mukherjee told.
• The government hiked the excise duty on unbranded petrol from Rs.1.20 per litre to Rs.2.70 per litre, while that on unbranded diesel was hiked from Rs.1.46 a litre to Rs.2.96.

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Sports

ODI World record by Rohit Sharma (264), Sri Lanka 251

• A world record 264 by India’s Rohit Sharma and a mammoth 404 for five in 50 overs was enough for India to plunge Sri Lanka to its fourth straight defeat in the fourth ODI of the Micromax Cup series.
• Chasing a massive target at the Eden Gardens, the visiting team finished at 251 in 43.1 overs. Captain Angelo Mathews defied the Indian bowling to score a fine 75 and received support from Lahiru Thirimanne (59) and Tillakaratne Dilshan (34) in the top-order.
• Riding on the confidence of scoring 142 in the tour opener for India ‘A’ at Mumbai, Rohit conjured up a brilliant double hundred — his second in ODIs. Rohit was slow to begin with.
• He took off in the company of skipper Virat Kohli and the two put the Lankan bowling to the sword. He fiercely pulled Eranga for a six in the first over of the batting powerplay.
• With that, the 100 partnership came up. It was only a matter of time before the 27-year-old reached his century off 100 balls with 12 fours and a six. His 150 came off 125 balls with the aid of 19 boundaries and three sixes. The third-wicket produced 202 runs in 25.5 overs before Kohli (66) ran himself out going for the second run.
• The Mumbai player, who scored 209 against Australia at Bengaluru last year, raced to 200 in 151 balls with 25 hits to the fence and five over it to emerge the first man to hit two double centuries in ODIs. This was the fourth double century in total, all scored by Indians.
• Rohit made Lanka pay heavily for three dropped chances (on four, 201 and 222). He first went past his previous best of 209 and then Virender Sehwag’s 219. He reached 250 in 166 balls (32x4, 8x6).

Prakash creates new national record

• Sajan Prakash of Railways sank the men’s 1500m freestyle record before booking a ticket to the FINA World championships on the second day of 68th senior National aquatic championship at the Subhas Sarobar swimming complex.
• Prakash was definitely the toast of the day, creating the lone record with his brilliant effort even as Sandeep Sejwal and Virdhawal Khade won their races — 50m breaststroke and 50m freestyle — to maintain their supremacy in the format.
• Owner of a host of National records Richa Mishra returned from a two-year ban for doping violation keeping her dominance almost unmitigated.
• Showing that she still possesses the art and skill to outgun the younger challengers, Richa won the 400m medley in style which she added to the 400m freestyle bronze she had won. Richa holds the national record in both the events.
• Prakash, who had missed the 400m freestyle gold to challenger Saurabh Sangvekar of Maharashtra on the opening day, rebounded back in style to win in the longer format.
• The 15:45.83 seconds timing by the young Railways swimmer sunk the national created by Sangvekar in 2011.