Current Affairs for IAS Exams – 15 February 2016

:: NATIONAL ::

Srikanth Srinivasan set to become Judge of US Supreme Court

• The death of a serving judge of the U.S. Supreme Court has set of acrimonious exchanges between the Democrats and the Republicans on whether President Barack Obama should nominate a new judge in the last year of his presidency.

• Mr. Obama has declared that he would nominate a replacement for Antonin Scalia who died on Saturday at 79, ending a controversial tenure through which he steered the court towards the right with a series of pronouncements.

• Srikanth Srinivasan whose family came to the U.S. from a village in Tirunelveli in Tamil Nadu figures as the most probable choice to succeed Scalia.

• Mr. Srinivasan, 49, is now U.S Circuit Judge of the U.S Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, which served as a stepping stone for at least three judges of the Supreme Court.

Major revamp to rehabilitation scheme proposed

• To liberate crores of children, transgenders and others trapped in human trafficking, beggary or any such forms of forced labour, the Union government has proposed a major revamp of the rehabilitation scheme for rescued bonded workers, raising aid from the present Rs. 20,000 to Rs. 3 lakh.

• The government has finalised a proposal to institute a three-tier rehabilitation fund- ing scheme, under which a rescued transgender or disabled person will get Rs. 3 lakh, women or children Rs. 2 lakh and adult men Rs. 1 lakh.

• Now, Rs. 20,000 goes towards rehabilitation of a bonded labourer with an equal contribution from both the Centre and theStates.

• It is estimated that 1.4 crore workers in the country are bonded labourers, one of the highest in the world, according to the Global Slavery Index of 2014 released by the Australia- based Walk Free Foundation.

• However, official estimates show the State governments had rehabilitated 2.80 lakh workers till March 2015.

• A person becomes a bonded labourer when his or her labour is demanded as a means of repayment of a loan.

• To ensure a sustainable flow of money, a significant chunk of the rehabilitation sum will be credited to the bank accounts of the res- cued persons in the form of fixed monthly deposits.

Barsimalugiri of Assam became first smart village in North-east (Register and Login to read Full News..)

Government ready with major banking sector reforms (Register and Login to read Full News..)

:: International ::

Syrian rebel targets will continue to be bombed by Russia

• The Turkish army shelled Kurdish militia in northern Syria for a second day on Sunday, while Russia made clear it would continue bombing Syrian rebel targets, raising doubts that a planned ceasefire would bring much relief.

• Major powers agreed on to a limited cessation of hostilities in Syria but the deal does not take effect until the end of this week and was not signed by any warring parties — the Damascus government and numerous rebel factions fighting it.

• Russian bombing raids directed at rebel groups are meanwhile helping the Syrian army to achieve what could be its biggest victory of the war in the battle for Aleppo, the country’s largest city and commercial hub before the conflict.

• The situation has been complicated by the involvement of Kurdish-backed combatants in the area north of Aleppo near the Turkish border, which has drawn a swift military response from artillery in Turkey.

Nationwide campaign in Brazil against Zika virus

• Brazil’s government launched a nationwide campaign to fight the Zika virus, with President Dilma Rousseff and Cabinet Ministers personally visiting homes and handing out leaf-lets along with 220,000 troops.

• Under a scorching sun in the neighbourhood of Zepellin in the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro, which will host the Olympic Games in August, Ms. Roussef said everyone needed to take part in the battle against the mosquito carrying Zika, suspected of causing the birth defect microcephaly.

• The so-called National Day for “Zero Zika” is focused on raising awareness about the disease, Ms. Rousseff said. Other operations specifically aimed at spreading larvicides and eliminating breeding spots will be launched later this month.

• The Zika outbreak is affecting large parts of Latin America and the Caribbean and is likely to spread to all countries in the Americas except for Canada and Chile.

More reforms needed to make dream of ‘Make in India’ a reality (Register and Login to read Full News..)

Lot of things are associated to High speed trains (Register and Login to read Full News..)

:: Science and Technology ::

India will come up with its own version of LIGO

• With the discovery of gravitational waves by the U.S.-based LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory), Prime Minister Narendra Modi may have tweeted his support for a similar detector in India but such a project is at least eight years away.

• This is not counting the time it will take the Central government to clear the proposal, estimated to cost around Rs. 1,200 crore, and is further premised on the project not running into environmental or State-level hurdles.

• Another ambitious mega-science project, the Indian Neutrino Observatory (INO) project — a proposed, underground observatory inTamil Nadu to detect ephemeral particles called neutrinos — had been cleared by the Union government in 2015.

• Scientists associated with the India-LIGO project (called INDIGO) say that they have, since 2009, done considerable work in identifying suitable sites in India and met officials in several States.

• INDIGO will be a replica of the two LIGO detectors and many of its components have already been built and are ready to be shipped from the United States.

• The project was initially tobe located in Australia but, since 2011, scheduled to be located in India. At least 25 sites were considered for the detector that will, most saliently, have two L-shaped four- kilometre-long arms.

• Other than the benefit of having a third detector, which will likely improve the chances of spotting gravitational waves, an India detector would improve the chances of novel, exciting discoveries being made out of India and being made by Indians.

Scientists finding ways to reduce coral bleach

• Oceanographers are diving deep into the aquamarine seas of Lakshadweep to unravel the mysteries of marine life that thrive and wither deep down there around the colourful corals.

• A group of researchers from Kerala are looking at the science behind the defence mechanism of corals to resist coral bleaching, the biggest threat to their beautiful submarine world.

• Coral bleaching is considered as a stress response of corals to a few biotic and abiotic factors. Increased solar irradiance (photosynthetically active radiation and ultraviolet band light) is an important factor.

• Exposure to UV radiation when combined with thermal stress could be lethal for corals.” It could lead to the loss of algal symbionts from coral tissue and coral bleaching.

• Mycosporinelike Amino Acids (MAA)are small secondary metabolites produced by organisms that live in environments with high volumes of sunlight.

• Besides protecting cells from mutation due to UV radiation, they also boost cellular tolerance to desiccation and salt and heat stress.

• The coral reefs are highly sensitive ecosystems facing the threat of extinction. They are often compared to tropical rainforests considering the ecosystem services they deliver.

• Coral reefs are considered valuable source of pharmaceutical compounds from which drugs for the treatment of cancer, HIV, cardiovascular diseases, ulcers, and other ailments are extracted, highlighting the medicinal value of corals, the researchers noted.

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Sources: Various News Papers & PIB

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