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Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 16 April 2014

Military operation to crush anti-government protests in Ukraine

Ukraine has launched a military operation to crush anti-government protests in the Russian-speaking eastern part of the country, deploying thousands of troops, armour and aircraft to Donetsk region where protesters seized government buildings in a dozen cities and towns.
The military, in armoured personnel carriers backed by aircraft, stormed a small airfield near Kramatorsk. Unconfirmed reports said between four and 11 protesters had been killed in the attack.
Following the attack, hundreds of unarmed Kramatorsk residents drove to the airfield to protest against the killing of civilians.
The Russian TV channel Rossiya-24, which has several reporters in eastern Ukraine, said about 500 government troops and 20 armoured personnel carriers entered the city of Slaviansk, not far from Kramatorsk.
A militia commander in Slaviansk, which is under full control of the protesters, told Russia’s Itar-Tass news agency that the city had been surrounded by Ukrainian tanks and armoured vehicles.
In Kiev, two presidential candidates representing eastern Ukraine were attacked by armed far right radicals. Oleg Tsarev, an independent, was severely beaten after appearing in a TV show called “Freedom of Speech.” The mob demanded that he and the other candidate, Mikhail Dobkin, withdraw from the elections scheduled for May 25.
Ukrainian authorities confirmed that a battalion of newly formed “National Guard” made up of “Maidan activists” had been deployed for action against pro-Russian protesters in the east.

Dying declaration of Dec. 16 gangrape victim

The Supreme Court has directed the Delhi Police to place before it the dying declaration of the December 16 gangrape victim along with other trial court records of the case in which four convicts were awarded death sentence.
Besides Mukesh (27) and Pawan (20), the Delhi High Court had also upheld the conviction and death penalty of Akshay Thakur (29) and Vinay Sharma (21).
While dismissing their appeals, the High Court had termed the offence as “extremely fiendish” and “unparallelled in the history of criminal jurisprudence” and said the “exemplary punishment” was the need of the hour.
The 23-year-old paramedic, on the night of December 16, 2012, was brutally assaulted and gangraped by six persons in a moving bus in South Delhi and thrown out of the vehicle with her male friend. She died in a Singapore hospital on December 29, 2012.
The prime accused in the case Ram Singh was found dead in Tihar Jail in March last year and the trial against him was abated.
The sixth accused, a juvenile, was on August 31, 2013, convicted and sentenced to a maximum of three years in a reformation home by the Juvenile Justice Board.

Germany’s new initiatives

Germany, one of the three most-visited places in Europe for Indian, plans to grow this traffic of travellers by about 10 per cent this year with a focus on its heritage sites.
The German tourism department has budgeted 5 lakh euros for promotional activities in this respect.
Germany is known not only for its excellent cars and high tech, but even more for its heritage – a vibrant, reunified Berlin, modern designs and magnificent monuments that have stood the test of time, like the castles in Potsdam and the Cologne Cathedral.
There are 38 UNESCO world heritage sites in Germany, 36 of them cultural and two natural. Among these are also the top three heritage sites in Europe.
Last year, more than 615,000 Indians visited the country. The plan is to increase that by 8-10% this year and towards this it will spend an equivalent of Rs4 crore. That might not be so difficult after the 5% growth they managed last year.

Berlusconi sentenced for tax fraud

A Milan court has ruled that Silvio Berlusconi will perform a year of community service for his tax fraud conviction at a centre for the elderly.
The assignment curtails Berlusconi’s ability to participate in the upcoming European election campaign a point of contention among his political allies. The 77-year-old, three-time former premier cannot run due to the conviction, the first against him ever confirmed by Italy’s high court, but remains a political force as head of Forza Italia.
Berlusconi was sentenced to four years for tax fraud, reduced to one year for a general amnesty.

El- Nino and it’s impact on Indian economy

Recently, private forecaster Skymet predicted a sub-normal monsoon in India, courtesy El Nino that’s threatening a widespread devastation globally. Given the fears of an imminent drought, the next government has a tall task ahead of it
The Skymet CEO feels an equitable distribution of rains can be a silver lining in this situation. According to him, there is a 40% chance that rainfall in June-September would be less than average, a 25% chance of a drought and zero percent chance of excess rains.
The impact of El Nino need not be source of concern for staples. Its impact on food prices is expected to be minimal as India has sufficient stock of cereals. Most fruits track 30% import duty, if that is brought down, it can be controlled too.
Staple inflation is never a problem, but soaring prices of fruits, vegetables, pulses, fruits etc are.
By June-July the monsoon effects will begin to feed into the households and market.
Statistically India has faced drought every 4.4 years. All El Nino years were not necessarily drought years, though the opposite is true. Since last drought in India was in 2009, this year can be a drought year. There is a consensus among the experts that if the next government manages to keep the lid on fiscal deficit, and if RBI governor Raghuram Rajan keeps his promise on rates, India may avert El-Nino devastations.

One-third of temporary workers in US Indian

More than one-third of the temporary workers in the US in 2012 were from India, which also accounted for the largest number of non-immigrants residing in the US that year, according to an official report.
Out of the 1.87 million resident non-immigrants in the US in 2012, India accounted for the maximum number of 430,000 residents, followed by China with 210,000 residents and South Korea with 140,000, the Department of Homeland Security said in its latest report.
Out of the 1.9 million non-immigrants residing in US in 2012, the largest categories were temporary workers (45 per cent, or 840,000) and students (38 per cent, or 720,000), the report said.
Slightly more than 50 per cent of the students were ages 18-24, the report said.
Among the top 10 leading countries of citizenship, Germany and France led the exchange visitor category, making up more than 60 per cent of the total, the report said.
California was the leading destination state, with 270,000 (15 per cent) of the total 1.9 million non-immigrants choosing to reside in that state.
The next leading destination states were New York (210,000), Texas (140,000), Florida (100,000) and Massachusetts (90,000).
The top 5 destination states accounted for 44 per cent of the total and the top 10 accounted for more than 60 per cent.
Compared to the nation as a whole, disproportionately large percentages of the temporary worker population resided in Texas, New Jersey and Washington. This was substantially larger than average percentages of the student population resided in Massachusetts and Pennsylvania.

2014 South Asian Judo Championship

Humera Ashique recently became the first Pakistani women to win a judo gold medal in an international event in Nepal.
The 24-year-old took the gold at the 2014 South Asian Judo Championship in Kathmandu as she defeated a local athlete to clinch the 48kg event.