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Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 17 April 2014

Azam Khan, Amit Shah censured

The Election Commission has censured Narendra Modi’s close aide Amit Shah and Uttar Pradesh Minister Azam Khan for making controversial remarks during campaigning.
The EC’s decision came days after it banned the two leaders from campaigning in Uttar Pradesh.
The EC also condemned their statements after going through their responses to the show causes issued to them.
The ban imposed on the two politicians will continue.
The poll body made similar observations against Shah in a separate order after going through his response.
Mr. Shah had landed in a major controversy for his remarks that the upcoming general election was an opportunity to seek “revenge for the insult” inflicted during the riots in Muzaffarnagar in Uttar Pradesh last year.

The government on Thursday named Admiral Robin Dhowan as the new navy chief, 51 days after DK Joshi resigned on February 26, accepting moral responsibility for a rash of recent accidents.
Dhowan, who was commissioned on January 1, 1975, is an alumnus of the National Defence Academy, Defence Services Staff College and Naval War College, Newport, Rhode Island, USA. He has commanded leading warships such as INS Khukri, INS Ranjit and INS Delhi, apart from serving as the chief staff officer (operations) of the Mumbai-based Western Naval Command (WNC).
Dhowan was the second senior-most naval officer after WNC chief vice-admiral Shekhar Sinha, who joined the service in June 1974.
However, in spite of being the senior-most, Sinha has been superseded by the government since some of the worst naval accidents occurred under his watch, including the sinking of INS Sindhurakshak that killed 18 sailors on August 14, 2013 and the INS Sindhuratna mishap that killed two officers on February 26, 2014.

The highly acclaimed film ‘Ship of Theseus’ in Hindi and English which has already won several awards overseas was declared the best film of 2013 in the 61st National Film Awards, while Hansal Mehta bagged the award for best director for his Hindi film ‘Shahid’.
The best actor award was shared by Raj Kumar of ‘Shahid’ and Suraj Venjaramoodu for the Malayalam film ‘Perariyathavar’ by Dr Biju which also bagged the award for the best film on environment/conservation.
The best actress award went to Geetanjali Thapa for her role in the Hindi film ‘Liar’s Dice’, while the supporting actor went to Saurabh Shukla for ‘Jolly LLB’ in Hindi. The supporting actress award was shared by Amruta Subhash in the Marathi film ‘Astu’ and Aida El-Kashief in ‘The Ship of Theseus’. The best children’s film was ‘Kaphal’ by Bahul Mukhtiar in Hindi while the best child artiste award was shared by Somnath Avghade of ‘Fandry’ in Marathi and Sadhana of the Tamil ‘Thanga Mangal’.
Hindi films once again dominated the National Film Awards by getting as many as fifteen awards among feature films. Marathi came next with ten awards followed by Bengali with six and Tamil and Kannada with five each and Malayalam with four.

The Supreme Court has held that the Comptroller and Auditor-General of India (CAG) can audit the account books of private telecom companies which share revenue with the government for using spectrum.
A bench comprising justices K.S. Radhakrishnan and Vikramajit Sen said the CAG can carry out the audit to examine whether the companies are giving proper share of their revenue to the government.
The court passed the order on a batch of petitions filed by telecom companies’ associations, including the Association of Unified Telecom Service Providers of India (AUTSP) and the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), challenging the January 6, 2014 Delhi High Court verdict which had given green signal for CAG audit of the firms’ accounts.
The Supreme Court had on February 3, 2014 sought responses from the Centre and the CAG on the pleas of the associations.
The firms had challenged the High Court order which had said that it was the duty of CAG to audit telecom companies as a part of their revenue goes to the Consolidated Fund of India.

It is the 102nd anniversary of the sinking of the huge and one of the most well-known ships in the history of the world shipping, Titanic. The massive ship that went down in the year 1912 is still fresh in the memory of millions and millions of people around the world.
The full name of the huge ship was R.M.S. Titanic that was the biggest and strongest ships ever made till that time. Reports suggest that even new age ships that cost hundreds of millions of dollars are still unable to match the grandeur of the sunken ship.

Global software major Microsoft is the 'most attractive employer' in India, while IT, telecom and ITes are the most preferred sectors by the workforce,according to a survey by HR services firm Randstad.
Microsoft emerged as the 'most attractive employer' in the survey for the fourth year in a row.
Sony India is next most attractive employer. According to the surrey, Larsen & Toubro is the most attractive employer in the infrastructure industry, State Bank of India in the banking sector, Taj Group in the hospitality and Tata Power in the energy sector.
The survey, which covered more than 8,000 potential and employed workforce in India, found that competitive salary and employee benefits and long-term job security were the most important factors when choosing an employer.