Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 17 June 2014

20 Indian institutions in QS rankings for BRICS

Twenty Indian educational institutions have made it to the latest QS University Rankings for the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) countries. Of these, five are the Indian Institutes of Technology at Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kanpur and Kharagpur.
A copy of the ‘QS University Rankings: BRICS 2014’ was presented to Prime Minister Narendra Modi by Union Human Resource Development Minister Smriti Irani. The survey also flagged the fact that IIT Kharagpur has a higher proportion of PhDs among its staff than any university in BRICS.
Other educational institutions from India in the list include the University of Mumbai, University of Madras, Banaras Hindu University, Manipal University, Birla Institute of Technology and Science, University of Pune, Indian Institute of Information Technology, Calcutta University, Delhi University, Allahabad, Amity University, Anna University and Panjab University.

State violating its own policy: kerala HC

A Division Bench of the Kerala High Court asked the State government to file an affidavit on the bar licence issue while orally observing that the government was acting against its own policy of reducing liquor consumption.
The Bench comprising Justice Harun-Ul-Rasheed and Justice Anil K. Narendran made the observation when appeals filed by some bar hoteliers against a single judge’s order refusing to interfere in the bar licence issue came up for hearing. The court orally observed that the State government should reduce the number of beverages corporation’s outlets as well if it intended to bring down liquor consumption.
The government was allotting more bar licences under the guise of promoting tourism. In fact, the government which was bound to implement its own policy was violating the same policy. The government should try to reduce liquor consumption in a time bound manner.
The government submitted that a decision on the renewal of licences would be taken based on the report of the Secretary (Taxes) on the recommendations of a one-man commission appointed to formulate the abakri policy parameters.
The Bench directed the government to file the counter affidavit. The petitioners alleged that the government was discriminating against them. They were entitled to get their licences renewed, as their hotels had not been included on the list of the 418 sub-standard bars in the State.

Iran and P6 begins talks

Nuclear negotiators from Iran and six world powers got down to business on Tuesday seeking to strike a momentous deal before a July 20 deadline but with significant differences still to bridge. The United States and Iran briefly discussed the crisis raging in Iraq, U.S. officials said, but the focus in Vienna on the second day of talks was the mooted atomic agreement.
The many problem areas include the duration of any final accord, the pace of sanctions relief, Iran’s partially-built Arak nuclear reactor and allegations of past efforts to build a bomb. But the main sticking point remains uranium enrichment: a process that can produce nuclear fuel but also, when highly purified, the core of an atomic bomb.
The West hotly disputes Iran’s claim that it needs this material for nuclear facilities around the country.The parties have set themselves a deadline of July 20, when an interim deal struck in November expires, and many experts believe an extension is already being talked about.

RBI said avoid excessive legal supervision on financial regulators

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor, Raghuram Rajan, warned against excessive legal supervision on financial regulators as it would hamper policy-making and increase systemic risks.
“The broader point is that a lot of regulatory action stems from the regulator exercising sound judgment based on years of experience. In doing so, it fills in the gaps in laws, contracts, and even regulations. Not everything the regulator does can be proven in a court of law,” said Dr. Rajan while addressing State Bank of India Banking Conclave 2014.
Talking on the suggestions made by the Financial Sector Legislative Reforms Committee (FSLRC), Dr. Rajan said that the creation of a Financial Sector Appellate Tribunal would hamper the policy decisions taken by the regulator. He asked, “How much checking and balancing is enough? Do we want even policy decisions to be appealable? Can legal oversight become excessive?”
The FSLRC had recommended several measures to reform the country’s financial sector. However, Dr. Rajan said that some of the recommendations seemed somewhat “schizophrenic” while still others ‘faddish and impressionistic” rather than based on deep analysis.
He warned that because of the tendency of any new organisation to overreach to justify its existence, one should be careful about tying the financial regulator with further judicial oversight.He also criticised the suggestion to merge all regulation of trading under a new Unified Financial Agency, so that the Forward Markets Commission, as well as the bond regulation activities now undertaken by the RBI, would move under a new roof, as would the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI).

RBI Focus on containing inflation

With inflation touching a five-month high, the Reserve Bank of India said its efforts would be focused on containing any spurt in prices and keeping a close eye on developments in Iraq, which have already jacked up oil prices.
Governor Raghuram Rajan also said India had enough foreign exchange reserves and was better prepared to deal with any fallout on the external front.“(As in) last few months and, I expect, the next few quarters, (RBI) will be primarily engaged in combating inflation,” he told reporters on the sidelines of an SBI event here.
He said: “We are watching the inflation situation. Food prices have had an effect in the last couple of months.”The Governor hoped food prices would come down with appropriate food management by the government.

SEBI proposed new norms for ‘crowdfunding’ rules

The Securities and Exchange Board of India, proposed new norms for ‘crowdfunding’ or collection of funds through web-based platforms and social networking sites — a move that would help start-up companies raise capital and also check misuse of such avenues.
Under the proposed norms, crowdfunding platforms can be provided by only SEBI-registered entities, while companies can raise up to Rs.10 crore in a year through this route.
Given the high-level of risks associated with this new way of fund-raising activity, SEBI has also proposed that only ‘accredited investors’ be allowed to participate in crowdfunding activities.

Viswanathan Anand joint ninth

Five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand got off to a sedate start with two draws and ended up joint ninth after the end of the fifth round of World Rapid Chess Championship .
A couple of draws at the beginning against Ivan Salgado Lopez of Spain and Maxim Matlakov of Russia in the first two rounds for Anand were followed by a couple of victories coming at the expense of his new full time ‘second’ Sandipan Chanda and Russian Vladimir Fedoseev.
But a draw in the fifth round with Viktor Laznicka of Czech Republic saw the Indian ace slump a little in the strongest ever rapid chess tournament of the world.