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Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 17 May 2014

Narendra Modi To Be Sworn In as PM

Narendra Modi's BJP logged a king-size victory in the Lok Sabha polls, becoming the first party in 30 years to get through the half-way mark on its own. Armed with such a decisive mandate, the BJP leader has expressed his desire to take oath in front of a large gathering.
Mr Modi, will be sworn in at the forecourt of the Rashtrapati Bhavan. The list of invitees includes the names of some 3000 people. The forecourt is large enough to accommodate so many people.
Mr Modi will become the third prime minister in the country's history to be sworn in as the prime minister in the forecourt of the Rashtrapati Bhavan. In the past, Chandrashekhar, who led a 40-day government after the fall of the V P Singh government in 1990, and Atal Bihari Vajpayee were administered the oath of office and secrecy in the forecourt.

Over 60 lakh None Of The Above (NOTA) votes were cast in the 16th Lok Sabha elections, the first time that this option was given, according to the Election Commission data. This accounts for 1.1 per cent of all the votes cast. The disproportionately high use of NOTA in reserved constituencies continues, a trend first identified by The Hindu after the 2013 Assembly elections.
The high use of NOTA in reserved constituencies could be on account of upper caste candidates preferring to vote for no one to voting for a Dalit or tribal candidate.
On average, over 10,000 votes were cast in every constituency. In 46 constituencies, over 20,000 NOTA votes were cast. All but one of the ten constituencies in which the most NOTA votes were cast were reserved constituencies, eight of them for the Scheduled Tribes (STs) and one for the Scheduled Castes (SCs).
The proportion of the negative votes was higher than the national average in Chhattisgarh (1.9 per cent), Gujarat (1.8 per cent), Jharkhand (1.5 per cent), with the highest of all in the two ST constituencies in Meghalaya. The number of NOTA votes was the highest of all in the SC constituency of Nilgiris in Tamil Nadu (over 46,000 votes), where the margin of victory between the AIADMK candidate and the DMK’s A Raja was over 1 lakh votes. In the Nilgiris, NOTA got more votes than the Congress candidate.

A cut in water supplies in the Syrian city of Aleppo has been condemned by the head of the United Nations.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said that preventing people from access to safe water denies them a “fundamental right”.
A statement from his office added that denying civilians essential supplies is a breach of international and humanitarian law.
Rebels from the al Qaida-linked Nusra Front cut water supplies in the city nearly two weeks ago.
He said that the group has tried to resume pumping water but that supplies are erratic.

A Lao military aircraft carrying top officials including its defence minister crashed in the north of the Communist country Laos.
The aircraft was carrying about 20 people including Defence Minister Douangchay Phichit, the Vientiane governor and other prominent figures, foreign ministry spokesman Sek Wannamethee told AFP quoting information from the Thai embassy in Vientiane.
There was no immediate confirmation from Laos’s secretive communist government.
In October last year a civilian airplane operated by Lao Airlines plunged into the Mekong River in bad weather killing all 49 people on board.

The board of directors of Reliance Industries Ltd. (RIL) has recommended the appointment of Chairman Mukesh Ambani’s wife and Chairperson of Reliance Foundation Nita M. Ambani, as a director on the board of RIL.
She is being nominated to the board in place of Ramnik H. Ambani, who is retiring at the age of 90 years.
Approval of the shareholders will be sought in the 40th AGM being held on June 18.

Barcelona and Lionel Messi have agreed an improved contract that will reportedly make the four-time World Player of the Year soccer's best-paid player with a net annual salary of 20 million euros ($27.4 million).
The Argentina captain would also regain control of his image rights, further boosting the income of a man Forbes magazine estimates is the 10th highest-earning athlete, with annual revenues of $41.2 million including wages and endorsements.
FC Barcelona has reached an agreement to adjust the terms in the contract binding Leo Messi to the club as a professional first team player.
Messi is Barca's all-time leading scorer with 354 goals in 424 official games and news of the deal is a boost for the club before Saturday's La Liga showdown against Atletico Madrid.