Current Affairs for IAS Exams – 17 October 2015

:: National ::

A ‘surprised’ government called the Supreme Court’s Friday move to strike down the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) Act a setback to parliamentary sovereignty.
The SC opted for the collegium system for appointment of judges to the higher judiciary, prompting the government to say that the apex court has gone above Parliament and people’s will.
The minister, a lawyer by profession and a former law minister, said the NJAC “was a part of judicial reforms that was exercised after deep consideration”. “We will go through the judgment and come out with a structured response,” Prasad told reporters.
Earlier, law minister Sadanand Gowda said he will go through the text in detail and consult Prime Minister Narendra Modi, legal experts and others. The minister insisted that the act represented the will of the people as it was backed by all the members in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha.
“The will of the people can be represented through the Parliament, through the legislature only, it cannot be brought to the notice of the whole world by some other means. We brought the will of the people. 100 per cent of the Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha have supported the bill, 100 per cent. Voters who have voted...are represented by Parliament members. 20 state legislatures have supported the bill..,” he said.

The US budget deficit for 2015 has fallen to its lowest level in eight years, spurred by gains in tax revenue that outpaced greater government spending.
The Treasury Department says the deficit in the just-completed 2015 budget year fell to USD 439 billion from USD 483 billion in 2014. It is equal to 2.5 per cent of the economy, the smallest proportion since 2007, and below the average of the past 40 years.
The figures come as budget battles in Washington are intensifying.
Congress and the White House face an early November deadline to raise the nation's borrowing limit.
Lawmakers are also seeking a separate agreement with the Obama administration on a budget to keep the government open past a December 11 deadline.

It’s World Food Day, a time to draw attention to the millions of people who endure poverty and chronic hunger and promote action from the rest of the world.

Here’s what you need to know.

About 795 million people are undernourished around the world – that’s one in nine people on earth.
Around 780 million of those people live in developing regions.

In sub-Saharan Africa, just under one in every four people is estimated to be undernourished. In fact, the number of undernourished people even increased by 44 million between 1990–92 and 2014-16.
But it’s Asia that has the most hungry people. Estimates for 2014-16 are that 281 million people in Southern Asia are undernourished, which is only a very slight reduction since 1990.
Poor nutrition causes 45% of all deaths of children under the age of five.
Around 3.1 million children die every year from poor nutrition.

In sub-Saharan Africa, there has been very limited progress in reducing both undernourishment and the numbers of children being underweight in the last 25 years.
There are wide differences across regions. Some, like Latin America and Eastern Asia, have made rapid progress in reducing hunger. But Central Africa and Western Asia are moving in the other direction, there’s actually a higher proportion of undernourished people now than in 1990-92.
If female farmers had the same access to resources as men, the number of hungry people in the world could be reduced by 100-150 million, according to the World Food Programme (WFP).
There is actually enough food in the world today for everyone to have nourishment for a healthy life.

Vitamin A deficiency affects 140 million children and is the leading cause of child blindness across developing countries.
Some 20 million children are born mentally impaired because their mothers had an iodine deficiency during pregnancy.
Around half of all pregnant women in developing countries are anaemic, which causes 110 deaths during childbirth each year.
Before the current crisis, Syria was classified as a middle-income country. Today, more than 50% of Syrians live below the poverty line.
BY 2050 hunger and child malnutrition could increase by up to 20% as a result of climate-related disasters, according to the WFP.
Emergencies, often given a lot of media coverage, account for less than 8% of victims of hunger.