Current Affairs for IAS Exams – 19 December 2015

:: NATIONAL ::

The juvenile convict in the December 16, 2012 Nirbhaya gang rape case moved closer to freedom after the Delhi High Court refused to stop his release on his completing the three-year sentence.
The court cited existing provisions of the law while holding that no direction could be issued to prolong his stay in the observation home beyond Sunday.
The maximum stay that could be directed in the observation home under Section 15 (1) of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act was three years. The juvenile, now an adult, will be completing three years on December 20.
However, the Bench, directed the Juvenile Justice (JJ) Board of Delhi to interact with the juvenile, his parents and guardians and the Delhi government’s Women and Child Development Department officials for his post-release rehabilitation and “social mainstreaming.”
For this, the JJ Board, which had sentenced the juvenile to three years’ detention, will pass appropriate orders in accordance with the provisions of the Juvenile Justice Act and Rules.
The victim’s mother Asha Devi said: “Despite all our efforts for three years, our government and our courts have released a criminal. The assurance we were given that we would get justice has not been delivered. The fight is not over. We are shattered.”

After almost a whole Winter Session where disruption seemed to be the norm, and barely any business was conducted, things got real in the Rajya Sabha on Friday.
The government formally relinquished any hope of clearing the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Bill, 2014, in favour of clearing Bills where the government and the Opposition were on the same page.
There was agreement on passing at least six Bills, including the SC ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Amendment Bill, the Appropriation Bills, the Anti-Hijacking Bill, the Atomic Energy Amendment Bill, the Commercial Courts Ordinance Bill and the Arbitration and Conciliation Amendment Bill by December 23 when the current session comes to an end.

Seeking to make Uttar Pradesh environemt-friendly, the Uttar Pradesh government on Friday decided to enforce the ban on the use of polythene across the State.
Earlier this month the Allahabad High Court’s gave direction to prohibit its use.

The future of Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad is a bone of contention not only between the U.S. and Russia, but also among U.S. politicians and policymakers.
As the civil war drags on, President Barack Obama’s Syria strategy is coming under attack domestically on three questions — a) should the U.S fight the Islamic State and Mr. Assad at the same time?; b) should there be deployment of U.S combat forces on the ground; and c) whether the policy of zero civilian casualty is rendering U.S air strikes in Syria ineffective.
A UN Security Council resolution later is expected to endorse a political process that will kick off in January towards an election in 18 months in Syria.

The European Parliament has called upon the European Union (EU) and its member states to launch “targeted sanctions” against “certain members” of the Maldives government and their “leading supporters” in the business community.
The Parliament wants the EU to freeze the overseas assets of these persons, apart from imposing travel bans on them.
This course of action has been recommended “in the face of continuing democratic backsliding and deterioration of the human rights situation in the Maldives,” according to the website of Parliament, which adopted a resolution at a sitting in Strasbourg with 563 votes in favour and 31 votes against. There were 32 abstentions.
It also urged the European Commission to issue “comprehensive warnings” about the Maldives’ human rights record to tourists planning to visit the country and the European External Action Service (EEAS) to “monitor closely” the human rights and political situation in the South Asian country.
It wanted the Maldivian government to safeguard the rights of pro-democracy campaigners, moderate Muslims and supporters of secularism, besides ensuring “adequate protection of journalists and human rights defenders who face threats and attacks on account of their legitimate work.”

India lowered its GDP growth projection for the current year to between 7-7.5 per cent against the earlier forecast of 8.1-8.5 per cent.
The outlook going forward is challenging and, without reforms, GDP growth next year is unlikely to be significantly greater than this year, according to the government.
The cut in forecast follows GDP growth in the first half of the year (from April to September) slowing to 7.2 per cent from 7.5 per cent in the corresponding period last year.
Economic growth was dragged down by the 17.4 per cent decline in exports in the first half and the adverse impact of deficient monsoons on farm sector output.
Nominal growth during this period also slowed substantially from 13.5 per cent to 7.4 per cent. The sharp and continuing decline is a cause for concern, according to a mid-year review of the economy that Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley tabled in the Parliament.
The slowdown will pose a challenge to meeting the fiscal deficit target of 3.9 per cent of GDP and will also place a stress on tax revenue collections.
India’s debt-to-GDP ratio too will cease to decline, a development with significant implications for India’s macroeconomic stability and vulnerability to external risks.
The ratio had been declining over the past 10-12 years, benefiting from the nominal GDP growth exceeding the government’s cost of borrowing.

With top-seeded Singapore out of the way, India put up a confident display to outplay England 3-1 in the men’s final of the Avadh 20th Commonwealth table tennis championships.
The Indian men’s team last won the title in 2004 in Kuala Lumpur, with Sharath Kamal, Soumyadeep Roy and SubhajitSaha forming the core of the team.