Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 19 May 2014

Only witnesses in VVIP chopper case

The Central Bureau of Investigation, in response to a query from the Union Law Ministry on the ongoing probe into AgustaWestland VVIP chopper deal, has reiterated that the agency would examine Governors M.K. Narayanan and B.V. Wanchoo as witnesses.
The Law Ministry had earlier denied permission to the CBI on the grounds that West Bengal Governor M.K. Narayanan and Goa Governor B.V. Wanchoo enjoyed Constitutional immunity. The agency then wrote to the President Secretariat seeking opinion, citing that the Secretariat would be in the know of the set procedures.
Mr. Narayanan, as the then National Security Advisor and Mr. Wanchoo, as the Special Protection Group chief, had allegedly attended a meeting in 2005 in which the tender specifications for procurement of VVIP helicopters were “tweaked”.
The CBI has alleged that during his tenure, former IAF chief S.P. Tyagi had approved reduction of the service ceiling of VVIP helicopters from 6,000 metres to 4,500 metres, a relaxation that allowed AgustaWestland to qualify for the tender.
Alleging that middlemen were hired and bribes paid on the pretext of engineering contracts to swing the deal in the company’s favour, the agency has named the retired Air Chief Marshal, his three cousins and several others in the case.

African leaders at a summit in Paris have agreed on a regional plan of action to combat Boko Haram, the Islamist group that has abducted more than 200 girls and threatened to sell them into slavery.
In a rare show of unity, the leaders of Nigeria, Cameroon, Niger, Chad and Benin pledged cooperation including joint border patrols and sharing intelligence to find the girls, snatched from Nigeria more than a month ago.
Nigeria has faced criticism for not having done enough to protect its people, particularly the girls, and for its slow response to the kidnappings.
The country’s President, Goodluck Jonathan, described Boko Haram as a “terrorist organisation” and said it was part of an “al-Qaeda operation”.
Nigeria and its neighbours pledged to reinforce security measures for those living in areas targeted by Boko Haram, carry out bilateral patrols and share operational intelligence to find the kidnapped girls and other snatched by the Islamist group.
A second summit at ministerial level will be held in London next to report on what progress has been made.

An Indian organisation, specialising in prosthetic legs, will supply artificial limbs free of cost to 1,000 physically-challenged Afghan nationals in the war-torn country.
Jaipur Foot has signed an agreement with the Afghanistan government to supply 1,000 prosthetic legs to terror attack victims and polio sufferers.
The Indian organisation has agreed to provide the limbs free of cost. This assistance would further consolidate relations between the two countries.
An agreement to the effect was inked between Afzali and DR Mehta, founder and patron-in-chief of Jaipur Foot.
India has also planned to train staff at the Disabled Technical Institute in Afghanistan to produce artificial limbs themselves.
Mr. Mehta said his organisation has provided prosthetic limbs to more than a million people across the globe.

Most recently, Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi made a bold pitch for IT becoming the face of India, and, in the process, coined the Twitter-friendly phrase ‘India Talent (IT)’ + ‘Information Technology (IT)’ is equal to ‘India Tomorrow (IT)’.
The Indian political class, after the fall of the Rajiv Gandhi administration, has certainly enjoyed talking about using technology and IT to boost economic growth and bring about development.
The greatest failures of the outgoing dispensation, with regard to IT and the digital economy, were most certainly its inability to bring broadband penetration to a respectable level, and its borderline negligent behaviour towards the start-up ecosystem.
Sadly, the e-commerce industry has grown only on the back of foreign capital. Sadder still is the fact that some of the biggest e-tailers such as Flipkart and Snapdeal cannot deliver to Congress scion Rahul Gandhi’s constituency Amethi due to a combination of poor physical infrastructure and concern over security.
There is little doubt that the UPA-led government viewed technology-aided economic growth through the narrow prisms of technological ‘solutionism’ — implementing technology for the sake of looking technology-savvy and hoping that growth will follow — and fear.

Scientists have recently discovered in Argentina the bones of the world’s biggest dinosaur, as heavy as 14 African elephants and as tall as a seven-storey building.
The 65-foot-tall new species of titanosaur, 130 feet in length and weighing 77 tonnes, is much heavier than the previous record holder Argentinosaurus.
The remains of the enormous herbivore dating from the Late Cretaceous period were first discovered by a local farm worker in the desert near La Flecha, about 250km west of Patagonia.
The giant herbivore lived in the forests of Patagonia between 95 and 100 million years ago, based on the age of the rocks in which its bones were found.
However it does not yet have a name.