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Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 19 October 2014

National

Jayalalithaa returns home

• The heavy northeast monsoon rain did not deter thousands of AIADMK cadre who gathered to catch a glimpse of party general secretary Jayalalithaa, as she returned to the city after being released on bail in the disproportionate assets case.
• Ms. Jayalalithaa, who left the Parapanna Agrahara prison in Bangalore with a grim face after 21 days of incarceration, entered her Poes Garden residence looking happy.
• Ms. Jayalalithaa arrived by a special aircraft that landed at Chennai around 4.50 p.m. She was accompanied by her friend V.K. Sasikala and J. Ilavarasi, both convicted with her in the case and also released on bail.
• Five minutes later, she came out of the airport's operational area and rolled down her car window to have a word with senior party leaders including E. Madhusudhanan, Visalakshi Nedunchezhiyan, C. Ponnaiyan and Panruti S. Ramachandran.
• Driving home, Ms. Jayalalithaa waved and showed the victory sign to the thousands of cadre who thronged the roads, waiting in the rain for hours. At Kotturpuram, the convoy stopped for a minute for her to offer prayers from the car at the Varasiddhi Vinayagar Temple.

Opening account in foreign bank is not a crime: Attorney General

• With the Modi government facing the arduous task of fulfilling its promise of getting back black money stashed abroad, Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi said all amounts deposited in foreign banks by Indian citizens can’t be termed as black money and that it is not a crime to open such accounts.
• He said that all the information on black money received from foreign countries, with which India has double taxation avoidance agreement, cannot be disclosed.
• Mr. Rohatgi told reporters that details of only those accounts can be made public in which government decides to start prosecution.
• He said that government filed an application in the apex court requesting modifications of the earlier order in which the Centre was directed to disclose all the accounts in relation to tax haven Liechtenstein.
• “We have requested the Supreme Court that the reciprocating countries have raised an objection and asked to explain why all accounts were disclosed and not only those where prosecution is to be filed,” he said.
• Taking a swipe at the Modi government, Congress spokesperson Sanjay Jha said it has no intention to get to the bottom of the black money case.
• “Our government had recognised the issue of black money. There is no international law other than UN convention against corruption of which we are signatory in 2011.
India will follow Senegal-model to track Ebola
• India, which has so far not reported a single case of Ebola, is emulating the Senegal-model of tracking every individual who could have been exposed to the virus or come into contact with anyone else who did, to prevent the outbreak of the deadly disease in the country. The World Health Organisation has declared Senegal Ebola-free.
• Health experts assert that since Ebola is so far known only to spread through bodily fluids, it is easier to track the carriers. “It is not airborne, but there is ambiguity on how the bodily fluid exchange is acting as a contagion.
• Earlier it was perceived to be transmitted if there were breaks and cuts in the skin, but now we are cautioning against coming into contact with the person or an item he or she would have touched,” a senior official of the Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry said.
• Officials have tightened the screening of individuals at all ports of entry, and those who have flown in from areas exposed to Ebola are tracked for 30 days. “This is how Senegal could contain the disease, by tracking every person who showed symptoms and was in the Ebola-affected areas,” the official said.

U-turn by NDA over Black money (Register and Login to read Full News..)

Science & technology

Unusual Signal from space may be dark matter particles

• An unusual signal picked up by a European space observatory could be the first direct detection of dark matter particles, astronomers say. The findings are tentative and could take several years to check, but if confirmed they would represent a dramatic advance in scientists’ understanding of the universe.
• Dark matter cannot be seen, but the mysterious substance is thought to make up about 85 per cent of all the matter in the universe. The web of dark matter that stretches through space Sis believed to give the cosmos its structure, although so far it has eluded direct detection by physicists.
• Researchers at Leicester University spotted the curious signal in 15 years of measurements taken by the European Space Agency’s orbiting XMM-Newton observatory. They noticed that the intensity of x-rays recorded by the spacecraft rose by about 10 per cent whenever it observed the boundary of Earth’s magnetic field that faces towards the sun.
• Andy Read, an astronomer on the team, said that conventional models of the universe failed to explain the effect. Once galaxies, stars and other bright x-ray sources have been filtered out, he said, the intensity of x-rays in space was expected to be the same whenever measurements were taken.

Over one-fifth of India's frogs under threat: ZSI (Register and Login to read Full News..)

Sports

Saketh Myneni beats top seed for title

• Saketh Myneni beat the top-seeded Aleksandr Nedovyesov of Kazakhstan 6-3, 6-7(4), 6-3 in the final of the $50,000 Challenger tennis tournament at the Indore Club courts.
• It was the maiden Challenger singles title, on his 27th birthday, for Saketh, who had asserted his big game by winning the mixed doubles gold medal with Sania Mirza and the doubles silver with Sanam Singh at the recent Asian Games in Incheon.
• The title was worth 80 ATP points and $7200. Interestingly, he had accumulated only 84 ATP points in singles from 13 tournaments for his current ranking of 451.
• Saketh will be ranked close to the top-300, behind Somdev Devvarman, Yuki Bhambri and R. Ramkumar, when the new rankings are announced.
• “I am very happy with the title. It was my first final in a Challenger. In fact, it was my first semifinal also here. It feels great to beat a good player and win the title. Hopefully, it is just the beginning of big things to come,” said Saketh.

Business & economy

Perfect timing for deregulation of diesel price

• It turned out to be a nice day for the energy sector as the Cabinet cleared long-awaited reform measures such as deregulation of the diesel price and new prices for domestic natural gas. Diesel price deregulation was on the cards given the gradual fall in under-recoveries over the past couple of months, thanks to the prevailing soft global oil prices.
• The sharp fall in oil price has helped the government gift-wrap what is essentially a tough reform measure with a cut in the price of diesel. In that sense, the timing of the deregulation is just perfect. The unsaid part of the deregulation is that it is a double-edged sword — if global oil prices rise, then domestic retail prices will rise too. Oil companies will now have the freedom to adjust prices at periodic intervals to reflect the global oil price and exchange value of the rupee versus the dollar. There will no more be the cushion of subsidy to protect domestic consumers.
• With two major fuels — petrol and diesel — now shifted to market-pricing mode, the pressure on the Centre’s fiscal deficit will ease as there will be no subsidy to bear on this count. But importantly, the advent of market pricing is also expected to bring back private players such as Reliance, Essar and Shell into the retail market.
• Together, these players were operating in excess of 3,000 outlets till they closed them down a few years ago as they became unviable.

Indian companies moving towards low carbon economy: CDP (Register and Login to read Full News..)

International

Hong Kong crisis deepens after weekend clashes

• A deepening sense of impasse gripped Hong Kong as pro-democracy protests entered their fourth week with the government having limited options to end the crisis and demonstrators increasingly willing to confront police.
• Dozens of people were injured in two nights of clashes over the weekend in the densely populated Mong Kok district of the Chinese-controlled city, including 22 police, media said. Four people were arrested for assault, police said.
• The area was calm although scores of protesters remained on the streets.
• Hopes of easing the worst political crisis in Hong Kong since Britain handed the free-wheeling city back to China in 1997 rest on talks scheduled for 21st between the government and student protest leaders that will be broadcast live.
• But few are expecting any resolution, given the two sides are poles apart on how the city will elect its next leader in 2017.
• "I don't expect much from tomorrow's meeting, but I still hold some hope for the talks," said Woody Wong, a 21-year-old student who camped overnight with protesters on Nathan Road, the main thoroughfare in Mong Kok.
• "I will keep doing this until the government listens to our voice."
• Students want free elections, but China insists on screening candidates first. Hong Kong's Beijing-backed leader, Leung Chun-ying, has said the city's government was unwilling to compromise on China's restrictions, which were announced in late August.
• Leung, who has rejected calls by protesters to quit, said that more time was needed to broker what he hoped would be a non-violent end to the upheaval.