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Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 2 May 2015

Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 02 May 2015

:: National ::

Award for historian Babasaheb Purandare

The BJP-Sena government has decided to confer the Maharashtra Bhushan on the right-wing historian, Babasaheb Purandare, whose major works have contributed much to the cult of King Shivaji.
A committee, headed by Cultural Affairs Minister Vinod Tawde, chose Mr. Purandare for the award, which was instituted when the BJP-Shiv Sena coalition first came to power in 1995. Chief Minister Fadnavis endorsed the decision. The award carries a cash prize of Rs. 5 lakh, a citation and a memento.
Mr. Purandare, 92, is known as Shiv Sahir (Shivaji’s poet) because of his bestselling narrative Raja Shiva Chatrapati and Janata Raja, a much-performed play, replete with medieval Indian pageantry that recreates the 17th century atmosphere in Maharashtra through incidents in Shivaji’s life.Mr. Purandare was one of the key leaders of the Bal Thackeray-led Shiv Sena in the 1970s when the party was gaining ground in Mumbai, crushing the left-wing trade union movement.
His nationalistic vision of Shivaji and the Marathas, as embodied in his recreation of the king’s life and times, is at odds with the more realistic assessment of Shivaji’s importance in Indian history and society by great historians like Sir Jadunath Sarkar (in his 1919 masterpiece Shivaji and his times ) and left-liberals in Maharashtra like Govind Pansare (in his bestselling pamphlet Who was Shivaji? ).

Economic policy directionless, social climate grave: Shourie

Arun Shourie, a Minister in the Vajpayee Cabinet, hit out at the Narendra Modi government, saying its economic policy was “directionless” while the social climate was causing “great anxiety” among the minorities.
Mr. Shourie said the one-year rule of Modi was “good in parts”, his transformation as Prime Minister was good in foreign policy, but the promised turnaround in the economy had not happened.
“The government seems to be more concerned with managing headlines than putting policies in place. The situation is like the many pieces of a jigsaw puzzle lying in a mess with no big picture in mind about how to put them together,” he told a private news channel. Mr. Shourie, who is not active in BJP these days, said despite promises, the fears of foreign investors on retrospective taxes and incentives for manufacturing have not materialised on the ground. “They (investors) require stability and predictability,” he said, adding that the concern expressed by banker Deepak Parekh on the situation on the ground should be seen as a “wake-up call“.
Asked if the Modi government had done enough to put India on growth path, Mr. Shourie said that it was “all hyperbole.”
“Such claims are meant to grab headlines but lack substance,” he said. “The government is talking big on economic matters, but nothing is happening on the ground. Delivery is missing,” he added.
In an apparent reference to Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, he said the government lacked a stable approach in dealing with investors and that “lawyerly arguments” would not convince them. He was also critical of handling of the tax issues which was keeping foreign investors away. “First it alienated them but now it has made them laugh. You come out as bullies.”

Sayeed going slow on AFSPA, talks with separatists

Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed is in no hurry to reach out to the separatists, despite the promises made in the common agenda of the BJP-PDP alliance.
Sources familiar with his thinking told that given the volatile situation that prevails in the Valley and the precarious balance that he maintains in the relations with the BJP, Mr. Sayeed was “cautious in pushing his agenda.”
The State government is also not in a hurry to withdraw the controversial Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) from parts of the State, another promise in the agenda.
Speaking to the Headlines Today channel earlier this week, PDP leader Mehbooba Mufti said the State government had not started the review process that could lead to revocation of the AFSPA from certain areas. Ms. Mufti said the government had only been in power for two months and the turbulence it faced had not permitted it to start action in many areas.
Mr. Sayeed’s willingness to temper his own agenda has been noted by the BJP, which is fully backing him. After the release of separatist leader Masarat Alam from jail, which the BJP said was decided without consulting it, Mr. Sayeed has been careful not to test the BJP’s patience.
Meanwhile, the BJP has managed to silence rumblings within its fold that were apparent in the initial days of the alliance. At the BJP national executive in Bengaluru in April, party general secretary Ram Madhav made a presentation on the contours of the J&K alliance and won over the doubters, a party source said.

Ramdev demands apology from MPs for ‘mocking Ayurveda’

A day after the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha called for action against his Ayurvedic pharmacy for promoting a medicine that guarantees a male offspring, yoga guru Baba Ramdev accused parliamentarians of mocking Ayurveda — because of ill-intention or misinformation.
Baba Ramdev demanded that K.C. Tyagi, the Janata Dal(U) MP who first raised the issue, and others apologise to Parliament and the people for mocking Ayurveda.
Soon after the Opposition raised the issue in the Rajya Sabha on Thursday, Baba Ramdev had tweeted that “Putrajivak” was a “classical Ayurvedic name and dealt with infertility issues, not gender-selection” as alleged. Following the controversy, the pharmacy has decided to explain the product on the packet so that there was no misunderstanding over its use, he said.
“I urge K.C. Tyagi and others to raise people-centric issues in Parliament rather than engaging in sensationalism and spreading rumours. Using a fakir like me, attempts are being made to malign the name of the wazir [Prime Minister],” he said adding that the lesson from this entire “baseless” controversy was that MPs should learn Sanskrit. “They have become very angrez (anglicised).”

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:: International :

Buenos Aires is world’s bookstore capital

All across Argentina’s capital, lodged between the steakhouses, ice cream shops and pizzerias, is an abundance of something that is becoming scarce in many nations: bookstores.
From hole-in-the-wall joints with used copies of works by Jorge Luis Borges, Miguel de Cervantes and Gabriel Garcia Marquez to elegant buildings with the latest children’s books in several languages, Buenos Aires is filled with locales that pay homage to print.
The city has more bookstores per capita than any other major city in the world, according to a recent study by the World Cities Cultural Forum, an organization that works to promote culture.
With a population of 2.8 million people within the city limits, there are 25 bookstores for every 100,000 people, putting Buenos Aires far above other world cities like London, Paris, Madrid, Moscow and New York. The closest is Hong Kong, which has 22 bookstores per 100,000 people.

Xi heading for Moscow amid tensions in Asia-Pacific

Chinese President Xi Jinping is heading for Moscow next week amid growing tensions in the Asia-Pacific, which is pushing China and Russia into a tighter embrace to counter apprehensions about military ties between Japan and the United States.
President Xi, who will be his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin’s high profile guest, will participate in the May 9 military parade in Moscow to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II.
Russia and China say they want the parade to reinforce the message that conflict on a global scale must be prevented at all costs in the future. For the first time, a contingent of Chinese troops will also take part in the parade — a symbolic gesture of the growing Beijing-Moscow special relationship.
Mr. Xi’s presence at Red Square would demonstrate “the sophisticated and special relations between China and Russia,” says Li Hui, China’s ambassador to Russia, in an interview with Xinhua.
Analysts point out that this week’s military pact between Japan and the United States, seen by China as an unprecedented event to contain its rise, during Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s visit to Washington, is expected to echo during the course of the Moscow meeting.
Beijing’s concerns have been further reinforced by signals emerging from Tokyo that Japan and the U.S. could undertake joint patrols in the South China Sea, where tensions are already running high because of China’s maritime disputes with several littoral countries including the Philippines and Vietnam.
There is also a running dispute between China and Japan in East China Sea over Diaoyu islands, which the Japanese call Senkaku.
Ahead of President Xi’s visit, Russia has decided to arm China with the highly sophisticated S-400 air defence missiles which have a range long enough to protect the disputed island from air strikes.
“Our air force has deployed the Russian S-300 systems, which are good at dealing with aircraft, but their performance in intercepting cruise missiles and tactical ballistic missiles is not very satisfactory,” People’s Daily quoted Du Wenlong, a senior researcher at the PLA Academy of Military Science.
“After we commission the S-400, it can work with the HQ-9 and S-300 to form a fully covered air defence network,” he observed.

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:: Business and Economy ::

SMEcorner.com comes under Google Launchpad in start-up push

SMEcorner.com, an online loan facilitator for small businesses, has been picked for Google’s start-up mentorship programme ‘Google Launchpad’, a top company executive said.
“SMEcorner.com has been identified among 25 companies for the Google Launchpad programme that started its India chapter last year,” company’s Founder and Chief Executive Samir Bhatia told.
Through the programme, SMEcorner would get access to several resources, including mentors, user-testing benefits, developer community programmes, workshops and forums, cloud storage and the like, he said.
It provides loans in the range of Rs.3 lakh to Rs.25 crore.

:: Science and Technology ::

Maharashtra to file FIR against Snapdeal

Maharashtra Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said that it had ordered an FIR to be filed against the CEO and the directors of Internet shopping company Snapdeal for allegedly selling prescription drugs online.
“We have ordered filing an FIR against the CEO, Kunal Bahl, and the directors of the company,” Harshadeep Kamble, FDA Commissioner, said.
Following complaints against the company, FDA officers, posing as customers, ordered from the website medicines which needed a prescription and could be sold only by a licensed pharmacist.
After they were caught in the act, the godowns of the company were raided. The company then agreed to take down the drugs offered on the website.
The investigation found that Jasper Infotech Pvt. Ltd. entered into agreements with dealers across India to supply medicines offered or exhibited for sale on its website, snapdeal.com, and to collect the sale proceeds on their behalf.
The FDA found that 45 of the displayed drugs were with objectionable claims which contravened the provisions of the Drugs and Magic Remedies (Objectionable Advertisements) Act, 1954.
Mr. Kamble said selling of drugs without prescription contravened Section 18 (c) 18 A of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940.
The FDA will be investigating other online shopping companies such as Flipkart and Amazon.
The company said in a statement: “Snapdeal.com is an online marketplace which connects buyers and sellers to provide the widest assortment of products. The sellers selling online are retailers and distributors, small and medium businesses and large brands which typically sell offline too. Snapdeal acts as an intermediary between the seller and buyer of the products listed on the platform. Though we periodically educate sellers on engaging in fair and safe sales on the platform and consequences of selling inappropriate products, at times sellers end up listing such products. Upon being notified of any such products, we delist the products and take appropriate action against such seller.”
“In this matter, we are assisting the FDA team in this investigation and we will continue to do so. We have already delisted the products and also stopped payment, in addition to providing all information to the FDA team as required by them,” the statement said.

:: Sports ::

Advani loses in final

Pankaj Advani slipped in the summit clash of the Asian snooker championship, losing to Pakistan’s Hamza Akbar seven frames to six in Kuala Lumpur.

India loses to Japan in semifinals

Second seed Japan beat India 3-0 in the semifinals of the Asia-Oceania World Junior under-14 girls’ tennis tournament in Bangkok, Thailand.
In the match for the third place, fifth seed India will play No.4 seed New Zealand, which was beaten 3-0 by top seed China in the other semifinal.