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Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 21 August 2014

CABINET Nod for mobile towers in Naxal belts

The Cabinet approved the long-pending proposal to install mobile towers in nine Naxal-affected states by BSNL at a cost of Rs. 3,216 crore that will be borne by the government. It gave the nod for the setting up of 1,836 base transmission towers to improve connectivity.

Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh spoke to Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi and his Nagaland counterpart, T.R. Zelian, hours after two people were killed in police firing on a mob in Golaghat district along the disputed boundary between Nagaland and Assam.
After taking stock of the situation with senior Home Affairs Ministry officials, Mr. Singh advised the two Chief Ministers to solve the issue through dialogue and offered Central assistance.
Global yoga icon B.K.S. Iyengar passes away
Legendary yoga exponent B.K.S. Iyengar passed away at a private hospital . He was 95.
Mr. Iyengar, who was admitted to the Prayag Hospital last week, breathed his last at 3.15 a.m., doctors attending on him said. He has been on dialysis since Sunday after renal failure.
Mr. Iyengar, who abhorred hospitals and clinics, failed to respond to the treatment owing to heart problems brought on by advanced age.
Despite two massive heart-attacks in 1996 and 1998, Mr. Iyengar, with his near-legendary regimen and discipline, kept up a punishing teaching schedule, touring Russia and China in recent years.

It was another day of acrimonious exchanges between India and Pakistan with the External Affairs Ministry rejecting Pakistan High Commissioner Abdul Basit’s statement that the Hurriyat was a “stakeholder” in the peace process.
The statement came after Mr. Basit held a press conference, defending his meetings with the Hurriyat leaders on August 18 and 19. “The objective of interacting with Kashmiri leaders is precisely to talk to all the stakeholders to find a viable, peaceful solution,” he said.
Ministry spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin said: “There are only two stakeholders on the issue of Jammu & Kashmir — the Union of India and the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.”