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Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 21 December 2015

Current Affairs for IAS Exams – 21 December 2015

The youngest convict in the December 16 gang rape was released on Sunday and has now been moved to the care and protection of an NGO at an undisclosed location.
The release of the youth comes even as Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) chairperson Swati Maliwal moved a Special Leave Petition in the Supreme Court opposing it.
A Vacation Bench of the apex court will take up the petition. Ms. Maliwal also wrote to the Juvenile Justice Board asking it to delay the release.
The decision fuelled a strong backlash from the victim’s parents and others who staged a protest at India Gate, the same venue that witnessed massive outrage in the immediate aftermath of the incident three years ago.

Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley threatened to file civil and criminal defamation cases against Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and other Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders.
Meanwhile, undeterred AAP leaders continued their attack against Mr. Jaitley over the alleged Delhi & District Cricket Association (DDCA) irregularities.
Delhi govt. has announced the setting up of the commission of inquiry in the alleged scam.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi told top policemen of the country that every police station should appoint a yoga teacher and police should brand themselves by promoting their work on Twitter and television.
While giving the concluding speech at the three-day DGPs’ conference in the Rann of Kutch in Gujarat, Mr. Modi said each police force should have a panel of experts who could participate in debates on television channels and put across their side of the story.
He asked for grading police stations based on their performance.
Prime Minister Modi said that the police should help administer polio drops or encourage people to send daughters to school. This will help the police interact with the public.
PM said a city is peaceful not because of the police but be- cause of the peaceful nature of the population. So, asking for higher police-to-public ratio is incorrect and the western model could not be emulated here.

Hillary Clinton and other Democratic presidential hopefuls used Donald Trump as a political bogeyman to highlight their own calls to defeat jihadist extremists without using the bigotry and bluster employed by their top Republican rival.
Former secretary of state Ms. Clinton, Senator Bernie Sanders and Maryland ex-governor Martin O’Malley each hit on the need to boost national security, raise the minimum wage and protect rights of women, minorities and the dis- advantaged as they faced of in New Hampshire.
Candidates also took turns hitting the Trump punching bag, as they hurled outrage about the Republican’s fear-mongering and recent controversial comments about immigrants in particular, his call for a ban on Muslims entering the United States.

Spanish voters went to the polls in what is expected to be one of the most closely-fought contests in modern history as two dynamic new parties take on the country’s long-established political giants.
Spain has been dominated for more than three decades by the conservative Popular Party and the main Opposition Socialists, who have alternated running the government.
But this time around many voters are expected to cast their ballots for two up- start parties vying for change — the centrist Ciudadanos and the anti-austerity Podemos, a close ally of Greece’s Syriza.

In the backdrop of a political intrigue surrounding the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) final Ministerial Declaration at the recently-concluded meet in the Kenyan capital, Commerce Minister, is likely to make a statement in Parliament tomorrow on what the ‘Nairobi package’ means for India.
The minister will be making her statement amidst claims by international trade experts and civil society groups that the December 15- 19 Nairobi Ministerial Conference outcomes favoured rich countries and reflected “the capitulation to insistent U.S. proposals.”
Trade experts and NGOs have also said the ‘Nairobi package’ has “effectively killed” the fundamental objective of the WTO’s Doha Round negotiations, which was to improve the trading prospects of the developing and the poor world, or in other words a ‘development agenda.’
The final overall Nairobi Ministerial Declaration, on measures to lower global trade barriers, would not have been announced without the consent by all the WTO member countries.
The developing and the poor world wanted the Doha Round to continue till all out- standing issues, including on protection of poor farmers and food sovereignty, are re- solved.
But the rich countries wanted the Round to end and had sought the introduction of new issues that are of their interests, including e-commerce, global value chains, competition laws, labour, environment and investments.

Nearly 1,200 companies listed on the BSE together spent one billion dollars or Rs.6,400 crore towards corporate social responsibility activities in 2014-15, with majority of funds utilised for education, skills, health and sanitation sector.
Under the new Companies Act, a certain class of profitable companies must spend every year at least 2 per cent of their average net profit over the preceding three years on CSR.
The norms, which are applicable on a 1,294 BSE-listed companies, came into effect starting April 2014.
Within the first year of the legislation coming into effect, the study found Rs.6,400 crore has been spent for CSR activities with almost 55 per cent being channelled to education, skills, livelihoods, health and sanitation.
It added that only about two per cent of the funds have gone to Prime Minister’s relief fund.
87 per cent of the eligible listed companies have actually spent on CSR though 52 per cent shelled out less than the two per cent requirement.

Government’s disinvestment kitty has almost doubled this year with over Rs.35,000 crore garnered through PSU share sales, but not without the help of its all- time saviour LIC, while a strong pipeline is ready for 2016 with bluechips such as NTPC, Coal India and ONGC.
At a record high of Rs.35,236 crore ($5.3 billion), the total funds collected by the government through part- sale of its stake in the ‘family silver’ PSUs during 2015 marks a huge jump from about Rs.18,000 raised in the previous year.
The disinvestment proceeds stood at about Rs.22,000 crore in the year 2013.
Targeting at least Rs.50,000 crore of funds from sale of the PSU shares in 2016, the government will look for right market conditions and positive global cues to resume its disinvestment drive in the new year as it looks to garner the much-needed resources to meet the deficit targets.