Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 24 March 2014

EC’s intervention in gas price hike

After the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) sought the Election Commission’s intervention in stalling the gas price hike from April 1, the poll panel has sought details from the government on the proposed increase.
Earlier, the Commission had said that it has taken note of AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal’s complaint that on a proposal by Reliance Industries, the Petroleum Ministry is going to hike gas prices from April 1.
Mr. Kejriwal had in a letter to EC termed the gas price hike as violation of the model code of conduct and alleged that the decision was aimed at providing windfall gains to Reliance Industries.
However, petroleum minister Veerappa Moily has made it clear that the government will not go back on its decision to hike rates from April 1.

Following the go ahead by the Election Commission, the Fertilizer Ministry is gearing to move the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) seeking approval to reduce subsidy on potash nutrient for 2014-15 fiscal, a move aimed at reducing the subsidy component by Rs. 900 crore.
The Ministry is looking forward to putting up the Cabinet note before the next meeting of the CCEA to fix subsidy of P&K (Phosphatic and Potassic) fertilisers for next fiscal.
There has been a constant fall in the global prices of potash over the past few months resulting in availability at $320 per tonne instead of $430 per tonne a year ago.
The subsidy on other major complex fertilizer phosphate has been kept at last year's level of Rs.12,350 per tonne as the global prices are stationary.
Potash is normally sold in Indian markets at Rs. 16,000 per tonne, while phosphate is available at about Rs. 22,500 per tonne. In the past one year, the total demand of both potash and phosphate was more than 10 million tonnes.

A court in southern Egyptian convicted 529 supporters of ousted president Mohamed Morsy, sentencing them to death on charges of murdering a policeman and attacking police.
Those convicted are part of a group of 545 defendants on trial for the killing of a police officer, attempted killing of two others, attacking a police station and other acts of violence.
More than 150 suspects stood trial, the others were tried in absentia. Sixteen were acquitted.
The defendants were arrested after violent demonstrations that were a backlash for the police crackdown in August on pro-Morsy sit-ins in Cairo that killed hundreds of people.

Turkish armed forces shot down a Syrian military jet which had violated its airspace. An F-16 fighter jet, which was on duty in the region, fired against the Syrian MIG-23 warplane due to rules of engagement.
When two Syrian MIG-23 warplanes approached, the Turkish air forces warned them four times that they have approached 10 sea miles to the Turkish border.
The incident reportedly took place in the northern border region, near an area where Syrian rebels and government forces are fighting for control of a border crossing.
Hundreds of thousands have fled Syria for Turkey to escape the three-year uprising against President Assad.

Until 2012, nobody was certain it existed till the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) announced they had found the God Particle.
Scientists now say that it is more likely than ever now that there must be particles smaller than Higgs particle
According to the Standard Model, everything, from flowers and people to stars and planets, consists of just a few building blocks: matter particles. These particles are governed by forces mediated by force particles that make sure everything works as it should.
The entire Standard Model also rests on the existence of a special kind of particle: the Higgs particle.
CERN's particle collider, LHC (Large Hadron Collider), is probably the largest and the most complex machine ever constructed by humans.
Last year, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced that the 2013 Nobel Prize for Physics to Peter Higgs after whom the particle is named.
If techni-quarks exist they will form a natural extension of the Standard Model which includes three generations of quarks and leptons.
These particles together with the fundamental forces form the basis of the observed matter in the universe.

Bahujan Samaj Party, if voted to power, will accord special category status to Odisha.
Addressing Bahujan Samaj Party’s first ever State-level election rally here, Ms. Mayawati lambasted Congress and other parties, who were in power at Centre, saying these parties were responsible for the backwardness prevailing in the country.
The Bahujan Samaj Party further said the regions that lag behind in different development parameters will be given attention on priority basis.