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Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 26 February 2015

:: National ::

Irom Sharmila gets Sthree Shakti award

Activist Irom Sharmila, who has been on an indefinite fast since November 4, 2000, demanding the repeal of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, has been conferred with the Sthree Shakti award.
The award is in recognition of her extraordinary courage and determination, M.L. George, managing trustee of Smaraks Sthree Trust, Kochi, told reporters.

Section 66A a necessary deterrent, says government

The government argued before the Supreme Court that Section 66A of the Information Technology Act should be interpreted on a case by case basis.
In arguments which continued through the day before a Bench led by Justice J. Chelameswar, the government was addressing the court’s view that the penal provision was too vague. Section 66A prescribes a three-year jail term to a person found guilty of causing “annoyance or inconvenience” through social media.
The court had asked the government to explain what constituted “grossly offensive.” The government maintained that the provision was a necessary deterrent and could not be cast away on the apprehension that it would be misused to affect the freedom of speech and expression.
The court is hearing a bunch of petitions challenging the validity of certain provisions in the 2000 Act. One of the petitions filed is by Shreya Singhal, a law student, which deals with the arrest of two girls, Shaheen Dhada and Rinu Shrinivasan, in Thane, Maharashtra, in connection with a comment against the shutdown in Mumbai following Shiv Sena leader Bal Thackeray’s death.

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:: International ::

Iranian wins award for ‘giving voice to the voiceless’

An Iranian journalist has received a human rights award in Geneva for creating a Facebook page inviting women in Iran to post pictures of themselves without their headscarves in defiance of rules requiring them to wear a hijab .
Masih Alinejad (38) launched Stealthy Freedoms of Iranian Women last year, attracting more than half a million likes on Facebook in a matter of weeks. Thousands of women took off their veils in public and sent in their photos to be published.
The Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy, a group of 20 non-governmental organisations, gave Ms. Alinejad its women’s rights award for “giving a voice to the voiceless and stirring the conscience of humanity to support the struggle of Iranian women for basic human rights, freedom and equality.”
Ms. Alinejad’s campaign, reported in the Guardian last May, irritated Iranian authorities, and state-affiliated media launched a smear campaign accusing her of using recreational drugs or being perverse.
Ms. Alinejad said she was delighted to win the award and hoped it would raise awareness about Iranian women demanding basic rights.
Ms. Alinejad, who lives in exile, told the Guardian last year that she was not opposed to the hijab and that her mother was veiled, but she had created the page because she wanted people to have the freedom to choose.
A year after it was created, the Facebook page has more than 760,000 followers and still receives photos from Iran.
Many Iranian men have also supported the campaign. One man took a picture of himself along with his mother while she was without veil last week, saying they were both against compulsory hijab .

:: Business & Economy ::

Cabinet approves agreement on BRICS development bank

The Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, gave approval for establishing the New Development Bank (NDB) and the BRICS Contingent Reserve Arrangement (CRA).
Heads of the five nation BRICS group — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — decided at their sixth summit in Fortaleza in July last year to create a development bank as well as a reserve fund to finance infrastructure projects and other sustainable development projects.
The $100 billion BRICS CRA would help countries deal with short-term liquidity pressures, provide mutual support and further strengthen financial stability.
The agreement will enter into force and the Bank begin operations only after all member-countries deposit their instruments of ratification with Brazil.
The release added that signing of the agreement for the establishment of the New Development Bank was expected to allow India to raise and obtain more resources for the much-needed infrastructure development, the lack of which was coming in the way of inclusiveness and growth.
Besides, the governance structure and decision-making in the Bank would be equitable unlike the existing multilateral development banks, it added.
India will hold the Presidency of the New Development Bank for the first six years. The Bank will be based in Shanghai, China’s financial hub.

:: Science & Technology ::

India’s own GPS soon

Scientists are eagerly awaiting the March 9 launch of IRNSS-1D, the fourth Indian regional navigation satellite.
The Rs. 1,400-crore-plus IRNSS (Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System) has been called ‘India’s own GPS.’ It can do all that we do with GPS, a U.S. military system, but apparently much better and at a local level.
This satellite will complete more than half of the ambitious ‘Indian GPS’ ring over the subcontinent and allow ISRO’s sat-nav team to prove its usefulness in location-based applications.
Four satellites out of the constellation of seven are said to be the minimum the scientists need to check out signals and accuracy.
S.K. Shivakumar, Director of ISRO Satellite Centre in Bengaluru, told The Hindu that IRNSS-1D would finetune the details being provided by its earlier three siblings. The next three navigation satellites, he said, would take this to the targeted precision levels and make it easy to pinpoint required positions for many users.
IRNSS-1D is slated to be put on the PSLV launcher on February 28 at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota. The first one, IRNSS-1A, was launched in July 2013.