Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 28 June 2014

Gujarat High Court issued notices to Adani Power

The Gujarat High Court issued notices to Adani Power Ltd. and Adani Port and Special Economic Zone (SEZ) Ltd. in response to a PIL petition alleging that the firms had violated environmental norms in the State’s Kutch district.
A Division Bench of Chief Justice Bhaskar Bhattacharya and Justice J.B. Pardiwala also issued notices to the Ministry of Environment and Forests, the Gujarat Pollution Control Board and the Kutch Collectorate.
The Kheti Vikas Seva Trust, a Kutch-based organisation, filed the petition calling for adherence to the MoEF’s conditions.
The wastewater from the power plant has to be directed to the Gulf of Kutch at a certain temperature. However, the company has created a water outfall channel from the power plant in the creek area. As a result, access to the creek area has been restricted for the local fisherfolk.

Five labourers were killed and seven injured in an explosion caused by a gas leak at the Alang ship breaking yard in Bhavnagar district of Gujarat.The incident took place in the morning when the labourers were cutting the hull of a ship.
There was gas leakage from inside the ship. The gas was of such intense pressure that it caused a blast. Two of them died on the spot and three others died on the way to the hospital. Seven others who sustained severe burns are being treated at the local district hospitals.
Alang — the largest ship breaking yard in the world — has an unfortunate history of workers falling prey to the hazardous conditions on the site.

Pakistanis cannot obtain visas on arrival in Sri Lanka henceforth, the Sri Lankan government has said.Confirming the move, a senior official at Sri Lanka’s Foreign Ministry said it was aimed at deterring asylum seekers. The Pakistani-based newspaper Dawn reported that the decision, which was taken in view of the rising number of political asylum cases in Sri Lanka, was officially communicated to Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry.
Recently, The Sunday Times here reported that the U.N. agency for refugees sought an explanation from the Sri Lankan government on the reported deportation of a number of asylum seekers from Pakistan.

Quoting from one of Rabindra Nath Tagore’s verses on friendship, ‘... If you think friendship can be won through war, spring will fade away before your eyes’, President Xi Jinping reiterated the virtues of good relations between neighbours, peace and cooperation and amity in the region as envisaged six decades ago in the Panchsheel treaty among India, China and Myanmar.
At the 60th commemoration of the Panchsheel, he asserted that China would follow the five principles of Panchsheel even as it is ready to work with the West to uphold world peace and development.
Mr. Xi spoke of adhering to territorial integrity and sovereignty, mutual non-aggression and non-interference in internal matters, and peaceful co-existence — the basics of Panchsheel, and said these continue to remain relevant and grow.

The Union Commerce Ministry is trying to modify the Price Stabilisation Fund Scheme so as to lower the price threshold at which the fund gets activated. The Rs.500-crore Fund, which lapsed in 2013, is being re-launched, according to a Union Commerce Ministry official.
The commodity fund was established in 2003 to help industries engaged in producing four commodities —- tea, coffee, tobacco and natural rubber. The idea behind setting up the fund was to help the trade stay in business by extending them support if there is a drop in their commodity prices… the idea was to establish India as a reliable supplier in the international markets.
As per current rules, prices of certain commodities have to drop 20 per cent in international markets for the fund to kick in.This was considered stringent, and the Commerce Ministry has never had to operate the fund.Now a move is afoot to revive the fund and lower the threshold to 10 per cent.

Top executives of American pharma companies favour ‘dialogue’ with India and ‘not confrontation’ to address their concerns on key issues like the protection of intellectual property (IP) and clinical trials.
Arguing that global pharma companies share the same goal of ‘patient first’ with that of the Indian government, corporate executives attending the day-long ‘U.S.-India BioPharma and Healthcare Summit’, organised by the USA-India Chamber of Commerce.
While asserting there can be no compromise on IP protection issues, executives from top U.S. pharma companies said that they were willing to work with India like — tier pricing — to come out with a solution, which is acceptable to both parties.