Current Affairs for IAS Exams – 28 March 2016

:: NATIONAL ::

President’s Rule was imposed on Uttarakhand, a day before the Harish Rawat government was to face a test of strength in the Assembly, which has been placed under suspended animation.
Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley told journalists that the Cabinet took the decision.
However, the Congress questioned the move, with its spokesperson Manish Tewari citing the Bommai case judgment of 1994, which states that the legitimacy of a government has to be established in the Assembly.
Mr. Jaitley had gone to meet President Pranab Mukherjee on Saturday night to communicate the Cabinet’s decision and address questions that he might have had.
Governor K.K. Paul’s report on the constitutional breakdown was discussed in the aftermath of the sting video that showed CM Rawat allegedly involved in horse-trading. Mr. Mukherjee signed the proclamation on Sunday morning.

India will hand over the DNA samples of the four terrorists killed in the Pathankot airbase to Pakistan’s Joint Investigation Team, which arrived to probe the attack.
The team is expected to track down the families of the terrorists in Pakistan and match the samples.
The five-member team, including an ISI official, landed at the Palam technical area in a special aircraft of the Pakistan Air Force in the morning. It has a seven-day visa to visit Delhi and Pathankot.
The proof of role of J-e-M can withstand any international judicial scrutiny. Since Pakistan has not sent any letter rogatory [a judicial request to gather evidence] so far, India has said that the onus of making the evidence count in a court of law in their country is on them.

A buoyant Bernie Sanders said he has the momentum as he attempts to claw back Hillary Clinton’s handsome lead in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, after scoring a trio of big wins.
The Vermont Senator breathed fresh life into his campaign for the White House with a clean sweep in caucuses on Saturday in the western U.S. States of Alaska, Hawaii and Washington.
In the wider context of their battle for the Democratic presidential ticket, Mr. Sanders’s Saturday success barely dents Ms. Clinton’s formidable lead — she now has 1,733 delegates, including super-delegates who are unelected by voters, to Mr. Sanders’s 1,039, according to a CNN count.
To win the Democratic nomination at the July convention in Philadelphia, 2,383 delegates are needed.
It means that the delegate math still dramatically favours Ms. Clinton, a former first lady and Secretary of State, in large part because Democrats allocate delegates proportionally by State, making it all but impossible for Mr. Sanders to overtake Ms. Clinton.

Department of Telecom is looking to commence the auction for spectrum, including in 700 Mhz band, around mid-July, which may fetch the government a whopping Rs.5.36 lakh crore.
The DoT is expecting Cabinet approval on spectrum price by mid-May and issue notice for auction in June. Taking into account various processes, spectrum auction should begin around July 15.
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has suggested a plan for spectrum sale, expected to be held in July, with a potential to fetch Rs.5.36 lakh crore.
It will be the biggest-ever auction in terms of value and is more than double the gross revenue of telecom services industry.
Trai had recommended a record high base price of Rs.11,485 crore per Mhz for the 700 Mhz band. If all available radiowaves under this get sold at the Trai-suggested price, it alone will yield a whopping Rs.4 lakh crore.
According to the Trai paper, the cost of delivering mobile services in 700 Mhz band is approximately 70 per cent lower than 2100 Mhz frequency, which is widely used for 3G services.
Spectrum is priced on the basis of its efficiency to carry mobile signals and ecosystem of device and equipment available for its usage.
The government expects a revenue of Rs.98,995 crore from communication services in 2016-17, which includes proceeds from spectrum auction and other fees levied by the DoT.