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Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 29 October 2014

:: National ::

Submit all black money names today, SC orders centre

Slamming the Centre for holding a protective umbrella over persons stashing black money in bank accounts abroad, the Supreme Court ordered the government to disclose all their names in a sealed cover by 29th.
A three-judge Bench of Chief Justice H.L. Dattu and Justices Ranjana Desai and Madan B. Lokur rejected the argument of Attorney-General Mukul Rohatgi for a modification of the order directing disclosure of all the names.
“Don’t tell us to modify our order. We will not modify or change even a word in our order. You give us all information you received from foreign countries and we will decide the course of the probe.
Why are you providing a protective umbrella to foreign bank account holders? You do not have to take interest in people having foreign bank accounts. The SIT will take care of it,” the Chief Justice told Mr. Rohatgi.
“We will decide whether to order a CBI or an Income Tax probe or entrust the probe to some other agency. We can’t leave the issue of bringing back black money to the government.”
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley told presspersons that the government had no difficulty in placing before the Supreme Court the list of black money account holders.

Three-day Jal Satyagraha begins

Hundreds of people of Sitamarhi district in Bihar started their three-day Jal Satyagraha (standing in river water) to restore a local river to its original bed. The changed river course has hampered agriculture in the area forcing local people to migrate from their villages for their livelihood.
The river, also known as “Mahalakshmi Swarupa Luxman Ganga” originates from the Himalayan range in neighbouring Nepal. It gradually changed its course after bridges were constructed across it in areas falling in Nepal.
“It is because of the changed course that agriculture, especially paddy farming, has been hampered in eight blocks of the two districts of Sitamarhi and Muzaffarpur,” local activist Sashi Shekhar told.
Earlier, this part of Sitamarhi was known as a paddy bowl but 19 rice mills have been closed since. “The river has moved two kilometres away from its original bed affecting farming in the area.
Thousands of villagers were forced to migrate in search of livelihood,” said Mr. Shekhar. The villagers have been staging peaceful protest marches, dharnas in the area for long but have got mere assurances from the authorities

Kerala tourism prepare Master plan for five pilgrim centres

Kerala Tourism will prepare a master plan for five prominent pilgrim centres in the State for their comprehensive and sustainable development.
The five pilgrim centres are Sree Padmanabhaswamy temple in Thiruvananthapuram, Sabarimala in Pathanamthitta, Guruvayur and Cheraman Juma Masjid in Thrissur, and Malayattoor Church in Ernakulam.
The decision to prepare a master plan for the pilgrim centres is based on the assessment that accommodation, toilet facilities, and waste management there are not up to standards. The facilities are limited as compared to the number of pilgrims who flock to these places.
The proposal, put forward by Director, Kerala Tourism, has been cleared by the Working Group and has received the government’s administrative nod.
A sum of Rs.2.90 crore has been sanctioned from the ‘Upgradation and creation of infrastructure and amenities (Plan)’ in this year’s Budget. The master plan will be prepared in the next 12 months.
The planning wing of Kerala Tourism is preparing the documents for inviting tenders for drawing up the master plan.
Rather than spell out basic facilities such as shelters needed at these centres, the department has decided to leave it to those being entrusted with preparing the plan.

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:: Persons in News ::

Fadnavis is new Maharashtra CM

Devendra Fadnavis, 44, is set to be the first Chief Minister of the Bharatiya Janata Party in Maharashtra, fulfilling the party’s slogan “Narendra in Delhi and Devendra in Maharashtra.”
Mr. Fadnavis, who was unanimously elected the Legislature Party chief, will be the second Brahmin Chief Minister in the State. He will be the second youngest in the post after Sharad Pawar, who assumed office at 38.
Mr. Fadnavis later met Governor Ch. Vidyasagar Rao and staked claim to form the government. The BJP is 22 MLAs short of a majority, but has time till November 15 to prove its strength in the Assembly.
While the BJP leaders say they are still in talks with the Shiv Sena, the NCP has already said it will abstain from voting. Only Ministers from the BJP will take oath at the swearing-in on October 31.
Mr. Fadnavis, who comes from an RSS background, is a four-time MLA from Nagpur and has a clean image. While he had the backing of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Mr. Fadnavis faced a challenge from Union Minister Nitin Gadkari, senior leader Eknath Khadse and others.
However, dissent was swept aside with Mr. Khadse proposing Mr. Fadnavis’s name and other hopefuls seconding it. Initially, just seven Ministers are expected to be sworn in, including Mr. Khadse, Vinod Tawde, the late Gopinath Munde’s daughter Pankaja Munde and Mr. Gadkari’s loyalist Sudhir Mungantiwar.

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:: International ::

Pakistan urged US to stop drone strikes

Pakistan’s Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan has urged the US to stop drone strikes inside Pakistani territory, a media report said.
“Sovereignty and self-respect are cornerstones of Pakistan’s relationship with other countries,” Dawn quoted Khan as saying in a meeting with a US delegation led by Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Daniel Feldman.
The minister added that a six-month break in US drone strikes on militant installations improved relations between the two countries and was appreciated by all segments of the society.
It was, he said, very important for the U.S. to “understand Pakistan’s point of view”. Mr. Feldman said the U.S. recognised and appreciated the sacrifices of Pakistan during the war on terror and supported democratic institutions in Pakistan.

China wants better legal system under communist party rule

China’s ruling Communist Party is planning to introduce measures to improve the country’s legal system but says it will also strengthen the party’s leadership position through the use of law.
The full guidelines on how to govern the country according to law were published after the party’s 205-member Central Committee met last week.
The document said China must improve its legal system but do so under the party’s leadership and that ensuring the party’s leadership is the fundamental basis for ruling the country according to law.
“We should deftly use the legal procedure to turn the ideas championed by the party into the national will, and we should deftly use the legal procedure to turn personnel recommended by the party into leader of state agencies,” the document said.
The decisions have disappointed some Chinese legal scholars who were hoping for measures to enshrine the authority of the constitution, although some scholars say they have never harboured any illusion that the party would restrict its own powers.

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:: Sports ::

23 players caught for doping violations in World Kabaddi League

The World Kabaddi League (WKL) announced that 23 players have reported for anti-doping rule violation in both in and out of competition tests.
Out of the 20 names made public by the WKL, only two — Randeep Kumar and Amandeep Singh Gill — were tested in-competition on August 23 and Sept. 9 respectively.
Six of them were tested out-of-competition during the event between Aug. 5 and Sept. 20. The rest were tested at Ludhiana prior to the commencement of the league on June 14 and 15.
Interestingly, all the 20 athletes have tested positive for steroids.
According to the WKL, Navneet Singh and Amandeep Singh Gill have used an assortment of four banned drugs (Norandrosterone, Boldenone, Noreticholanolone and Stanozolol), while Kuldeep Singh (Norandrosterone, Noreticholanolone and Trenbolone) and Baljinder Singh (Norandrosterone, Noreticholanolone and Stanozolo) have used a combination of three prohibited substances.
Norandrosterone and Noreticholanolone are the most popular drugs as 11 of them have used these two. Names of three other players, including two from in-competition tests, have not been declared intentionally as their cases were under notice period, said a WKL release.
The WKL CEO, Raman Raheja, said these athletes were given the opportunity to appear before the Anti-Doping Disciplinary Board, but many of them did not do so within the stipulated time period of 15 days.

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:: Business & Economy ::

Xiaomi to set up data centre in India to address security concerns

Chinese handset maker Xiaomi, trying to assuage consumers’ fear over security of their data, said it planned to set up data centres in India by next year to host services and store data locally.
The move comes soon after reports of the Indian Air Force issuing directive, asking its personnel not to buy Xiaomi smartphones citing security concerns.
Xiaomi has already partnered Amazon Web Services to migrate services and corresponding data of all international users (including from India) from the Beijing data centre to the U.S. and Singapore. The process is expected to be completed by the end of 2014.
“In 2015, we plan to launch a local data centre in India to serve the needs of (and store data for) our Indian users,” the company said.
Xiaomi, which entered India in July, created a stir in the smartphone market with its low priced but feature-rich smartphones. It sells through ecommerce major Flipkart, and is estimated to have sold about half a million Redmi devices and 1.2 lakh Mi3 handsets.
“These efforts help significantly improve the performance of our services and also provide some peace of mind for users in India, ensuring that we treat their data with utmost care and the highest privacy standards,” the company said.

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:: Science & Technology ::

Australia’s plan to protect Great Barrier Reef inadequate: scientists

Australia’s multi-million dollar plan to halt the worrying decline of the fragile Great Barrier Reef does nothing to address the threat of climate change and is unlikely to save the iconic reef, according to scientists.
The Academy of Science, Australia’s top science academy, has warned that the draft plan to protect the Great Barrier Reef will not prevent its decline and fails to address key pressures affecting the reef.
The draft plan, released for consultation last month, was supposed to allay concerns of UNESCO which had threatened to put the reef on the World Heritage in Danger list.
In its submission to the Australian and Queensland governments’ Reef 2050 Long-Term Sustainability Plan, the academy warns that the draft plan fails to effectively address any of the key pressures on the reef including climate change, poor water quality, coastal development and fishing.
The plan also does not address the fundamental governance issues for the reef, including conflict of interest issues and a lack of oversight.
One of the contributing experts, Professor Terry Hughes said much bolder action is required to restore the reef.
“The science is clear, the reef is degraded and its condition is worsening. This is a plan that won’t restore the reef, it won’t even maintain it in its already diminished state,” Prof. Hughes said