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Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 3 June 2015

Current Affairs for IAS Exams – 03 June 2015

In a major reshuffle, the government made 17 Secretary-level appointments.
Two Gujarat-cadre IAS officers will take over as Commerce and Power Secretaries.
Pradeep Kumar Pujari, a 1981-batch officer, has been appointed Secretary, Ministry of Power. He is currently Special Secretary and Financial Adviser, Department of Agricultural Research and Education. He will replace Pradeep Kumar Sinha, who was recently appointed Cabinet Secretary.
Rita A. Teaotia, also from the 1981-batch and currently Special Secretary, Department of Telecommunications, has been named Secretary, Department of Commerce.

Caught on the back foot for the second time in just over a month, the Information and Broadcasting Ministry is under pressure to take a fresh look at the appointment of Veena Jain as Director-General of Doordarshan News.
This follows a meeting between Surya Prakash, Chairman of the Prasar Bharati Corporation, and Information and Broadcasting Minister Arun Jaitley.
It is learnt that Mr. Prakash flagged the issue of autonomy as the Ministry appointed Ms. Jain without consulting the Prasar Bharati Board.

Upset over the re-promulgation of the land acquisition ordinance when the Bill to replace it is under parliamentary scrutiny, some Opposition members on the Joint Committee of Parliament examining the draft legislation are toying with the idea of “boycotting” it.
At least three members from different parties confirmed that they were in touch with one another and would take a decision on whether or not to participate in the work next week.
“Both options — to boycott or to continue — are on the table,” a member said. But the Trinamool Congress has decided to fight it from within.
CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury said in Hyderabad that the party was actively considering “withdrawing” from the committee.
Mohammad Salim, the party member on the panel, said the Opposition members were in consultation with one another as the re-promulgation of the ordinance at this juncture was unacceptable.
The CPI(M) would take a final decision at its central committee meeting here in the coming weekend, after consulting other Left parties, he said.

India will be a member of a consortium of countries that will implement the Global Apollo Programme — a plan to find ways within the next 10 years to make green energy clean cheaper to produce than energy drawn from coal, gas or oil.
The plan is the brainchild of a group of U.K. experts drawn from academia, business and government.
The group includes Sir David King, U.K.’s climate change envoy and former United Kingdom Chief Scientific Adviser; Lord Nicholas Stern, author of the Stern Report; Lord Martin Rees, Astronomer Royal; Lord Richard Layard, Director of Wellbeing Programme, London School of Economics Centre for Economic Performance; and Lord John Browne, ex-BP chief.
Arguing for £15 billion of public spending on research and development by governments toward creating ways of producing and storing green energy cheaply, the architects of the plan envisage countries joining the programme “will commit to spending in their own countries at least 0.02 per cent of GDP on this internationally coordinated programme of research each year over a 10 year period.”
India and China, both large economies powered primarily by coal-based energy, will be central to the plan.
Contrasting India and China, Lord Stern said that India has 13 of the top 25 most polluted cities in the world, while China has only one in the top 50.

The Hindu BusinessLine has launched a new website, the first of its kind, which is specifically tailored for B-schoolers and B-school aspirants.
The site — www.bloncampus.com or BLoC — is designed to complement the curriculum and broaden a student knowledge base with information that is conveyed in a simple, cogent and interesting manner. Apart from adding value to academic pursuits, BLoC seeks to prepare students for the workplace by keeping them up to date with events and trends that are shaping India’s corporate, entrepreneurial and academic environment.
The website features columns and analyses by corporate leaders, educators, and academics as well as short educational videos. It will host a platform for B-schoolers to interact with the corporate world through chats and Q&As.
The entire website can be accessed for free for a trial period of a month. The special invitation subscription offer, which can be paid for online, are Rs.49 for a month, Rs.249 for six months and Rs.499 for a year.

State-run operator BSNL will not charge mobile phone users for incoming calls when on roaming from June 15 onwards, Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said at a conference to present the one-year report card of the Narendra Modi government for the sector.
“BSNL will offer free national roaming from June 15,” the Minister said.
BSNL CMD Anupam Shrivastava said no special recharge was needed to utilise the offer. He said the impact of the scheme would be assessed after one year.
The move could help BSNL, which is facing a stiff competition from operators, particularly in the mobile services segment, to add new customers.
Last month, the company had also reduced roaming tariff by 40 per cent for incoming calls on roaming.
The government, Mr. Prasad said, was focussed on improving the health of the PSU.

Sepp Blatter resigned as FIFA president in the face of a U.S.-led corruption investigation that has plunged world soccer’s governing body into the worst crisis in its history.
Blatter, 79, announced the decision at a news conference in Zurich, six days after the FBI raided a hotel in the city and arrested several FIFA officials and just four days after he was re-elected to a fifth term as president.

Pakistan nominated former captain Zaheer Abbas to become president of the International Cricket Council after the game's world governing body said it was seeking distinguished ex-cricketers.
AIFF signs agreement with French Federation
Barely a month after All India Football Federation entered into a partnership with the German Football Association (DFB), President of AIFF, Praful Patel has signed an agreement with French Football Federation (FFF) in Munich.