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Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 30 November 2014

National

Bird culling operations in final phase

• The bird culling operations to contain the outbreak of avian influenza in Alappuzha, Kottayam, and Pathanamthitta districts entered the last phase, even as the government maintained that the H5N1 virus had not infected humans in the State.
• The Health Department is awaiting the results of two more human samples sent for analysis. Two human samples earlier sent to the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) had shown negative results for the H5N1 virus.
• Director of Health Services P.K. Jameela said the samples were collected not as suspected cases, but as part of the surveillance mechanism in place.
• She said only the members of culling teams or bird handlers with fever symptoms were considered at high risk.
• The Animal Husbandry Department expects to wind up the culling operations. As many as 70,431 birds were killed. The number crossed one lakh by evening.
• After a mop-up process to destroy dead birds, the area around the affected places would be sanitised and strict surveillance and monitoring established. The State branch of the Indian Medical Association (IMA) has intensified the training programme for doctors.
• The IMA has also stepped up the campaign to create awareness of avian influenza. A State-level training programme for doctors will be held at Alappuzha.

NDA strategy in Parliament, key Bills cleared

• The opening week of the Winter Session of Parliament saw the National Democratic Alliance government deploy diplomacy, tough talk and some gentle arm-twisting — not to mention the might of its majority in the Lok Sabha — to drive home its agenda.
• In an effectively four-day week, with work on the opening day restricted to obituaries and introductions of new Ministers, Parliament cleared three Bills. Another three were approved by the Lok Sabha and now await passage by the Rajya Sabha.
• The two vacancies in the Select Committee examining the contentious Insurance Bill were filled, and it appears set to submit its report on December 12, making passage of this law a possibility in this session.
• Government business apart, black money was discussed in both Houses. The government also agreed to a debate on the MGNREGA in the Rajya Sabha, where it assured the Opposition that the United Progressive Alliance’s flagship programme would not be diluted.
• Expectedly, the government had more success in the Lower House, thanks to its numbers, Speaker Sumitra Mahajan’s control of the House and Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu’s conciliatory style. The government had negligible success in the Rajya Sabha.
• Despite Chairman Hamid Ansari switching the time slots for Question Hour and Zero Hour, the House could not function for over a few minutes on any day, largely because the Opposition dominates the Upper House and the government is in a minority.

PM Modi slips to second spot in TIME magazine’s ‘Person of the Year’ poll

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi has slipped to the second place in the Time magazine’s ‘Person of the Year’ poll with the Ferguson protesters surging ahead of him in a vote by the readers.
• As per latest reports, Mr. Modi is leading second with 9.8 per cent of the total votes polled so far while the Ferguson protesters are leading with 10.8 per cent of the votes.
• Joshua Wong, face of the Hong Kong pro-democracy movement, is placed third. Nobel Peace prize winner Malala Yousafzai (5.3 per cent) and Russian President Vladimir Putin are placed fourth and fifth respectively.
• U.S. President Barack Obama is placed at a distant 11th position with just 2.4 per cent of the total votes. The annual poll, which is currently underway, is scheduled to end on December 6 and the poll’s winner will be announced on December 8.
• However, it is the TIME’s editors who will choose the Person of the Year, which is scheduled to be announced on December 10.
• Till November 26, Mr. Modi was leading the polls with 11.1 per cent of the total votes while Ferguson protesters with 8.8 per cent were ranked second.
• But support for Ferguson protesters surged after a recent grand jury’s decision of not to indict a white police officer who fatally shot an unarmed black man which caused an outcry across the United States.
• “Ferguson protesters surged ahead this week of the leader of the world’s largest democracy,” Time magazine said on Saturday in a story titled ‘Modi Drops From Lead in TIME’s Person of the Year Poll.’
• “Modi, the newly elected Indian prime minister and leader of the largest democracy in the world, has raised high hopes among Indians that he can invigorate the country’s economy and cut bureaucratic red tape that has slowed development in India,” the magazine said.

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Sports

India remain sixth in Test rankings released by ICC

• India remained sixth while Pakistan dropped a place to fourth after their heavy innings defeat against New Zealand, in the latest Test rankings released by the ICC, in Dubai.
• The win meant that New Zealand has gained one rankings point and now lies two points adrift of sixth placed India, who have 96 points. The result also saw the Black Caps increase the gap with eight-placed West Indies to 19.
• South Africa is on top of the Test table at 124 points while Australia is in second place at 117 points.
• New Zealand has a chance to progress further up the Test rankings when it hosts Sri Lanka in a two Test match series which begins in December.
• ICC Test Rankings Points

South Africa 124
Australia 117
England 104
Pakistan 103
Sri Lanka 101
India 96
New Zealand 94
West Indies 75
Bangladesh 32
Zimbabwe 18.

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Science & Technology

India to press for green fund operationalisation in UN climate meet

• The United Nations climate summit in Lima starting on December 1, is the last before the Paris meeting in 2015, and while there is the usual scepticism, countries have to indicate their national contributions and also discuss the draft negotiating text for next year.
• Union Minister of State for Environment Prakash Javadekar has been reiterating India’s stand at international fora and his emphasis is on Common but Differentiated Responsibilities (CBDR) and operationalising the Green Climate Fund (GCF) which has been injected with $9.7 billion for four years recently.
• Developed countries agreed to mobilise $100 billion per year till 2020, and the crisis of funding and technology transfer continues to plague the negotiations.
• At Paris, countries have to agree on a deal with new goals which will take the world post 2020. The Lima meeting, coming soon after the climate deal between the U.S. and China, seeks to set the tone for the “Paris Protocol” and countries will be wrangling over their Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDC), which they have to finalise by March 2015.
• The synthesis report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has made it clear that adaptation alone will not prevent the world from hurtling into a climate calamity. Countries have to focus on mitigation and their national emission cuts should reflect this aspect.
• While the U.S.-China deal is low on ambition, there is nothing preventing India from taking on ambitious cuts and opting for a low carbon path. The key issues at Lima will centre around emission cuts, finance and according to activist groups, this will include finance for forests, land use and near-term mitigation potential.
• Indian experts have been saying that India should set the ground for tighter emissions cuts and ambitious national action plans and there is no need to be bound by the U.S.-China deal.
• The UNFCCC has underscored the need to act urgently and says that while there has been some success in climate change mitigation, global emissions of greenhouse gases continue to rise.
• So that the world has a chance to stay below an agreed maximum 2°C rise, beyond which even more serious climate change impacts will occur, governments agreed at the Doha talks to speedily work toward a universal climate change agreement by 2015 covering all countries.
• They also agreed to find ways to scale up efforts before 2020 beyond the existing pledges to curb emissions.

‘Forest Owlet’ spotted in Western Ghats

• Researchers have spotted a critically endangered ‘Forest Owlet’ in Northern part of Western Ghats, 100 km from Mumbai.
• The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List has deemed this bird to be at a high risk of extinction. Till now, Forest Owlet was thought to be endemic to Satpura mountain ranges in central India. Its discovery in the Ghats has renewed hopes of its survival.
• Naturalist Sunil Laad, associated with the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS), spotted the Forest Owlet in the Tansa Wildlife Sanctuary in Maharashtra’s Palghar district in October
• On subsequent study tours, visitors and conservationists to Tansa were greeted with calls of the bird around 7 km from the location. A research paper authored by Sunil Laad and Rohidas Dagale, based on this finding, will shortly be published in the Journal of BNHS (JBNHS).
• For nearly 113 years, the Forest Owlet was considered to be extinct, until researchers rediscovered it in 1997 in Toranmal Reserve Forest near Shahada in the Satpura in the State’s Nandurbar District.
• The place where it was located is a dry deciduous forest, with open patches, which is very similar to the typical Forest Owlet habitat in the Satpura. However, this location in Tansa is partially degraded due to human disturbances.
• Scientists working on Forest Owlet too are excited over the discovery. “This clearly highlights the need to conserve crucial avian habitats such as Tansa and other areas which are potential homes of the Forest Owlet,” said ornithologist Girish Jathar.