Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 30 October 2014

National

627 names on black money list; SIT probe is next

• A day after the Supreme Court rapped the Centre for “providing a protective umbrella to foreign bank account holders,” the Union government submitted, in a sealed cover, a list of 627 Indians holding black money abroad. The Centre also gave a status report on the investigations against such account holders.
• A Bench comprising Chief Justice H.L. Dattu and Justices Ranjana Desai and Madan B. Lokur made it clear to Attorney-General Mukul Rohatgi that it did not intend to open the envelopes, and asked the Registry to send them to the Special Investigation Team.
• It directed that the envelopes be opened only by the SIT chairman, Justice M.B. Shah, and vice-chairman, Justice Arijit Pasayat, to conduct a further investigation.
• The Bench empowered the SIT to evolve its own procedure after hearing the Centre’s stand on India’s tax treaties and the submissions of petitioner, Ram Jethmalani. The Bench asked the SIT to submit a status report on its investigation by November 30 and posted the matter for further hearing on December 3.
• Earlier, Mr. Rohatgi submitted that the first list contained details of correspondence, treaties and agreements that India had signed with France and other nations where the illegal money was said to be stashed.
• He said the second list contained all the 627 names and the third gave the status report on the probe in these cases. Mr. Rohatgi said more than half the people on the list of 627 were Indian nationals, while the rest were NRIs. He said most of them had accounts with the HSBC Bank, Geneva.

Centre announced relaxation in FDI rules in construction

• Giving a significant push to affordable housing and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s dream project, smart cities, the NDA government announced relaxation in foreign direct investment (FDI) rules in the construction sector.
• The proposal — first made by the UPA government — seeks to reduce the minimum built-up area from 50,000 sq. metres to 20,000 sq. metres. The minimum capital requirement for such projects has also been brought down to $5 million from $10 million.
• The relaxations are expected to facilitate the infusion of funds into the debt-burdened sector, thereby, ensuring faster completion of projects. The Union Cabinet approved the new limits in a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Cut water, power connection to industries polluting Ganga: SC

• Observing that its “last hope” rests on the National Green Tribunal (NGT), the Supreme Court referred to it the responsibility to monitor and inspect industrial units along the Ganga and even cut off water and power connections if the units are found to be polluting the river.
• A three-judge Bench led by Justice T.S. Thakur said official apathy and “failure at various levels” in both the State and the Central Pollution Control Board had led to the Ganga dying at the hands of “highly” and “grossly” polluting units, which flushed their untreated effluents into the river without any checks.
• The inaction had continued even after numerous orders were passed by the Supreme Court directing the authorities to protect the river since 1980s, when a PIL was filed before the court by lawyer M.C. Mehta highlighting the alarming state of the river and its depletion owing to pollution.
• Describing the Ganga as a river held in high esteem and one which is unlike the other rivers in the country, the court observed in its detailed order that it is “our duty to ensure purification of the river”.
• “There is no gainsaying that the river has significance not only in the religious and spiritual psyche of the people, but it is also a lifeline of people,” observed the Bench comprising Justices A.K. Goel and R. Banumathi.
• The river had suffered from the “institutional failure” of the authorities, which should have protected it from industrial units mushrooming on its banks.

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Business & Economy

YLD in arecanut may get a cure in two years

• The Central Plantation Crops Research Institute (CPCRI) is hopeful of finding a way to tackle yellow leaf disease (YLD) in arecanut plantations two years from now, CPCRI director P. Chowdappa has said.
• Mr. Chowdappa said that the institute, with its headquarters in Kasaragod in Kerala, submitted a Rs. 7-crore proposal to the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), New Delhi, a few days ago to take forward the study to find a solution to the disease.
• An arecanut palm affected by the disease becomes weak and its productivity gradually declines. The disease was seen in the State in Sullia taluk in Dakshina Kannada and Koppa and Sringeri taluks of Chikmagalur. The disease has forced some farmers in Sullia taluk to shift to oil palm cultivation.
• He said that the institute was adopting three different approaches to reach the goal. “We are approaching from three directions. One of them may work; or by combining all three, I think we can have a solution,” the director said.
• Explaining that the first approach was to develop growth-promoting micro-organisms, he said that certain bacteria and enzymes that enhance plant growth would be isolated from the soil and from the plant and a formulation prepared. When applied to roots, such formulations would help boost growth and crop yield.
• The second approach was to identify disease-resistant plants in disease-affected areas, and to opt for the multiplication of such plants through tissue culture. Such plants have been identified in Sullia, Koppa and Sringeri. The third approach would be to develop micro-nutrient formulation to reduce the disease intensity.

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Persons in News

Motiur Rahman Nizami gets death for war crimes

• A Bangladesh war crimes tribunal handed death penalty to Jamaat-e-Islami chief Motiur Rahman Nizami for crimes, which include the killings of nation’s leading intellectuals during the country’s War of Liberation in 1971.
• The 71-year-old, who served as a senior minister during the tenure of the Khaleda Zia–led government, has also been awarded life sentence in other charges of crimes against humanity. The International Crimes Tribunal-1, one of the two tribunals, found the Jamaat chief guilty in eight out of 16 charges levelled against him in a historic trial that began nearly four decades after Bangladesh’s emergence as an independent country.
• The court said Nizami, purportedly an Islamic scholar, misinterpreted the Koran to encourage his followers to conduct a massive genocide and atrocities. The defence, however, termed the verdict “not based on evidence”, and said it would appeal against the verdict.
• However, the long-awaited verdict was hailed by scores of political and social-cultural organisations who termed it “a curse removed” of impunity to all those who perpetrated the worst crimes against humanity in the name of religion and Pakistan.

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Science & Technology

Space-bound NASA rocket explodes at launch

• An unmanned cargo rocket carrying supplies to the International Space Station exploded seconds after liftoff.
• The Antares rocket, carrying 5,055 pounds of supplies, science experiments and equipment, lifted off on schedule at 6.22 p.m. Eastern time from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in eastern Virginia. No issues came up during the countdown.
• But soon after it rose into the sky, there was a flash of an explosion. “The ascent stopped,” Frank L. Culbertson Jr., executive vice president of Orbital Sciences Corp., the maker of the rocket, said during a news conference.
• “There was some disassembly of the first stage, it looked like, and then it fell to earth.” No one was injured.
• Orbital, a company based in Dulles, Virginia, first launched a 14-storey-tall Antares rocket on its maiden flight in April last year. It then conducted a demonstration flight to the space station to show NASA the capabilities of the rocket and the cargo spacecraft.

Mars-2 mission in next four years

• Will there be a second Indian mission to Mars?
• Call it the seed of a concept, wish or dream, a Mars-2 mission by the Indian Space Research Organisation that will “land” on the red planet looks highly probable. Only last month the agency put its spacecraft around a Mars orbit in its first attempt.
• Technically, 2018 appears to be the next best time to go for a second Indian Mars trip. An opportunity to go to Mars from Earth comes up every 26 months; the next date, 2016, is believed to be too soon for ISRO and not conducive.
• The Indian Mars Orbiter Mission of 2013-14 should have a successor, but “it is not an active thought nor is it in the realm of any planning yet,” says S.K. Shivakumar, Director of the ISRO Satellite Centre.
• At a news conference to announce a three-day engineers’ conclave on future space technologies co-hosted by ISRO, Mr. Shivakumar said, “Much maturity has come after we succeeded in [Mars-1].”
• But nothing like that is on the ISRO drawing board, he clarified adding the think-tank ADCOS (Advisory Committee for Space Science) would review any such proposal and suggest more advanced experiments than on MOM.
• Mr. Shivakumar said Mars-2 could happen after the revamped second moon mission was launched; this looked likely in “around two years.”

BrahMos-M (Mini) planned for Navy and the Air Force

• A new, lighter version of the supersonic cruise missile BrahMos called BrahMos-M (Mini) weighing around 1.5 tonnes is being planned for use by the Navy and the Air Force.
• “BrahMos Aerospace is currently getting the user requirements to finalise the configuration,” said Sudhir Mishra, CEO and MD of BrahMos Corporation (BA).
• Once inducted into the Navy, the Mini can be launched from submarine torpedo tubes. For the Air Force a mini version means a Beyond Visual Range missile compatible with future platforms namely, the Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft and Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft.
• When questioned about test firing the air-launched variant from a modified Su-30MKI aircraft, Mr. Mishra told that work was progressing to complete the test firing by April-May 2015. The submarine variant which was test fired from a submerged pontoon was a technology demonstration to the Navy.
• On the issue of exports, India and Russia have agreed that BrahMos will be exported to a list of mutually agreeable nations for defensive purposes. There is a negative list to which exports are never to be done.

Conditional nod from WHO for new drug to stem MDR Tuberculosis

• The World Health Organisation (WHO) has revealed a new drug to stem the global spread of multi-drug resistant (MDR) tuberculosis, but has cautioned that its use must follow a set of guidelines issued by it.
• Pointing out that since information about this new drug, Delamanid, remains limited, as it has only been through Phase IIb trial [the phase specifically designed to study efficacy — how well the drug works at the prescribed dosage] and studies for safety and efficacy, the WHO has issued interim policy guidance that lists five conditions that must be in place if the new drug is used to for treatment of MDR-TB.
• According to the WHO 4,80,000 people developed MDR-TB in the world in 2013 and more than half of these cases occurred in India, China and the Russian federation. Almost 84,000 patients with MDR-TB were notified to the WHO globally in 2012, up from 62,000 in 2011. The biggest increases were in India, South Africa and Ukraine.
• The new drug is being described as “a novel mechanism of action” for treatment of adults with multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB). (MDR-TB is TB that does not respond to at least isoniazid and rifampicin, the two most powerful anti-TB drugs.)
• Delamanid has been granted conditional approval by the European Medicine Agency in April 2014 and can be used for the treatment of tuberculosis resistant to at least isoniazid and rifampicin, the main first-line drugs.
• The WHO has advocated “special caution” for the use of Delamanid in people aged 65 and over, in adults living with HIV, patients with diabetes, hepatic or severe renal impairment, or those who use alcohol or substances.
• “When Delamanid is included in treatment, all principles on which the WHO-recommended MDR-TB treatment regimens are based must be followed, particularly the inclusion of four effective second-line drugs as well as pyrazinamide. Delamanid should not be introduced alone into a regimen in which the companion drugs are failing to show effectiveness,” the WHO has cautioned.

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Sources: Various News Papers & PIB

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