Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 7 March 2015

:: National ::

The new route for Kailash Mansarovar Yatra through Nathu La in Sikkim will be operationalised during this yatra season beginning in June, Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj informed the Parliament.
“The route through Nathu La will augment the capacity and reduce the hardship enabling many pilgrims, particularly aged ones, to undertake the yatra,” the government said.
The understanding for the new route was reached between India and China during the visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping to India last year.
The new route was necessitated as the current route through Lipulekh pass in Uttarakhand is cumbersome and also the number of pilgrims increasing.
In the last three years about 1700 pilgrims had visited Mansarovar. With the addition of the second route, 1000 pilgrims are expected to undertake the yatra this year alone.
As per the understanding, five batches of 50 pilgrims each are expected to travel through Nathu La this year.
A dedicated website has been set up and the application procedure has been simplified.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to visit China in May but External Affairs Ministry officials have denied reports that he would travel to Kailash Mansarovar.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will unveil the plaque of a cultural centre to be built with Indian assistance in Jaffna on March 14.
Mr. Modi, in the first state visit to Sri Lanka by an Indian Prime Minister in nearly three decades, will travel to the war-torn Northern Province of the island nation.
The cultural centre will serve as a space connecting people through the arts and culture, official sources said.
The event will be held at the adjoining Jaffna Public Library, a historic structure torched by a mob during riots in 1981.
The Sri Lankan Foreign Ministry said in a statement that Mr. Modi would hand over houses constructed as part of the 50,000 built under an Indian housing scheme to beneficiaries in Jaffna and flag off train services from Talaimannar to Colombo restored with Indian assistance.
The Prime Minister will visit the ancient town of Anuradhapura and the Sri Maha Bodhi tree, which Buddhists consider sacred with the legend that it grew out of a branch transported from Bodh Gaya in India centuries ago.
On his first day in Sri Lanka, the Prime Minister will address a special sitting of the Sri Lankan Parliament in Colombo and pay homage at the memorial to Indian Peace Keeping Force personnel, the Foreign Ministry statement said.

An early-day motion (EDM) to mark the unveiling of a statue of Mahatma Gandhi at Parliament Square here was tabled in the House of Commons by Britain’s longest-serving Indian-origin MP Keith Vaz.
The EDMs allow MPs in Britain to draw attention to an event or cause and register their support by signing individual motions. There is generally no debate held on such a motion.
Mr. Vaz welcomed Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s visit to the U.K. to be present at the high-profile ceremony to be attended by British Prime Minister David Cameron.
Mr. Jaitley is expected to arrive in London late on March 12.

U.S. tech giant Apple will join the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Index later this month, replacing telecom company AT&T, S&P Dow Jones Indices announced.
The inclusion of the iPhone and iPad maker in the elite list of 30 top companies comes long after Apple had become the biggest U.S. company by market capitalisation, now with a value of more than $730 billion.
The change will take effect March 19, S&P Dow Jones said.

Members of private provident fund trusts need not have to pay tax on premature withdrawals if the amount is either less than Rs. 30,000 or their tax liability is nil even after including the withdrawn sum to their income.
A proposal to this effect is contained the Budget 2015-16. As per existing provisions in respect of such premature withdrawal, the trustees of the recognised provident funds (trusts) shall deduct tax as computed at the time of payment.
Under the existing EPF & MP Act (Employees' Provident Funds and Miscellaneous Provisions Act), withdrawal shall be taxable if the employee makes withdrawal before continuous service of five years (other than the cases of termination due to ill health, closure of business, etc) and does not opt for transfer of balance to new employer.
It is proposed to insert a new provision in the Act for deduction of tax at the rate of 10 per cent on premature withdrawal from Employees Provident Fund Scheme (EPFS).

The hunt for Flight MH370 has failed to turn up any debris, but its unprecedented scale in one of the world’s remotest locations has provided valuable lessons for future search and rescue missions.
The Malaysia Airlines plane disappeared en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014, with mourning families and friends of the 239 people on board still waiting to hear what happened 12 months later.
There has been no trace of the Boeing airliner despite an extensive air and sea search.
Four ships, coordinated by Australia, continue to scour a huge underwater area at least 1,600 kilometres from the nearest piece of land in a stretch of the Indian Ocean previously only mapped by satellite.
The MH370 search — jointly funded by Australia and Malaysia with a budget of US$93 million — is focused on a 60,000 square kilometre priority area and is scheduled to end in May.
The search area is so remote that the four vessels involved — Fugro Supporter, Fugro Equator, Fugro Discovery and GO Phoenix — need up to six days to reach it from the Australian port of Fremantle, where they routinely refuel and restock.
While at sea, they frequently encounter conditions similar to the “Roaring Forties” north of Antarctica, winds that whip up mountainous seas.

The Indian juggernaut wobbled and juddered but pulled through all right.
M.S. Dhoni’s steady hand saw his team home in a nervous run-chase at the WACA ground, as India defeated West Indies by four wickets to book a spot in the quarterfinals of the World Cup.
Mohammed Shami, later declared ‘man-of-the-match, and Umesh Yadav put on a demonstration of blistering fast bowling to help limit West Indies to 182.
In pursuit, India had sunk to 134 for six when Dhoni and R. Ashwin were united at the crease. The pair added 51 runs in an unbroken seventh-wicket partnership to take the team home.