(Current Affairs) National Events | April: 2016

National Events

Srikanth Srinivasan set to become Judge of US Supreme Court

  • The death of a serving judge of the U.S. Supreme Court has set of acrimonious exchanges between the Democrats and the Republicans on whether President Barack Obama should nominate a new judge in the last year of his presidency.
  • Mr. Obama has declared that he would nominate a replacement for Antonin Scalia who died on Saturday at 79, ending a controversial tenure through which he steered the court towards the right with a series of pronouncements.
  • Srikanth Srinivasan whose family came to the U.S. from a village in Tirunelveli in Tamil Nadu figures as the most probable choice to succeed Scalia.
  • Mr. Srinivasan, 49, is now U.S Circuit Judge of the U.S Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, which served as a stepping stone for at least three judges of the Supreme Court.

Barsimalugiri of Assam became first smart village in North-east

  • A remote nondescript, insurgency-ravaged village in Assam along Indo- Bhutan border has earned the distinction of being the area’s first smart village.
  • Barsimaluguri, about 11 km from the Indo-Bhutan border, in Baksa district has been turned into a model smart village with 100 per cent toilets, solar power and pure drinking water, following an initiative taken by a few individuals under the aegis of Nanda Talukdar Foundation (NTF).
  • There are more than 20,000 villages in Assam with government schemes being implemented, but none has been transformed into a smart village till now.

Major revamp to rehabilitation scheme proposed

  • To liberate crores of children, transgenders and others trapped in human trafficking, beggary or any such forms of forced labour, the Union government has proposed a major revamp of the rehabilitation scheme for rescued bonded workers, raising aid from the present Rs. 20,000 to Rs. 3 lakh.
  • The government has finalised a proposal to institute a three-tier rehabilitation fund- ing scheme, under which a rescued transgender or disabled person will get Rs. 3 lakh, women or children Rs. 2 lakh and adult men Rs. 1 lakh.
  • Now, Rs. 20,000 goes towards rehabilitation of a bonded labourer with an equal contribution from both the Centre and theStates.
  • It is estimated that 1.4 crore workers in the country are bonded labourers, one of the highest in the world, according to the Global Slavery Index of 2014 released by the Australia- based Walk Free Foundation.
  • However, official estimates show the State governments had rehabilitated 2.80 lakh workers till March 2015.
  • A person becomes a bonded labourer when his or her labour is demanded as a means of repayment of a loan.
  • To ensure a sustainable flow of money, a significant chunk of the rehabilitation sum will be credited to the bank accounts of the res- cued persons in the form of fixed monthly deposits.

Government ready with major banking sector reforms

  • When most of the public sector banks are bleeding, and their com- bined market capitalisation has fallen below private sector peer HDFC Bank, Union Finance Minister is set to announce a series of reforms in the banking sector, including reducing the government’s holding in these banks to 51 per cent.
  • Mr. Jaitley also said: “I don’t think India has reached a state where India can pull out of the banking all together.”
  • In the last 3-4 decades, state-ownedbanks have played an important role as they reached out to areas where there was no banking.
  • Mr. Jaitley said “Just 20 months ago, when this government took over, we still had a situation in which only 58 per cent of India was connected to banks and 42 per cent of Indians had no bank accounts.”
  • Therefore, these banks have an important role to play in financial inclusion and geographical reach.

India summoned U.S. Ambassador to the External Affairs ministry for F-16 sale

  • Angeredby a U.S. decision to sell eight more F-16 fighter jets to Pakistan, India summoned U.S. Ambassador Richard Varma to the External Affairs Ministry to express “displeasure” with the deal. At the nearly 45-minute meeting, Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar told Mr. Varma that India was not only disappointed but also upset that its protests over the past year on the issue had gone unheeded.
  • The Pentagon conveyed to the U.S. Congress the decision to sell the planes in a $699.04-million deal, and the U.S. government announced the sale.
  • Rejecting the State Department’s contention that the sale was in the U.S.’s “vital national security interests” as it helped Pakistan fight terror groups, the Ministry said, “We disagree with their rationale that such arms transfers help combat terrorism. The record of the last many years in this regard speaks for itself.”
  • India believes the sale will only strengthen Pakistan’s ability to threaten India.
  • The U.S. move is a setback to India’s hopes that given the mounting evidence of Pakistani agencies’ continuing support to anti-India groups, the U.S. would rethink its arms sales to that country.
  • In the past week, many in the government had hoped the details of the deposition in aMumbai court by the 26/11 planner David Headley would remind the U.S. of the links of Pakistan’s ISI with these groups.
  • The U.S. announcement has come at an inconvenient time, when India is hoping to extract action from Pakistan on the Pathankot terror attacks.

Make in India week started in Mumbai

  • Showcasing India as a land of immense opportunities, Prime Minister Narendra Modi told representatives from 68 countries participating in the Make in India Week that India was blessed with Democracy, Demography, and Demand.
  • His government had added Deregulation making it a four-dimensional India waiting for foreign investment and manufacturing companies.
  • Spelling out the potential of the market before foreign investors, Mr. Modi said, “50 of our cities are ready for setting up metro rail systems.
  • We have to build 50 million houses. The requirement of road, rail, waterways is enormous. There is no time for incremental changes. We want a quantum jump.”
  • The Prime Minister said helaid great emphasis on zero defect and zero effect manufacturing.
  • India place high emphasis on energy efficiency, water re- cycling, waste to energy, clean India and river cleaning.
  • These initiatives are directed at improving quality of life in cities and villages. These initiatives provide youadditional avenues for investment in technologies, services and human resources.

Government to initiate a nation-wide consultation process for S&T policy

  • President Pranab Mukherjee said that the government would soon initiate a nationwide consultation process for framing India’s first ‘publicly accessible’ Science and Technology policy and emphasised the need for consistent encouragement for youth to pursue research and innovations in their chosen fields.
  • The new science and technology policy, called Vision S&T 2020, would articulate the country’s future towards technological independence and self-reliance in the 21st Century.
  • The President said, indicating that it would supercede the Science, Technology and Innovation Policy initiated by the government in 2013.
  • Committing to continue investment in basic sciences, Mr. Mukherjee said science must be used to transform our society, citing the example of technological advancements that could help reach banking.
  • Stressing that science and technology was a priority for India from the early days of Independence.

Jawahar Lal university’s student union leader arrested

  • As the Centre hardened its position, a Delhi court remanded Jawaharlal Nehru University Students Union president Kanhaiya Kumar in three-day police custody.
  • He was arrested on the charge of sedition, after “anti-India” slogans were allegedly raised at the university during a recent protest meeting in memory of Afzal Guru, hanged in 2013 after his conviction in the Parliament attack case.
  • A case of sedition against several unknown students was lodged at Vasant Kunj (North) police station.
  • It was registered under IPC Sections 124A (sedition), 120B (criminal conspiracy) and 34 (acts done by several persons with a common intention). Five more persons are absconding in the case.
  • The university also initiated action, barring eight students from academic activity pending an enquiry, though they would be allowed to stay as guests in thehostels.

National undisclosed income increased from 6000 crore to 90000 crore from 2011 to 2014

  • The nationwide crackdown on black money has meant a steady increase in detection of undisclosed income, which has jumped 15.5 times over the past five years.
  • A comprehensive report of the Director General of Income Tax (Intelligence and Criminal Investigation) shows more and more prominent business houses, including diamond traders, steel magnates and the country’s leading pharma companies coming under the taxmen’s scanner.
  • National undisclosed income jumped from just Rs. 5,894 crore in financial year 2011 to Rs. 90,391 crore in 2014.
  • The undisclosed income detected in 2012 was Rs. 6,573 crore and Rs. 19,337 crore in 2013.

India reconsidering joint military policing with other countries

  • In a first indicator that India is reconsidering its reluctance to joint military policing with other countries, Indian and U.S. officials have discussed joint naval patrols, though concrete steps are yet to be finalised.
  • The disclosure comes a year after the two countries signed a joint vision statement which called for “safe- guarding maritime security and ensuring freedom of navigation and over-flight” throughout the Asia-Pacific region.
  • The U.S. Officer’s statement comes in the light of a Reuters report two days ago claiming that the two sides have held talks on conducting joint naval patrols, including in the disputed South China Sea.
  • India and the U.S. continue to explore ways to deepen their bilateral defence cooperation.

Urban development ministry made buying of compost from solid waste mandatory

  • In an attempt to boost the NDA government’s flagship Swachh Bharat Mission, the Ministry of Urban Development has made it “mandatory” for private companies to buy compost that is extracted from municipal solid waste.
  • Since solid waste management is a key feature of Swachh Bharat Mission, the Ministry is finding creative ways to turn mounting waste into a national asset.
  • In early January, the Ministry arrived at an agreement with the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers that private companies must promote the municipal compost and slowly reduce the market size of urea.
  • The government is also weighing whether to ofer a deal where subsidy would be granted if one bag of municipal compost is bought with every two bags of chemically rich urea.

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