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Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 12 June 2014

Mars Orbiter’s precise path

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) received another shot in the arm in its ambitious Mars Orbiter Mission when its ground controllers successfully corrected the spacecraft’s trajectory recently.
This complex trajectory correction manoeuvre (TCM), as it is called, puts the spacecraft on the right celestial path to reach Mars on the scheduled day of September 24. The ground controllers at the ISRO Tracking, Telemetry and Command Network (ISTRAC), Bangalore, corrected the trajectory by radioing commands to the four thrusters of the Orbiter to fire. The thrusters did so, imparting an incremental velocity of 1.57 metres a second to the spacecraft for its rendezvous with Mars.
ISRO Chairman K. Radhakrishnan said the TCM was “precisely done” and “we operated four out of 22 Newton thrusters for 16 seconds” which gave the spacecraft an incremental velocity of 1.574 metres a second.

IT major Infosys named Vishal Sikka, former executive board member SAP AG, as its first non-founder Chief Executive Officer.
The Vadodara-born, doctorate in computer science from Stanford, will take over from incumbent S.D. Shibulal on August 1.
Mr. Murthy’s office, which was set up last June when he returned from his retirement to “build a desirable Infosys, will be dissolved. Putting an end to speculation over a larger role for his son Rohan Murthy, Infosys announced that his appointment was co-terminus and he will exit the company on June 14.

The Reserve Bank of India, has said that it would soon come out with a payment bank, as recommended by the Nachiket Mor committee.
Before coming out with the payment bank, the RBI will issue guidelines for it.
The central bank was in the process of issuing guidelines on universal commercial banking licences.
The Deputy Governor said the central bank would also issue norms for small banks in the private sector along with mid-sized universal commercial bank.
The RBI also said it was in discussion with the government to revamp inflation-indexed bonds to attract more retail investors.
Inflation indexed bonds were introduced last year by the central bank, but were not well received due to their complex structure.

Four pending ordinances will be passed in the budget session of Parliament
While two of the ordinances were promulgated by the previous UPA Two government, two more were cleared by the BJP-led NDA government -- that was sworn in on May 26 -- in quick succession on May 28 and May 29.
The two that the NDA government inherited relate to amendments to strengthen the provisions of The Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes ( Prevention of Atrocities) Act and the Securities and Exchange Board Act, while the ones promulgated by the current government are The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Amendment) Ordinance, 2014 and The Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation (Amendment) Ordinance, 2014.
If the TRAI (Amendment) Ordinance cleared on May 28 ensured that the government could appoint Nripendra Misra as Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister, the AP ordinance was promulgated on May 29, ahead of the official division of the state on June 2.
In promulgating the TRAI ordinance, the Modi-led NDA government has reversed a decision taken in 2000 by the Vajpayee-led NDA administration: the TRAI Act had been amended in 2000 to bar the TRAI chairman from taking up future government assignments.

Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi was recently appointed as the new Attorney General (AG) and will have a tenure of three years.
The Law Ministry issued a formal notification appointing him as the top law officer of the NDA government.
The government has already appointed Ranjit Kumar as the Solicitor General. Six Additional Solicitors General have also been appointed.
Mr. Rohatgi took over from G.E. Vahanvati as the 14th AG of the country. Mr. Vahanvati had resigned following a change of the government at the Centre.

The El Niño weather phenomenon, which can cause global famines, floods and even wars, has a 90 per cent chance of striking this year, according to the latest forecast released .
El Niño begins as a giant pool of warm water swelling in the eastern tropical Pacific that sets off a chain reaction of weather events around the world, some devastating and some beneficial.
India is expected to be the first to suffer, with weaker monsoon rains, followed by further scorching droughts in Australia and collapsing fisheries off South America. But some regions could benefit, in particular the U.S., where El Niño is seen as the “great wet hope”, bringing rains that could break the searing drought in the west.
The knock-on effects can impact even more widely, from cutting global gold prices to making England’s World Cup footballers sweat a little more.