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Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 19 June 2014

Advances hearing of plea against Suhag’s appointment by SC

The Supreme Court agreed to advance the hearing of a plea by Lt. Gen. Ravi Dastane seeking a stay on the appointment of Lt. Gen. Dalbir Singh Suhag as the Army chief, saying his rise in rank to Army Commander of Eastern Command two years back was “wholly illegal.”
Lt. Gen. Dastane, who was one of the contenders for the Army Commander’s post along with Lt. Gen. Suhag in 2012, claims he has “strong prima facie case” against the latter.He has filed the application in a pending appeal challenging an order of the Armed Forces Tribunal, dismissing his allegations against Lt. Gen. Suhag. The application seeks to restrain Lt. Gen. Suhag from taking over as the Army Chief.
Defence Minister Arun Jaitley recently stood firmly by the government’s stand to appoint Lt. Gen. Suhag.Mr. Jaitley was compelled to step in and clear the air after an affidavit filed by the Defence Ministry in the Supreme Court as a counter to Lt. Gen. Dastane’s case had put the government in a spot. The affidavit blamed General (Retd) V.K. Singh, former Army chief and now a Minister of State in the Modi government, of taking an “illegal, premeditated” course to stall the promotion of Lt. Gen. Suhag as Army Commander in 2012.
Appearing for Lt. Gen. Dastane, advocate R.K. Anand sought an early hearing as his client’s case would become infructuous once Lt. Gen. Suhag takes over from Army chief General Bikram Simgh on July 31, 2014.The Bench posted the matter for second week of July.

Chhattisgarh Governor Shekhar Dutt sent his resignation to President Pranab Mukharjee on Wednesday night. “Shri Shekhar Dutt has put in his paper to the president of India,” said Mr. Aman Singh, Secretary, Public Relations, Chhattisgarh in a statement issued to the media.
Mr. Dutt’s term was to end in January next year. An IAS officer of 1969 batch of Madhya Pradesh cadre, he served as Defence Secretary and the Deputy National Security Adviser under the UPA government before being appointed as Chhattisgarh Governor in January 2010.
Mr. Dutt’s resignation comes amid reports of pressure on UPA-appointed Governors to resign. However, the exact reason of his resignation could not be confirmed. On Tuesday, Uttar Pradesh Governor B.L. Joshi submitted his resignation to President Pranab Mukherjee.

In another example of his “direct letter diplomacy”, Prime Minister Narendra Modi wrote to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe express his regret over having to put off his visit scheduled for July 3 to 5 due to the budget session.
In the letter, that was handed over personally by Indian Ambassador to Japan, Deepa Gopalan Wadhwa, Mr. Modi spoke of India and Japan’s “shared interests” as two “Asian democracies” and looked forward to visit Japan at the “earliest opportunity”.
The postponement of Mr. Modi’s visit was one of two disappointments to the government’s plans for a big splash in Japan. The India-U.S.-Japan trilateral meeting, that had been scheduled for June 23-24 was also postponed until further notice because of last-minute scheduling issues with the Japanese delegation.
The decision of Mr. Modi to call off a visit that requires considerable arrangements, given Japanese penchant for meticulous attention to detail, has been received with some disappointment at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) in Tokyo.

Initiating a wide range of measures, Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) asked all listed public sector undertakings (PSUs) to ensure at least 25 per cent public shareholding within three years and unveiled new norms for research analysts, employee stock option schemes as well as reforms to boost the primary market.
Besides, the capital market watchdog has decided to share know your client (KYC) information with entities regulated by other financial sector watchdogs, a move aimed at having common norms across the financial market.
Approving a slew of reform measures, the SEBI board said that all listed PSUs should achieve a minimum public shareholding of 25 per cent within three years.
The decision, aimed at ensuring uniformity among listed entities irrespective of their promoters, would also help the government raise close to Rs.60,000 crore from the sale of shares in around 36 listed PSUs where the public shareholding is less than 25 per cent.
Under current norms, government undertakings should have at least 10 per cent public shareholding whereas for non-PSU firms the minimum level is 25 per cent. Looking to revive the primary market, the market regulator has eased norms related to the size of an initial public offer (IPO) and pricing of preferential shares while allowing anchor investors to have a greater exposure to the offering.

The Forward Markets Commission (FMC) has curbed futures trading in potato contracts for July, August and September to check prices by disallowing fresh positions and hiking the deposit amount on buyers.
The FMC has taken this decision in the backdrop of rising prices of potato and other essential commodities, which could be aggravated by the likelihood of a sub-normal monsoon.

Firmly ruling out the possibility of American boots on the ground in Iraq in the face of escalating sectarian violence there, U.S. President Barack Obama announced that he would nevertheless be sending 300 “military advisers” to Baghdad and also remain prepared to take “targeted,” “precise,” military actions in the future.
“American combat troops will not be fighting in Iraq again,” Mr. Obama said, adding, “Ultimately this is something that will have to be solved by Iraqis.”
The President explained that the military personnel would be sent to Iraq to examine how to train and equip Iraqi forces, and this would come on the heels of Washington’s steps to increase its intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance operations to better understand the threats to Baghdad. Yet, Mr. Obama appeared determined to hold firm to the view that U.S. combat troops would not return to Iraq as that could not resolve the core issues the country is currently facing.
Among the key priorities that Washington had in the country, he said, was to create joint operation centres in Baghdad and northern Iraq, which would share intelligence and coordinate planning to confront the terrorist threat of ISIS, the extremist group that has captured at least two cities and a major oil facility.