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Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 04 October 2014

National

Centre govt notifies life-long visa for PIOs

• Well before Prime Minister Narendra Modi returns home, the government has moved, with unusual swiftness, to implement his promise of life-long visas to Indian-Americans.
• The Union home ministry notified changes to the Persons of Indian Origin (PIO) scheme to make the PIO cards valid for the duration of the card holder’s lifetime — instead of the existing 15 days.
• The ministry also exempted them from registering with the police if their stay in India exceeds 180 days.
• During his US visit Modi had, at Madison Square Garden, promised to ease visa problems for PIO card holders, to merge the PIO and Overseas Citizens of India (OCI) scheme and to make it simpler for foreigners who marry Indians to get the PIO/OCI cards.
• A home ministry official told HT that the government had begun the process to finalise changes to the Citizenship Act.
• The UPA had first announced their intention to amend the citizenship law in 2011 but the initiative lost steam soon after.

Sports

India finishes on 8th position in Asiad

• India ended its 17th Asian Games campaign at the eighth spot on the medals tally, a drop of two positions from the previous edition of the mega-event which drew to a close here.
• India signed off with 57 medals -- 11 gold, 10 silver and 36 bronze. The tally dipped considerably compared to the 2010 edition in Guangzhou, China.
• In 2010, the country had ended sixth with 65 medals -- 14 gold, 17 silver and 34 bronze.
• As expected China ended their campaign on top claiming 342 medals. The Chinese contingent walked away with 151 gold, 108 silver and 83 bronze medals.
• Hosts South Korea finished a distant second with 234 medals -- 79 gold, 71 silver and 77 bronze. They were followed by the Japanese, who notched up 200 medals, including 47 gold, 76 silver and 77 bronze.

Business & economy

Govt. refuses to bow to U.S. pressure on IP regime

• The Modi Government denied that the reference to Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) in the joint statement from U.S. President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, was an outcome of the U.S. “arm-twisting”. The U.S. consent to discussion of IPR issues through the bilateral mechanism is a re-affirmation of India’s stand that issues need bilateral discussion and not unilateral action, a Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) clarification said.
• The clarification further said the bilateral mechanism agreed to for discussing IPR disputes — Trade Policy Forum (TPF) — was put in place by the UPA Government in March 2010 through a US-India statement, was signed by the then Commerce Minister and his U.S. counterpart. “We have not submitted to the U.S. or yielded ground…. We have reiterated that the U.S. should not act unilaterally,” Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.
• The joint statement, the DIPP clarified, in fact “merely reiterates” the position India has held since 2010 — this consistent position being that the IPR legal regime in India is fully TRIPS compliant and that issues to be discussed have to be taken up in bilateral forums like TPF. India has consistently refused to be subjected to unilateral action, the clarification added.

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International

Tensions broke out in Hong Kong

• Fresh scuffles broke out between Hong Kong pro-democracy protesters and opponents of the week-long demonstrations, reigniting concerns that the Chinese-controlled city's worst unrest in decades could take a violent turn.
• The protests have been largely peaceful since police fired tear gas at crowds demanding Beijing grant Hong Kong the unfettered right to choose its own leader. But the mood turned ugly at the most volatile protest site, in the teeming suburb of Mong Kok where some criminal gangs are suspected to be based.
• Police intervened to prevent a violent escalation, but a rowdy crowd of around 2,000 filled a major intersection and the atmosphere was highly charged as police in riot gear tried to keep them under control.

Hurricane Simon formed off Mexico's Pacific coast (Register and Login to read Full News..)

Science & technology

HIV pandemic’s genesis in the 1920s was in Kinshasa: scientists

• A “perfect storm” of urban change that began in 1920s Kinshasa led to the catastrophic spread of HIV across Africa and into the wider world, according to scientists who used genetic sequencing and historical records to trace the origins of the pandemic.
• Though the virus probably crossed from chimpanzees to humans in southern Cameroon years earlier, HIV remained a regional infection until it entered the capital of what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
• From the 1920s until 1960, the pandemic HIV strain — there were others that fizzled out — spread from Kinshasa, crossed borders to other nations, and ultimately landed on distant continents. It has infected nearly 75 million people worldwide to date.