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Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 24 May 2015

Current Affairs for IAS Exams – 24 May 2015

:: National ::

Reveal travel expenses of Ministers: CIC panel

Noting that voluntary disclosures of information have been “below par,” a CIC-constituted panel has said that details of domestic and foreign visits of Union Ministers should be proactively disclosed and kept updated.
The committee said this against the backdrop of the PMO not disclosing information about expenses incurred on foreign visits of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The Prime Minister’s Office has been refusing to disclose information related to expenses incurred on Mr. Modi’s foreign visits, citing various excuses such as the records that are sought for being “vague.”
The committee of former Chief Information Commissioner A.N. Tiwari and Information Commissioner M.M. Ansari, constituted by the CIC, gave its report on “Transparency Audit: Towards An Open and Accountable Government.”
The panel referred to the September 11, 2012 circular issued by the Ministry of Personnel where it asked all departments to proactively disclose expenses incurred on the foreign and domestic visits of Ministers.
“These disclosures should be updated once in every quarter,” the committee said asking the government to also disclose other details such as places visited and the institutions/individuals interacted with, names of the members in the official delegation, mode of conveyance, travel expenses and source of funding and outcome of the visit.
It said “a democratic government keen on empowering the people and delivering to them goods and services speedily and efficiently, cannot allow walls of secrecy to separate them from the very people they serve.”
A large number of wholly avoidable RTI petitions for information, which should even otherwise be openly available, were still being filed, it said.

Psychometric tests likely to be made mandatory for pilots

Government is likely to make psychometric test mandatory for assessing the mental health of pilots of domestic carriers, a move which comes against the backdrop of a Germanwings co-pilot deliberately crashing a plane in the Alps in March.
“If it is in wider interest of safety of passengers and civil aviation industry, we will make it mandatory,” said Minister of State for Civil Aviation Mahesh Sharma.
The minister said aviation regulator, Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), has already initiated the process of formulating new norms for assessing the mental fitness of pilots.
“After the Germanwings incident, we have to be very cautious of having this test also as a mandatory test,” he said.
A Germanwings co-pilot had deliberately crashed a plane in the Alps in March, leaving 150 people dead.

Masaan wins critics prize at Cannes (Register and Login to read Full News..)

:: International ::

John Nash, the man with a beautiful mind, dies in car crash

Nobel Prize winner John F. Nash Jr., aged 86, and his 82-year-old wife Alicia were killed after their car collided head-on with an oncoming vehicle on the New Jersey Turnpike.
Born in 1928 in West Virginia, Nash is best known for the Nash Equilibrium, a 27-page thesis on the subject of game theory that won him the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics Sciences in 1994.
Nash also did ground-breaking work in the area of real algebraic geometry. His work in mathematics includes the Nash Embedding Theorem, the Nash Functions and the Nash-Moser Theorem.
The subject of the 2001 Oscar-winning biopic, A Beautiful Mind, Nash had a long history of mental illness and was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia.
In 1994, he wrote in his Nobel autobiography: "I spent times of the order of five to eight months in hospitals in New Jersey, always on involuntary basis and always attempting a legal argument for release. And it did happen that when I had been long enough hospitalised that I would finally renounce my delusional hypotheses and revert to thinking of myself as a human of more conventional circumstances and return to mathematical research."
In 1978, he was awarded the John von Neumann Theory prize for the Nash Equilibrium.
In March 2015, he won the Abel Prize for Mathematics, an award considered on a par with the Nobel.

Gandak Canal gates opened, India officials alerted (Register and Login to read Full News..)

:: Business and Economy ::

One Rank One Pension and competitive politics

Even as the Modi government dithered over the economics of implementing the “One Rank One Pension” (OROP) scheme for the armed forces ahead of its first anniversary in power, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi took on the ruling dispensation on this issue: shortly after meeting members of the ex-servicemen’s cell of his party, he stressed that though the UPA government had allocated money for it, the Modi government had failed to implement the scheme.
“We will pressurise the government and ask them to take a decision at the earliest,” he said.
Raising the emotional pitch on the issue, he reminded the government that those who sought the implementation of the OROP scheme were the ones who secured the borders of the nation. “They [ex servicemen] had knocked on the doors of the government, but nothing materialised. The Army, Navy, Air Force take care of the nation, secure our borders; their demands should be met,” Mr. Gandhi said.Later in the day, Congress veteran and the former Defence Minister A.K.
Antony took the story one notch up when he slammed the Modi government for compromising on national security. “The present government has compromised our national security,” he said, pointing out that “The defence expenditure this year is the lowest in recent years.”
The frontal attack on the BJP-led NDA government on the twin issues of national security and welfare of soldiers — an issue that the BJP has always sought to give a nationalistic spin — comes just two days before Prime Minster Narendra Modi’s scheduled first anniversary rally in Mathura where the government hoped the Prime Minister would announce the OROP scheme.
Indeed, earlier this month, shortly after the Defence Ministry cleared the implementation of the OROP mechanism, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar had told journalists in Goa that the Finance Ministry would clear OROP “in a few days.” But with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley saying that the “methodology of calculation” was still being worked out in consultation with the Defence Ministry, it looked unlikely that it would be resolved.

:: Science and Technology ::

Army to get 114 Dhanush guns in three years

The Army’s quest for new artillery is nearing completion with the indigenous gun upgraded by the Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) clearing trials. The Army has placed an indent for 114 guns in the first phase and these will be delivered in three years, informed sources said.
“After the Pokhran fiasco with one barrel-burst, Dhanush barrels were tested in Sikkim under cold conditions and in other temperatures — and came out with flying colours. The Army is fully satisfied,” officials told.
A Dhanush prototype suffered a barrel burst during firing trials at Pokhran in August 2013 which delayed the process.
The initial deal for 114 guns is expected to cost around Rs.1,600 crore. Pleased with the performance of the gun, the Army has given strong indications of an additional order for 481 guns, sources added.
The Dhanush is an upgraded version of the Swedish 155-mm Bofors howitzers bought by India in the mid-1980s based on the original design. It is a 155-mm, 45-calibre gun with a maximum effective range of 38 km in salvo mode compared to the 39-calibre, 27-km range of the original guns. It is 80 per cent indigenous, with the APU (auxiliary power unit), electronic dial sights and a few other small items being imported.
The Army is desperately short of new long-range artillery, having failed to induct any new gun after the Bofors scandal.
Recently, the Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) headed by Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar approved a revised proposal from BAE Systems for 145 Ultra-Light Howitzers for mountainous areas under a government-to-government deal with the United States.
Additionally last November, the DAC cleared the process for purchase of 814 mounted gun systems through the ‘Buy and Make’ category to be built by an Indian private partner in collaboration with a foreign manufacturer.

:: Sports ::

No stopping the Mumbai Indians juggernaut

Mumbai Indians captain Rohit Sharma stole the thunder from his more famous Chennai Super Kings counterpart Mahendra Singh Dhoni by inspiring his team to an emphatic win in the final of the Pepsi IPL-8 at the Eden Gardens.
Rohit, under whom MI turned a new page winning the maiden title at the same venue and against the same opponent in 2013, repeated the feat with a 41-run win to make it a double after the break of one season.
MI rode on some fine batting performance by Lendl Simmons (68) and Rohit himself, who scored a quick-fire 50, to notch up 202 for five in the allotted 20 overs. With its batting unit not quite upto the challenge, Super Kings succumbed almost without a fight and could reach only reach 161 for eight in its quota of 20.
The final saw Super Kings failing to extricate itself from the batting doldrums, which seemed to have hit it once it reached the qualifiers and following the departure of the explosive New Zealand batsman Brendon McCullum. An ageing Michael Hussey could not repeat his previous innings success. The innings vacillated like a rudderless ship in the absence of someone who could take up the responsibility of leading an aggressive chase.
Dwayne Smith, who was with Mumbai Indians when it last won the title, was the only CSK batsman who could withstand the bowling attack but he scored a somewhat slow 48-ball 57 in a situation where the team needed to score over 10 runs per over right from the start. Suresh Raina (28) and Dhoni (18) made some efforts, but could do little to alter the situation for Super Kings.
Dhoni’s confidence in his bowlers was undermined by the efficiency of the Mumbai Indians stars like Rohit and Simmons who turned the match on its head with their explosive batting.
Rohit, one of the most accomplished batsmen in the country, showed his mastery in aggression just when the situation merited it most.
Super Kings had a dream start with Nehra looking to begin from where he had left off in his match-winning performance in Qualifier 2 against Royal Challengers Bangalore. A brilliant piece of fielding from Faf du Plessis saw Parthiv Patel departing for a ‘duck’.
As the opener pushed the ball towards mid-on for a quick single, the South African batsman came up with a sharp dive and flicked the ball under-arm in one action even while being off-balanced to hit the bails.
Dhoni’s decision to field after winning the toss backfired as two of Mumbai Indians best batsmen — Rohit and Simmons — taking the bowlers to task. Taking the cue from his captain, Simmons went on the rampage from the second over of Mohit Sharma, which fetched 16 runs. He maintained a high intensity in scoring till the end of the 12th over when the 119-run partnership was broken.
The 68-ball stand saw a glut of boundaries and sixes as the two hardly spared any of the Super Kings bowlers.
Rohit departed immediately after reaching his 50 (26b, 6x4, 2x6) before Simmons (68, 45b, 8x4, 3x6) followed suit in the next ball, the first ball of the 13th over by Dwayne Smith, who was introduced by Dhoni for the first time in the tournament.
Refusing to bow down to the sudden change in situation with fall of successive wickets, Kieron Pollard (36) and Ambati Rayudu (36 not out) shared a 71-run partnership for the fourth wicket to help Mumbai Indians reach the second highest total of 202 in the IPL finals.
CSK still has the highest (205) which it had scored when lifting the title last time by beating Royal Challengers Bangalore at home in 2011.
“It was all about how we stayed together in tough times (when MI lost four matches in a row) and is the result of how we executed our plans well.
“So, it is not about how you start, it is about how you finish,” said the Mumbai Indians icon, the legendary Sachin Tendulkar.

Andre Russell wins most valuable player award

Following is the list of prizes awarded at the Indian Premier League presentation ceremony after the final at the Eden Gardens here.

Champions Mumbai Indians — Rs 15 crore.
Runners up Chennai Super Kings — Rs 10 crore.
Third Royal Challengers Bangalore — Rs 7.5 crore.
Fourth Rajasthan Royals — Rs 7.5 crore.
Fairplay tropyhy — Chennai Super Kings
Fastest fifty award — Andre Russell.
Maximum sixes award — Chris Gayle.
Orange Cap (maximum runs) — David Warner.
Purple Cap (maximum wickets) — Dwayne Bravo.
Most valuable player — Andre Russell