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Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 20 January 2015

:: National ::

Pahlaj Nihalani is censor board chief

The government put in place an entirely new censor board with producer Pahlaj Nihalani as its chairperson. Mr. Nihalani, known for the 1990s blockbusters Shola aur Shabnam and Aankhen , produced “Har Ghar Modi-The Power House of India,” a fan-song for Prime Minister Narendra Modi, last year.
The new board also features Dr. Chandra Prakash Dwivedi, best known for his epic TV serial Chanakya and the critically acclaimed, national award winning Partition film Pinjar , based on Amrita Pritam’s novel of the same name.
Other board members include Gujarat Central University Vice-Chancellor Syed Abdul Bari, besides film and theatre personalities who are either BJP members or have had close association with the party.
BJP national secretary Vani Tripathy Tikoo, who has acted in films like Chalte Chalte and Dushman , and Bengali actor George Baker, who joined the BJP last year, were appointed members of the board.
Mr. Baker contested from the Howrah parliamentary constituency in last year’s general elections but lost to Prasun Banerjee of the Trinamool Congress.
Ashoke Pandit, Kashmiri activist and filmmaker, known for films like And the World Remained Silent and Sheen also found a place on the revamped censor board. Another new appointee, Ramesh Patange, is a Dalit RSS activist and author of Me, Manu anee Sangh (I, Manu, and Sangh).
Tamil actor and former AIADMK MLA S.Ve. Shekher and Telugu actor Jeevitha were also appointed members of the board for three years.
Ms Jeevitha is fighting a cheque bounce case in which she was sentenced to two years in prison and fined Rs. 25 lakh, which she paid.

Rajni Kothari was the first to foresee caste factor

Rajni Kothari, preeminent political theorist and activist, who in the 1960s developed the idea of the ‘Congress system’ to explain the party’s umbrella character that accommodated multiple interests within its fold, is no more. He was in his mid-80s and ailing for several years.
Numerous books and commentaries that combined empirical research and theoretical originality make Mr. Kothari possibly the most influential thinker on the development of the Indian political system.
Being an academic did not restrain him from donning an activist cap, and Mr. Kothari was an active participant in politics, most remarkably through his association with the People’s Union for Civil Liberties.
He had an enduring influence on the study of Indian politics with his many books, especially, his magnum opus, ‘Politics in India’, and also ‘Caste in Indian Politics, and Rethinking Development: In Search of Humane Alternatives’.
Mr. Kothari founded the Centre for the Study of Developing Society in 1963 in Delhi, which grew as a premier institute, where a galaxy of India’s social scientists was based. He was also chairman of the Indian Council of Social Science Research, and in various capacities, mentored several generations of Indian social scientists.

:: International ::

Germany eager to join ‘Make in India’ initiative

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble expressed interest in working with India in the manufacturing sector, especially in the auto and solar energy industries, at a meeting with business lobby Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) .The German minister is scheduled to hold talks with Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley .
Dr. Schäuble’s positive note on German manufacturing industry’s readiness to participate in the ‘Make in India’ policy comes close on the heels of U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry’s voicing of the Obama administration’s worries over the initiative.
Mr. Modi is scheduled to jointly inaugurate the Hannover trade fair along with German Chancellor Angela Merkel during his visit to Germany in April 2015.