Current Affairs For SSC CGL Exam

05 June, 2014

Renewable power in Germany

• May 11, 2014 was a red letter day for renewable power in Germany. The biggest clean energy market reached an enviable record of almost 75 per cent renewable market share for several hours that day. Germany faces its own travails over its chosen path.

• Germany is indeed avoiding blackouts-by opening new coal and gas fired plants. Renewable electricity is proving so unreliable and chaotic that it is starting to undermine the stability of the European grid and provoke international incidents.

• The spiraling cost of the renewables surge has sparked a backlash, including government proposals to slash subsidies and deployment rates.

• For all modes of power generation, capacity factor — CF (the amount of electricity, a generator produces in a year divided by the amount it will produce if it ran at full capacity for all 8,760 hrs a year) — is important. Typically during 2012, CFs (per cent) in Germany were, for solar: 11; wind: 17; fossil fuel: 80 and for nuclear: 94.

• Since India has in place an ambitious renewable energy programme, we must learn from the experiences of other countries particularly Germany; Germany's tryst with renewable power is often taken as a model.

• India must promote all modes of power generation including solar and wind. Copious sunshine and abundant wind may lead to over production in the grid. Balancing the grid may be a challenge. Central Government must organise a systematic review of the challenges to arrive at India- centric solutions.

Modi’s scheduled visit to US

• The confirmation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the United States means two things: that Mr. Modi is keen to extend his summit-level approach to bilateral ties past the subcontinent to the U.S. as well, and that U.S. President Obama wants to patch up the damage to Indo-US ties, enough to break with US protocol for a second year in a row for an Indian Prime Minister.

• This year, a very different circumstance has necessitated the US exception being repeated for Prime Minister Modi. The last year has seen a low in Indo-US relations that rivals Cold-war era ties over the Khobragade affair. Not only did Ministry officials and Indian diplomats in the US feel outraged by the manner of her arrest, they felt angered by the lack of advance warning on the case.Despite that decision, however, the Indo-US relationship has yet to get that 'reset button' pushed. decisions on several deals, including on FDI in retail, nuclear business, and defence deals await resolution. India's push for H1B visas, and outsourcing contracts have been rebuffed in the past years.

• With his decision to accept the US President's invitation for end-september, Mr. Modi is also heralding a busy period of international travel for him. In mid-July he will travel to the BRICS summit in Brazil. In September he heads to the UN and to Washington, while in November he is expected to attend the G-20 in Brisbane, Australia. Many Team Modi members have guessed his first bilateral stop with be Japan, that was amongst the first countries to invite him.

• In between, he is slated to welcome Chinese President Xi Jinping to Delhi, while Australian PM Tony Abbott has expressed an interest in a flying visit to tie up and possibly announce an agreement on Uranium sale, and a nuclear partnership that has been in the works for years. But official sources maintain, the immediate neighbourhood will remain the new government’s focus, with the SAARC summit in Kathmandu planned in November this year.

New supercomputer unveiled by IIT-Kanpur

• One of India's top educational institutes, the Indian Institute Of Technology at Kanpur (IIT-K) has unveiled a new supercomputer recently.
• It is the second supercomputer that has been developed by the prestigious institute. The computer has been ranked fifth in the country in terms of performance and 130th in the list of world top 500 supercomputers.
• According to Srivastava , the machine operate at a peak performance of 307.2 Terra Flops (TF) and a realised performance of about 249 TF.
• They said the new machine would be used for regular education, research and training purposes.
• The machine has been launched after extensive research by a seasoned team and the engineers behind the project felt that this is one of the best supercomputers.
• The project cost Rs 48 crore to the institute.

South African Cricketer of the Year

• A.B. de Villiers dominated the Cricket South Africa Awards banquet by bagging four awards, including Cricketer of the Year 2014, in Johannesburg .

• De Villiers was also named Test Cricketer of the Year, was recognised by his peers as SA Players’ Player of the Year and by popular vote of the public, SA Fans’ Cricketer of the Year.

• The only award for which De Villiers was nominated but did not win was the ODI Player of the Year which went to Quinton de Kock, who scored four centuries in the period under review including three in consecutive innings.

• Imran Tahir was named T20 International Player of the Year, paceman Dale Steyn won the Delivery of the Year and veteran Jacques Kallis won the KFC ‘So Good’ Award for his century in his final Test match appearance against India.

• Marizanne Kapp was named Momentum Women’s Cricketer of the Year for the second successive year.

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