Current Affairs For SSC CGL Exam - 05 May, 2014

Current Affairs For SSC CGL Exam

Vice-President Juan Carlos Varela was declared the victor of Panama’s presidential election , thwarting an attempt by former ally President Ricardo Martinelli to extend his grip on power by electing a handpicked successor.
With 60 per cent of ballots counted, officials said Mr. Varela led with 39 per cent of the votes, compared to 32 per cent for former Housing Minister Jose Domingo Arias, the preferred choice of Mr. Martinelli. Juan Carlos Navarro, a former mayor of the capital, was in third in the seven-candidate field with 27 per cent.
The incumbent party has still never won re-election to Panama’s presidency since the United States’ 1989 overthrow of military strongman Manuel Noriega.

The National Law School of India University (NLSIU) on May 6 will launch what is touted to be the country’s first cyber lab in a legal academic institution.
The lab, co-funded by the Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DEITY), Ministry of Communication and Information Technology, will be inaugurated by Shyamal Ghosh, the former Telecom Secretary, Government of India; Gulshan Rai, Director-General, Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) and R. Venkata Rao, Vice-Chancellor, NLSIU.
A release from NLSIU’s Advanced Centre for Cyber Law and Cyber Forensics, said the centre also offers training programmes for bank officials and other professionals who want to gain knowledge of cyber technology and forensics crucial for detection and investigation of cyber crimes.
The centre launched its Postgraduate Diploma in Cyber Law and Cyber Forensics in June 2013, which senior police officers, IT security officers and lawyers have enrolled for.

The country's first programme to mitigate the adverse impact of mining on the environment - forests, wildlife and the local community -is set to take off in Karnataka soon. With the Supreme Court having given it the green signal, the state government will set up a company under Section 25 of the Companies Act, 1956 in a month with an initial corpus of close to Rs 4,000 crore.
The court, while rejecting the Karnataka government's plea for allowing it to set up a special purpose vehicle (SPV) under the Karnataka Societies Registration Act, ordered the state to set up a Section 25 company under the Companies Act. This company will formulate and implement projects under the Comprehensive Environment Plan for Mining Impact Zone (CEPMIZ).
Karnataka will be the first state to undertake such a massive and ambitious environment project. It could become a model for replication elsewhere in the country.
The Central Empowered Committee (CEC) of the Supreme Court, in its report dated February 3, 2012, had recommended the establishment of a special purpose vehicle for taking ameliorative and mitigative measures according to the CEPMIZ around the mining leases in the districts of Bellary, Chitradurga and Tumkur.
The SPV will implement not only afforestation programmes but also a whole series of development works in the areas of education, health, nutrition, water supply, employment and training, roads, minor irrigation, among others.

The Government Has Drafted A National Policy With An Aim To Reduce The Carbon Emissions In The Country From Deforestation.
The move is a part of a global scheme under which developing nations are rewarded financially for storing carbon through forest preservation.
But some environmentalists said that it is not sure that compensation schemes will lead to any serious cuts in emissions.
India boasts of the tenth largest forest coverage in the world and we are world's fifth largest carbon emitter, accounting for 5%of global greenhouse gases.
According to the UN, deforestation and forest degradation - through agricultural expansion, conversion to pastureland, infrastructure development, logging and fires - account for nearly 20 percent of emissions. This is more than transportation sector but little less than the energy sector.
The National REDD+ Policy aims to provide a roadmap for building comprehensive strategies for implementing REDD+ projects and programmes effectively in the country in the context of international development in this sector.