Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 09 April 2016

:: NATIONAL ::

BCCI says courts interference is violation of Fundamental rights

The Board of Control for Cricket in India charged the Supreme Court with crossing judicial limits by interfering in its private affairs, like internal management, flow of finances, prompting the court to ask the BCCI if it is “refusing to be reformed.”
The BCCI’s aggressiveness in court came on top of weeks of underlying tensions following sweeping changes recommended by the Supreme Court’s committee headed by former Chief Justice of India R.M. Lodha in the membership patterns of the Board, its structure, elections and bar on Ministers in cricket administration to usher in transparency and accountability in Indian cricket.
The BCCI, represented by senior advocate K.K. Venugopal, said any interference in its basic character and functioning was a violation of its fundamental rights under Article 19 (1) (c) (right to form associations) of the Constitution.
“This is a private body and can arrange its matters in whatever way it wants. Memberships are part of internal management. In case of complaints, approach the Registrar, Co-operative Societies or the police station or the court” BCCI said
Chief Justice Thakur shot back, saying the Supreme Court was not interested in controlling table tennis or football or khokho or kabbadi.
“Every single penny you hold in trust is for the benefit of the game and for those who play and for the millions of cricket lovers who pay you to watch the game...Are you not accountable to them? Are you refusing to be reformed,” Chief Justice Thakur asked.
The Chief Justice asked why the Board was against the Lodha committee’s recommendation to have a nominee from the Comptroller and Auditor-General’s office on board.
The court said the Lodha panel’s recommendations were not meant to shrink the stature of the BCCI but to help it perform its public functions in the best way.

Meenam month celebrated in Kerala

Watched by hundreds of devotees and admirer,, the ‘anavalpidi’ (catching the elephant’s tail) ritual was held at the Umayanallur Sree Balasubramanya Swamy temple precincts.
The ritual is held on the sixth day of the annual festival of the temple during the Malayalam month of ‘Meenam’. After a bath, the tusker is brought to the ‘anathottil’ of the temple. This is an occasion when the tusker is free from fetters.
A crowd of devotees run after it desperately attempting to catch the elephant’s tail. As though it is aware about it, the tusker races for about 100 meters with its tail lifted as high as possible.
The event gives an impression that the tusker is being chased by the crowd. In the process, many succeed in getting hold of the elephant’s tail.
The ritual is a symbolic gesture of the childhood pranks of the siblings, Lord Ganesha and Lord Subramanyan.

Hindu calendar new celebrated across India

For everyone else, Ugadi is new year day. For the Adivasi farmers of Adilabad however, it is a day when they start nurturing hope with regard to the crop season ahead.
The Telugu New Year is when the farming community, both tribal and non tribal, initiate agriculture operations for the ensuing kharif by worshipping farm animals and symbolically tilling the fields.
In the event of adversities nevertheless, it the Adivasis who standout by not losing hope anytime until they see the season end.
There has been no suicidal death of an Adivasi farmer, the number of farmer suicides between June 1, and December 31, 2014 was about 75, 60 last year and so far this year, 20.
The crop has failed successively since the last few years. But we cannot afford to dwell over the failure.
In Maharastra GudiPadwawhich marks new year was celebrated. Maharastra also seen removal of gender bias against women to worship in ShaniShingnapur temple.
The High Court held that it was the women’s fundamental right to go to places of worship and the government was duty-bound to protect it.
The debate intensified after a woman last year tried to enter and offer prayers at the ShaniShingnapur temple in breach of the age-old practice.

Shan-E-Punjab express becomes first train with CCTV

Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu flagged off the country’s first train with CCTV cameras in all coaches, to ensure improved safety for passengers.
The Shan-E-Punjab Express, between Amritsar and Delhi, has four to six cameras on all its 21 coaches and video footage can be recorded and stored for a month.
Live video stream of ladies coach will also be available on the LCD screens in rail guard’s compartment.
The Railway Ministry said that surveillance cameras on coaches would significantly reduce crime against women and other crimes such as theft.
While emphasising that safety was his top priority, Mr. Prabhu said a cyber security audit would soon be conducted for all zones of the Railways.

:: International ::

Srilanka and China looking for rapid infrastructure development

Looking beyond the current difficulties in reviving a stalled multi-billion dollar project, Sri Lanka and China are now defining a new blueprint, based on rapid infrastructure development, to rail their growing ties for the future.
Mr. Wickremesinghe called on Chinese President Xi Jinping. Following talks with Prime Minister Li, both countries affirmed that the $1.4 billion Colombo Port City project had their support, but “technical details” needed to be ironed out before construction could resume.
On the Colombo port, both sides agreed to further speed up the overall and comprehensive resumption of work on this project.
The announcement to resume the work has been made by the Sri Lankan side, but now we will go into further technical details.
Chinese officials also made it plain that they were now engaged in a dialogue with the Sri Lankans to carve out a new plan that will steer Beijing-Colombo ties.
The opportunity to advance the relationship has arisen following the end of Sri Lanka’s civil war and China’s adoption of its 13th five-year plan along with its Going Abroad strategy.
In tune with Colombo’s aspirations, the two Prime Ministers agreed to prioritise the construction of an industrial park at Sri Lanka’s Hambantota port.
The focus on infrastructure has resulted in the signing of a preferential buyer credit loan agreement for the construction of an extension of section two of the Southern Highway.
The Southern Highway is a 126km-long expressway that runs from Colombo to Matara on the southern coast of the island.
Both sides have also agreed to advance their FTA negotiations, with the year-end as the target to achieve tangible results.
Chinese officials said Sri Lanka is “very willing” to participate in China’s Belt and Road initiative so as to re-establish Sri Lanka’s position as the trade hub in the Indian Ocean.

Pope says Catholic Church to revamp response to modern family life

Pope Francis has called for the Catholic Church to revamp its response to modern family life, striking a delicate balance between a more accepting tone towards gay people and the defence of traditional church teachings on issues such as abortion.
In a landmark papal document entitled Amoris Laetitia (Joy of Love), the Pope outlined his vision for the church on family issues, urging priests to respond to their communities without mercilessly enforcing church rules.
The apostolic exhortation concludes a two-year consultation which saw bishops twice gather in Rome to debate issues affecting the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics.
In comments likely to be welcomed by some LGBT organisations, Pope Francis urged the church to “reaffirm that every person, regardless of sexual orientation, ought to be respected in his or her dignity and treated with consideration, while ‘every sign of unjust discrimination’ is to be carefully avoided, particularly any form of aggression and violence.”
But the Pope stopped short of pushing for a change in church doctrine.
Following lengthy debate about the role of remarried divorcees in the church, who are not allowed to take holy communion, Pope Francis did not call for the rules to be changed but said such parishioners must be made to feel part of the church.

Maldives President to visit India next week

Maldives President Abdulla Yameen will meet with Narendra Modi next week, the pair’s first tête-à-tête since Mr. Modi controversially cancelled a visit to the island nation last year.
Mr. Yameen, who will be accompanied by a high-level delegation, arrives in New Delhi for the two-day visit and will have a meeting and lunch with the Prime Minister.
Ties between traditional allies India and the Maldives took a hit last year due to a bitter internal power struggle in the Maldives, which led to the jailing of former president Mohamed Nasheed.
The political turmoil prompted Mr. Modi to cancel a planned visit to the Maldives in March 2015 at the last minute.
But a trip by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj in October appears to have calmed tensions.

:: Science and Technology ::

Scientists developed technology to read and interpret genomes

Scientists have developed a novel technology that allows them to read and interpret the human genome, a breakthrough that may pave the way for new drug targets to treat many genetic diseases.
The computational method, called TargetFinder, can predict where non-coding DNA — the DNA that does not code for proteins — interacts with genes.
This technology helps researchers connect mutations in the so-called genomic “dark matter” with the genes they affect, potentially showing new therapeutic targets for genetic disorders.
Genes can be separated from their enhancers by long stretches of DNA that contain many other genes.
Most genetic mutations that are associated with disease occur in enhancers, making them an incredibly important area of study.
Scientists originally believed that enhancers mostly affect the gene nearest to them. The new study showed that, on a strand of DNA, enhancers can be millions of letters away from the gene they influence, skipping over the genes in between.
They discovered several patterns that exist on the loops that connect enhancers to genes. This pattern accurately predicted whether a gene-enhancer interaction occurred 85 per cent of the time.
The new computational approach is a much cheaper and less time-consuming way to identify gene-enhancer connections in the genome.
The technology also provides insight into how DNA loops form and how they might break in disease.

India to buy surveillance drones from US

India is in talks with the United States to purchase 40 Predator surveillance drones, officials said, a possible first step towards acquiring the armed version of the aircraft and a development likely to annoy Pakistan.
India is trying to equip the military with more unmanned technologies to gather intelligence as well as boost its firepower along the vast land borders with Pakistan and China. It also wants a closer eye on the Indian Ocean.
New Delhi has already acquired surveillance drones from Israel to monitor the mountains of Kashmir, a region disputed by the nuclear-armed South Asian rivals and the cause of two of their three wars.
As defence ties deepen with the United States, which sees India as a counterweight to China in the region, New Delhi has asked Washington for the Predator series of unmanned planes built by privately-held General Atomics, military officials said.
The U.S. government late last year cleared General Atomics’ proposal to market the unarmed Predator XP in India.

:: Business and Economy ::

More than 500 crore FDI proposals cleared

An inter-minister panel on Friday cleared 10 foreign direct investment (FDI) proposals worth Rs.505 crore, including that of Singapore-based Helix Investment.
Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB), chaired by Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das, has approved 10 proposals out of 18 on the agenda.
Helix Investment Pte proposal worth Rs.475 crore was approved by the Board.
Of the 18, two proposals were rejected and 4 including that of Sharekhan was deferred.

Various reforms still needed to implement smart city programme

Despite improvement in India's business environment, there is still a need for reforms at various levels to successfully implement the Smart Cities programme, the World Economic Forum said in a report.
The government has announced plans for 100 smart cities and 500 Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) cities. It also approved Rs. 1 lakh crore for the purpose .
The WEF report castigated India’s “archaic” bureaucratic processes, where “little value is added with each step”, yet delays are common.
The problems in the business environmentstemmed from these bureaucratic processes, where obtaining licences and approvals takes a long time, and land acquisition is fraught with delays and uncertainties, according to the report.
The dispute resolution system also adds to businesses’ costs.
In the report, WEF offers solutions for challenges in business environment,institutional setup, and sector-specific issues, all of which the government has to take cognisance of while going forward with the Smart Cities programme.
“ULBs (urban local bodies) will play a crucial role in implementing the urban rejuvenation programmes, but they lack the resources to execute the programmes,” according to the report by the WEF and PwC.
A survey on smart cities highlighted the fact that city governments are the least-prepared to execute the programmes from among all the stakeholders, which include the national government, state governments, the private sector, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and academic institutions.
The revenue collected by ULBs in India is less than 0.9 per cent of the gross domestic product, significantly less than that of Brazil (7.4 per cent) and South Africa (6 per cent).
The report also highlights sector-specific problems, such as water management, where around 50 per cent of water production is lost due to theft or leakages during the distribution process, the lack of metering, and low user charges.
There are other infrastructural issues plaguing India’s urban centres, such as the unavailability of 100 per cent power, the poor quality of roads, and the paucity of social infrastructure in healthcare, and safety and security.