Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 14 November 2015

:: National ::

Diversity is our pride, strength said PM Modi in UK

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, said on Friday that diversity is India's “strength and pride” and underlined the importance of peaceful co-existence. “India is full of diversity.
This diversity is our pride and it is our strength. Diversity is the speciality of India,” Mr. Modi said, adding that despite the country being home to diverse religions, over 100 languages and 1,500 dialects, Indians have shown how to live together.
The Prime Minister was addressing thousands of people of Indian origin, at a Grand Community reception in his honour at the iconic Wembley Stadium, home to rock concerts and England's national soccer team.
The event was themed ‘Two Great Nations, One Glorious Future.'
The PM also had “quiet lunch”, as officials termed it , with Queen came after a day of packed engagements and several speeches on Friday.
Their Royal Highnesses The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (William and Kate) will visit India in the spring of 2016. The visit is being undertaken at the request of Her Majesty's Government and will be the first time The Duke and Duchess have visited the country.

Ecological norms are diluted in kerala

Environmental organisations and public interest groups are up in arms against the government move to dilute environmental laws for the mining industry in the State.
This follows a number of government orders and notifications issued by the Indus-tries Department to amend the provisions of the Kerala Minor Minerals Concession Rules.
According to the notification amending Rules 12 and 13 of KMMCR, quarries which had short-term permits on or before February 26, 2012 would not require Environ-mental Clearance (EC) or mining plan for renewal of permit.
The notification also allows the permit holder to operate the quarry for three years before applying for a quarrying lease with EC.
Environmental activists say the amendments amount to a blatant violation of the directions issued by the Supreme Court and High Court making it mandatory to secure EC for all quarries.
They feel the government was driven by its commitment to supply building materials for the Vizhinjam seaport project.
The State EIA Authority has also expressed apprehension that the amendment would make it possible to by-pass environmental regulations.

Chetia likely to join peace process

India decided to drop all charges against Nur Hossein, wanted for multiple murders in Bangladesh, it paved the way for his deportation.
Hossein's deportation is directly linked to Bangladesh’s handover of United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) leader Anup Chetia to India.
It was a “give and take” between the two countries and the swap happened within 24 hours of Chetia coming back to India.
Chetia, one of the founding members of the ULFA, was in Bangladesh for the past 18 years.
The government is planning to use him as a “front” against Paresh Barua, the leader of ULFA (Independent) or the anti-talks faction.
The ULFA has backed the demand for inclusion of the six communities, Moran, Muttock, Tai Ahom, Koch Rajbongshi, Sootea and Tea Tribes, under the ST category.
Former Intelligence Bureau (IB) chief P.C. Halder is heading the peace talks with Arabinda Rajkhowa of ULFA and the Centre's interlocutor has had several rounds of talks with the group. A source in the establishment said that Chetia's deporta-tion will definitely “fast-track” the peace process and they hoped that he would join the talks.

:: International ::

Suu Kyi set to form govt.

Myanmar democracy champion Aung San Suu Kyi's Opposition party on Friday clinched enough seats in Parliament to elect a President and form a government when incoming lawmakers convene next year.
As of Friday afternoon, the country's election commis-sion had announced the election results for 452 of the 491 Parliamentary seats contest-ed in the election. The National League for Democracy won 364 seats compared with the governing party's 40. Smaller parties took the rest.
The confirmation came five years to the day since the junta released Suu Kyi from house arrest. She had been confined for the best part of two decades. The triumph of the charismatic Nobel Peace Prize laureate sweeps out the old guard of former generals that has run Myanmar since President Thein Sein ushered in democratic and economic re-forms four years ago.
Despite the landslide, Suu Kyi cannot become President herself under a Constitution drafted by the military before the end of nearly 50 years of rule. She has said she will run the country anyway, through a proxy chosen by her party.

:: India And World ::

Mr. Modi’s Diaspower

The Wembley event is unique in many ways, still it is part of a planned series of diaspora events PM Modi has undertaken in the past year. From San Jose to Sydney, from Madison Square Gardens in New York to Dubai’s Sport City cricket stadium, and from Shanghai to Toronto.
Mr. Modi’s NRI outreach through massive arena functions is unique, no other Indian PM has attempted on this scale.
In November alone, Wembley was the first of three such events, with rallies planned in Kuala Lumpur and Singapore for audiences of 20,000 each.
As they queue up for their passes to enter the Wembley arena, many tell us what draws so many NRIs to Mr. Modi’s speeches. Some say it is his “positive vibe”, while others refer to the “high expectations he has generated for India”.
For decades, emigrating Indians have faced some shame for “abandoning the motherland”, say NRIs Piyush Gohil and Avinash Varia, “Made in India” sweatshirt-wearing volunteers on Mr. Modi’s welcome committee in the UK.
“We always lived with a corner of guilt in our hearts,” says Mr. Gohil, who has run a small business in London for 12 years. “But by attending Mr. Modi’s rallies, we still feel a part of India, and we feel reassured that our values, our bonds are intact.” Mr. Modi’s message to NRIs as a “brain gain, not a brain drain,” has particularly struck a chord with them.
Forsome businessman it is PM Modi’s message of Hindutva and Indian values and traditions that draws them.
“There’s an inherent conservatism to any diaspora,” explains one of Britain’s most famous NRIs, Lord Meghnad Desai. “Add to that, a large chunk of them are businessmen or business professionals who aren’t very political. That’s the core of PM Modi’s support base amongst the diaspora, as his twin messages of pushing trade, while retaining religious conservatism and right-wing beliefs perfectly align with theirs.”
While a more politically involved diaspora, of the kind perhaps only Israel has at present, seems attractive for Mr. Modi and the BJP’s campaigns, there are signs that there may be some unease from host countries of the Indian diaspora over any “show of strength” or “muscle-flexing” during the PM’s rallies abroad.
As a result, the “Namo in Singapore” website only accepts registrations after people submit their Indian passport details. While Singaporean officials haven’t explained their reasons officially, diplomats say the measure was a result of the sometimes “hyper national” tone of Mr. Modi’s speeches, and given Singapore’s long and tenuous history of inter-racial tensions, these may not go down as well with the larger population.
Officials reportedly studied the PM’s rally in Dubai this august, where similar tensions persist, especially amongst blue-collar workers, and decided on the measure. When asked, Mr. Ram Madhav denies there is any squeamishness over the events from the host countries in question. In any case, Mr. Madhav points out, apart from East Africa and the Caribbean, the PM has already visited all the countries that have big diasporic populations, hinting there may be less occasion for such NRI extravaganzas in the future.

Pak. to avoid talks on nukes during Army Chief's U.S. visit

Pakistan will not discuss the issue of its nuclear weapons in talks with American officials during Army Chief General Raheel Sharif's U.S. visit next week and will instead point to India's “cold-start doctrine” to justify its nuclear status, a media report on Friday said. General Sharif will discuss several important issues during his trip from November 15 to 20, which follows Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's U.S. visit last month.
The Dawn quoted diplomatic sources as saying that even if the U.S. side brought up this issue, “Pakistan will politely remind them that it was India's so-called cold-start doctrine that created the current situation.” Pakistan claims that under the cold-start military doc-trine, India has built cantonments and airbases close to the border that has shortened the time for launching an offensive.
It also highlighted U.S. media reports suggesting that American officials will urge the Pakistan army chief to revise his country's nuclear policy.

:: Business And Economy ::

PM vows to work towards a globally integrated economy

Top CEOs from India and the U.K. on Friday pitched for a more transparent and consistent deci-sion-making regime as also a uni-form treatment of corporates across the world, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi vowed to work “ceaselessly” towards Indian economy's integration with the rest of the world.
A reconstituted India-UK CE-Os Forum, during its first meet-ing, identified six overarching themes as important areas of collaboration to take forward — smart cities and the digital economy, healthcare, education and skills, engineering, defence and security, and financial and professional services.
The meeting took place in the presence of Mr. Modi as well as his British counterpart David Cameron. “We are confidently, consistently and ceaselessly working to integrate our economy with the world,” Mr. Modi told the gather-ing at 11 Downing Street, next door to Mr. Cameron's offIce in London. Mr. Cameron encouraged the company chairs and chief executives to identify the “best ways to build new trade partnerships and investment opportunities and use the strength of existing commercial relationships to identify and build more partnerships between innovative Indian and U.K. companies.”
The forum was co-chaired by Tata Group chairman Cyrus Mis-try on the Indian side and Standard Life chairman Sir Gerry Grimstone on the U.K. side. “The common ask of the industry in both countries is a business environment characterised by simplicity in structures and processes, clarity and transparency in decision-making and uniformity and consistency in the treatment of corporates and people across borders,” Mr. Mistry said.
“The new UK-India CEOs Fo-rum provides a powerful foundation with which to implement initiatives that will bring our two countries closer together, based on mutual respect and shared values,” said Mr. Mistry, who was joined by the likes of Bharti Enter-prises chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal, Tata Consultancy Services CEO & MD N. Chandrasekaran and Bharat Forge Chairman Baba Kalyani.
“Today's meeting was a great opportunity to celebrate the success of the UK-India commercial relationship. India is the third largest investor in the U.K., and the U.K. is the largest G20 investor in India,” Mr. Gerry Grim-stone said. “This forum will forge deeper collaboration in areas where there is scope to take relationship to the next levels,” said Mr. Grim-stone, whose U.K. team included leading British company representatives like Vodafone chief executive Vitorio Calao, BAE CEO Ian King and Rolls-Royce CEO Warren East.
The U.K. is the largest G20 investor in India, with 535 U.K. businesses employing 6,91,000 people across the country in sectors as diverse as retail, infrastructure, construction, information and communications technology, creative industries and health-care. In the U.K., around 800 In-dian businesses employ 110,000 people.

Royal dining at Buckingham Palace

Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Queen Elizabeth II over lunch at the Buckingham Palace on Friday.
The Prime Minister arrived in a Jaguar, and the 89-year-old Queen greeted Mr. Modi at the Grand Entrance of the palace, shaking hands with him before they moved on to inspect items from the Royal Collection, brought out specially for the Prime Minister's visit.
While a ceremonial ride in a gilded carriage with the Queen associated with an official state visit was missing for Mr. Modi, the more intimate setting of a lunch with her had been stressed upon as an indication of the closeness of ties between India and the U.K. Mr. Modi was hosted at Chequers, the British Prime Minister's country residence in Buckinghamshire, on Thursday

North-East connectivity project struck in hurdles

The ambitious Rs.15,000 crore North East connectivity project is struggling to take of one year after India and Japan jointly agreed to work on the project to quickly transform the region into a manufacturing hub with the help of bet-ter road infrastructure.
There were differences between JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency) and the National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation (NHIDCL) on issues such as the various costs involved in the project, and the technology that is to be used in building roads.
There are also differences between the two on the manner in which environment and social impact assessments are to be carried out. NHIDCL is a wholly owned company of the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways (MORTH) and is the project implementing agency.
Also, it is learnt that local stakeholders such as the Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council in Meghalaya are yet to give their ‘no objection certificates'.
With the Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe slated to visit India later next month, the Prime Minister's office (PMO) has sought a status report of the project and will shortly hold an inter-ministerial meeting on it to expeditiously resolve all the outstanding issues.

Vodafone set to invest 2 billion dollar in India

Vodafone, India's second largest telecommunications service provider by number of users, will invest Rs.13,000 crore or $2 billion on capacity expansion and new business initiatives.
Vodafone, which ranks behind Bharti Airtel in the Indian telecom market, is already the largest FDI investor in the country with investments exceeding Rs.1,11,000 crore since starting its Indian operations in 2007.
Vittorio Colao, Vodafone Group Plc CEO, committed to the latest investment during his meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Lon-don on Friday. The announcement of the increase in investment comes as the U.K. major readies to tap the Indian capital market with an initial public offering.