Current Affairs For SSC CGL Exam

27 November, 2013

Supreme court seeks state's opinion on Aadhar

The Supreme Court on Tuesday issued notice to all States seeking their response to a batch of petitions seeking a declaration that the Aadhaar scheme is unconstitutional.

• A Bench, comprising Justices B.S. Chauhan and S.A. Bobde, had restrained the Centre from issuing Aadhaar cards to illegal immigrants, and made it clear that benefits should not be denied to anyone for non-possession of Aadhaar cards.
• The Bench issued notice to the States during the final hearing of the petitions filed by K.S. Puttaswamy, retired Judge of Karnataka High Court, and others, who alleged that the scheme was unconstitutional as those obtaining Aadhaar numbers were required to part with personal information such as biometrics, iris and fingerprints, which infringed on their right to privacy – part of the fundamental right to life under Article 21 of the Constitution.

Nepali Congress front -runner in the second Constituent Assembly election held a week ago

• The Nepali Congress (NC) emerged as a front-runner in the second Constituent Assembly election held a week ago, with the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist) gaining a close second position.
• Together, the two parties that had formed partnership on most issues for the new constitution in the last assembly moved closer to attaining a two-thirds majority in the Constituent Assembly election.
• The counting of ballots under the proportional representation (PR) electoral system is going on but the trend after counting of more than 60 per cent shows that the two parties together will secure a strong majority that will give them a decisive say in formation of government and Constitution-writing.
• Some of the NC and CPN(UML) leaders that The Hindu reached expressed confidence that their parties would reach understanding on forming the government and drafting the Constitution.

INS Vikramaditya left the yard’s pier sets sail for India

• Ten days after it was commissioned into the Indian Navy at the North Russian shipyard of Sevmash at Severodvinsk, INS Vikramaditya left the yard’s pier, setting course for its homeport at Karwar in Karnataka on Tuesday.
• Commanded by Captain Suraj Berry, Vikramaditya is at the outer anchorage at the time of filing this report, completing customs clearance formalities and bunkering.
• Resuming its long voyage home possibly on Wednesday morning, the carrier will have a few days’ stop at the Northwest Russian port of Murmansk, some 215 nautical miles away, where it will be joined by the frigate INS Trikhand and fleet tanker INS Deepak.
• The aircraft carrier underwent an issue-ridden reconstruction that lasted eight years at the Russian shipyard.
• INS Vikramaditya is expected to be in Indian waters by the third week of January.

Direction from RBI on charge for SMS alert

• The Reserve Bank of India directed banks on Tuesday to charge customers for transaction SMS alerts on the basis of usage, instead of imposing a fixed fee.
• “Considering the technology available with banks and the telecom service providers, it should be possible for banks to charge customers based on actual usage of SMS alerts,” RBI said in a notification to all banks.
• “With a view to ensuring reasonableness and equity in the charges levied by banks for sending SMS alerts to customers, banks are advised to leverage the technology available with them and the telecom service providers to ensure that such charges are levied on all customers on actual usage basis,” it said.
• In March 2011, the Reserve Bank had set guidelines for banks to send online alerts to customers for all types of transactions, irrespective of the amount.

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