Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 29 July 2015

:: International ::

Animal sacrifice banned indefinitely at Nepal's 300 year old Gadhimai Festival

In a break from tradition, Nepalese temple authorities on Tuesday announced an indefinite ban on a centuries-old Hindu tradition of mass animal slaughter that attracts hundreds of thousands of worshippers.
The 300 year old Gadhimai festival will go bloodless in its next edition in 2019. More than five lakh animals get slaughtered during the festival.
The festival, held once every five years, sees hordes of devotees from Nepal and India flock to a temple in the Himalayan nation's southern plains to sacrifice thousands of animals in the hope of appeasing the Hindu goddess of power, Gadhimai.
In the last Gadhimai festival in 2014, despite a police presence and a SC order to check the illegal smuggling of animals from Indian borders, people continued to cross the Bihar border with live cattle. 70% animals are technically smuggled from India.

Sebi cancels Sahara Mutual Fund licence

In a fresh crackdown on Sahara, capital market regulator Sebi today cancelled the registration of Sahara Mutual Fund saying it was no longer 'fit and proper' to carry out this business and ordered transfer of its operations to another fund house.
The Sahara group has been engaged in a long-running regulatory and legal battle with Sebi ever since the regulator ordered refund of a massive amount of over Rs 24,000 crore by two Sahara entities. Recently, Sebi had also cancelled the portfolio management licence of a Sahara firm.
In the latest order, Sebi directed cancellation of Sahara Mutual Fund's certificate of registration on expiry of a six-month period from today.
Sebi also directed Sahara Mutual Fund and Sahara Asset Management Company to stop accepting subscription from its existing or new investors with immediate effect.
Besides, Sahara MF has been asked to "make efforts to transfer the activities of Sahara India Financial Corporation Limited (Sahara Sponsor) and Sahara Asset Management Company Private Limited (Sahara AMC) to a new Sponsor and a Sebi-approved Asset Management Company at the earliest."
If Sahara MF fails to complete the process of transition within five months, it would have to compulsorily redeem the units allotted to its investors and credit the respective funds to its investors, without any additional cost, within a period of 30 days thereafter and wind up the operations of the Mutual Fund.
Further, Sebi said that it was the responsibility of the Board of Trustees to recognise that Sahara AMC did not fulfil the criteria of 'fit and proper' person and shift the responsibility of managing the assets of the Mutual Fund to another entity.
Besides, non-reporting of the material change in the information and particulars furnished have also has resulted in violation of the MF Regulations.

:: Sports ::

Women’s archery team makes 2016 Olympic cut

India women’s recurve team earned Olympic quota for 2016 Rio Games while the men’s trio failed to advance after squandering a handsome lead at the archery World Championships, in Copenhagen on Tuesday.
Pitted against seventh seed Germany, Indian trio of Deepika Kumari, Laxmi Rani Majhi and Rimil Buriuly showed nerves of steel to bounce back from 1-3 to coast to a 5-3 win and make the last eight, the yardstick for making the Olympics cut.
The experienced men’s team of Rahul Banerjee, Mangal Singh Champia and Jayanta Talukdar however had heartbreak as they squandered a 4-2 lead before losing 26-29 to second seed Italy in a thrilling tiebreaker.
Banerjee, Talukdar and Champia can still earn individual berths by finishing among 32 when the individual section that gets underway on Wednesday.
Coached by Poornima Mahto, the women’s team on the other hand showed tremendous character after Karina Winter, Elena Richter and Lisa Unruh took away the first set 46-59.
The Indian women’s trio levelled the second 5-5 to make it 3-1, while the Germans won the third by a narrow 51-50 margin to make it 3-3.

Sports Ministry forms panel to redraft NSDCI

The Union Sports Ministry has decided to redraft the contentious National Sports Development Code of India (NSDCI) 2011, forming a working group for the same.
The NSDCI, which includes all the orders and instructions issued by the sports ministry including restrictions on age and tenure of sports administrators in the country, came into force from January 31, 2011 even though the code has triggered several controversies over the years in terms of its implementation by the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) and various National Sports Federations (NSFs).
“Since (2011) a lot of developments have taken place in the sports sector, necessitating more accountability and transparency in the functioning of the sports bodies.
Hence, further amendments to the various provisions of NSDCI need to be re-examined and to bring about suitable amendments to relevant provisions of the NSDCI.
To facilitate holding of consultations and prepare a revised draft of the NSDCI, it has been decided to constitute a working group,” the Sports Ministry said in a release.
The working group would be headed by retired Delhi High Court judge C.K. Mahajan and examine the existing NSDCI from every aspect of governance.
Besides sports administration, the group would also look into the legal angle and finetune/revise the same. It would also look into the process of streamlining state bodies and preparation of NSFs’ electoral college. The group has to submit the revised draft within three months.

The panel: Justice (retd.) C.K. Mahajan of Delhi HC (chairman), Pallavi Shroff (lawyer), Ajitpal Singh (former hockey player), Indu Puri (former table tennis player), Neeru Bhatia (journalist), Onkar Kedia (JS, MYAS), Lt. Gen. Rajiv Bhalla (Advisor, MYAS), President/Secretary General (IOA) and Secretary, SAI.