Current Affairs For SSC CGL Exam - 28 May, 2014

Current Affairs For SSC CGL Exam

Staunch secularism and socialist economics are still the Congress’s “core beliefs,” party president Sonia Gandhi , while stressing that that these Nehruvian values were being “fundamentally challenged by some in the prevailing political climate”.
A day after Narendra Modi was sworn in as Prime Minister, following the Congress’s ignominious defeat in the recently concluded general elections, Ms. Gandhi used the 50th death anniversary of former Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru to make a few political points: at a seminar, “Renewing India's Commitment to Jawaharlal Nehru's Vision,” organised by the Congress, she said that while the party’s core values remained unchanged, the party had evolved with the times.
Even though the Congress remained committed to the four pillars of Nehruvianism — democratic institution -building, staunch secularism, socialist economics and a foreign policy of non-alignment — that were integral to a vision of Indianness, Ms. Gandhi stressed that the party was not stuck in a time warp, merely repeating the conventional wisdom of 50 years ago: “Nehru himself,” she said, “was a man with an open and questioning mind, would have evolved with the times, even while remaining anchored in his core beliefs.”

President Barack Obama said the U.S. will keep 9,800 of its troops in Afghanistan this year and will withdraw them completely by 2016 as he admitted it was “time to turn the page” on more than a decade of military intervention in the war-torn country.
He said the current 32,000-strong U.S. deployment in Afghanistan will be reduced to around 9,800 by the start of 2015. The number would be further halved by the end of 2015 before eventually being scaled back to a normal embassy presence with a security assistance component by the end of 2016.
However, any U.S. troop presence in Afghanistan after 2014 is subject to signing of the Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA) by the new Afghan president.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai has refused to authorise the BSA that should be signed by Karzai’s successor to become effective.
The U.S. and NATO plan to withdraw most of their forces ahead of a year-end deadline. Mr. Obama wants to keep a small number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan after 2014 to train Afghan security forces and support counterterrorism missions.
Currently, the U.S. military has 32,000 troops for the military intervention that started 13 years ago.

The 35 National Games to be held in seven cities in the State early next year will have cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar as its goodwill ambassador.
The idea was mooted by Chief Minister Oommen Chandy during his meeting with Mr. Tendulkar and responding to it, the cricketer was quick to nod his approval.
Making a mention of this, Mr. Tendulkar said, “as a Member of Parliament, I have already given my vision on how to improve Indian sport to the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development. And now, I plan to do a follow up on that. We need to work collectively to help our country emerge as a sporting power.”

Introducing the NOTA (None of the Above) provision in local body elections is under the active consideration of the Election Commission.
An election would be declared invalid if at least 50 per cent votes were polled under NOTA category, he said.
Presidents, secretaries and electrical registration officers of grama, block and district panchayats were given training in the first phase.
Returning officers and assistant returning officers will be given training in the second stage. Elected representatives and officials at the lower level too would be given training.