Current Affairs 01/01/2014 to 10/01/2014

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1.India’s fight to safeguard the typical identity of basmati rice name, fought in part through a registering for a geographical indication protection by state-run export registration agency APEDA, is facing obstacle in Madhya Pradesh.
What is the issue of registration of Basmati rice as Geographical Indicator?
India wants to give Basmati rice the tag of Geographical Indicator (GI) and get it registered in country’s Geographical Indications Registry (GIR). Initially, APEDA’s geographical indication application, filed five years back, sought to cover just Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and parts of Uttar Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir. However, recently GIR allowed a plea by Madhya Pradesh (MP) for its basmati producers to be covered under the GI tag. Five representatives of basmati producers in Madhya Pradesh had also made the request.
What is a Geographical Indication?
It is an indication
It originates from a definite geographical territory.
It is used to identify agricultural, natural or manufactured goods
The manufactured goods should be produced or processed or prepared in that territory.
It should have a special quality or reputation or other characteristics
Benefits of Geographical Indication
It confers legal protection to Geographical Indications in India
Prevents unauthorised use of a Registered Geographical Indication by others
It provides legal protection to Indian Geographical Indications which in turn boost exports.
It promotes economic prosperity of producers of goods produced in a geographical territory.

2.As per the ruling of the Delhi High Court, the Comptroller and Auditor-General (CAG) can audit the accounts of mobile companies on a condition that the audit has to be only an audit relating to the receipts (revenues) and nothing else.
The Association of Unified Telecom Service Providers of India and Cellular operators had argued in its plea to the court that that under Article 149 of the Constitution, CAG is empowered only to audit the accounts of the Union and of the State governments and such authorities or bodies as may be prescribed by or under any law made by Parliament. They also argued that if a constitutional provision (Article 149) imposed restrictions on the power of a constitutional authority, no law made by Parliament could widen that power.
What does Article 149 of the Constitution of India say?
Article 149 is about Duties and powers of the Comptroller and Auditor General. It says, the Comptroller and Auditor General shall perform such duties and exercise such powers in relation to the accounts of the Union and of the States and of any other authority or body as may be prescribed by or under any law made by Parliament and, until provision in that behalf is so made, shall perform such duties and exercise such powers in relation to the accounts of the Union and of the States as were conferred on or exercisable by the Auditor General of India immediately before the commencement of this Constitution in relation to the accounts of the Dominion of India and of the Provinces respectively.

3.Janet Yellen (67) has been confirmed as the new chief of the Federal Reserve Bank of the US. With this, she has become the first woman to head the world’s most powerful central bank.

4.President of India Mr. Pranab Mukherjee has given his assent to the Lokpal and Lokayuktas Bill, 2013. This approval renders the Bill to turn into an Act. The Bill provides for setting up an anti-graft watchdog that will bring within its ambit even the office of the Prime Minister with certain safeguards. As per the Bill, an institution of Lokpal at Centre and Lokayuktas in the states will be established within 1 year from the date of its coming into effect.

Key features of the Lokpal and Lokayuktas Bill, 2013:

Provision of an institution of Lokpal at the centre level and Lokayuktas at the states levels.

A Lokpal consist of a Chairperson and a maximum of 8 members, of which 50% should be of judicial members.
50% of the total members of the Lokpal should be from SC/ST/OBCs, minorities and women.
For the appointment of the Chairperson and members of the Lokpal, there will be a selection panel which will include the Prime Minister, Lok Sabha Speaker, Lok Sabha’s leader of opposition, the Chief Justice of India or the Judge of the Supreme Court nominated by the Chief Justice. Then the President of India will nominate the eminent Jurist on the basis of the suggestions of the first four members of the selection panel.
Prime Minister within the ambit of the Lokpal
All categories of the public servants will be under the jurisdiction of the Lokpal
Any/all entities receiving donations from a foreign source more than Rs. 10 lakh will be covered under this act in terms of Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA).
Honest and upright public servants will be given protection.
Lokpal will have the right to supervise and direct any investigation agency including the CBI on the cases, which will be referred to them from the Lokpal itself.
The high power committee headed by the Prime Minister of India will recommend the Director of the CBI.
The Director of Prosecution, CBI will be recommended by the Central Vigilance Commission.
Transfer/s of the officer/s of CBI, who are investigating the cases referred by the Lokpal will need prior approval from the Lokpal.
Property gained by corrupt means is liable to be attached and confiscated even if the prosecution of the case remains pending.
Time-bound preliminary enquiry and trial. Besides, special courts may be set up towards the end of the legal proceedings.
States must set up Lokayukta institution through enactment of a law by the State Legislature within 365 days from the date on which the Act comes into effect.

5.The Credit Rating Information Services of India Limited (CRISIL) stated that financial inclusion gained momentum in India with a significant rise in new savings accounts, increase in agriculture credit accounts and expansion of bank branches in deeper geographies.
India’s overall CRISIL Inclusix score has risen by 2.7% in financial year 2012 (the highest annual increase since 2009)

6.Pushpa Kapila Hingorani (86), a lawyer who is known by the title ‘Mother of PIL’ for being the first women to file a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) on behalf of voiceless under-trial prisoners in Bihar around more than three decades ago, has passed away.

7.As per Green500 List announced at the Supercomputing Conference (SC 2013) in Denver, Colorado, in the US, India’s PARAM Yuva II supercomputer built by the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), has been ranked no.1 in India, 9th in the Asia Pacific Region and 44th in the world among the most power efficient computer systems.

8.India’s power network has been integrated into one grid as South India has been linked with the national electricity grid. This completes the consolidation of the entire country into one network for distributing electricity to consumers. The integration was attained through the commissioning of the Raichur-Solapur 765 kilovolt (kV) single-circuit transmission line by state-owned Power Grid Corp. of India Ltd. With this, the Indian power system has become one of the largest operating synchronous grids in the world with about 232 GW (gigawatts) of installed power generation capacity. India has achieved its ‘ONE NATION’-'ONE GRID’-'ONE FREQUENCY’ objective.

9.Researchers from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) designed the software Monitoring Climate Change (Moclic) by which anyone is able to determine their community, state or country’s weather activity for the days and months ahead.

10.The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) approved the central sector scheme, Indian Leather Development Programme (ILDP) for overall development of the leather sector during the 12th Plan (2012-17).

11.The state of Assam decided to follow the ‘chaibagaan’ time instead of the Indian Standard Time (IST). The bagaan time will be helpful to save energy, reduce power consumption and increase productivity. IST is calculated on the basis of solar time in Allahabad in the northern-central state of Uttar Pradesh. States located to the west of this longitude have more daylight hours as compared to those in the east. Assam lies in the extreme east of the country and borders Bangladesh and Bhutan. This means that the sun sets as early as 16:31 (4:31 p.m.) IST in November and December.
Clocks in India are 5:30 hours ahead of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), making the country one of the few territories with a half-hour UTC offset. If the time zone change is implemented, Assam will be 6:30 hours ahead of UTC.
Note:The chaibagaan time or bagaan time – Introduced by British people over 150 years ago, was set one hour ahead of the Indian Standard Time (IST) for tea estates, collieries and oil industry of Assam. This Baggan time is more suitable for tea plantations.

12.The Election Commission of India (EC) has tied-up with US-based internet heavyweight, Google, to assist it manage online voter registration and facilitation services ahead of the India’s General Election 2014. Google will provide EC its resources, including its search engine, to facilitate voters to check their enrolment status online and locate their polling station, complete with directions using Google Maps. In this exercise, Google will put its global network and resources at the EC’s disposal until June 2014 to help it manage online registration of new voters and enable the enrolled ones to check the address at which they are registered, and get directions to the polling station. With the new rolls with reference to January 1, 2014, slated to be out by January 6, 2014, the voters’ queries on the Commission website are expected to be managed by Google for the next 6 months.

13.New Zealand’s cricket player Corey Anderson created a record by hitting the fastest century in One-Day International (ODI), reaching 100 in just 36 balls against the West Indies. Prior to Anderson, Pakistan’s Shahid Afridi had this record who took 37 deliveries to hit century against Sri Lanka in 1996.

14.The US State of Colorado became the first state to legally sell marijuana and open the retail spots for pot.

15.Ms Ashraf Jehan (56) appointed as the first female judge of Shariah Court (Pakistan), which hears cases under the Islamic legislation. Ms Jehan was earlier serving as an additional judge at the high court in Sindh.

16.The Union Minister of State for Human Resource Development, Dr. Shashi Tharoor named as the Person of the Year by the animal rights body PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) – India for taking steps to advance animal protection. Mr. Tharoor recommended the National Council for Teacher Education (NCERT) to ban the use of animals, viz. for dissection, etc, in training teachers.

17.The Baltic nation, Latvia joined the Euro Zone, with the expectation that the euro will lower its borrowing costs and encourage investors by eliminating currency risk. It became the 18th member of the European Union, which uses the Euro as its currency and the fourth smallest economy in the euro zone after Malta, Estonia and Cyprus.Member states: Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain.