WBCS Current Affairs 03/10/2015 to 08/10/2015

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1.Hoesung Lee of South Korea has been elected Chairman of Inter-governmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC). He was elected in on-going 42nd session IPCC in Dubrovnik, Croatia by 78 votes to 56 in a run-off election with Jean-Pascale van Ypersele from Belgium. Lee succeeds environmentalist R.K. Pachauri of India who had resigned following the sexual abuse scandal in which he was allegedly involved.
About Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change IPCC is the leading international body for the assessment of climate change. Headquarters: Geneva, Switzerland. Established: in 1988 by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). Members: Open to all member countries of UN and WMO. Currently 195 countries are its members. It comprises a group of several hundred scientists of different nationality who assess climate change science. Functions: IPCC neither monitors climate related parameters or data nor does it conduct any research work. It merely assesses the most recent scientific, socio-economic and technical information produced worldwide relevant to the understanding of climate change. Every 5 or 6 years, IPCC comes out with comprehensive periodic reports on Climate Change called Assessment Reports (AR). Awards: IPCC’s 4th AR had helped them to win Nobel Peace Prize in 2007. During this time R.K. Pachauri was its Chairman.

2. Union Cabinet has approved the Protocol amending the Double Taxation Avoidance Convention (DTAC) India-Israel and Double Taxation Avoidance Convention (DTAC) between India-Vietnam and. Decision in this regard was taken by the Union Cabinet meeting chaired by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi. These agreements seek for the avoidance of double taxation and for prevention of fiscal evasion with respect to taxes on income.

3. The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) has approved World Bank assisted National Watershed Management Project- Neeranchal. The project will ensure access to irrigation to every farmland (Har Khet Ko Pani) and help to achieve objectives of Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana (PMKSY) for efficient use of water (Per Drop More Crop). The project has been formed to cater to water-short areas with an outlay of 2142 crore rupees. Of the total project amount Union Government’s share will be 1071.15 crore rupees (50 percent) and rest will be loan amount from the World Bank. It will be implemented at the National level as well as in the 9 States. These states are Chattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Rajasthan and Telangana. Neeranchal Project will address the following concerns Bring institutional changes in rainfed and watershed agricultural management practices Build effective systems to ensure watershed programmes and rainfed irrigation management practices for more coordinated and quantifiable results. Support and improve livelihoods and incomes of farmers through forward linkage on a platform of inclusiveness and local participation. Devise strategies for improved sustainability of watershed management practices in programme areas.

4. Supreme Court has refused to allow some states and statutory bodies like RBI, SEBI to voluntary use of Aadhaar card for welfare schemes other than PDS and LPG schemes. Ruling in this regard was given by SC bench headed by Justice J Chelameswar and made it clear modification in this matter will be heard by a larger constitution bench of SC. This order was given by SC on applications of Union Government, RBI, IRDA, SEBI, TRAI, Pension Fund Regulatory Authority and states like Gujarat and Jharkhand. They have pitched strongly for voluntary use of Aadhaar cards for providing benefits of various schemes, other than PDS and LPG for the aged and the weaker sections. The applications in this case are being transferred to a constitution bench in order to decide on issues like right to privacy. Earlier in August 2015, SC had ruled that Aadhaar card will remain optional for availing welfare schemes of the government. It had clearly mentioned that authorities will not use Aadhaar card for the purposes other than PDS and LPG distribution system.

5. The Union Cabinet has given its nod for formation of Indian Skill Development Service (ISDS). ISDS will be a Group A Service of the technical cadre of the Union Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSD&E). Earlier ISDS was called as the Directorate General of Employment & Training (DGET) which functioned under the aegis of Union Ministry of Labour Employment. This decision will help to enhance the capacity and efficiency of the organisation. The new cadre will also encourage the officers to push the mandate of job creation which has been one of the key thrust areas of Union Government. Union Cabinet also approved introduction of Non-functional Selection Grade (NFSG). It will be to the extent of 15 per cent of SDPs at the STS (Senior time Scale) level as applicable in Group ‘A’ Engineering Service.

6. Tomas Lindahl (United Kingdom), Paul Modrich (US) and Aziz Sancar (US) have jointly won 2015 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has chosen them for their research on mechanistic studies of DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) repair. Their work has provided fundamental knowledge of functioning of living cell functions and its application for the development of new cancer treatments. Aziz Sancar: He has mapped Nucleotide Excision Repair (NER) which is the mechanism in which cells repair Ultra Violet (UV) damage to DNA. He is from the University of North Carolina, US. Tomas Lindahl: He has successfully demonstrated that DNA decays at a rate that ought to have made the development of life on Earth impossible. He is from the Francis Crick Institute. Paul Modrich: He has successfully demonstrated how the cell corrects errors that occur when DNA is replicated during cell division. He is from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Duke University School of Medicine, UK. They will receive the award at the annual award ceremony to be held on December 10, 2015 on the anniversary of the death of prize founder Alfred Nobel. All the three laureates will share the prize money of 8 million Swedish kronor equally.

7. National Green Tribunal (NGT) has directed all commercial vehicles entering Delhi to pay environmental compensation charge in addition to the toll tax. This decision to levy environmental compensation charges dubbed as environmental tax was taken by NGT as a tough measure to curb air pollution in Delhi. The green panel has observed that vehicular pollution is one of the main sources of inferior quality of air in Delhi.

8. Union Cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given its nod to establish 3 new All India Institutes of Medical Sciences (AIIMS). These 3 AIIMS will be established at Nagpur (Maharashtra), Manglagiri (Andhra Pradesh) and Kalyani in West Bengal. They will be established under Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana with the cost nearly 5,000 crore rupees.

9. INS Astradharani was commissioned into Indian Navy at Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh. It is Indian Navy’s first totally indigenously-designed and built Torpedo launch and recovery vessel (TRV). It is advanced replacement for INS Astravahini which was decommissioned from India Navy in July, 2015.

10. Sergey Karjakin of Russia has won 2015 World Cup Chess Championship held at Baku, Azerbaijan. In the final match he defeated Peter Svidler (Russia) by 6-4 score. The title of this championship was decided in the tie-breakers after both competitors had won two classical games each.

11. Takaaki Kajita (Japan) and Arthur B. McDonald (Canada) have jointly won the prestigious 2015 Nobel Prize in Physics. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has selected them for their key contributions to experiments showing that neutrinos change identities. They individually have discovered neutrino oscillations and shown that neutrinos have mass. Arthur McDonald Mr. McDonald is a professor emeritus at Queen’s University in Kingston, Canada. He had led a research group which had demonstrated that the neutrinos from the Sun were not disappearing on their way to Earth. The group had captured these neutrinos with a different identity at the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (Canada). Takaaki Kajita Takaaki Kajita is from the University of Tokyo, Japan. He had discovered that neutrinos from the atmosphere switch between two identities when they reach earth and after were captured by Super-Kamiokande neutrino detector (Japan). About Neutrino Neutrinos were first proposed by Swiss scientist Wolfgang Pauli in 1930. They are electrically neutral, weakly interacting elementary subatomic particle with half-integer spin. They are the second most widely occurring particle in the universe after photons which are the particles makingg up light. It belongs to the lepton family. There are three types of neutrinos: electron neutrinos (ve), muon neutrinos(vu) and tau neutrinos(vT) differing in terms of mass.

12. Union Government has launched KISAN (Crop Insurance using Space Technology and Geoinformatics) Project to benefit farmers. This project will favour use of satellites, drones (unmanned aerial vehicles) and other geospatial technology to collect crop yield data and to assess damage from natural calamities. Key facts Drones will help to take high resolution imagery of crop assessment. It will be collated with satellite imaging and other geospatial technology to get accurate data. This data will enable crop insurance companies to give proper compensation to affected farmers. The experiment will help develop index-based data for insurance companies. Initially this project will be implemented as pilot study in identified districts in Haryana, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh. The programme will be jointly conducted by Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), Mahalanobis National Crop Forecast Centre (MNFC), India Meteorological Department (IMD), Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS), State Agriculture Departments and Remote Sensing Centres. Implication: It will help farmers, government agencies and insurance companies to move away from traditional crop insurance claim calculated on the basis of crop cutting experiments. It will provide timely and accurate data for insurance claims and make payment of claims to farmers without any delay. Hailstorm App for crop damage Union Government also launched Hailstorm App, an Android mobile phone application to assess large-scale damage to crops from hail. Farmers by using this application on their smart phones can immediately send photos of their crop damage due to hailstorm to officials concerned for immediate relief.

13. 12 other Pacific Rim countries have signed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement which covers about 40 per cent of the world economy. These 12 countries are: Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, Brunei Darussalam, Japan, Canada, United States, Mexico, Peru, Chile, Australia and New Zealand. The final agreement was signed after five days of talks in Atlanta, US which was under negotiation for five years and was delayed repeatedly by negotiations over drug patents. It should be noted that China being world’s second-largest economy has been not part of the agreement. Key facts TPP agreement will pave way creation of a new economic bloc with reduced trade barriers between the 12 nations involved. It Cuts trade tariffs and sets common standards. Sets minimum standards on various global issues ranging from environmental protection and Workers Right. Sets up guidelines for dispute settlement between governments and foreign investors. Eliminates more than 18000 taxes levied by various countries on American goods in turn benefiting farmers, ranchers and manufacturers.

14 Union Government is planning to spend about 70,000 crore rupees on the development of major ports as part of its ambitious Sagarmala project. It was announced by Union Minister for Road Transport, Highways and Shipping at the first meeting of the National Sagarmala Apex Committee (NSAC). About Sagarmala project In March 2015, Union Cabinet had given its ‘in-principle’ nod to this flagship project for port-led development in coastal States. Sagarmala project aims for holistic port infrastructure development along the 7,500-km-long coastline through modernisation, mechanisation and computerisation. Under this port-led development framework government hopes to increase its cargo traffic three-fold in next 5 years. It will benefit around 14 per cent of country’s overall population from at least 13 States and Union Territories. If inland waterways programme is included in it will benefit at least 55 per cent of all population. Two ports Kandla (Gujarat) and Paradip (Odisha) are being developed into Green Smart Cities and the Government is eyeing at 4,500 rupees profit from ports this fiscal. At Navi Mumbai Special Economic Zone, government is investing 4,000 crore rupees which will provide employment to 1.5 lakh youth.

15. India and Germany have signed around 18 agreements and memorandum of understanding (MoUs) in various sectors. These agreements were signed at the end of third edition of Indo-German Inter-governmental Consultations (ICG) in New Delhi. The Indo-German ICG was co-chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his visiting counterpart German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

16. Islamic State (IS) militants have blown up the iconic Arch of Triumph in the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra. Arch of Triumph was a centrepiece of the UNESCO world heritage site of ancient ruins of Palmyra. It dated between 193 and 211 AD.

17. Micro blogging site Twitter has appointed its co-founder and interim chief executive officer (CEO) Jack Dorsey as permanent CEO for second time. He will succeed Dick Costolo who had resigned in June, 2015 after serving to this top post for five years. With this new appointment he will cease to be chairman of the board of Twitter but will continue to serve as a member of the board.

18. For the first time less than 10 per cent of the world’s population will be living in extreme poverty by the end of 2015. It was revealed by the World Bank report projections released by Bank President Jim Yong Kim in Washington, US. According to World Bank projections About 702 million people or 9.6 per cent of the world population will live below the poverty line in 2015 and mostly it will comprise populations from Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia. There is continuous decline in extreme poverty as result of dynamic economic growth in developing nations and investment in education and health as well as social safety nets. There is decline in extreme poverty in Asia (particularly India) and South America. However slowdown in emerging markets worldwide and in Latin America may spurt extreme poverty. East Asia and Pacific region was mainly focused in this projections but the reliable data was not available in parts of the West Asia and North Africa because of conflict. Previously, World Bank had defined extreme poverty as people living on 1.25 US dollar or less a day. Now it has been revised to 1.90 US dollar a day to reflect inflation. Currently, United Nations (UN) defines poverty based on the World Bank’s income measure. UN recently also has announced its aim to end extreme poverty by 2030 as one of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals.

19. Three scientists Youyou Tu (China), Satoshi Omura (Japan) and William Campbell (Ireland) have won 2015 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine. They have been chosen for their pioneering discoveries which have led to the development of potent new drugs against parasitic diseases such as malaria and elephantiasis. The laureates will receive their prizes on December 10, 2015 at a formal ceremony in Stockholm, Sweden marking the anniversary of the death of prize creator Alfred Nobel. William Campbell and Satoshi Omura: Both biochemists have won half of the Nobel Prize of this edition for discovering avermectin, a derivative which is used to treat hundreds of millions of people with river blindness and lymphatic filariasis (elephantiasis). Youyou Tu: She was awarded the other half of the prize for discovering artemisinin, a drug that has reduced malaria deaths and has become the mainstay of fighting the mosquito-borne disease. She is the 13th woman to win Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine and became first Chinese woman laureate. Diseases: River blindness is skin and eye disease which ultimately leads to blindness. Lymphatic filariasis which is also known as elephantiasis causes painful swelling of the limbs. About Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine The Nobel award for medicine is given to persons whose discoveries have significantly enhanced the understanding of life or the practice of medicine. The winners are chosen by the Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute and are always announced before the Nobel Prize for other categories. The Nobel comes with prize money of 8 million Swedish kroner or 1.1 million dollars.

20. Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has launched the second phase of Mission Indradhanush to achieve full immunisation of children below two years. In the second phase, the week-long programme will be implemented in 352 districts of the country. Mission Indradhanush depicts 7 colours of the rainbow which aims to cover all those children by 2020 who are either unvaccinated or are partially vaccinated against 7 vaccine preventable diseases. These 7 diseases are Diphtheria, Whooping cough, Tetanus, Polio, Tuberculosis, Measles and Hepatitis B. WHO (World Health Organisation), UNICEF, Rotary International and others are donor partners for Mission Indradhanush. The mission was launched in December 2014 on the occasion of National Good Governance Day. The first phase drive was started in April 2015 in 201 districts covering 45 lakh children and immunising 20 lakh children.

21. United Nations on 5 October 2015 celebrated World Habitat Day. Significance of Day: It is observed on first Monday of October every year to generate awareness about the state of human settlements and the future of cities. Theme for year 2015: Public Spaces for All. The theme aims to recognize good public spaces in order to enhance community cohesion and promote happiness, health and well-being of all citizens. It also seeks fostering investment, economic development and environmental sustainability.

22. Governing Centre Right coalition parties led by Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho have won the Portugal’s 2015 general election. In this election the governing coalition has won 99 seats in the 230-seat parliament by securing 39% of votes. However they failed to secure absolute majority in the Parliament. Socialist Parties have emerged as opposition in this election and have secured 32 per cent vote share. The leader of the opposition Socialists Antonio Costa has admitted defeat. It should be noted that in this election, parties to the left of the Socialists have achieved their best-ever result. Left Bloc has won 10% of the vote share and secured 19 seats, while the Communists won 8% of the vote share. The election was seen as a referendum on 4 years of spending cuts and austerity measures undertaken by the centre right coalition government. Presently Portugal is among five eurozone nations referred as PIIGS nations which are economically weaker following the 2008 global financial crisis. 5 PIIGS eurozone nations are Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece and Spain.

23. Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has established the world’s Highest Terrestrial Research Centre near Pengong Lake at Changla in Ladakh. The centre dubbed as Extreme Altitude Research Centre is located at 17,600 feet above mean sea level and was inaugurated by Director General of DRDO Dr S Christopher.

24. Shashank Manohar has been elected unopposed as President of Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) for the second term. He belongs to Vidarbha Cricket Association and was elected by Special General Meeting (SGM) of BCCI. The meeting was called to elect President due to sudden demise of Jagmohan Dalmiya, who had served President for 7 months after winning election in March 2015.

25. Luis Leao Pinto of Portugal has won 2015 MTB Himalaya Title, Asia’s premier mountain biking race for the second time in the Solo Men’s category. With this victory he received the crown tile of ‘King of the Himalaya’ which he had earlier won in year 2013. He took time of 27:29:22 to complete 500 km long 7 stages biking race which ended at Shimla, Himachal Pradesh.

26. Internet Search engine giant Google has officially has converted into new parent company Alphabet Inc. after US markets closed on 2 October 2015. Company had made legal filing for officially establishing the new parent structure of Alphabet without any changes in their day-to-day operations.

27. Nepal has turned to the United Nations over alleged obstruction of a key border trade point with India which has resulted in acute shortage of essential goods. Nepal’s position Claims to be suffering from scarcity of essential goods like fuel and cooking gas due to “undeclared blockade” of a key trade point at the border with India. Appealed to the international community to ensure effective and unhindered freedom of transit of land-locked countries is not curtailed. Issue of India’s blockade is affecting implementation of the Vienna Programme of Action from year 2014 to 2024 of developing countries (LLDCs) like Nepal. The problem of economic blockade had arisen after people especially of Terai region of Nepal had started protesting against its newly-promulgated Constitution. India however has rejected Nepal’s allegations over blockade as false. It has emphasised that it can only take goods trucks up to the border and beyond that it is the responsibility of the Nepalese side to ensure adequate safety and security for the trucks.

28. Union government has found residues of pesticides in vegetables, fruits, milk and other food items collected from various retail and wholesale outlets across the country. It was unveiled by the report released by Union Agriculture Ministry it had analysed samples collected during 2014-15 from various retail and wholesale outlets. Key facts These harmful residues of unapproved pesticides were found in 12.50 per cent of the 20,618 samples collected nationally as part of the central scheme Monitoring of Pesticide Residues. Samples collected from organic outlets were also found having residues of pesticides. The residues of pesticides above MRL (maximum residue limit) were found in 543 samples (2.6 per cent). The MRL is being prescribed by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI). In 1,180 vegetables sample, non-approved pesticides residues pesticides such as bifenthrin, triazofos, acephate, metalaxyl acetamiprid and malathion were detected In 225 fruit samples, non-approved pesticides such as acephate, acetamiprid, carbosulfan, cypermethrin, profenofos, quinalphos and metalaxyl were found. In 43 pulses samples, residues of non-approved pesticides especially of profenophos, hexaconazole and metalaxyl were found. In 30 rice samples, residues of triazofos, metalaxyl, carbaryl and acephate were detected.

29. Germany celebrated 25 years of reunification on 3 October 2015 marking the day in 1990 when communist East Germany and capitalist West Germany reunited country. On this occasion of silver jubilee celebration, Germany has organised a street party at the Brandenburg Gate as the symbol of German unity.