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3 Current Affairs

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First CM of Telangana• Telangana Rashtriya Samiti (TRS) chief K

Chandrashekhar Rao was sworn in as thefirst Chief Minister of Telangana, whichbecame the 29th state of India.

• Eleven ministers have also taken oath inK Chandrasekhar Rao’s Cabinet in thenew state of Telangana.

• Rao hoisted the tricolour and took saluteat an impressive parade held at ParadeGrounds, Secunderabad.

• In his first public address as the CM, Raovowed to make Telangana a model statein all respects and said that welfare anddevelopment would be the two drivingforces of his government.

• The Telangana government wouldmaintain cordial relationship not onlywith the Centre but also neighbouringstates.

• Rooting out “political corruption” wouldalso be top on his agenda to ensuretransparent governance.

Road safety in India• Every four minutes a life is lost in a road

accident in India with 1,40,000 deathsrecorded in 2012 alone. In the past decade,over a million people have lost their livesin road accidents in the country and over5 million have been left seriously injuredor permanently disabled.

• According to Save LIFE Foundation, anadvocacy group which aims to reduce the

high number of road accident deaths inIndia through rapid emergency care forinjured victims, “road safety has been avictim of India’s policy paralysis since2001".

• The World Health Organization 2013Global Status Report on Road Safetyindicates that worldwide the total numberof road traffic deaths remain unacceptablyhigh at 1.24 million per year.

• Only 28 countries, covering 7 per cent ofthe world’s population, havecomprehensive road safety laws on fivekey risk factors: drinking and driving,speeding, and failing to use motorcyclehelmets, seat-belts, and child restraints.

• For India, the report notes the risingfatalities in road accidents – rising from 8deaths per lakh of population to nearly12 in 2010. Sixteen per cent of all suchdeaths occur in four wheeled cars and 32per cent in two or three wheelers.

Execution of death row convict Yakub Memon• The Supreme Court has stayed the

execution of death row convict YakubAbdul Razak Memon, a key conspiratoralong with Dawood Ibrahim in the 1993Mumbai serial blasts case.

• The mercy plea of Memon was rejectedby President Pranab Mukherjee on May21.

• The decision was taken by the Presidentfollowing recommendations of theMaharashtra government and the Union

NATIONAL ISSUES

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home ministry that the mercy petition ofMemon be rejected.

• A bench comprising justice JS Khehar andjustice C Nagappan issued a notice to theMaharashtra government and others onthe plea of Memon and said “executionproceedings will remain stayed”.

• The court also referred to a ConstitutionBench a plea of Memon that reviewpetitions in death penalty cases shouldnot be heard by the apex court in chamberproceedings and be decided in opencourt.

Sumitra Mahajan• Eight-term member Sumitra Mahajan was

unanimously elected Speaker of the 16thLok Sabha, becoming the second womanpresiding officer of the Lower House afterher predecessor Meira Kumar.

• 71-year-old Mahajan, the longest-servingwoman MP, was elected after a motionmoved by Prime Minister Narendra Modiand seconded by BJP veteran L K Advaniwas adopted by voice vote called byProtem Speaker Kamal Nath.

• 13 similar motions proposed andseconded by several parties in the rulingNDA as also in the opposition supportingMahajan were also approved by theHouse.

• An active parliamentarian, she has notonly headed important committees, buthas also been a keen debater and avidquestioner inside the House, often seenputting ministers on the mat with hercalm but firm interventions.

• The mild-mannered Mahajan has over theyears emerged as a force to reckon within Indore where she never lost since shefirst became an MP in 1989 and ageneration of opposition leaders havebeen waiting to trounce her.

• She, however, had lost the Indore

Assembly election thrice before becomingan MP.

• Ms. Mahajan won her Lok Sabha seat forthe eighth consecutive time in this electionby an impressive margin of 4.67 lakhvotes.

• Within the BJP, Ms. Mahajan has grownfrom being President of the BJP MahilaMorcha in Madhya Pradesh in 1990 tobeing the national general secretary in1998.

Demise of Union Minister GopinathMunde

• President Pranab Mukherjee hascondoled the untimely demise of UnionMinister Gopinath Munde and said thecountry has lost a veteran leader whoalways worked for the common man.

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi said hewas extremely saddened by the demiseof his “friend” and cabinet colleagueGopinath Munde, whom he hailed as a“true mass leader.”

• The party and government, he said,stands by the bereaved family membersof the 64-year-old leader.

• The President, expressing his shock, griefand sorrow over the death of Munde, saidthat his passing away is a huge loss forthe people of Maharashtra and India.Munde, the Rural Development Ministerand the OBC face of BJP in Maharashtra,died apparently of shock and cardiacarrest suffered during a road accident.

• Munde, who made his entry into theUnion Cabinet for the first time after theLok Sabha polls, was on his way to theairport when his car was hit by anothervehicle.

LoP in Rajya Sabha• Ghulam Nabi Azad is set to become

Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha

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after his appointment as leader ofCongress in the Upper House.

• Anand Sharma was made deputy leaderof the party.Since Congress has the requisite numberto claim the post of Leader of theOpposition in the Upper House, Mr. Azadwould be the natural choice.

Four Cabinet panels dissolved• Ten days after ‘abolition’ of all Group of

Ministers (GoMs) and Empowered Groupof Ministers (EGoMs) ‘for greateraccountability and empowerment’, thePrime Minister Narendra Modiannounced discontinuation of fourStanding Committees of the Cabinet.

• A statement by the Prime Minister’sOffice (PMO) said the functions ofCabinet Committee on Management ofNatural Calamities which standsdiscontinued will be handled by theCommittee under the Cabinet Secretarywhenever natural calamities occur.

• Functions of Cabinet Committee on Priceswill be handled by the Cabinet Committeeon Economic Affairs; of the CabinetCommittee on World Trade OrganisationMatters by the Cabinet Committee onEconomic Affairs and, whenevernecessary, by the full Cabinet and on theCabinet Committee on UniqueIdentification Authority of India relatedissues it said that major decisions in thisarea have already been taken and theremaining issues will be brought to theCabinet Committee on Economic Affairs.

First session of 16th Lok Sabha• The first session of the 16th Lok Sabha

adjourned sine die after the adoption ofthe motion of thanks to the President’saddress.

• With very little disruption of proceedings,all the business listed for this short session

was transacted on schedule. This includedthe swearing-in of the newly electionmembers, the election of Speaker andadoption of the motion of thanks.

Four new ordinances• Four pending ordinances will be passed

in the budget session of Parliament• While two of the ordinances were

promulgated by the previous UPA Twogovernment, two more were cleared bythe BJP-led NDA government — that wassworn in on May 26 — in quick successionon May 28 and May 29.

• The two that the NDA governmentinherited relate to amendments tostrengthen the provisions of TheScheduled Castes and the ScheduledTribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act andthe Securities and Exchange Board Act,while the ones promulgated by thecurrent government are The TelecomRegulatory Authority of India(Amendment) Ordinance, 2014 and TheAndhra Pradesh Reorganisation(Amendment) Ordinance, 2014.

• If the TRAI (Amendment) Ordinancecleared on May 28 ensured that thegovernment could appoint NripendraMisra as Principal Secretary to the PrimeMinister, the AP ordinance waspromulgated on May 29, ahead of theofficial division of the state on June 2.

• In promulgating the TRAI ordinance, theModi-led NDA government has reverseda decision taken in 2000 by the Vajpayee-led NDA administration: the TRAI Acthad been amended in 2000 to bar theTRAI chairman from taking up futuregovernment assignment.

Mukul Rohatgi• Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi was

recently appointed as the new Attorney

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General (AG) and will have a tenure ofthree years.

• The Law Ministry issued a formalnotification appointing him as the top lawofficer of the NDA government.

• The government has already appointedRanjit Kumar as the Solicitor General. SixAdditional Solicitors General have alsobeen appointed.

• Mr. Rohatgi took over from G.E.Vahanvati as the 14th AG of the country.Mr. Vahanvati had resigned following achange of the government at the Centre.

No special category status for Seemandhra• The residual Andhra Pradesh, known as

Seemandhra, can’t be accorded the statusof special category State to provide extraCentral aid under the current norms, thePlanning Commission has said.

• “Andhra Pradesh (Seemandhra) does notmeet National Development Councilcriteria (for special category state),” theCommission said in its presentation toPlanning Minister Inderjit Singh Rao.

• This point is significant because the UnionCabinet headed by former Prime MinisterManmohan Singh on March 2 haddirected the Commission to accord specialcategory status to the successor of AndhraPradesh (Seemandhra) for five years.

• Singh had even announced in the RajyaSabha on February 21 that specialcategory status would be extended toSeemandhra for five years.

• The Commission, however, has intimatedto Rajasthan, Odisha and Jharkhand thatthey are eligible for getting SCS as per thecriteria.

• About according SCS to Seemandhra, theCommission pointed out to the Ministerthat any such proposal would have to beendorsed by the country’s apex planningbody National Development Council

(NDC) headed by the Prime Minister withCabinet Ministers and all Chief Ministerson its board.

• As per the Gadgil—Mukherjee formulafor devolution of Central assistance forstate plans, 30 per cent of the total fundsis earmarked for Special Category States.

• As against the composition of Centralassistance of 30 per cent grant and 70 percent loan for major States, special categorystates receive 90 per cent plan assistanceas grant and just 10 per cent as loan.

• The special category status to variousStates in accorded by the NDC based onconsideration of a set criteria.

Bill banning dance bars• Dance bars are set to be banned once in

Maharashtra, with both houses of thestate legislature passing a bill to this effect. The ban will be extended from beer barsto three and five star hotels, which werespared earlier.

• The bill proposes a fine of upto Rs 5 lakhsand imprisonment of upto 3 years againstthose who violate the ban. The licensesuch establishments will also be cancelled.

• This comes almost a year after theSupreme Court had lifted the ban on thestate’s dance bars, calling it a violation onthe dancers’ fundamental right to earn aliving. The apex court had also objectedto luxury hotels being selectivelyexcluded from the ban.

• Initially, the Maharashtra governmentplanned to refer the bill to a SelectCommittee, but finally ended up tablingit in the State Assembly, where it waspassed unanimously without muchdebate. The State Council too passed thebill unanimously.

• The Maharashtra government hadbanned dance bars in the state in 2005. In2006, the Bombay High Court struck

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down the ban as unconstitutional. Thisstand was upheld by the Supreme Courtin 2013.

• The new bill however, allows dancing incultural events and festivals even if theyare held in luxury hotels. Dancing ingymkhanas and theatres will also bepermitted.

• Meanwhile, women’s groups havealready said they will approach the courtagainst the bill, saying it discriminatesagainst the rights of the dancers to earn aliving in the entertainment industry.

Secure sea lanes and India’s growthstory

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi hasconveyed his government’s sharp focuson modernising the country’s defenceinfrastructure and tying maritime securityto India’s growth story.

• Advocating infusion of new technologyand indigenisation to produce weaponsand platforms, Mr. Modi signalled thatIndian-produced military hardware couldfind a niche in countries belonging to theglobal South.

• By choosing the giant aircraft carrier ashis first outing to a defence establishment,Prime Minister Narendra Modi seemedto convey that India’s long-heldaspiration of establishing a footprint in theIndian Ocean — which was drawingseveral competing powers — had notbeen extinguished.

Government to rectify Lokpal selectionprocess

• The Narendra Modi government, whichcharged the erstwhile UPA governmentwith framing rules for the SelectCommittee to choose the Lokpal againstthe letter and spirit of the law, has set inmotion the process to ‘rectify’ the

situation.The Finance Minister and theLeader of the House in the Rajya SabhaArun Jaitley informed the House lastweek that the rules framed by theManmohan Singh government for theSelection Committee were contrary to theAct with the ulterior motive of controllingthe Lokpal.

• According to officials in the Departmentof Personnel and Training (DoPT) workhas begun to effect changes in the ruleson the mandate of the search committeewhich will be notified soon.As perexisting rules, an eight-member searchcommittee is tasked with drawing up apanel of persons for consideration by theselection committee led by PrimeMinister. These persons have to be chosenfrom among the panel provided by theDoPT, the rules say.

• However, the government will nowempower the search committee to includepeople from outside the list provided byDoPT for consideration by the committee,the sources said.Besides, the DoPT haswritten to the Law Ministry to vet rulesformed on filing of property returns bygovernment employees under the Lokpalregime.

• As per the Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act,every public servant shall make adeclaration of his or her assets andliabilities.The Lokpal and Lokayuktas Actprovides for the establishment of a Lokpalfor the Union and Lokayuktas for theStates to enquire into corruption chargesagainst public functionaries.

• Outlining Narendra Modi government’sroad map, President Pranab Mukherjeelast week in his address to the JointSession of Parliament said that thegovernment “is committed to providinga clean and efficient administrationfocused on delivery. “

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State violating its own policy• A Division Bench of the Kerala High

Court asked the State government to filean affidavit on the bar licence issue whileorally observing that the government wasacting against its own policy of reducingliquor consumption.

• The Bench comprising Justice Harun-Ul-Rasheed and Justice Anil K. Narendranmade the observation when appeals filedby some bar hoteliers against a singlejudge’s order refusing to interfere in thebar licence issue came up for hearing. Thecourt orally observed that the Stategovernment should reduce the number ofbeverages corporation’s outlets as well ifit intended to bring down liquorconsumption.

• The government was allotting more barlicences under the guise of promotingtourism. In fact, the government whichwas bound to implement its own policywas violating the same policy. Thegovernment should try to reduce liquorconsumption in a time bound manner.

• The government submitted that a decisionon the renewal of licences would be takenbased on the report of the Secretary(Taxes) on the recommendations of a one-man commission appointed to formulatethe abakri policy parameters.

• The Bench directed the government to filethe counter affidavit. The petitionersalleged that the government wasdiscriminating against them. They wereentitled to get their licences renewed, astheir hotels had not been included on thelist of the 418 sub-standard bars in theState.

Fewer Students areGetting mid-day meal

• Despite the huge expenditure on

education under the previous UnitedProgressive Alliance government, lateststatistics on elementary education showthat the percentage of government andaided schools providing mid-day mealsto students has dropped from 94.83 in2012-2013 to 88.60 in 2013-14.

• A similar drop has also been witnessedin the percentage of schools providingmid-day meals prepared outside theschool premises. According to the datacollected by the National University ofEducational Planning and Administrationon elementary education for the last fiscal,the percentage of schools providing mealscooked outside had dropped from 12.53to 9.45.

• In all States barring Uttar Pradesh,Manipur and Nagaland, the mid-daymeal coverage is over 90 per cent. WhileManipur and Nagaland improved theircoverage in 2013-14, Uttar Pradesh is oneof the four States which saw a drop thatis reflected in the national average.

• The coverage of the scheme in UttarPradesh went down from 87.86 per centto 82.99 per cent.

• Besides U.P., Punjab witnessed asignificant drop with the coverage goingdown from 96.37 per cent to 91.42 percent. Other States where there has been adrop in coverage are: Delhi from 98.01 to97.53 per cent, Goa from 96.04 per cent to92.64 per cent and Rajasthan from 97.88per cent to 97.7 per cent.

• Percentage of aided schools with coveragedrops from 94.3 to 88.6 in past year.

Advances hearing of plea againstSuhag’s appointment by SC

• The Supreme Court agreed to advance thehearing of a plea by Lt. Gen. Ravi Dastaneseeking a stay on the appointment of Lt.Gen. Dalbir Singh Suhag as the Army

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chief, saying his rise in rank to ArmyCommander of Eastern Command twoyears back was “wholly illegal.”

• Lt. Gen. Dastane, who was one of thecontenders for the Army Commander’spost along with Lt. Gen. Suhag in 2012,claims he has “strong prima facie case”against the latter.He has filed theapplication in a pending appealchallenging an order of the Armed ForcesTribunal, dismissing his allegationsagainst Lt. Gen. Suhag. The applicationseeks to restrain Lt. Gen. Suhag fromtaking over as the Army Chief.

• Defence Minister Arun Jaitley recentlystood firmly by the government’s standto appoint Lt. Gen. Suhag.Mr. Jaitley wascompelled to step in and clear the air afteran affidavit filed by the Defence Ministryin the Supreme Court as a counter to Lt.Gen. Dastane’s case had put thegovernment in a spot. The affidavitblamed General (Retd) V.K. Singh, formerArmy chief and now a Minister of Statein the Modi government, of taking an“illegal, premeditated” course to stall thepromotion of Lt. Gen. Suhag as ArmyCommander in 2012.

• Appearing for Lt. Gen. Dastane, advocateR.K. Anand sought an early hearing as hisclient’s case would become infructuousonce Lt. Gen. Suhag takes over from Armychief General Bikram Simgh on July 31,2014.The Bench posted the matter forsecond week of July.

Chhattisgarh Governor Shekhar Duttresigns

• Chhattisgarh Governor Shekhar Dutt senthis resignation to President PranabMukharjee on Wednesday night. “ShriShekhar Dutt has put in his paper to thepresident of India,” said Mr. Aman Singh,

Secretary, Public Relations, Chhattisgarhin a statement issued to the media.

• Mr. Dutt’s term was to end in January nextyear. An IAS officer of 1969 batch ofMadhya Pradesh cadre, he served asDefence Secretary and the DeputyNational Security Adviser under the UPAgovernment before being appointed asChhattisgarh Governor in January 2010.

• Mr. Dutt’s resignation comes amid reportsof pressure on UPA-appointed Governorsto resign. However, the exact reason of hisresignation could not be confirmed. OnTuesday, Uttar Pradesh Governor B.L.Joshi submitted his resignation toPresident Pranab Mukherjee.

PMO has no intention toImpose Hindi on Any State

• After the Union Home Ministry’s May 27instruction to government departments touse Hindi compulsorily in their socialmedia communications spiralled into apolitical controversy, the Prime Minister’sOffice (PMO) clarified that the directiveapplied only to Hindi-speaking States anddid not amount to a change in policy.Thisis neither a new policy nor an attempt toimpose the use of Hindi on any non-Hindi-speaking State.

• The PMO clarification came in the wakeof loud protests from Tamil Nadu, cappedby a letter from Chief MinisterJayalalithaa who urged Prime MinisterNarendra Modi to ensure “that English isused on social media.”

• The release said the instruction was onlya follow-up to the Ministry’s circular onMarch 10 — when the United ProgressiveAlliance was in power — to the sameeffect. “It was a routine circular and thegovernment has no intention to imposeHindi on any State.

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Supreme Court to get 3 new judges• President Pranab Mukherjee has cleared

the elevation of the Chief Justices ofCalcutta and Orissa High Courts ArunMishra and Adarsh Kumar Goel,respectively, and senior lawyers RohintonNariman as Supreme Court judges.

• Earlier this week, the Law Ministry sentthe file to the President after removing thename of the former Solicitor-GeneralGopal Subramanium. The Centrereturned his name to the collegiumheaded by Chief Justice of India R.M.Lodha for reconsideration.

• The warrant of appointment is expectedto be issued next week to enable them toassume office when the court reconveneson June 30 after the summer holidays.With their appointment, the strength ofjudges in the court will go up to 28, asagainst the sanctioned 31. HoweverJustices B.S. Chauhan and S.K. Prasad aredue to retire in July; the Chief Justice onSeptember 27; and Ms. Justice RanjanaDesai on October 29.

New Telangana State has not beennoticed by the UPSC yet

• The birth of new Telangana State has notbeen noticed by the Union Public ServiceCommission (UPSC), or it seems so, andaspirants of various UPSC exams areunable to provide the correct details in theonline application form while applying tovarious posts.

• The UPSC website for online submissions‘upsconline.nic.in’ still shows onlyAndhra Pradesh in its list of States andTelangana residents are in a dilemmawhether to choose Andhra Pradesh astheir state, and if they choose will theyend up with some problems in future forselecting the wrong State. They are more

worried as the last date of a few examswill end this month.

• For example, aspirants for Civil Servicespreliminary exam have to apply online byJune 30 while those aspiring for NationalDefence Academy (NDA) and NavalAcademy Examination need to applybefore July 21. Apart from these, vacancieshave also been announced in variousdepartments like Information Service,Border Road Transport organisation,Power Department, Directorate of Healthand Family Welfare among others.

• After the formation of Telangana on June2 this year, aspirants say, four notificationshave been issued by the UPSC and thedilemma continues for all the aspirants.The ‘error’ may cost the aspirants as theyfear that their applications may berejected by the software in future onceTelangana enters the list. Moreover,unsuccessful candidates may use theinformation to create legal hurdles for theselected candidates, aspirants argue.

Modi govt. to focus on publicgrievances, defence, Centre-Staterelations

• As the BJP-led NDA governmentcompletes its first month in office later thisweek, Prime Minister Narendra Modi haszeroed in on three key areas where hewants the PMO to pay greater attention.Mr. Modi has given top priority tostreamlining the mechanism of redressalof public grievances, improving Centre-State relations and meeting therequirements of the armed forces. ThePMO would have a special cell to monitorthe progress in resolving issues relatingto these three priority areas.

• On Centre-State relations, the PrimeMinister has directed his office that anyrequest from a State government for

1 1 Current Affairs



assistance should not be kept pending. Hewants senior PMO bureaucrats toregularly meet representatives from theStates.

• The Prime Minister has already beengiven detailed briefings by the chief of theeach of the three wings of the armed forces– Army, Navy and the Air Force as wellas the Defence Secretary. He has asked thethree service chiefs and the DefenceMinistry to furnish a list of their prioritieson modernisation and requirements ofweapons and other gadge.

Central govt. to simplify laws for singlewindow clearance

• As the BJP-led NDA governmentcompletes its first month in office, Lawand Justice Minister Ravi Shankar Prasadsaid his Ministry was working towardsmeeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi’scommitment to provide a single windowclearance for projects. This, he said, wouldimprove the investment climate and senda clear message to foreign investors thatthey could freely invest in India.

• Mr. Prasad, who is also the TelecomMinister, said there was an impressionthat India was one of the most over-regulated countries in the world and onehad to obtain 20 or odd clearances for aproject and this affected investmentclimate. He said he had asked the LawCommission to examine whether so manyclearances were needed for approvals.

• “The Commission has been asked tosubmit a report in consultation with tradebodies like Confederation of IndianIndustry, with a suggestion in creating amore enabled business atmosphere, viz.how many clearances you need for aproject with certain mandatoryclearances.

• Also to tell the government whether we

can have a process of self-certificationfrom the project proponents that everylaw had been followed, with a rider thatin the event of violation there will beserious punishment.

33 per cent reservation for women inthe police force in Gujrat

• In a pioneering move, Gujarat ChiefMinister Anandiben Patel announced 33per cent reservation for women in thepolice force.It is necessary to empowerwomen for their uplift in the society.It willbe implemented in all cadres.

• The path-breaking initiative comes at atime when crime against women is on therise in several states and is under mediaspotlight following alleged rape andmurder of two minor girls in Badaun inUttar Pradesh.

• Gujarat will be the first state in India toimplement 33 per cent reservation forwomen in the police force.The sanctionedposts in Gujarat Police is around 60,000,around 10,000 more than its presentstrength. There are around 2500policewomen in the State at present. If thegovernment manages to fill all 33 per centposts for women against the sanctionedstrength, the State would have around19,800 women in the force.

Gopal Subramanium opts out• Feeling “let down” by the government

and the judiciary, senior advocate andformer Solicitor-General GopalSubramanium informed Chief Justice ofIndia R.M. Lodha that he waswithdrawing his consent for appointmentas a Supreme Court judge.

• In his nine-page letter, Mr. Subramaniumtold the CJI, “I do not want my elevationto be the subject matter of any kind ofpoliticisation. I am dismayed at reports

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that the file forwarded by the court to thegovernment recommending four namesfor elevation (including mine) has beensegregated and the names of threecandidates (not including mine) havebeen cleared by the government as wellas by the President of India and thatwarrants have been issued for theirappointment.”

• Mr. Subramanium said, “I withdrew myconsent to uphold my self-respect anddignity.” Asked whether he would changehis stand if the collegium were to reiteratehis appointment, he said his decision wasfinal.

The legitimacy of the collegium system• The collegium system is one where the

Chief Justice of India and a forum of foursenior-most judges of the Supreme Courtrecommend appointments and transfersof judges. However, it has no place in theConstitution.

• The system was evolved throughSupreme Court judgments in the ThreeJudges Cases: S.P. Gupta case (December30, 1981) or the First Judges Case: Itdeclared that the primacy of the CJI’srecommendation on judicialappointments and transfers can berefused for cogent reasons. The rulinggave the Executive primacy over theJudiciary in judicial appointments for thenext 12 years.

• Supreme Court Advocates on RecordAssociation versus Union of India or theSecond Judges Case(October 6, 1993): Themajority verdict gave back CJI’s powerover judicial appointments and transfers.It says the CJI only need to consult twosenior-most judges. The role of the CJI isprimal in nature because this being a topicwithin the judicial family, the Executivecannot have an equal say in the matter,

the verdict reasoned. However, confusionprevails as the CJIs start taking unilateraldecisions without consulting twocolleagues. The President is reduced toonly an approver.

• In Special Reference case of 1998 or theThree Judges Case (October 28, 1998): Ona reference from former President K.R.Narayanan, the Supreme Court laysdown that the CJIs should consult with aplurality of four senior-most SupremeCourt judges to form his opinion onjudicial appointments and transfers.

Deadline extended for National FoodSecurity

• The Centre extended by three months thedeadline by which States should roll outthe National Food Security Act thatprovides for distribution of concessionalfoodgrains to 75 per cent of identifiedbeneficiaries.

• Under the Act, States were given time tillJuly 4 to implement the Act but so far onlyfive states have begun to roll out thescheme while six others are “in theprocess.”

• To discuss the Act’s rollout and theproblems faced by the States, the Centrehas called a meeting of Food Ministers onJuly 5. The meeting will also discuss stepsthat States should take to check hoardingand tackle inflation.

• Announcing the decisions taken at a high-level meeting convened by Prime MinisterNarendra Modi, Union Food andConsumer Affairs Minister Ram VilasPaswan said it was mandatory for thegovernment to announce an extension ofthe scheme under the Act. “The allocationof foodgrains to all States will continueon the basis of the Targeted PublicDistribution System till they switch to thenew dispensation under the Act.

1 3 Current Affairs



M.K. Narayanan has resigned asGovernor of West Bengal

• Two days after the Central Bureau ofInvestigations (CBI) recorded hisstatement as a witness in the probe intokickbacks in the 2010 AgustaWestlandchopper deal, M.K. Narayanan hasresigned as Governor of West Bengal.

• The first Governor to be questioned by aninvestigative agency, Mr Narayanan is thefourth Governor to resign followingpressure from the BJP government onappointees of the UPA government. Aformal acceptance of the resignation bythe President is awaited.

• The 80-year-old Narayanan, a formerdirector of the Intelligence Bureau (IB)and National Security Adviser (NSA) inthe first Manmohan Singh government,is considered close to the Congress andhis tenure would have come to an end inJanuary 2015.

• As NSA, he had in 2005 participated in ameeting on the chopper deal. With Mr.Narayanan’s resignation, Goa GovernorB.V. Wanchoo, who as chief of the SpecialProtection Group, had participated in thesame meeting, will be under pressure toquit as the CBI will be examining himsoon.

Interceptor Missile Test♦ India for the first time tested a state-of-

the-art interceptor missile at supersonicspeed that sought, to engage and destroyan incoming target missile at a very highaltitude of 120-140 km over the Bay ofBengal.

♦ Entirely new interceptor and targetmissiles have been developed byscientists of the Defence Research andDevelopment Organisation (DRDO) forthe upcoming engagement, to be

conducted in exo-atmosphere (altitudeabove 40-50 km) on April 27 or 28. Thetest was originally planned to beconducted in November, 2013 but hadbeen delayed since then.

♦ Describing it as a “big challenge,” theysaid the interceptor’s “kill vehicle,”equipped with a dual seeker, wouldattack the payload (warhead portion) asit descends towards its intended target.The advantage of intercepting anincoming missile at such a high altitudewas that the debris would not fall on theground and there would be no collateraldamage.

♦ After some more trials, India plans todeploy a two-tiered Ballistic MissileDefence (BMD) system to protectimportant cities from external threats. Inthe first phase, incoming enemy missilesof 2,000-km range are envisaged to bewaylaid and destroyed, while those withabout 5,000-km range would be tackledby the interceptors in the second phase.

♦ So far, six of the seven interceptor missiletests, carried out by the DRDO, have beensuccessful. While two interceptions wereconducted in exo-atmopshere (altitudesbetween 47 and 80 km) the rest were inendo-atmosphere (below 40 km altitude).

Transgenders as third gender♦ The Supreme Court has recognised

transgenders or eunuchs as third categoryof gender and directed Centre and Statesto grant them all facilities, includingvoters ID, passport and driving licence.

♦ The Centre and States were also directedto take steps for bringing the communityinto the mainstream by providingadequate health care, education andemployment.

♦ A bench of Justices K.S. Radhakrishnanand A.K. Sikri directed the government

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to take steps for granting recognition totransgenders as a separate third categoryof gender after male and female.

♦ The bench also said they are the citizensof the country and have equal rights toeducation, healthcare and employmentopportunities like other people belongingto male and female gender.

♦ The apex court expressed concern overtransgenders being harassed anddiscriminated in the society and passed aslew of directions for their social welfare.

Scientific methods in crime detection♦ The Supreme Court has asked

investigating agencies to adopt scientificmethods in crime detection to save thejudicial system from low conviction rates.

♦ “The criminal judicial system in thiscountry is at a crossroads. Reliable,trustworthy, credible witnesses to thecrime seldom come forward to deposebefore the court and even hardenedcriminals get away from the clutches ofthe law. Even reliable witnesses for theprosecution turn hostile due tointimidation, fear and a host of otherreasons. Investigating agency has,therefore, to look for other ways andmeans to improve the quality ofinvestigation, which can only be throughthe collection of scientific evidence.”

♦ Writing the judgment, JusticeRadhakrishnan said there was a need tostrengthen forensic science for crimedetection. The judiciary needed to beequipped to understand and deal withsuch scientific materials.

♦ The Bench gave this ruling whilemodifying the death sentence awarded toDharam Deo Yadav, who murdered DianaClare Routley, a 22-year-old girl fromNew Zealand who visited Varanasi in1997. The trial court had awarded death

sentence and it was confirmed by theAllahabad High Court.

Dying declaration of Nirbhaya♦ The Supreme Court has directed the Delhi

Police to place before it the dyingdeclaration of the December 16 gangrapevictim along with other trial court recordsof the case in which four convicts wereawarded death sentence.

♦ Besides Mukesh (27) and Pawan (20), theDelhi High Court had also upheld theconviction and death penalty of AkshayThakur (29) and Vinay Sharma (21).

♦ While dismissing their appeals, the HighCourt had termed the offence as“extremely fiendish” and “unparallelledin the history of criminal jurisprudence”and said the “exemplary punishment”was the need of the hour.

♦ The 23-year-old paramedic, on the nightof December 16, 2012, was brutallyassaulted and gangraped by six personsin a moving bus in South Delhi andthrown out of the vehicle with her malefriend. She died in a Singapore hospitalon December 29, 2012.

♦ The prime accused in the case Ram Singhwas found dead in Tihar Jail in March lastyear and the trial against him was abated.

♦ The sixth accused, a juvenile, was onAugust 31, 2013, convicted and sentencedto a maximum of three years in areformation home by the Juvenile JusticeBoard.

Cancellation of tax benefits♦ The Election Commission (EC) has sought

withdrawal of tax exemption benefits toten political parties from the CentralBoard of Direct Taxes (CBDT) on thegrounds that they failed to submit theirmandatory expenditure contributionreports on time to the poll body.

1 5 Current Affairs



♦ The EC, in its latest communication, hasasked the CBDT to take action against thedefaulting parties under provisions ofSection 29C (Declaration of donationreceived by the political parties) of theRepresentation of the People Act inconsonance with I-T laws

♦ The EC has identified the ten parties asNagrik Ekta Party, Dharamrajya Paksh,Socialist Unity Centre of India(Communist), Yuvajana Sramika RythuCongress Party, Sunder Samaj Party,Loktantrik Manavtawadi Party, RastriyaMahila Janshakti Party (RMJP) and theIndian People Green Party as thedefaulters in filing their contribution anddonation receipt reports for the financialyear 2012-13.

♦ The stipulated time limit for this exercisewas September 30, 2013 but all theseparties defaulted in submitting therecords to EC by an average of one-fivemonths while one party (RMJP) did itwithin the time limit but the poll bodyfound some discrepancies in their recordsand hence referred it to the CBDT.

The curious case of ‘ Transsexual’♦ A woman, who was terminated from the

Tamil Nadu police service last year aftera medical examination report declared hera ‘transsexual,’ is set to get the job back,thanks to a Madras High Court order .

♦ Allowing a petition challenging thetermination, the court declared thepetitioner as a female for all purposes. Shehas right to retain such sexual/genderidentity.

♦ Setting aside the termination order, JusticeS. Nagamuthu directed the police to issuethe consequential order within six weekspermitting her to join duty as a Grade IIPolice Constable (woman) with continuityof service.

♦ She had the liberty to choose a differentsexual/gender identity as a third genderin future based on the medicaldeclaration, if a law was put in placerecognising female to males (FTMs) as athird gender.

Voting through internet ?♦ Non-resident Indians may be able to cast

their votes through Internet from overseasas the Election Commission recently toldthe Supreme Court that it is exploringsuch a possibility.

♦ The Commission, however, told a benchheaded by Justice K S Radhakrishnan thatit is almost impossible to make any sucharrangement for NRI to cast their votesfrom overseas in the ongoing generalelection as electoral rolls have beenconcluded in almost all the constituencies.

BrahMos missile test fired♦ The Army successfully test-fired an

advanced version of 290 km rangesupersonic cruise missile BrahMos as partof a user trial at Pokhran test range inRajasthan.

♦ The missile was launched by a mobileautonomous launcher deployed in fullconfiguration with mobile command postat the ranges.

♦ The launch was successful and the missilehit the designated target.

♦ Both the Army and Navy have alreadyinducted the missile, developed by Indiain partnership with Russia.

Candidates with criminal past♦ The Congress has fielded the highest

number of Vidhan Sabha candidates withcriminal records among all parties,according to an analysis of contestants’affidavits from 70 assembly segmentsgoing to polls on April 10 in Odisha.

♦ Forty-four Congress nominees, around

Current Affairs 1 6



63% of its 70 candidates, have criminalhistory compared to overall 22% of thetotal candidates with tainted past, theOdisha Election Watch (OEW) andAssociation for Democratic Reforms(ADR) analysis released said.

♦ As many as 31 Congress nominees haveserious criminal charges such as rape,murder and kidnapping. Subal Sahu, whois seeking re-election from Bijepur, hasbeen charged for rape.

♦ Among other parties, 17 (24%) of 70 BJDcandidates, 26 (37%) of 70 from BJP andfour (9%) out of 43 candidates from AAPhave declared criminal cases in theiraffidavits.

♦ Of them, 13 (19%) BJD candidates, 23(33%) from BJP and three (7%) AAPnominees have mentioned seriouscriminal cases, which can attractpunishment of at least five years jail.

♦ Altogether 147 of the 673 candidates havecriminal cases pending against them.They include 115 candidates with seriouscriminal charges.

‘Know your candidates’ tool♦ Google recently announced the launch of

a new tool as part of its elections portaloffering ‘google.co.in/elections’, called‘Know Your Candidates’.

♦ The new tool will allow citizens to get easyaccess to relevant information aboutpolitical candidates contesting from theirconstituency and their incumbentMember of Parliament. This toolintegrates publicly available informationsourced from Indian organizations suchas the Association for DemocraticReforms (ADR), PRS Legislative Researchand Liberty Institute India.

♦ The tool will provide information for eachsitting Lok Sabha MP and contestingcandidates such as their disclosed

educational background, financial detailsand social media presence (whereveravailable) including video bios of thecandidates provided by Ping networks.Mapped onto Google Maps interface,citizens will be able to find theinformation by using pin codes of theirarea or by zooming on their locality onthe map. The tool will be updatedregularly to provide information about allcandidates as they get finalised and willbe made available at least a week beforethe voting day in each constituency.

♦ Google created its first elections toolsseven years ago when our engineersnoticed a huge increase in search trafficaround the election period in the UnitedStates.

♦ Today over 20 countries includingMalaysia, Thailand, and now, India haveelections pages that aid voters duringelection periods. Google aims toencourage people to be more participativeand engage with candidates. It also allowsvoters to have a deeper understanding ofpolitics and governance throughengagement with the candidates.

Jats in the OBC category♦ Observing that the Centre had sufficient

prima facie materials, the Supreme Courthas refrained from staying thegovernment’s poll-eve decision to includeJats in the Other Backward Classes (OBC)category in nine states.

♦ The decision by the UPA-II governmentwas seen as an attempt to appease thecommunity, which has strong social andpolitical clout in western Uttar Pradeshand its bordering areas of Uttarakhand,Delhi, Haryana and Rajasthan besidesalso being present in Gujarat and MadhyaPradesh.

♦ A Bench led by Chief Justice P Sathasivam

1 7 Current Affairs



however asked the government to placeon record a comprehensive affidavitdetailing the reasons to add Jats in the list.The court also said that any decision onproviding reservation benefits shall besubjected to its final order on a batch ofpetitions, some of which favour theinclusion and others oppose it.

Save Vikrant campaign♦ Over 200 defence correspondents spread

across the country have recently launched the ‘Save Vikrant Campaign.’They are planning to meet the DefenceMinister, seeking his immediateintervention to stop the sale of India’s firstaircraft carrier. The majestic-class aircraftcarrier, purchased from Britain in 1957,played a key role in enforcing the navalblockade of East Pakistan during theIndia-Pakistan War of 1971.

♦ INS Vikrant is a symbol of our country’svalour and courage. It was Vikrant thatfought many battles on the high seas,notably the 1971 war.

♦ The auctioning of Vikrant is a matter ofnational shame.

Plea to reconstitute SIT on Gujaratriots

♦ The Supreme Court has refused toentertain a plea questioning the clean chitgiven to Narendra Modi by the SpecialInvestigation Team (SIT) in its probe inconnection with the 2002 Gujarat riots.

♦ A bench comprising justices H.L. Dattuand S.A. Bobde also declined the plea forreconstituting the SIT involving retiredjudges of the apex court, including aperson from the minority community.

♦ “Reconstitution of SIT at this stage is notgood,” the bench said, referring the pleaquestioning the SIT clean chit given to Mr.Modi.

♦ After the bench’s remark, advocateFatima, who had filed the petition,decided to withdraw it, which wasallowed.

Reservation for Jat♦ Jat leaders has welcomed the decision of

the Union Cabinet to include Jats in ninestates in the central list of Other BackwardClasses and said the move will helpyouths from the community in gettingjobs.

♦ Ghatwala khap council head HarkishanSingh Malik and Balyan khap councilhead Naresh Tikait said it was the bestgift for the Jat community and would helpthem in employment and improve theirliving standards.

♦ The Union Cabinet has approved theinclusion of the Jat community in theCentral list of OBCs for the states of Bihar,Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh,Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan,Uttarrakhand, Uttar Pradesh and theNational capital territory of Delhi.

♦ An approximate number of nine crore Jatsare living in nine states.

Provision of NOTA in general elections♦ Voters will be able to exercise the “None

of the Above” (NOTA) option forcandidates in the upcoming Lok Sabhapolls.

♦ Chief Election Commissioner V.S.Sampath said the entire election will beheld using electronic voting machines(EVMs), and that the NOTA option willalso be provided.

♦ The option was first made available in theNovember-December assembly polls infive states last year.

♦ The Lok Sabha elections will involve astaggering 814 million voters, an increaseof some 100 million from 2009, and a

Current Affairs 1 8



sharp rise from the 176 million in the firstparliamentary polls of 1952.

Lok Sabha elections, 2014♦ The Election Commission has announced

a nine-phase poll for the 16th Lok Sabhafrom April 7 to May 12. The counting ofvotes will be taken up on May 16. Themodel code of conduct has come into forcewith immediate effect. The Lok Sabha hasa strength of 543 (excluding twonominated members) and the term of thepresent 15th Lok Sabha ends on May 31.

♦ The nine phases of polls are to be held on:April 7, 9, 10, 12, 17, 24, 30, May 7 andMay 12.

♦ The elections to the 294-member AndhraPradesh Assembly will be held on April30 and May 7 along with the respectiveLok Sabha constituencies in the State.

♦ It will be three phase poll in Jharkhand,Chhattisgarh, Assam, Madhya Pradeshand Maharashtra, two phases in AndhraPradesh, Manipur, Odisha, Rajasthan andTripura. All the remaining States and theUnion Territories wil have a single phasepoll.

The Indian state rich in marine sand♦ The offshore areas of Kerala hold enough

sand resources to meet the requirementsof the construction industry in the Statefor about 50 years,according to a studyby the Geological Survey of India.

♦ The authors, including A.C. Dinesh, P.Praveen Kumar, N.M. Shareef and C.Jayaprakash of the Marine and CoastalSurvey division, GSI, have identified fivesectors in the offshore waters of Kerala,namely Ponnani, Chavakkad, Alappuzha,Kollam North, and Kollam South, with anestimated resource of 2,030 million tonnesof sand suitable for construction industry.

♦ The study came in the wake of resistance

by fisherfolk to a proposal by the Stategovernment to exploit sea sand resourcesas a substitute for river sand to feed theconstruction industry.

The model code of conduct♦ The model code of conduct, a set of legally

binding dos and don’ts, becameoperational with immediate effect withthe announcement of the Lok Sabhaelection schedule recently.

♦ The code bars Ministers from combiningofficial visits with electioneering workand bans the use of official machinery forelectioneering and advertisements at thecost of the exchequer for partisancoverage of political news.

♦ There can be no announcement offinancial grants or promise of roads andwater supply.

♦ Transfer of officials is banned.

Agitation chart in 2012♦ Agitations by various sections over a

range of issues recorded an increase ofnearly 7 per cent in 2012 compared to2011, with 78,444 protests anddemonstrations reported all over thecountry.

♦ At the State level, the maximum numberof 21,232 agitations — including over10,000 protests by political parties, 2,720by government employees, 1,392 bylabour and 1,281 agitations on communalissues — were reported in Tamil Nadu,as against 15,746 in 2011. The fewestnumber of protests (574) in the Stateinvolved students.

♦ The maximum number of agitations waspolitical in nature (37.13 per cent),followed by protests on issues other thancommunal, student, governmentemployees or labour-related (25 per cent).Communal agitations accounted for 4.95

1 9 Current Affairs



per cent and student protests, about 9.41per cent of the total number.

♦ While Tamil Nadu recorded themaximum number of communalagitations (1,281), Maharashtra stoodsecond with 1,261. It was followed byKarnataka (445) and Delhi (425).

♦ The maximum number of studentagitations was reported in Rajasthan(939), followed by 862 in Uttarakhand,850 in Madhya Pradesh and 811 in Assam.

People urged to vote ethically by EC♦ Days after Union Agriculture Minister

and NCP chief Sharad Pawar stoked acontroversy by his remark on casting“double ballots”, the ElectionCommission has exhorted the electorateto commit themselves to “ethical voting”in the general elections. The latest moveby the poll panel comes after it put upposters urging voters to select pro-development candidates and dumpcriminals and the corrupt.

♦ The Election Commission’s “pledge”asking people to vote ethically in thecoming Lok Sabha elections is in the formof a letter written in Marathi forMaharashtra’s voters and in differentregional languages for people from otherparts. The letter asks voters to elect acandidate who will “meet the aspirationsof the people and the nation as a whole.”

♦ It asks voters to cast their ballots “withoutfail, fear or greed, and without keepingcaste, religion and creed considerations inmind” and to “inspire and encouragefriends and family members” to vote inthis fashion.

♦ The Commission has already put upposters and banners urging people to votefor candidates who are pro-developmentand well-educated and also asked votersto beware of those who offer bribes and

inducements as such elements wouldindulge in corruption in the future.

Opinion polls unlikely to be restricted♦ The broadcast and publication of opinion

polls is unlikely to be restricted in thecoming months as Election Commissionhas told the Law Ministry that it will nottake such a step using its powers underthe Constitution and it wants thegovernment to come out with a law onthe issue.

♦ Days after the Law Ministry suggested tothe poll panel that it can restrict opinionpolls using its powers under Article 324,the Commission has reverted to thegovernment saying that bringing a lawwould be a better idea.

♦ The Election Commission feels thatrestricting opinion polls under Article 324may not be “legally sustainable”. It toldthe Law Ministry that since exit polls werealso restricted by law, it should followsimilar procedure on opinion polls.

♦ The poll panel had proposed that thereshould be a prohibition on publicationand broadcast of the results of opinionpolls starting from the date of notificationof elections till the completion of the lastphase of polls to the Lok Sabha and stateAssemblies.

♦ Existing law allows EC to ban opinionpolls just 48 hours prior to voting.

♦ Earlier this year, the Attorney General hadbacked a proposal of the EC to altogetherban publication and broadcast of opinionpolls between announcement of electionschedule and final phase of polling.

IAF Super Hercules♦ A recent and most modern acquisition of

the Indian Air Force from the UnitedStates, the C-130J Super Hercules militarytransport aircraft, crashed near Gwalior,

Current Affairs 2 0



killing all five IAF personnel on board.♦ The wreckage of the aircraft was strewn

along the Madhya Pradesh-Rajasthanborder, near Karauli district, about 165 kmfrom Jaipur. Those killed in the crash areWing Commander Prashant Joshi, WingCommander Raji Nair, Squadron LeaderKaushik Mishra, Squadron Leader AshishYadav (navigator) and Warrant OfficerKrishnapal Singh (flight engineer), IAFofficers said.

♦ The aircraft took off from Agra for aroutine flying training mission. A court ofinquiry has been ordered to investigatethe cause of the accident.

Amnesty report♦ Indian President Pranab Mukherjee

rejected the mercy petitions of 18prisoners on death row in 2013, thehighest number of rejections by anyPresident in the last 25 years, accordingto Amnesty International’s annual reviewof the death penalty worldwide.Only oneexecution took place in India – that ofMohammad Afzal Guru in February lastyear.

♦ Amnesty has raised concerns about thefairness of Afzal Guru’s trial, noting thathe did not receive legal representation ofhis choice or a lawyer with adequateexperience at the trial stage.

♦ Despite a marked global trend towardsthe abolition of the death sentence, thepattern was disrupted by a sharp spikein the number of executions in Iran (369)and Iraq (169) in 2013, leading to a 15 percent increase in the global figure forexecutions as compared to 2012.

♦ Amnesty International says that itstopped publishing Chinese executionnumbers from 2009 in protest against theChinese government’s refusal to providethe organisation with figures.

♦ Nevertheless, it claims China accounts forthe single largest number of executions,running “into thousands.”

♦ Significantly, the USA is the only countryto have carried out executions in theAmericas, although the numbers fell byfour between 2012 and 2013 that saw 39executions.

♦ There were 3108 people on death row lastyear, with Texas accounting for 41 per centof all executions in the country.

CBI probe into Muzaffarnagar riotsrejected

♦ The Supreme Court has rejected the pleafor CBI/SIT probe into the Muzaffarnagarriots that took place in September 2013.

♦ The apex court bench headed by ChiefJustice P. Sathasivam said that if theCentre and the State intelligence agencieshad smelled of what was happening atthe ground level, then the riots could havebeen prevented.

♦ Declining the prayer for CBI/SIT probe,the court referred to a number of steps thatthe State police has taken to deal with thesituation and the subsequent actions.

♦ The court said that the State had failed toprotect the serious violation offundamental rights of the people and saidit was duty-bound to protect and upholdthe people’s rights.

♦ In a reference to a state governmentcircular saying that the relief would beavailable to Muslim victims only, the courtin one of its several directions said thatthe availability of relief should not be onthe basis of victim’s religiousdenomination and it should be providedto genuine victims.

Defence personnel’s right to vote♦ Observing that the right to vote cannot

be denied to defence personnel, the

2 1 Current Affairs



Supreme Court has directed the ElectionCommission to allow those serving inpeace areas to exercise their franchise inthe Lok Sabha elections.

♦ A Bench of Justices R.M. Lodha andKurian Joseph questioned the rigid standof the Commission that service personnelcan only cast postal ballots, and said theCommission could not impede their rightto vote.

♦ The election process had already begunin 225 constituencies and over 13.60 lakhpersonnel had already registered to casttheir postal ballots.

♦ There are areas in Jammu and Kashmirand in the North-East where defencepersonnel outnumber the localpopulation. Allowing them to cast votesin the constituency of their posting wouldchange the entire demography of theconstituency.

EC’s intervention in gas price hike♦ After the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) sought

the Election Commission’s intervention installing the gas price hike from April 1,the poll panel has sought details from thegovernment on the proposed increase.

♦ Earlier, the Commission had said that ithas taken note of AAP leader ArvindKejriwal’s complaint that on a proposalby Reliance Industries, the PetroleumMinistry is going to hike gas prices fromApril 1.

♦ Mr. Kejriwal had in a letter to EC termedthe gas price hike as violation of the modelcode of conduct and alleged that thedecision was aimed at providing windfallgains to Reliance Industries.

♦ However, petroleum minister VeerappaMoily has made it clear that thegovernment will not go back on itsdecision to hike rates from April 1.

Odisha’s ‘special category status’♦ Bahujan Samaj Party, if voted to power,

will accord special category status toOdisha.

♦ Addressing Bahujan Samaj Party’s firstever State-level election rally here, Ms.Mayawati lambasted Congress and otherparties, who were in power at Centre,saying these parties were responsible forthe backwardness prevailing in thecountry.

♦ The Bahujan Samaj Party further said theregions that lag behind in differentdevelopment parameters will be givenattention on priority basis.

Prithvi II missile♦ India has recently successfully test-fired

its nuclear-capable Prithvi-II surface-to-surface missile from a military base inOdisha.

♦ The indigenously-developed ballisticmissile with a maximum range of 350 kmwas fired from the Integrated Test Rangeat Chandipur in Balasore district, about230 km from Bhubaneswar.

♦ The Strategic Forces Command (SFC) ofthe Indian Army conducted the test aspart of a regular training exercise.

♦ Prithvi is India’s first indigenously-builtballistic missile. It is one of the fivemissiles being developed under thecountry’s Integrated Guided MissileDevelopment Programme.

♦ The battlefield missile, with flightduration of 483 seconds and a peakaltitude of 43.5 km, can carry a 500-kgwarhead.

♦ The missile has features to deceive anti-ballistic missiles and uses an advancedinertial guidance system withmanoeuvring capabilities and reaches itstarget within a few metres of accuracy.

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♦ It has a higher lethal effect compared toequivalent missiles in the world.

GSLV Mark III♦ India took the first step towards the liftoff

of the experimental mission of its giganticGeo-synchronous Satellite LaunchVehicle-Mark III when the rocket’s corestage, weighing more than 110 tonnes,was flagged off from the LiquidPropulsion Systems Centre,Mahendragiri, near Nagercoil, TamilNadu, to Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh.

♦ The significance of the mission is that itwill be a forerunner to India sending itsastronauts to space. For, the GSLV-Mk IIIin this flight will carry a crew capsulewithout astronauts. The capsule willreturn to earth with the help ofparachutes. The mission will take placein June or first week of July.

♦ The Indian Space Research Organisationcalls its mission to send Indian astronautsto space the Human Space Flight (HSF)programme.

♦ GSLV-Mk III is the “muscular sibling” ofGSLV-Mk II which has an indigenouscryogenic engine. GSLV-Mk III can put acommunication satellite weighing fourtonnes into geo-synchronous transferorbit or a 10-tonne satellite into low-earthorbit.

A survey on Women Safety in Delhi♦ Due to lack of safety, around 43 per cent

of working in Delhi are willing to relocateoutside the city even at the cost of a paycut, according to a recent study.

♦ The survey conducted by the PHDChamber of Commerce and Industryincluded working women, students andjob aspirants. The survey “Women Safetyin Delhi: Issues and Challenges toEmployment” is based on the feedback

of 3,400 women in Delhi.♦ It found that working women were

inclined to work in day shifts with nearly80 per cent of the respondents opting forday shifts.

♦ About 9 per cent said they worked inflexible shift timings and nearly seven percent opted for rotational shifts. A verysmall proportion of women respondents(4 per cent) worked in night shifts.

♦ Around 64 per cent of working womensaid crimes against women had impactedtheir productivity as they now hesitatedto stay in their workplace during latehours.

♦ Many respondents felt fast track courts todeal with crimes against women and saferpublic transport were important forwomen’s safety in the national capital.

India is against sanctions♦ With its major defence and nuclear

interests tied up with Eurasia, India hasmade it clear that it will not supportsanctions sought to be imposed on Russiaby a select group of countries led by theU.S.

♦ This is in line with India’s policy ofimplementing sanctions approved onlyby the United Nations. . Though India hassupported sanctions against Fiji andeconomically blockaded Nepal twice inthe past, it has spoken of late against“unilateral” sanctions.

♦ The government’s stand emerged a dayafter Russian President Vladimir Putincalled up Prime Minister ManmohanSingh to explain the situation that led tothe annexation of Crimea. The PrimeMinister dwelt on India’s position on theunity and territorial integrity of countriesand suggested that “all concerned” strivefor a diplomatic solution.

2 3 Current Affairs



Fossil India♦ Fossil India, a subsidiary of American

luxury brand Fossil Inc, which recentlyopened its first single brand retail storeafter being cleared by the ForeignInvestment Promotion Board last year, is‘bullish on manufacturing’ in India.

♦ Among the first four companies to beallowed to set up wholly-owned ventures,after the government allowed 100 per centFDI in 2012, Fossil India plans to rampup its manufacturing facility in HimachalPradesh to produce at least five lakhwatches by the end of the year (both forexports and domestic sales).

2014 : ’Year of the sparrow’♦ The common sparrow has not remained

so common these days, with the birdattaining the fourth rank in the list of rarebirds. This is what prompted NGOWARD (Wild life Conservation and Agro-Rural Development) Foundation todeclare the current year as the ‘year of thesparrow’.

♦ On World Sparrow Day on 20th of March, the NGO pledged to take efforts toconserve and protect sparrows along withincreasing awareness about it.

‘AQUATM’♦ Residents of Mumbai can now buy water

from an ‘ATM’, that too at an affordableprice of Rs 1 per litre.

♦ In a first-of-its-kind for Mumbaikars, non-profit group Vandana Foundation hadstarted ‘AQUATM’, a water vendingmachine. It can be operated throughprepaid cards.

♦ The ATM can vend up to 1,000 litres perday.

♦ The vending machine has been set up atMankhurd where there are watercontamination problems.

India Human Development Survey♦ According to a survey conducted by the

National Council for Applied EconomicResearch, four out of ten women in Indiastill have no say in their marriage, eightout of ten need permission to visit adoctor, six out of ten practise some formof head covering, and the average Indianhousehold gives over Rs. 30,000 in dowry.

♦ The National Council for AppliedEconomic Research (NCAER) conductsthe India Human Development Survey(IHDS), the largest household survey inIndia after the government’s NationSample Survey Organisation (NSSO)surveys, and the NCAER is the onlyindependent body that conducts suchlarge-sample panel surveys.

♦ The data shows that India has madeprogress in child marriage, with 48% ofwomen over 25 reporting in 2011-12 thatthey were married before the age of 18 asopposed to 60% in 2004-5. The averagenumber of children that women (over 40)reported they had had has also comedown slightly to 3.55, indicating thatfertility is falling. The practice of marryinga cousin or relative – more common in thesouth than the north – is becoming lesscommon, but over 20% in AndhraPradesh and Karnata still marry relatives.However, women’s autonomy remainsseverely constrained. 41% of women hadno say in their marriage and just 18%knew their husbands before marriage, astatistic that has not improved. Women’ssay in marriage rose with their level ofeducation, with income and with level ofurbanisation and the southern states didbetter.

♦ The average Indian family gives over Rs.30,000 in cash as dowry and 40% admittedto giving large items like TVs and cars as

Current Affairs 2 4



dowry. The practise of giving large itemsas dowry was most common amongforward caste Hindus and lowest amongMuslims. Wedding expenses ranged fromnearly Rs 1 lakh in the poorest village toRs 1.7 lakh in small cities, a big jump overthe 2004-5 survey. Kerala and Delhi hadthe most expensive weddings.

Classified Henderson Brooks Reportrevealed

♦ For the first time, a large section of thestill classified Henderson Brooks Report,which details a comprehensiveoperational review of India’s militarydebacle in 1962, has been made public.

♦ A more than 100-page section of the firstvolume of the report, which includes anexhaustive operational review of theIndia-China war over both western andeastern sectors, has been published byAustralian journalist Neville Maxwell onhis website.

♦ The now retired Mr. Maxwell was aformer correspondent of The Times ofLondon who reported on the war fromNew Delhi. He authored in 1970 ‘India’sChina War’ — a path-breaking, yetcontroversial, account of the conflictwhich angered the Indian establishmentby drawing upon classified informationto highlight the flawed decision-makingthat led to defeat at the hands of theChinese.

♦ It underlines the deep disconnect betweenDelhi and Army commands on assessinghow China would react to the ForwardPolicy.

Bhullar’s mercy plea♦ The Supreme Court asked the Centre to

take a decision on Khalistani terroristDevinderpal Singh Bhullar’s fresh mercyplea by March 27 or else it will decide on

the issue of commuting his death sentenceto life imprisonment on the ground of hismental condition.

♦ A bench headed by Chief Justice PSathasivam adjourned the case forhearing after the Centre contended thatthe mercy plea is still under consideration.

♦ It also said that there have been recentcases where the government has not beentaking the advice of its law officersseriously and pointed out that last weekone Additional Solicitor General sent adetailed letter to Centre but it was rejectedoutright.

♦ The court was hearing a curative petitionfiled by Bhullar’s wife Navneet Kaurseeking commuting of death sentenceowing to his mental condition andbecause of delay on the part of thegovernment in deciding his earlier mercyplea.

♦ She pleaded the apex court for a relook atits verdict by which her plea to commutehis death sentence to life imprisonmentwas rejected. Earlier, the Centre hadassured the Supreme Court that deathsentence of Bhullar will not be executedtill it takes a decision on a fresh mercy pleaon medical grounds.

♦ The government had informed the courtabout the report sent by Delhi’sLieutenant Governor in which he had notfavoured execution of Bhullar’s deathsentence.

Intelligence grid to curb black money♦ The Election Commission has created a

multi-agency grid of revenue and securityintelligence agencies to regularly updateit about suspected financial movementsas part of measures to curb use of blackmoney in Lok Sabha and assembly polls.

♦ In a first-of-its-kind measure, the EC hascreated a board of senior officials drawn

2 5 Current Affairs



from ten financial and securityintelligence departments which will meettwice a week at ‘Nirvachan Sadan’, theEC headquarters here, to generatecommon leads and flag suspect moneyinstances.

♦ The agencies that have been pooled in forthe task include Income Tax intelligenceand investigations, Financial IntelligenceUnit (FIU), Directorate of RevenueIntelligence, Central EconomicIntelligence Bureau, Narcotics ControlBureau and the snoop wings of borderguarding forces of SSB and BSF and thoseof CISF and the Railway Protection Force.

♦ The EC has also asked these agencies tocompile their respective information in astandard format so that the poll panel isupdated about the use of illegal moneyand other inducements in the polls.

♦ A comprehensive report prepared afterthese meetings would be shared with therespective Chief Electoral Offices ofvarious states and Union Territories.

♦ Apart from the revenue agencies, theintelligence wings of the Border SecurityForce will keep an eye on movement ofcash, fake currency and drugs from acrossthe Pakistan and Bangladesh borderswhile the same would be done by theSashastra Seema Bal (SSB) along theNepal and Bhutan borders.

Human development indicatorsimprove in BIMARU States

♦ Human development indicators acrossthe poorer States with a highconcentration of marginalised groups arecatching up with the national average,according to the latest figures released bythe Institute of Applied ManpowerResearch (IAMR) under the PlanningCommission. The data suggest that thesesocially disadvantaged groups are

starting to share benefits of the process ofhuman development.

♦ However, when comparing the ScheduledCastes and the Scheduled Tribes withMuslims in terms of human developmentinput and outcome indicators, Muslimshave consistently improved better thanother marginalised groups.

♦ The eight poorer States — Bihar,Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, MadhyaPradesh, Odisha, Rajasthan, UttarPradesh and Uttarakhand — are home tonearly 48 per cent of all the SCs, 52 percent of all the STs and 44 per cent of allMuslims in the country.

♦ The report — an updated version of theHuman Development Report-2011:Towards Social Inclusion — ranks Delhi,Kerala, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana andPunjab among the best performing Statesin human development indicators, whileChhattisgarh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh,Jharkhand and Odisha are the worstperformers. Most other States, includingGujarat, have more or less remained thesame.

Guidelines on curbing hate speeches♦ The Supreme Court has asked the Law

Commission to look into the issue of hatespeeches being made by leaders ofpolitical, social and religious outfits andconsider framing guidelines to regulatesuch provocative statements.

♦ A bench headed by justice BS Chauhan,while refusing to frame guidelines itself,asked the commission to look into it andgive its recommendation to the Centre.

♦ The court passed the order on a PIL byNGO Pravasi Bhalai Sanghatan allegingthat there was a need for guidelines ashate speeches destroy the fabric ofdemocracy and violate the provisions ofthe Constitution.

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♦ The PIL had named Maharashtra andAndhra Pradesh as respondents, as thetwo states witnessed incidents of allegedhate speeches.

♦ It had referred to the alleged hatespeeches made by MaharashtraNavnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray andclaimed that no FIR was registered in thestate.

Third gender♦ An expert committee has recommended

that ‘transgender’ be declared the thirdgender, with the individual having theright to choose gender, and has asked thegovernment to prepare a law to preventdiscrimination and atrocities against thesepeople.

♦ Importantly, it has asked the NationalCrime Records Bureau to collect andcompile statistics of crimes againsttransgender persons and cases registeredagainst them.

♦ The committee, set up by the Ministry ofSocial Justice and Empowerment last yearand chaired by the Additional Secretaryof the Ministry, has said action must betaken against parents who neglect orabuse their gender non-conformingchildren and doctors who practise electro-shock or other kinds of unethical“conversion” therapy.

♦ Criminal and disciplinary action must betaken against delinquent police officersfor violation of human rights oftransgender persons.

♦ Its report, submitted a few weeks after theSupreme Court criminalised same genderconsensual sex, wanted laws againstsexual assault and harassment anddomestic violence made transgender-inclusive. Now Section 375 of the IPC, asamended, does not cover the transgenderpersons as victims of sexual assault.

Section 375 should be included to coversexual assault on them.

Pre-poll survey and it’s verdict♦ A pre-poll survey has projected Naredra

Modi-led BJP sweeping Gujarat,Rajasthan and Karnataka and the party-led NDA giving a big jolt to rulingCongress-NCP alliance in Maharashtra inthe Lok Sabha elections.

♦ The NDTV-Hansa Research survey, whichreleased the electoral projections of 319seats in 12 States, says AIADMK isprojected to win 27 out of 39 Lok Sabhaseats. It has predicted only 10 seats forDMK.

♦ Out of 319 seats, the survey gives NDA166, UPA 52, others 85.

♦ The survey says 42 per cent of Indiansbacked Narendra Modi as the leadingchoice for the next Prime Minister.Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhiemerged as the second choice withsupport of 27 per cent of people.

App for women’s protection launchedby BJP

♦ In poll season, the Bharatiya Janata Partyis trying to impress women with thelaunch of a safety mobile application.Named ‘Raksha’ (security), theapplication allows women to sound analarm in case of an emergency.

♦ The application is conceptualised by partyspokesperson Meenakshi Lekhi .

♦ It will create a group of trusted peoplewho can be alerted, offer a map view foreasy navigation and has a loud buzzertoo.

♦ Even if the Rakhsa application is switchedoff and isn’t running, pressing the volumekey for just three seconds alerts thespecific contacts who are chosenbeforehand.

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Holi at Meera Sahabhagini Ashram♦ About 1000 widows, shunning the

shackles of social stigma, played Holiwith colours and gulal at MeeraSahabhagini Ashram just a day beforeHoli.

♦ It was for the first time that the widowsgathered in such a large number to playHoli with gulal and water color at the 200-year-old Ashram. They poured colour oneach other in the presence of a largenumber of tourists and followers of LordKrishna in the pilgrim town of Vrindavan.

♦ Countering the age-old social evil ofwidowhood, several widows have takenshelter in this holy city. It was aremarkable sight when the widows,mostly in the 70s and 80s, stooping lowwith age, danced and splashed more than500 kg of gulal and gallons of watercolours on each other.

New PM Appointed• Narendra Modi who steered the BJP-led

NDA to a stunning victory will be swornin as Prime Minister on May 26 atRashtrapati Bhavan.

• Mr. Modi was appointed as the PrimeMinister by the President and was askedto advise the names of others to beappointed Members of the Council ofMinisters.

• Stepping out after his meeting with thePresident, he addressed the media brieflyand held-up the formal letter ofappointment as Prime Minister.

• Mr Modi’s call on the President came afterhe was unanimously elected leader of theBJP Parliamentary Party and later at acombined meeting of the BJP and its alliesconstituting the NDA as leader of thecoalition.

• Later, a Rashtrapati Bhawan communiquesaid as Mr Modi has been elected leader

of the BJP Parliamentary Party and BJPhas majority support in the House of thePeople, the President appointed him thePrime Minister of India and requestedhim to advise the names of members ofthe council of ministers.

• Today’s scene was vastly different fromthe summer of 1996 when the thenPresident Shankar Dayal Sharmaappointed Atal Bihari Vajpayee as PrimeMinister of a minority government thatfell in 13 days.

• Later, after the 1998 and 1999 elections MrVajpayee was again called to formgovern-ments only after the thenPresident K R Narayanan was satisfiedwith letters of support from partiesbacking the NDA coalition on thenumbers.

‘Super City’• In line with the principles of sustainable

development advocated in the MedellinDeclaration, Gravity 2.0 ResearchFoundation recommended that a capitalcity region be considered rather than asingle urban agglomeration for thelocation of a new capital for the State ofAndhra Pradesh post bifurcation.

• In a representation sub-mitted to theExpert Committee on identification oflocation of new capital for the State ofAndhra Pradesh, the Gravity 2.0 ResearchFoundation, suggested that the newcapital be located in the Visakhapatnam-Rajahmundry-Vijayawada ‘Super City’ensuring inclusive growth.

• They also suggested that coastal shippingbe promoted and the National Waterway4 be extended to Visakhapatnam.

Mining Ban Issue• The Meghalaya Government has

constituted a one-man Committee to

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guide the State Government prepare thecompliance report to be submitted to theNational Green Tribunal (NGT) on rat-hole mining ban in Meghalaya.

• The Committee would be headed byadditional chief secretary KS Kropha andthe report and other points would beprepared before the NGT holds its nexthearing in New Delhi on May 19.

• The Tribunal, on April 17, in its interimorder banned rat-hole mining andtransportation of coal in Meghalaya in theinterest of people working in the minesas well as for protection of theenvironment.

• The order was passed after the Assam-based All Dimasa Student’s Union andDima Hasao District Committee filed apetition stating that the illegal rat-holemining in Jaintia Hills is polluting Kopiliriver by turning its water acidic. They alsoplaced before the Tribunal two surveyreports of 2006 and 2010 in which pH levelof the water in Kopili river showedconsiderable difference.

Constitutional Validity of RTE Act• The Supreme Court has upheld the

constitutional validity of Articles 15(5)and 21-A of the Constitution in so far as itrelates to unaided educational institutionsto provide compulsory education forchildren in the age group of 6 to 14 years.

• A five-judge Constitution Benchcomprising Chief Justice R.M. Lodha andJustices A.K. Patnaik, Dipak Misra, S.J.Mukhopadhaya and Ibrahim Kalifullaalso upheld the provisions of the Right ofChildren to Free and CompulsoryEducation Act, 2009, and the Right ofChildren to Free and CompulsoryEducation Rules, 2010.

• The Constitution 93rd Amendment Act,2005, inserting clause (5) in Article 15

enables the State to make specialprovisions for members of the SCs, STsand socially and educationally backwardclasses, for admission to all educationalinstitutions, including private unaidedinstitutions, but except minorityinstitutions. The right to education lawwas enacted by Parliament in 2009 byinserting Article 21A to provide free andcompulsory education to childrenbetween 6 and 14 years.

• It imposed obligations on the schools,which included privately-managedunaided educational institutions to admitat least 25% students from weakersections. A three-judge Bench upheld theconstitutional validity of this Act by amajority of 2:1. On a reference that thematter ought to have been decided by aConstitution Bench, it was heard by a five-judge Bench.

• Writing the judgment, Justice Patnaik,however, said the minority unaidededucational institutions could not becompelled to provide free andcompulsory education to childrenbelonging to weaker sections. To thisextent the Bench overruled the threejudges’ decision upholding the RTE law.

• The Bench held that the 93rd ConstitutionAmendment inserting clause 5 in Article15 to provide for reservation to weakersections in admission to unaided privateeducational institutions did not violatethe basic structure of the Constitution.

INS Vikrant’s another lifeline• India’s first aircraft carrier INS Vikrant,

which was headed for the scrap yard, gotanother breather from the Supreme Courtas it blocked the vessel’s journey toignominy.

• The ship was due at the scrapyard on May17 after it was sold for Rs.60 crore through

2 9 Current Affairs



an e-auction to the Mumbai-based IBCommercials Pvt Ltd.

• Through the ‘Save Vikrant Committee’,Mr. Paigankar and other activists lastmonth moved the apex court in a bid tosave the vessel which saw action in the1971 India-Pakistan war.

• The imposing vessel, commissioned in theIndian Navy in 1961, wasdecommissioned in 1997 and has beenkept anchored at the Naval Dockyard inMumbai.

• During the hearing of Mr. Paigankar’spublic interest litigation in January, theCentral government informed theBombay High Court that the 15,000-tonneship had completed its operational life.

• The Maharashtra government expressedits inability to preserve it as a floatingmuseum owing to financial constraints,following which the Bombay High Courtdismissed Mr. Paigankar’s PIL.

• The 70-year-old vessel, purchased asHMS Hercules from Britain in 1957 andrechristened as ‘INS Vikrant’, helpedenforce a naval blockade of East Pakistan— now Bangladesh — during the 1971war.

Mother tongue in primary schools• The Supreme Court recently held that the

government cannot impose mothertongue on linguistic minority forimparting primary education.

• The bench, also comprising justices A.K.Patnaik, S.J. Mukhopadhaya, Dipak Misraand F.M. Ibrahim Kalifulla, was hearingthe issue which had come before the apexcourt as two Karnataka governmentorders of 1994 making mother tongue orregional language compulsory forimparting education from class I to IV, hadcome under challenge.

• In July 2013, a two-judge bench of the

apex court had said its Constitution Benchwill examine whether government canimpose mother tongue or regionallanguage as the medium of instruction atthe primary education stage as it has a far-reaching significance on the developmentof children.

• The court, which was of the opinion thatit was a fit case for consideration by alarger bench, had said that the issueinvolved in this case concerns thefundamental rights of not only the presentgeneration but also the generations yet tobe born.

• It had said that the issue had to be referredto a larger bench as a two-judge bench ofthe court in 1993 had refused to interferewith a Karnataka government orderspecifying mother tongue Kannada as themedium of instruction at the primaryschool level and making it mandatory forevery child.

Saradha Chit Fund Scam• In a setback for the West Bengal

government, the Supreme court has handed over investigation into Saradhachit fund scam to the CBI.

• The court also asked the CBI to investigateponzi scheme scams in Odisha, Assamand Tripura.

• The West Bengal government, all throughthe hearing of the matter, had stronglyresisted the plea for handing over theinvestigation to the CBI.

• The apex court asked the West Bengalgovernment to hand over all Saradha chitfund scam cases to CBI.

• It also said that the CBI will investigateall cases against 44 chit fund companiesin Odisha.

• The SC said the state police have not yetbeen able to trace the money trails thatclearly had an inter-state as well as

Current Affairs 3 0



possible international links.• The SC also asked the Enforcement

Directorate to join CBI in finding themoney trail. The ED is already conductinga probe into the scam.

• The apex court said it wanted the chitfund scam in these states to be probed byan independent agency like CBI becauseof involvement of politicians andinfluential persons in the cases.

• Saradha Group chairman Sudipta Senwas arrested from Sonmarg in Kashmiron April 23,2013 along with two closeassociates.

Togadia’s ‘hate speech’• A first information report (FIR) has been

registered against VHP leader PravinTogadia for “inciting communalpassions” after he allegedly asked localsof a society to forcibly occupy a housepurchased by a Muslim man in Hindumajority area.

• An FIR has been filed against him undersections 153(A), 153(B) and under 188 forviolating notification of the ElectionCommission.

• Section 153(A) of the IPC deals with‘intention to cause disorder, promotingenmity between religious groups andincite people to violence’, Section 153 (B)of the IPC deals with those who assert,propagate or publish that any class ofpersons by reasons of their beingmembers of any religious, racial, languageor regional group or caste or communitybe denied, or deprived of their rights ascitizens of India.

• Section 188 deals with disobedience toorder duly promulgated by the ElectionCommission by way of its notification ofelections.

• The poll panel had asked the districtadministration to take action against Mr.

Togadia over his hate speech and alsodirected it to submit action-taken reportas soon as possible.

• Mr. Togadia had allegedly asked hissupporters to get vacated the house aMuslim man had purchased in the Hindu-majority locality near Meghani Circle areaof Bhavnagar city.

Course for Safe Roads• Indian roads have proved to be giant

killers demanding immediate attentionand remedial action, the Supreme Courtobserved recently and appointed a panelto suggest measures to prevent roadaccidents and to ensure accountability.

• Justice K.S. Radhakrishnan, who retires asSupreme Court judge soon will be part ofthis panel along with S. Sundar, FormerTransport Secretary and Dr. Nishi Mittal,formerly HoD, Traffic Engineering andSafety (TES).

• A Bench of Chief Justice P. Sathasivamand Justices Ranjan Gogoi and N.V.Ramana, gave this direction acting on apublic interest writ petition (PIL) filed byrenowned orthopaedician Dr. S.Rajasekaran.

• The bench quoted figures furnished by theMinistry of Road Transport andHighways (MoRTH) in the volume “RoadAccidents in India 2010” highlighting theextent of increase of road accidents andfatal cases between 1970-2010.

• It is reported that road traffic accidents in2010 numbered 4,30,654 resulting in1,26,896 deaths and serious injuries4,66,600 that includes amputation oflimbs. One serious road accident in thecountry occurs every minute; and oneperson dies in a road traffic accident every4 minutes.

• In his judgment Justice Gogoi said: “Roadtraffic accidents have the potential of

3 1 Current Affairs



being one of the largest challenges toorderly human existence necessitatingimmediate and urgent intervention.

• The Bench asked the three-member panelto submit a report to the apex court afterreceipt of reports from Centre and Stateson the status of implementation andenforcement of various road safety laws.

Below Normal Monsoon• The Indian economy could be in for more

trouble in the coming days, with weatherexperts predicting below normal rainfallthis year during the south-west monsoonacross the country barring the north-eastand the eastern parts.

• The outlook came at the end of a two-daybrain storming session, attended by apanel of national and internationalexperts, organised under the aegis of theWorld Meteorological Organisation.

¨ • Called the South Asian Climate OutlookForum [SASCOM], the panel includedexperts from the US’s National Centersfor Environmental Prediction, UK’s MetOffice, the Japan Meteorological Agency,and the International Research Institutefor Climate and Society, apart from theWMO and the meteorological agencies ofvarious south Asian countries.

• The India Meteorological Departmenthosted the event.

• A map released along with the consensusstatement shows that there is a 45 per centpossibility of rainfall being below normalfor peninsular India and 40 per cent forcentral and north-west India.

• The experts have come to their conclusionbased on indications that there was astrong possibility of the development ofEl Nino phenomenon this year.

• The El Nino condition, which is knownto weaken the south Asian monsooncirculation and adversely impact rainfall

over the region, develops when the watersin the equatorial pacific region becomeswarmer than normal.

Stay on release of Rajiv Gandhi murderconvicts

• In a major setback to the Tamil Nadugovernment the Supreme Court hasextended the stay of an order passed onFebruary 19 directing the release of sevenlife convicts in the Rajiv Gandhiassassination case.

• On February 20, the court had directedthe Tamil Nadu government to maintainstatus quo in its decision to release thethree convicts Sriharan alies Murugan,T.Suthendra-raja alia Santhan and A.G.Perarivalan allias Arivu, whose deathsentence was commuted to life term onFebruary 18 as well as in the release offour other convicts Nalini, Robert Pious,Jayakumar and Ravi-chandran. On Fridaythe court said the interim order of stayingthe release would continue till the finaldecision was rendered by the five-judgeconstitution Bench.

• A bench of Chief Justice P. Sathasivam andJustices Ranjan Gogoi and N.V. Ramana,while extending the stay, referred to aConstitution Bench the issues raised bythe Centre on the powers of the Stategovernment to release the convicts afterthe same had been rejected by thePresident or the Governor in exercise oftheir clemency powers. The Bench gavethis verdict on the writ petition filed bythe Centre challenging the Tamil nadugovernment’s decision to release theseven convicts in the Rajiv Gandhiassassination case.

• The Bench framed seven questions to beconsidered by the Constitution Bench,including whether the State could exerciseits remission powers to release a life

Current Affairs 3 2



convict after the same had been exercisedby the President or the Governor or bythe apex court by commuting the deathsentence into life term.; what was themeaning of ‘consultation’ contemplatedin Section 432 Cr.P.C. and whether itwould mean concurrence with the Centralgovernment; whether imprisonment forlife would mean imprisonment for the restof life without remission; whether thecourt could evolve a special category ofsentence in certain cases and substitutedeath sentence into life sentence for restof life and make such an order beyondthe power of remission and which was theappropriate government, either the Stateor the Centre or there could be twoparallel government which could exercisethe power of remission.

New Interceptor Missile• India successfully test fired a new

interceptor missile capable of neutralisingany incoming long-range missile at higheraltitude.

• The interceptor, positioned at launch pad-IV of Integrated Test Range at WheelerIsland, about 100 km from Balasore,Odisha, roared into the sky at about 9.10a.m. to hit its target.

• Earlier DRDO, which is the premieragency to develop such a sophisticatedinterceptor, had successfully tested sixinterceptor missiles developed by it, bothin endo-atmosphere (within 30 kmaltitude above sea level and exo-atmosphere stage (above 30 km altitude).

• The Prithvi Air Defence interceptormissile has already demonstrated itskilling capability at an altitude of 50 kmand 80 km while the Advanced AirDefence interceptor missile has smashedthe target missile at an altitude of 15 kmto 30 km.

• Now the target is to achieve theinterception at an altitude of above 100km of a long range missile.

Akash Missile• India has successfully conducted two

rounds of trials of its indigenouslydeveloped surface-to-air Akash missile aspart of a user trial by the air force fromthe Integrated Test Range (ITR) atChandipur near Balasore in Odisha.

• The sophisticated Akash missile was testfired twice in quick succession fromlaunch complex-3 of .

• Each missile targeted a toe bodysupported by Pilot Less Target Aircraft(PTA) ‘Lakshya’.

• Akash is a medium range surface-to-airanti-aircraft defence system developed bythe Defence Research and DevelopmentOrganisation (DRDO) as part of theIntegrated Guided Missile DevelopmentProgramme.

• The missile has a strike range of 25 kmand can carry a warhead of 60 kg. It hasthe capability to target aircraft up to 30km away and is packed with a battery thatcan track and attack several targetssimultaneously.

• With the capability to neutralise aerialtargets like fighter jets, cruise missiles andair-to-surface missiles, defence expertscompare Akash to the MIM-104 Patriotsurface-to-air missile system .

Death penalty of LeT man• The Supreme Court has stayed the

execution of the death sentence ofLashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorist Mohd Arifalias Ashfaq in the attack on the Red Fortin 2000 during which three people,including two Army soldiers, were killed.

• A bench headed by Chief Justice R.M.Lodha also issued notice to the Centre on

3 3 Current Affairs



Arif’s plea seeking its direction for hisrelease on the ground that he has alreadyspent over 13 years behind bars and heshould not be hanged after such a longperiod.

• He submitted that execution of his deathsentence would amount to punishing himtwice for the crime as he has already spentover 13 years, which is nearly equivalentto life imprisonment.

1984 riots case• If it failed to find cause for cheer in India’s

ongoing general elections, the IndianNational Congress was certainly buoyedby the decision of a federal judge in NewYork to dismiss and close a lingering caseagainst the party for its alleged role in the1984 riots that claimed the lives severalthousands members of the Sikhcommunity.

• Judge Robert Sweet granted the party’smotion to dismiss the lawsuit broughtagainst it by the Sikhs for Justice (SFJ)advocacy group, which sought damagesstemming from the Congress’ allegedresponsibility for the riots that engulfedNew Delhi and other parts of the nationin violence following the assassination oferstwhile Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

• In his opinion, Judge Sweet ruled againstthe SFJ’s claim to be “legalrepresentatives” and thus plaintiffs in thiscase filed under the Alien Tort Statute(ATS) of the U.S., as this required thegroup and the individual complainants tobe “aliens”, which they were not, giventheir U.S. residential status.

• Second, the judge found in favour of theargument that the ATS did not extend tocorporate defendants such as theCongress Party and that the SFJ’s claimconstituted “an impermissibleextraterritorial application of the ATS”.

• Pending cases remain against CongressPresident Sonia Gandhi and Indian PrimeMinister Manmohan Singh.

Blast at Chennai Central RailwayStation

• Two explosions on a train killed a 24-year-old woman and wounded nine people,two of them critically, at the ChennaiCentral Railway Station .

• The blasts took place at around 7:15 amin two sleeper coaches of the Guwahati-Bangalore Express, which had just pulledinto platform 9 of the station for a 10-minute stop.

• One of the bombs exploded under the seatof a woman, Swati, who was killedinstantly. A National InvestigationAgency team is going to Chennai to jointhe investigations. There has been tightsecurity across India as it nears the endof staggered voting for the nationalelection.

• The station was cordoned off after theblasts and scores of police personnel,along with sniffer dogs, checked theplatforms and coaches.

• The state government has announcedcompensation of one lakh for the familyof the woman who died, Rs. 55,000 forthose who are critical and Rs. 5,000 for theothers who were injured.

Top 100 Global Varsities• The prestigious Indian Institute of

Technology, Guwahati has taken Indiainto the world’s top 100 universityrankings for the first time with an entryat No. 87.

• IIT Guwahati is the only Indianeducational institute in the 2014 leaguetable of ‘100 Under 50’ institutionsreleased by the Times Higher Educationmagazine.

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• The IIT shares the 87th rank on the listwith Portugal’s New University of Lisbonand Australia’s University of WesternSydney.

• The annual evaluation of the world’s top100 universities under 50 years of age hada distinct Eastern stance with SouthKorea’s Pohang University of Science andTechnology topping the list for the thirdconsecutive year.

Indian missile “Astra”• Marking an important milestone, for the

first time an Indian missile, Astra, wassuccessfully test-fired from a fighteraircraft — the Sukhoi-30 MKI — from anaval range in the Western Sector .

• The test-firing met all the missionobjectives and the air-launch wascaptured by side and forward lookinghigh-speed cameras and the separationwas exactly as per simulation, accordingto a press release from the DefenceResearch and Development Organisation(DRDO).

• Astra is India’s first Beyond Visual RangeAir-to-Air missile and has been designedand developed indigenously by theDRDO. The 60-km plus range missilepossesses high Single Shot Kill Probability(SSKP) making it highly reliable.

• Astra is an all-weather missile with activeradar terminal guidance, excellent ECCM(electronic counter-counter measures)features, smokeless propulsion andprocess improved effectiveness in multi-target scenario, making it a highlyadvanced state-of-the-art missile.

Amar Chitra Katha’s Digital Debut• People can now read comics on

personalities such as Akbar, Chanakya,Jawaharlal Nehru and JRD Tata onsmartphones and tablets, as Amar Chitra

Katha has made the digital debut.• Amar Chitra Katha has launched ACK

Comics, its official digital store app foracross platforms — Windows 8, iOS andAndroid — giving users access to over 300of its titles.

• The app has been developed by App9Digital Studio, the digital division ofNinestars Information Technologies.

• Users will also get 10 comics to downloadfor free including Chanakya, Ashoka,Akbar, Jawaharlal Nehru and BabasahebAmbedkar, Birbal, JRD Tata,Subbulakshmi, Ganesha and the specialtitle on DhyanChand.

Bhagat Singh’s name not mentioned inFIR

• Bhagat Singh’s name was not mentionedin the FIR for the murder of a Britishpolice officer here in 1928, the Lahorepolice have found, in a major boost toprove the legendary freedom fighter’sinnocence in the case 83 years after hisexecution.

• Imtiaz Rashid Qureshi, chairman of theBhagat Singh Memorial Foundation, hadfiled a petition seeking an attested copyof the First Information Report (FIR)registered against Bhagat Singh, Sukhdevand Rajguru for allegedly killing the thenSSP John P Saunders.

• Bhagat Singh was awarded the deathsentence for killing Saunders and washanged at Shadman Chowk in Lahore in1931, aged just 23.

• The High Court has referred the case tothe Chief Justice for constitution of alarger Bench to hear the case.

Interceptor Missile test• India for the first time tested a state-of-

the-art interceptor missile at supersonicspeed that sought, to engage and destroy

3 5 Current Affairs



an incoming target missile at a very highaltitude of 120-140 km over the Bay ofBengal.

• Entirely new interceptor and targetmissiles have been developed byscientists of the Defence Research andDevelopment Organisation (DRDO) forthe upcoming engagement, to beconducted in exo-atmosphere (altitudeabove 40-50 km) on April 27 or 28. Thetest was originally planned to beconducted in November, 2013 but hadbeen delayed since then.

• Describing it as a “big challenge,” theysaid the interceptor’s “kill vehicle,”equipped with a dual seeker, wouldattack the payload (warhead portion) asit descends towards its intended target.The advantage of intercepting anincoming missile at such a high altitudewas that the debris would not fall on theground and there would be no collateraldamage.

• After some more trials, India plans todeploy a two-tiered Ballistic MissileDefence (BMD) system to protectimportant cities from external threats. Inthe first phase, incoming enemy missilesof 2,000-km range are envisaged to bewaylaid and destroyed, while those withabout 5,000-km range would be tackledby the interceptors in the second phase.

• So far, six of the seven interceptor missiletests, carried out by the DRDO, have beensuccessful. While two interceptions wereconducted in exo-atmopshere (altitudesbetween 47 and 80 km) the rest were inendo-atmosphere (below 40 km altitude).

Transgenders as third gender• The Supreme Court has recognised

transgenders or eunuchs as third categoryof gender and directed Centre and Statesto grant them all facilities, including

voters ID, passport and driving licence.• The Centre and States were also directed

to take steps for bringing the communityinto the mainstream by providingadequate health care, education andemployment.

• A bench of Justices K.S. Radhakrishnanand A.K. Sikri directed the governmentto take steps for granting recognition totransgenders as a separate third categoryof gender after male and female.

• The bench also said they are the citizensof the country and have equal rights toeducation, healthcare and employmentopportunities like other people belongingto male and female gender.

• The apex court expressed concern overtransgenders being harassed anddiscriminated in the society and passed aslew of directions for their social welfare.

Scientific methods in crime detection• The Supreme Court has asked

investigating agencies to adopt scientificmethods in crime detection to save thejudicial system from low conviction rates.

• “The criminal judicial system in thiscountry is at a crossroads. Reliable,trustworthy, credible witnesses to thecrime seldom come forward to deposebefore the court and even hardenedcriminals get away from the clutches ofthe law. Even reliable witnesses for theprosecution turn hostile due tointimidation, fear and a host of otherreasons. Investigating agency has,therefore, to look for other ways andmeans to improve the quality ofinvestigation, which can only be throughthe collection of scientific evidence.”

• Writing the judgment, JusticeRadhakrishnan said there was a need tostrengthen forensic science for crimedetection. The judiciary needed to be

Current Affairs 3 6



equipped to understand and deal withsuch scientific materials.

• The Bench gave this ruling whilemodifying the death sentence awarded toDharam Deo Yadav, who murdered DianaClare Routley, a 22-year-old girl fromNew Zealand who visited Varanasi in1997. The trial court had awarded deathsentence and it was confirmed by theAllahabad High Court.

Dying declaration of Dec. 16 GangrapeVictim

• The Supreme Court has directed the DelhiPolice to place before it the dyingdeclaration of the December 16 gangrapevictim along with other trial court recordsof the case in which four convicts wereawarded death sentence.

• Besides Mukesh (27) and Pawan (20), theDelhi High Court had also upheld theconviction and death penalty of AkshayThakur (29) and Vinay Sharma (21).

• While dismissing their appeals, the HighCourt had termed the offence as“extremely fiendish” and “unparallelledin the history of criminal jurisprudence”and said the “exemplary punishment”was the need of the hour.

• The 23-year-old paramedic, on the nightof December 16, 2012, was brutallyassaulted and gangraped by six personsin a moving bus in South Delhi andthrown out of the vehicle with her malefriend. She died in a Singapore hospitalon December 29, 2012.

• The prime accused in the case Ram Singhwas found dead in Tihar Jail in March lastyear and the trial against him was abated.

• The sixth accused, a juvenile, was onAugust 31, 2013, convicted and sentencedto a maximum of three years in areformation home by the Juvenile JusticeBoard.

Cancellation of Tax Benefits to tenPolitical Parties

• The Election Commission (EC) has soughtwithdrawal of tax exemption benefits toten political parties from the CentralBoard of Direct Taxes (CBDT) on thegrounds that they failed to submit theirmandatory expenditure contributionreports on time to the poll body.

• The EC, in its latest communi-cation, hasasked the CBDT to take action against thedefaulting parties under provisions ofSection 29C (Declaration of donationreceived by the political parties) of theRepresentation of the People Act inconsonance with I-T laws

• The EC has identified the ten parties asNagrik Ekta Party, Dharamrajya Paksh,Socialist Unity Centre of India(Communist), Yuvajana Sramika RythuCongress Party, Sunder Samaj Party,Loktantrik Manavtawadi Party, RastriyaMahila Janshakti Party (RMJP) and theIndian People Green Party as thedefaulters in filing their contribution anddonation receipt reports for the financialyear 2012-13.

• The stipulated time limit for this exercisewas September 30, 2013 but all theseparties defaulted in submitting therecords to EC by an average of one-fivemonths while one party (RMJP) did itwithin the time limit but the poll bodyfound some discrepancies in their recordsand hence referred it to the CBDT.

The Curious case of ‘Transsexual’ inTN

• A woman, who was terminated from theTamil Nadu police service last year aftera medical examination report declared hera ‘transsexual,’ is set to get the job back,thanks to a Madras High Court order .

3 7 Current Affairs



• Allowing a petition challenging thetermination, the court declared thepetitioner as a female for all purposes. Shehas right to retain such sexual/genderidentity.

• Setting aside the termination order, JusticeS. Nagamuthu directed the police to issuethe consequential order within six weekspermitting her to join duty as a Grade II

Police Constable (woman) with continuityof service.

• She had the liberty to choose a differentsexual/gender identity as a third genderin future based on the medicaldeclaration, if a law was put in placerecognising female to males (FTMs) as athird gender.

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