Current Affairs from The Hindu DATE:17-04-15
S.NO. / NEWS ITEM / SYLLUBUS / ESSENCE OF THE ARTICLE1. / Nuclear energy turns saffron (Pages 1 and 10) / a) I.R / a) A $350 million Indo-Canadian nuclear agreement has emerged the hallmark achievement of PM Modis summit with his counterpart.
2. / New visa scheme for tourists from Sri Lanka (Page 12) / a) I.R / a) India has launched e-tourist Visa Scheme aimed at making visa facility easier for India-bound Sri Lankans.
3. / Sanctions politically motivated: Putin (Page 12) / a) International / a) Russian President Putin said Russias economy could return to growth in less than two years, despite Western sanctions which he said were intended to contain his country.
4. / SC forms new Constitution Bench to hear NJAC pleas (Page 10) / a) National
b) Polity / a) A day after Justice Anil Dave recused himself from the Constitution Bench set up to hear the petitions challenging the NJAC law, the Supreme Court acted promptly and reconstituted the Bench with Justice J.S. Khehar as the lead judge.
5. / Searching for Saraswati (Page 9) / a) National
b) Geography / a) One set of Saraswati enthusiasts wants to lead the river to ancient Prayag, while the other would like it to flow parallel to the Indus. Both ideas defy history and geography.
6. / Kerala unveils gender policy (Page 6) / a) National
b) Social issue / a) Revealing the framework and focus areas of Gender Equality and Womens Empowerment Policy for Kerala (2014-2020), Minister said that a Gender State Coordination Committee would soon be set up with CM as chairperson for the policys successful implementation.
7. / Trying to bridge gaps with Centre: Rajan (Page 1) / a) Economy / a) RBI Governor Rajan seemed to suggest the proposed Public Debt Management Authority could be an issue on which the govt and the RBI differed.
8. / Agni-III test-fired for a shorter range (Page 11) / a) S&T / a) Strategic Forces Command personnel successfully test-fired nuclear weapons capable-Agni-III ballistic missile for a lesser range with a lofted trajectory from the Wheeler Island.
9. / NASA probe captures first colour image of Pluto (Page 18) / a) S&T
b) Geography / a) NASAs New Horizons spacecraft has sent back its first colour image of the dwarf planet Pluto and its largest moon Charon, after more than nine years of travelling through the solar system.
S.NO. / NEWS ITEM / SYLLUBUS / BACKGROUND / IMPORTANT POINTS
1. / Nuclear energy turns saffron (Pages 1 and 10) / a) I.R / a) India – Canada relations
b) Nuclear agreement
c) Uranium deal
d) Defence and Security cooperation
e) Counterterrorism cooperation
f) National Skill Development Council (NSDC)
g) Indias Parrot Lady
h) 1970 UNESCO Convention / a) A $350-million Indo-Canadian nuclear agreement has emerged the hallmark achievement of PM Modis summit with his counterpart, not only for its potential to meet Indias energy demands but also for the new era of trust between the two nations.
b) Modi expressed confidence that the deal would help to supply reactors to India, with up to seven million pounds of uranium concentrate over five years.
c) Existing agreements between India and Canada that were given a boost through the meetings between PM Modi and his Canadian counterpart included April 2013 agreement on procurement of uranium for Indias civilian nuclear power plants, launching a new era of bilateral nuclear cooperation.
d) In civil aviation, rail and space cooperation, the two leaders came away from parleys with multiple MoUs signed between the respective Indian and Canadian organizations.For example, MoU between the Canadian Space Agency and the ISRO; 13 MoUs between Indias NSDC and Canadian colleges and institutes and etc.
e) Modi said we will deepen our cooperation to combat terrorism and extremism. We will also promote a comprehensive global strategy, and consistent policy and action against all sources of terrorism and its support. We also agree on the need to enhance our defence and security cooperation.
f) Indias Parrot Lady (the 800-year-old Indian sandstone sculpture of a woman holding a parrot) is to return home after Canadian PM handed over to Modi.The sculpture dates back to the 12th century. It was returned in accordance with the 1970 UNESCO Convention.
2. / New visa scheme for tourists from Sri Lanka (Page 12) / a) I.R / a) India – Sri Lanka relations
b) e-tourist Visa Scheme (eTV) / a) India has launched e-tourist Visa Scheme aimed at making visa facility easier for India-bound Sri Lankans.
b) The launch of the scheme follows the announcement made by thePM Modi during his visit to Colombo last month.
c) Visas to be issued under the new scheme will be for single-entry and valid for only 30 days stay from the date of arrival in India.
3. / Sanctions politically motivated: Putin (Page 12) / a) International / a) Russias economic crisis
b) Iran – P5+1 nuclear deal
c) Irans nuclear programme
d) Middle East crisis / a) Russian President Putin said Russias economy could return to growth in less than two years, despite Western sanctions which he said were intended to contain his country.
b) He said that Russia will survive an economic crisis deepened by the sanctions and low oil prices, and will always stand up to the West.
c) He defended a decision this week to lift a self-imposed ban on the delivery of advanced S-300 missile defence system to Iran following an interim deal at talks on Tehrans disputed nuclear programme.
d) However, he said that Russia would work as one with its partners at UN (signalling it will not violate sanctions still in place on Iran) and that the S-300 deliveries would be a check to violence in the Middle East.
4. / SC forms new Constitution Bench to hear NJAC pleas (Page 10) / a) National
b) Polity / a) National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) law
b) Collegium system
c) 99th Constitution Amendment Act
d) Supreme Court
e) CJI / a) A day after Justice Anil R. Dave recused himself from the Constitution Bench set up to hear the petitions challenging the NJAC law, the Supreme Court acted promptly and reconstituted the Bench with Justice J.S. Khehar as the lead judge.
b) The counsel for Supreme Court Advocates-on-Record Association submitted that the NJAC statute required the CJI and two senior-most judges of Supreme Court to be members of the six-member Commission. Justice Dave was the second senior-most judge after CJI Dattu and a member of the commission in that capacity.
5. / Searching for Saraswati (Page 9) / a) National
b) Geography / a) Saraswati river
b) Ghaghar
c) Ganga-Yamuna sangam
d) Sutlej
e) Indus Valley Civillisation
f) Rigveda / a) The recent report of a plan by the Haryana govt to recreate the Saraswati river, apparently because the present river of the name Sarsuti does not possess features expected of what is presumed to have been a great river of holyculture. At the place officially determined to be the site of origin of the stream, extensive excavation is being undertaken to locate exact spot where the river was formed.
b) While determined to celebrate the rising of Saraswati within its borders, the Haryana govt also seems mindful of where the waters of Saraswati are to be led. The natural slope here is south-westerly but the official hand will lead the waters firmly south-eastwards to make the river run to Allahabad (the ancient Prayag) in Uttar Pradesh.
c) The local legend in Prayag is that an invisible Saraswati joins the Ganga-Yamuna Sangam, exactly where the two rivers meet. It would be too optimistic to expect Haryana govt to make a tunnel all the way to Allahabad to keep the river invisible in conformity with tradition. But even making a visible Saraswati run to Allahabad over and across the Yamuna and the various Doab streams will take some doing.
d) While the practical obstacles to the Haryana govts seeming design to carry Saraswati to Prayag take ones breath away, it will surely still not satisfy those who have a different vision for Saraswati, a vision opposite to what the holy legend at Prayag dictates.
e) Experts seem to reject the connection with Prayag by assigning to Saraswati the duty rather of winning the Indus civilisation for India. For this patriotic purpose, the Saraswati must be conceived to have been one of the great rivers of the world, flowing down to the Rann of Kutch, parallel to the Indus. The Indus Valley Civilisation (whose two major cities Mohenjo Daro and Harappa unfortunately lie in Pakistan) can then be renamed the Saraswati Civilisation and claimed for India.
f) The Sangh Parivar intellectuals almost uniformly invoke verses from Rigveda, where the Saraswati is conceived of as a great river flowing from the mountains to the ocean. It seems like the poets are actually imagining Saraswati as the river-goddess rather than an actual river
g) Clearly, the present-day Saraswati in Haryana neither rises in the Himalayas nor flows down to the sea. Its connection with the Ghaghar is possibly relatively recent (14th century), and so even its link with the Hakra (the dry river of the desert through the Ghaghar bed) is hardly as certain as everyone seems to assume.
h) Therefore the suggestion has been made that the present Saraswati was once upon a time converted into a Himalayan river because for some period the Yamuna and Sutlej became its tributaries. However, the Saraswati itself would have been a tributary of the Yamuna or Sutlej rather than the other way around.
i) Moreover, the scrutiny of alluvium from excavations in the Ghaghar plain by Marie-Agnes Countys team in 1983-87 ruled out the presence, within the present Holocene times of any large river coming down from the Himalayas into the area.
j) Thus, given a choice between the older mythology of Prayag as the destination of the Saraswati and the latest one of a Saraswati rivalling the Indus, the Haryana govt has to decide between two equally formidable alternatives.
k) The Rigveda in its River Hymn puts Saraswati without any adjectives between the Yamuna and Shutudri (Sutlej). This suits the present Sarsuti. The Panchavimsha Brahmana and other early texts speak of the Saraswatis disappearance at Vinashana, which means that it did not then join the Ghaghar but ran in a more southerly direction.
l) Thus, from ancient tradition itself we have a picture of the Saraswati that mocks neither geography nor history.
6. / Kerala unveils gender policy (Page 6) / a) National
b) Social issue / a) Gender equality
b) Gender Equality and Womens Empowerment (GEWE) Policy
b) Gender State Coordination Committee (GSCC) / a) Revealing the framework and focus areas of the GEWE Policy for Kerala (2014-2020), State Minister for Social Justice said that a GSCC would soon be set up with the CM as the chairperson for the policys successful implementation.
b) The GEWE policy adopts gender mainstreaming as the key approach to achieving gender equality and recognises that men (along with women) need to be fully involved in the process of social transformation and change. While the primary focus will continue to be on womens empowerment and rights, new policy recognises that there are emerging male gender issues that must also receive consideration to achieve gender equality.
c) Some of the specific focus areas of the policy will be strengthened economic empowerment of women through livelihood opportunities and capacity development; improved justice and reduced gender-based violence; gender-responsive infrastructure creation and strengthened protection of women in difficult circumstances.
7. / Trying to bridge gaps with Centre: Rajan (Page 1) / a) Economy / a) Public Debt Management Authority (PDMA)
b) RBI / a) RBI Governor Rajan said there were some issues over which the Modi govt and the central bank were trying to convince one another but on many others the two sides are on the same page.
b) He seemed to suggest the proposed PDMA could be an issue on which they differed. The PDMA is supposed to take over from the RBI the task of managing Centres borrowings.
8. / Agni-III test-fired for a shorter range (Page 11) / a) S&T / a) Agni-III
b) Strategic Forces Command (SFC)
c) DRDO
d) Wheeler Island / a) SFC personnel successfully test-fired nuclear weapons capable-Agni-III ballistic missile for a lesser range with a lofted trajectory from Wheeler Island, off the Odisha coast.
b) The two-stage, solid propelled, surface-to-surface missile has a strike range of plus 3000 km but was tested for about 1500 km by the SFC personnel.The mission was carried out as part of regular user training with logistics support provided by missile technologists of DRDO.
9. / NASA probe captures first colour image of Pluto (Page 18) / a) S&T
b) Geography / a) New Horizons spacecraft
b) Pluto
c) Charon / a) NASAs New Horizons spacecraft has sent back its first colour image of the dwarf planet Pluto and its largest moon Charon, after more than nine years of travelling through the solar system.
b) It shows that Charon is dimmer than Pluto. The contrast may be due to a difference in composition of the two bodies, or it could even be caused by a previously unseen atmosphere on Charon.
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