Current Affairs For Bank, IBPS Exams - 03 April, 2014

Current Affairs For Bank, IBPS Exams

To boost domestic silk production, Assocham has urged the government to extend anti-dumping duty on raw silk imports from China, which have grown by 7 per cent during the last 12 years, till December 2015.
The Government had imposed antidumping duty on imports of Mulberry Raw Silk of 2A grade and below from China in January 2003, which remained in force until January 2008 and was subsequently extended till January 2014 after a sunset review.
Silk import restrictions have two facets; one is concern of sericulture farmers opposing cheap Chinese raw silk imports threatening their livelihood, while the other issue is of the weaving community which requires raw silk to meet the rising demand.
India’s silk industry provides jobs to over 7.6 million people across 51,000 villages operating over 3.28 lakh handlooms and over 45,800 powerlooms with over 8.14 lakh weavers, an Assocham study found.
China is biggest exporter of raw silk to India accounting for almost 99 per cent of exported raw silk worth $ 224.5 million as of 2012-13. Raw silk imports from China grew at a compounded annual growth rate of 7 over per cent during 2000-01 and 2012-13.

Riding on their superb unbeaten run in the World Twenty20 Championships so far, the Indian cricket team toppled Sri Lanka to clinch the top spot in the ICC rankings .
India have moved ahead of Sri Lanka into the number-one position on the Reliance ICC T20I Team Rankings Table
India gained seven ratings points after remaining unbeaten in their group engagements in Bangladesh to finish on 130, bringing them on par with Sri Lanka. But when ratings were calculated beyond the decimal point, Mahendra Singh Dhoni's side found itself ranked higher. With both India and Sri Lanka through to the semi-finals, both have a chance to either retain or reclaim the number-one position.

Wind energy generators in the State have mooted a project that will give real time data on wind energy generation and also forecast the energy generation expected from the wind turbines in the State.
Tamil Nadu has about 7,300 MW of installed wind energy capacity. Of this, nearly 90 MW was added during the last 12 months. The total capacity consists of 11,900 wind turbines and 110 pooling stations.
The wind energy generators have proposed to the Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation that equipment can be installed at the generating points and it can be integrated with meteorological data, says one of the wind mill owners here. The technology is available in the European countries and the system will bring down wastage of wind energy.
Consumption of wind energy in 2013-14 was just about 9,000 million units as against over 11,000 million units in the previous year. Nearly 4,000 million units were wasted and the wind energy generators have suffered a loss. About 130 MW of installed wind energy capacity was added in the State in 2012-13 and nearly 90 MW in 2013-14.

The Supreme Court agreed to consider the plea for an open court hearing on curative petitions filed by gay rights activists against its verdict criminalising homosexuality.
A bench headed by Chief Justice P Sathasivam, before whom the matter was mentioned by senior lawyers appearing for different parties, said that it will go through the documents and consider their plea.
Curative petition is the last judicial resort available for redressal of grievances in court and it is normally considered by judges in-chamber without granting opportunity to parties to argue the case.
The petitioners, including NGO Naz Foundation which has been spearheading the legal battle on behalf of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) community, contended that there was an error in the judgement delivered on December 11 last year as it was based on old law.
The apex court had earlier dismissed a batch of review petitions filed by the Centre and gay rights activists including noted filmmaker Shyam Benegal against its December 2013 verdict declaring gay sex an offence punishable up to life imprisonment.