General Awareness : National Events - April, 2014

(General Awareness For Bank's Exams) National Events

April - 2014

Voting through internet ?

Non-resident Indians may be able to cast their votes through Internet from overseas as the Election Commission recently told the Supreme Court that it is exploring such a possibility.
The Commission, however, told a bench headed by Justice K S Radhakrishnan that it is almost impossible to make any such arrangement for NRI to cast their votes from overseas in the ongoing general election as electoral rolls have been concluded in almost all the constituencies.

BrahMos missile test fired

The Army successfully test-fired an advanced version of 290 km range supersonic cruise missile BrahMos as part of a user trial at Pokhran test range in Rajasthan.
The missile was launched by a mobile autonomous launcher deployed in full configuration with mobile command post at the ranges.
The launch was successful and the missile hit the designated target.
Both the Army and Navy have already inducted the missile, developed by India in partnership with Russia.

Candidates with criminal past

The Congress has fielded the highest number of VidhanSabha candidates with criminal records among all parties, according to an analysis of contestants' affidavits from 70 assembly segments going to polls on April 10 in Odisha.
Forty-four Congress nominees, around 63% of its 70 candidates, have criminal history compared to overall 22% of the total candidates with tainted past, the Odisha Election Watch (OEW) and Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) analysis released said.
As many as 31 Congress nominees have serious criminal charges such as rape, murder and kidnapping. SubalSahu, who is seeking re-election from Bijepur, has been charged for rape.
Among other parties, 17 (24%) of 70 BJD candidates, 26 (37%) of 70 from BJP and four (9%) out of 43 candidates from AAP have declared criminal cases in their affidavits.
Of them, 13 (19%) BJD candidates, 23 (33%) from BJP and three (7%) AAP nominees have mentioned serious criminal cases, which can attract punishment of at least five years jail.
Altogether 147 of the 673 candidates have criminal cases pending against them. They include 115 candidates with serious criminal charges.

'Know your candidates' tool

Google recently announced the launch of a new tool as part of its elections portal offering 'google.co.in/elections', called 'Know Your Candidates'.
The new tool will allow citizens to get easy access to relevant information about political candidates contesting from their constituency and their incumbent Member of Parliament. This tool integrates publicly available information sourced from Indian organizations such as the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), PRS Legislative Research and Liberty Institute India.
The tool will provide information for each sitting LokSabha MP and contesting candidates such as their disclosed educational background, financial details and social media presence (wherever available) including video bios of the candidates provided by Ping networks. Mapped onto Google Maps interface, citizens will be able to find the information by using pin codes of their area or by zooming on their locality on the map. The tool will be updated regularly to provide information about all candidates as they get finalised and will be made available at least a week before the voting day in each constituency.
Google created its first elections tools seven years ago when our engineers noticed a huge increase in search traffic around the election period in the United States.
Today over 20 countries including Malaysia, Thailand, and now, India have elections pages that aid voters during election periods. Google aims to encourage people to be more participative and engage with candidates. It also allows voters to have a deeper understanding of politics and governance through engagement with the candidates.

Jats in the OBC category

Observing that the Centre had sufficient prima facie materials, the Supreme Court has refrained from staying the government’s poll-eve decision to include Jats in the Other Backward Classes (OBC) category in nine states.
The decision by the UPA-II government was seen as an attempt to appease the community, which has strong social and political clout in western Uttar Pradesh and its bordering areas of Uttarakhand, Delhi, Haryana and Rajasthan besides also being present in Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh.
A Bench led by Chief Justice P Sathasivam however asked the government to place on record a comprehensive affidavit detailing the reasons to add Jats in the list. The court also said that any decision on providing reservation benefits shall be subjected to its final order on a batch of petitions, some of which favour the inclusion 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 Defence Minister, seeking his immediate intervention to stop the sale of India’s first aircraft carrier. The majestic-class aircraft carrier, purchased from Britain in 1957, played a key role in enforcing the naval blockade of East Pakistan during the India-Pakistan War of 1971.
INS Vikrant is a symbol of our country’s valour and courage. It was Vikrant that fought many battles on the high seas, notably the 1971 war.
The auctioning of Vikrant is a matter of national shame.

Plea to reconstitute SIT on Gujarat riots

The Supreme Court has refused to entertain a plea questioning the clean chit given to NarendraModi by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) in its probe in connection with the 2002 Gujarat riots.
A bench comprising justices H.L. Dattu and S.A. Bobde also declined the plea for reconstituting the SIT involving retired judges of the apex court, including a person from the minority community.
“Reconstitution of SIT at this stage is not good,” the bench said, referring the plea questioning the SIT clean chit given to Mr. Modi.
After the bench’s remark, advocate Fatima, who had filed the petition, decided to withdraw it, which was allowed.

Interceptor missile test

India for the first time tested a state-of-the-art interceptor missile at supersonic speed that sought, to engage and destroy an incoming target missile at a very high altitude of 120-140 km over the Bay of Bengal.
Entirely new interceptor and target missiles have been developed by scientists of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) for the upcoming engagement, to be conducted in exo-atmosphere (altitude above 40-50 km) on April 27 or 28. The test was originally planned to be conducted in November, 2013 but had been delayed since then.
Describing it as a “big challenge,” they said the interceptor’s “kill vehicle,” equipped with a dual seeker, would attack the payload (warhead portion) as it descends towards its intended target. The advantage of intercepting an incoming missile at such a high altitude was that the debris would not fall on the ground and there would be no collateral damage.
After some more trials, India plans to deploy a two-tiered Ballistic Missile Defence (BMD) system to protect important cities from external threats. In the first phase, incoming enemy missiles of 2,000-km range are envisaged to be waylaid and destroyed, while those with about 5,000-km range would be tackled by the interceptors in the second phase.
So far, six of the seven interceptor missile tests, carried out by the DRDO, have been successful. While two interceptions were conducted in exo-atmopshere (altitudes between 47 and 80 km) the rest were in endo-atmosphere (below 40 km altitude).

Transgenders as third gender

The Supreme Court has recognisedtransgenders or eunuchs as third category of gender and directed Centre and States to grant them all facilities, including voters ID, passport and driving licence.
The Centre and States were also directed to take steps for bringing the community into the mainstream by providing adequate health care, education and employment.
A bench of Justices K.S. Radhakrishnan and A.K. Sikri directed the government to take steps for granting recognition to transgenders as a separate third category of gender after male and female.
The bench also said they are the citizens of the country and have equal rights to education, healthcare and employment opportunities like other people belonging to male and female gender.
The apex court expressed concern over transgenders being harassed and discriminated in the society and passed a slew of directions for their social welfare.

Scientific methods in crime detection

The Supreme Court has asked investigating agencies to adopt scientific methods in crime detection to save the judicial system from low conviction rates.
“The criminal judicial system in this country is at a crossroads. Reliable, trustworthy, credible witnesses to the crime seldom come forward to depose before the court and even hardened criminals get away from the clutches of the law. Even reliable witnesses for the prosecution turn hostile due to intimidation, fear and a host of other reasons. Investigating agency has, therefore, to look for other ways and means to improve the quality of investigation, which can only be through the collection of scientific evidence.”
Writing the judgment, Justice Radhakrishnan said there was a need to strengthen forensic science for crime detection. The judiciary needed to be equipped to understand and deal with such scientific materials.
The Bench gave this ruling while modifying the death sentence awarded to DharamDeoYadav, who murdered Diana Clare Routley, a 22-year-old girl from New Zealand who visited Varanasi in 1997. The trial court had awarded death sentence and it was confirmed by the Allahabad High Court.

Dying declaration of Nirbhaya

The Supreme Court has directed the Delhi Police to place before it the dying declaration of the December 16 gangrape victim along with other trial court records of the case in which four convicts were awarded death sentence.
Besides Mukesh (27) and Pawan (20), the Delhi High Court had also upheld the conviction and death penalty of Akshay Thakur (29) and Vinay Sharma (21).
While dismissing their appeals, the High Court had termed the offence as “extremely fiendish” and “unparallelled in the history of criminal jurisprudence” and said the “exemplary punishment” was the need of the hour.
The 23-year-old paramedic, on the night of December 16, 2012, was brutally assaulted and gangraped by six persons in a moving bus in South Delhi and thrown out of the vehicle with her male friend. She died in a Singapore hospital on December 29, 2012.
The prime accused in the case Ram Singh was found dead in Tihar Jail in March last year and the trial against him was abated.
The sixth accused, a juvenile, was on August 31, 2013, convicted and sentenced to a maximum of three years in a reformation home by the Juvenile Justice Board.

Cancellation of tax benefits

The Election Commission (EC) has sought withdrawal of tax exemption benefits to ten political parties from the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) on the grounds that they failed to submit their mandatory expenditure contribution reports on time to the poll body.
The EC, in its latest communication, has asked the CBDT to take action against the defaulting parties under provisions of Section 29C (Declaration of donation received by the political parties) of the Representation of the People Act in consonance with I-T laws
The EC has identified the ten parties as NagrikEkta Party, DharamrajyaPaksh, Socialist Unity Centre of India (Communist), YuvajanaSramikaRythu Congress Party, Sunder Samaj Party, LoktantrikManavtawadi Party, RastriyaMahilaJanshakti Party (RMJP) and the Indian People Green Party as the defaulters in filing their contribution and donation receipt reports for the financial year 2012-13.
The stipulated time limit for this exercise was September 30, 2013 but all these parties defaulted in submitting the records to EC by an average of one-five months while one party (RMJP) did it within the time limit but the poll body found some discrepancies in their records and hence referred it to the CBDT.

The curious case of ‘ Transsexual’

A woman, who was terminated from the Tamil Nadu police service last year after a medical examination report declared her a ‘transsexual,’ is set to get the job back, thanks to a Madras High Court order .
Allowing a petition challenging the termination, the court declared the petitioner as a female for all purposes. She has right to retain such sexual/gender identity.
Setting aside the termination order, Justice S. Nagamuthu directed the police to issue the consequential order within six weeks permitting her to join duty as a Grade II Police Constable (woman) with continuity of service.
She had the liberty to choose a different sexual/gender identity as a third gender in future based on the medical declaration, if a law was put in place recognising female to males (FTMs) as a third gender.

Togadia’s ‘hate speech’

•A first information report (FIR) has been registered against VHP leader PravinTogadia for “inciting communal passions” after he allegedly asked locals of a society to forcibly occupy a house of the Election Commission.
Section 153(purchased by a Muslim man in Hindu majority area.
An FIR has been filed against him under sections 153(A), 153(B) and under 188 for violating notification A) of the IPC deals with ‘intention to cause disorder, promoting enmity between religious groups and incite people to violence’, Section 153 (B) of the IPC deals with those who assert, propagate or publish that any class of persons by reasons of their being members of any religious, racial, language or regional group or caste or community be denied, or deprived of their rights as citizens of India.
Section 188 deals with disobedience to order duly promulgated by the Election Commission by way of its notification of elections.
The poll panel had asked the district administration to take action against Mr. Togadia over his hate speech and also directed it to submit action-taken report as soon as possible.
Mr. Togadia had allegedly asked his supporters to get vacated the house a Muslim man had purchased in the Hindu-majority locality near Meghani Circle area of Bhavnagar city.

Course for safe roads

Indian roads have proved to be giant killers demanding immediate attention and remedial action, the Supreme Court observed recently and appointed a panel to suggest measures to prevent road accidents and to ensure accountability.
Justice K.S. Radhakrishnan, who retires as Supreme Court judge soon will be part of this panel along with S. Sundar, Former Transport Secretary and Dr. Nishi Mittal, formerly HoD, Traffic Engineering and Safety (TES).
A Bench of Chief Justice P. Sathasivam and Justices RanjanGogoi and N.V. Ramana, gave this direction acting on a public interest writ petition (PIL) filed by renowned orthopaedician Dr. S. Rajasekaran.
The bench quoted figures furnished by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) in the volume “Road Accidents in India 2010” highlighting the extent of increase of road accidents and fatal cases between 1970-2010.
It is reported that road traffic accidents in 2010 numbered 4,30,654 resulting in 1,26,896 deaths and serious injuries 4,66,600 that includes amputation of limbs. One serious road accident in the country occurs every minute; and one person dies in a road traffic accident every 4 minutes.
In his judgment Justice Gogoi said: “Road traffic accidents have the potential of being one of the largest challenges to orderly human existence necessitating immediate and urgent intervention.
The Bench asked the three-member panel to submit a report to the apex court after receipt of reports from Centre and States on the status of implementation and enforcement of various road safety laws.
Below normal monsoon
The Indian economy could be in for more trouble in the coming days, with weather experts predicting below normal rainfall this year during the south-west monsoon across the country barring the north-east and the eastern parts.
The outlook came at the end of a two-day brain storming session, attended by a panel of national and international experts, organised under the aegis of the World Meteorological Organisation.
Called the South Asian Climate Outlook Forum [SASCOM], the panel included experts from the US’s National Centers for Environmental Prediction, UK’s Met Office, the Japan Meteorological Agency, and the International Research Institute for Climate and Society, apart from the WMO and the meteorological agencies of various south Asian countries.
The India Meteorological Department hosted the event.
A map released along with the consensus statement shows that there is a 45 per cent possibility of rainfall being below normal for peninsular India and 40 per cent for central and north-west India.
The experts have come to their conclusion based on indications that there was a strong possibility of the development of El Nino phenomenon this year.
The El Nino condition, which is known to weaken the south Asian monsoon circulation and adversely impact rainfall over the region, develops when the waters in the equatorial pacific region becomes warmer than normal.

Stay on release of Rajiv Gandhi murder convicts

In a major setback to the Tamil Nadu government the Supreme Court has extended the stay of an order passed on February 19 directing the release of seven life convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case.
On February 20, the court had directed the Tamil Nadu government to maintain status quo in its decision to release the three convictsSriharanaliesMurugan, T.Suthendraraja alia Santhan and A.G. PerarivalanalliasArivu, whose death sentence was commuted to life term on February 18as well as in the release of four other convicts Nalini, Robert Pious, Jayakumar and Ravichandran. On Friday the court said the interim order of staying the release would continue till the final decision was rendered by the five-judge constitution Bench.
A bench of Chief Justice P. Sathasivam and Justices RanjanGogoi and N.V. Ramana, while extending the stay, referred to a Constitution Bench the issues raised by the Centre on the powers of the State government to release the convicts after the same had been rejected by the President or the Governor in exercise of their clemency powers. The Bench gave this verdict on the writ petition filed by the Centre challenging the Tamil nadu government's decision to release the seven convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case.
The Bench framed seven questions to be considered by the Constitution Bench, including whether the State could exercise its remission powers to release a life convict after the same had been exercised by the President or the Governor or by the apex court by commuting the death sentence into life term.; what was the meaning of `consultation’ contemplated in Section 432 Cr.P.C. and whether it would mean concurrence with the Central government; whether imprisonment for life would mean imprisonment for the rest of life without remission; whether the court could evolve a special category of sentence in certain cases and substitute death sentence into life sentence for rest of life and make such an order beyond the power of remission and which was the appropriate government, either the State or the Centre or there could be two parallel government which could exercise the power of remission.

New interceptor missile

India successfully test fired a new interceptor missile capable of neutralising any incoming long-range missile at higher altitude.
The interceptor, positioned at launch pad-IV of Integrated Test Range at Wheeler Island, about 100 km from Balasore, Odisha, roared into the sky at about 9.10 a.m. to hit its target.
Earlier DRDO, which is the premier agency to develop such a sophisticated interceptor, had successfully tested six interceptor missiles developed by it, both in endo-atmosphere (within 30 km altitude above sea level and exo-atmosphere stage (above 30 km altitude).
The Prithvi Air Defence interceptor missile has already demonstrated its killing capability at an altitude of 50 km and 80 km while the Advanced Air Defence interceptor missile has smashed the target missile at an altitude of 15 km to 30 km.
Now the target is to achieve the interception at an altitude of above 100 km of a long range missile.

Akash missile

India has successfully conducted two rounds of trials of its indigenously developed surface-to-air Akash missile as part of a user trial by the air force from the Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Chandipur near Balasore in Odisha.
The sophisticated Akash missile was test fired twice in quick succession from launch complex-3 of . Each missile targeted a toe body supported by Pilot Less Target Aircraft (PTA) ‘Lakshya’.
Akash is a medium range surface-to-air anti-aircraft defence system developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) as part of the Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme.
The missile has a strike range of 25 km and can carry a warhead of 60 kg. It has the capability to target aircraft up to 30 km away and is packed with a battery that can track and attack several targets simultaneously.With the capability to neutralise aerial targets like fighter jets, cruise missiles and air-to-surface missiles, defence experts compare Akash to the MIM-104 Patriot surface-to-air missile system Death penalty of LeT man
The Supreme Court has stayed the execution of the death sentence of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorist Mohd Arif alias Ashfaq in the attack on the Red Fort in 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 Arif's plea seeking its direction for his release on the ground that he has already spent over 13 years behind bars and he should not be hanged after such a long period.
He submitted that execution of his death sentence would amount to punishing him twice for the crime as he has already spent over 13 years, which is nearly equivalent to life imprisonment.

1984 riots case

If it failed to find cause for cheer in India’s ongoing general elections, the Indian National Congress was certainly buoyed by the decision of a federal judge in New York to dismiss and close a lingering case against the party for its alleged role in the 1984 riots that claimed the lives several thousands members of the Sikh community.
Judge Robert Sweet granted the party’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit brought against it by the Sikhs for Justice (SFJ) advocacy group, which sought damages stemming from the Congress’ alleged responsibility for the riots that engulfed New Delhi and other parts of the nation in violence following the assassination of erstwhile Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
In his opinion, Judge Sweet ruled against the SFJ’s claim to be “legal representatives” and thus plaintiffs in this case filed under the Alien Tort Statute (ATS) of the U.S., as this required the group and the individual complainants to be “aliens”, which they were not, given their U.S. residential status.
Second, the judge found in favour of the argument that the ATS did not extend to corporate defendants such as the Congress Party and that the SFJ’s claim constituted “an impermissible extraterritorial application of the ATS”.
Pending cases remain against Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Blast at Chennai Central Railway Station

Two explosions on a train killed a 24-year-old woman and wounded nine people, two of them critically, at the Chennai Central Railway Station .
The blasts took place at around 7:15 am in two sleeper coaches of the Guwahati-Bangalore Express, which had just pulled into platform 9 of the station for a 10-minute stop.
One of the bombs exploded under the seat of a woman, Swati, who was killed instantly. A National Investigation Agency team is going to Chennai to join the investigations. There has been tight security across India as it nears the end of staggered voting for the national election.
The station was cordoned off after the blasts and scores of police personnel, along with sniffer dogs, checked the platforms and coaches.
The state government has announced compensation of one lakh for the family of the woman who died, Rs. 55,000 for those who are critical and Rs. 5,000 for the others who were injured.

Top 100 Global Varsities

The prestigious Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati has taken India into the world's top 100 university rankings for the first time with an entry at No. 87.
IIT Guwahati is the only Indian educational institute in the 2014 league table of '100 Under 50' institutions released by the Times Higher Education magazine.
The IIT shares the 87th rank on the list with Portugal's New University of Lisbon and Australia's University of Western Sydney.
The annual evaluation of the world's top 100 universities under 50 years of age had a distinct Eastern stance with South Korea's Pohang University of Science and Technology topping the list for the third consecutive year.

Indian missile Astra

Marking an important milestone, for the first time an Indian missile, Astra, was successfully test-fired from a fighter aircraft — the Sukhoi-30 MKI — from a naval range in the Western Sector .
The test-firing met all the mission objectives and the air-launch was captured by side and forward looking high-speed cameras and the separation was exactly as per simulation, according to a press release from the

Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).

Astra is India's first Beyond Visual Range Air-to-Air missile and has been designed and developed indigenously by the DRDO. The 60-km plus range missile possesses high Single Shot Kill Probability (SSKP) making it highly reliable.
Astra is an all-weather missile with active radar terminal guidance, excellent ECCM (electronic counter-counter measures) features, smokeless propulsion and process improved effectiveness in multi-target scenario, making it a highly advanced 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 on smartphones and tablets, as Amar Chitra Katha has made the digital debut.
Amar Chitra Katha has launched ACK Comics, its official digital store app for across platforms — Windows 8, iOS and Android — giving users access to over 300 of its titles.
The app has been developed by App9 Digital Studio, the digital division of Ninestars Information Technologies.
Users will also get 10 comics to download for free including Chanakya, Ashoka, Akbar, Jawaharlal Nehru and Babasaheb Ambedkar, Birbal, JRD Tata, Subbulakshmi, Ganesha and the special title on DhyanChand.

Bhagat Singh’s name not mentioned in FIR

Bhagat Singh’s name was not mentioned in the FIR for the murder of a British police officer here in 1928, the Lahore police have found, in a major boost to prove the legendary freedom fighter’s innocence in the case 83 years after his execution.
Imtiaz Rashid Qureshi, chairman of the Bhagat Singh Memorial Foundation, had filed a petition seeking an attested copy of the First Information Report (FIR) registered against Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru for allegedly killing the then SSP John P Saunders.
Bhagat Singh was awarded the death sentence for killing Saunders and was hanged at Shadman Chowk in Lahore in 1931, aged just 23.
The High Court has referred the case to the Chief Justice for constitution of a larger Bench to hear the case.