CURRENT AFFAIRS –APRIL 2015

NATIONAL

RSBY to be implemented by Health Ministry

• Starting April 1, the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY) of the Labour and Employment Ministry will now be implemented by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
• The RSBY, the health insurance scheme for BPL (below poverty line) families provides for IT-enabled and smart-card-based cashless health insurance, including maternity benefit cover up to Rs. 30,000 per annum on a family floater basis.
• Ministry of Labour said in a statement that the scheme had benefited 3,85,15,411 families up to March 31, 2014 and as many as 10,311 hospitals are rendering services to the insured persons which include 6,093 private hospitals and 4,218 Government hospitals.
•  In India, of the estimated workforce of 47 crore, only eight crore are organised workers and thirty nine crore are workers in the unorganised sector.
•  RSBY provides for IT-enabled and smart-card-based cashless health insurance.

Maharashtra govt to build 56 lakh toilets

•  Maharashtra Government has decided to construct 56 lakh toilets in the state by 2019 under the cleanliness campaign of 
  central government.
• When the project is completed, all families in the state will have a toilet in their home, Water Supply Minister Babanrao Lonikar told reporters at Vidhan Bhawan.
• The central and state governments’ provision for building personal toilets has been increased to Rs 12,000 from Rs 4,000 earlier, the BJP leader from Marathwada said.
• He said “cleanliness ambassadors” would be appointed at village-level to ensure rural sanitation and half of them will be women.
• The Minister said sanitation parks will be set up at tehsil level, which will enable gram panchayats to check various models of toilets and select any of them for building in their village.

Janata Parivar merger: Name and symbol of new party on Sunday

• The name and symbol of a new party that will be formed through the merger of six Janata Parivar entities will be announced at a meeting of its leaders slated at Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh’s residence.
•  The SP leader will be the new party’s chairman and its name will contain the word Samajwadi — either Samajwadi Janata Dal or Samajwadi Janata Party.

Party’s symbol

• Its symbol will either be the SP emblem, the cycle, or the wheel that the erstwhile Janata Dal had frozen in 1999 when it split into the Sharad Yadav-led Janata Dal (United) and the H.D. Deve Gowda-led Janata Dal (Secular). Both parties were allotted separate symbols.
•  The SP held a meeting of all its units in Lucknow and passed a resolution agreeing to the merger. A similar resolution will be passed in Patna by the Rashtriya Janata Dal under the leadership of Lalu Prasad, while the JD(U) is likely to go through the same procedure on April 8.
•  The Indian National Lok Dal, the JD(S) and the Samajwadi Janata Party will also pass internal resolutions agreeing to dissolving their separate identities and forming one party: these resolutions are required by the Election Commission before it registers the new party.
•  Mr. Mulayam Singh is likely to be the leader of the new parliamentary party in the Lok Sabha, while Mr. Yadav could be named its leader in the Rajya Sabha. The new formation will have 15 MPs in the Lower House and 30 in the Upper House.
•  Mr. Kumar, Mr. Yadav and Mr. Tyagi (JD-U) and Mr. Prasad and Prem Chand Gupta (RJD) had also met at the residence of the SP chief, who had been authorised by all these parties to work out the modalities of the merger.
•  The first impact of the new party will be felt when it launches a united agitation against the Land Acquisition Bill, and then when Parliament meets on April 20 for the second half of the Budget Session. Its first challenge, of course, will be the Bihar Assembly elections later this year.

BJP's next mission: End manual scavenging

• The Bharatiya Janata Party, in a bid to increase its reach and hold, proposes to take up four nation-wide non-political programmes, including an end to manual scavenging.
• An announcement in this regard was made at the inaugural session of the party’s two-day national executive that began in Bengaluru.
• Briefing the media later, Union Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Prakash Javadekar said party workers would be roped in as volunteers for these programmes.
• The party would work out a programme to involve its workers in relocating 23 lakh persons who currently do manual scavenging work, he said.
• Party workers would also be involved in creating awareness about the Central scheme for the girl child - Beti bachao, beti padhao - to prevent female foeticide.
• The other two non-political programmes are the Clean India campaign or Swachch Bharat and the cleaning of the Ganga, he said.

Army to take Swachh to Everest

• The Army is taking the Swachh Bharat campaign to the Everest with a mountaineering team planning to clean up and bring down tonnes of garbage dumped there by mountaineers over the decades.
• The campaign is part of the golden jubilee of the scaling of the world’s highest peak by an Indian team for the first time.
• Fifty years ago, an Indian team led by Captain (the then Lieutenant Commander) M.S. Kohli scaled the Mount Everest (Sagarmatha) for the first time. Major A.S. Cheema was the first Indian to scale the peak, Army officers said.
• “The Army team will contribute towards restoring the ecological balance of the route by bringing down some of the non-biodegradable waste left behind by generations of climbers,” an Army officer said . The Army mountaineers aim toconvey the message of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of a clean environment, the officer added.
• The team aims to bring down at least 4,000 kg of non-biodegradable waste from the high-altitude camps
• The 30-member team is being led by Major R.S. Jamwal, an experienced mountaineer. Army Chief General Dalbir Singh flagged off the team. They will depart for Kathmandu on April 4 and begin scaling the peak mid-May. The team has been undergoing special endurance and mountaineering training for the mission.

Prasar Bharati honours Mrinal Sen

• The Prasar Bharati handed over a copy of the documentary Celebrating Mrinal Sen to the nonagenarian auteur at his south Kolkata residence as part of paying tribute to the “living legends of our country.”
• Jawhar Sircar, Chief Executive Officer of Prasar Bharati, handed over the DVD, a release by the Press Information Bureau said.
• The archival documentary is primarily based on conversations between Mr. Sen and film critic Sameek Bandyopadhyay, interspersed with excerpts from his memorable films and comments from actors and crew members of his film.

India hails Iran nuclear agreement

•  India hailed the agreement reached between Iran and the P5+1 group — U.S., U.K., France, Russia, China and Germany — on Tehran’s nuclear programme, calling it a “significant step” towards a comprehensive settlement.
• A statement issued by the Ministry of External Affairs, after the agreement was announced in the Swiss town of Lausanne said: “The announcement underlines the success of diplomacy and dialogue, which India has always supported.”
• After several delays and an extended deadline, the Foreign Ministers of all the countries involved in what are called the E3+3 (Europe 3+3 or P5+1 of the Security Council and Germany) group and Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif announced that they had a “framework agreement” to take forward their twin objectives of reducing Iran’s nuclear capabilities for civilian use only, while lifting financial sanctions imposed by the U.N., the European Union and the United States.
• According to the draft agreement released by U.S. officials, Iran will reduce the number of installed centrifuges by two-thirds, bring uranium stocks down from 10,000 kg to 300 kg LEU (low-enriched uranium) and turn its nuclear facility in Fordow into an R&D facility for 15 years. All the excess stockpile and nuclear parts will be kept at an IAEA-monitored location, while the U.N., the U.S. and the EU will withdraw all sanctions that have crippled the Iranian economy for years.
• Indian officials were cautious about the completion of the final agreement, but say once the deal is finalised, India could stand to benefit greatly. “If there is a significant withdrawal of sanctions, that would benefit our economic engagement greatly as even the most normal transactions had become very tedious for Indian businesses. From insurance to raising capital, every deal faced international hurdles,” a senior official told.
  India and Iran have an annual bilateral trade of about $14 billion, with an extremely high balance of trade problem, as India has been unable to pay Iran about $8.8 billion for oil due to sanctions, according to Commerce Ministry figures.
• The government has also had to bow to U.S. and international pressure on cutting its oil imports from Iran, and in March 2015 halted oil imports altogether for the first time in more than a decade in order to keep its international commitments.
• Some are also warning that the Lausanne agreement could face a strain if the U.S. and the Iranian governments come under pressure from their hardline domestic constituencies in the months ahead. “Both sides are trying to play this as a great win for domestic reasons, and say that they have taken the other side for a ride,” explained former Indian Ambassador to Iran K.C. Singh. “With both President Rouhani and President Obama in weakened political positions at home, neither can afford to be seen as a loser from the agreement,” he told.
• If the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action agreement is finalised as hoped, opinion is divided over how much India will benefit. While economists are predicting India-Iran trade could double, given old business ties between the two countries, officials concede that once sanctions are lifted on Iran, India would also have to compete with the U.S. and European suppliers for the “prosperous middle-class market” that Iran represents.
  In the short run, the big advantage for India could be a further reduction in the price of oil that India used to source at a much higher quantity pre-2012, when Iran was India’s second biggest supplier.

Gujarat leads in Swachh Bharat implementation

• Gujarat stands tops the list of States in the implementation of the Swachh Bharat Mission, while Odisha has excelled in the construction of community toilets, according to an assessment by the Union Urban Development Ministry for 2014-15.
• Gujarat accounted for 60 per cent of the 2,70,069 household toilets constructed during the last financial year under the mission. Madhya Pradesh constructed 99,151 household toilets, followed by Karnataka with 4,697.
• Odisha was ahead in the construction of community toilet seats, accounting for 740 of the 1,222 seats built during 2014-15. The Andaman and Nicobar Islands reported 200 and Karnataka 100.
• Gujarat also took the lead in solid waste management, the third component of the mission, reporting 100 per cent collection and transport of municipal solid waste in 120 of the 195 towns in the State. Odisha did well, with 100 per cent solid waste management of 107 towns and Karnataka with 40 towns.
• Swachh Bharat, launched on October 2 last, is aimed at ensuring cleanliness in all 4,041 statutory cities and towns of the country by October 2, 2019, the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.
• The five-year mission will be implemented at a cost of Rs. 62,009 crore, with a plan to build 1.04 crore household toilets, 2.51 lakh community toilet seats and 2.55 lakh public toilet seats, besides helping 37 crore urban people in solid waste management.
• “During 2014-15, Rs. 900 crore has been sanctioned by the Ministry of Urban Development and Rs. 700 crore has been released to the States and the Union Territories based on proposals received under the mission. The implementation of the mission is expected to pick up momentum from the current financial year,” said an official.

“By 2050, India will have the largest number of Muslims”

• Although the world population of Hindus will grow rapidly between now and 2050 based on a relatively high expansion rate and the youth profile of the community, the global surge in the number of Muslims will outpace the growth of the population of every other religion.
• This was a key result of an in-depth study on ‘The Future of World Religions: Population Growth Projections, 2010-2050,” conducted by the Pew Research Center, which sought to explain ‘Why Muslims Are Rising Fastest,’ in terms of the community’s higher fertility (3.1 children per woman) and the fact that 34 per cent of them are below the age of 15.
• The report argued that India would retain a Hindu majority, but would also have the largest Muslim population of any country in the world, surpassing Indonesia.

Commonwealth Speakers’ meet in Vizag from April 8

•  Presiding officers of parliaments of 10 countries and 20 States in India along with Chairpersons of Legislative Councils and Assembly Secretaries are participating in the three-day Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) conference to be held from April 8.
• The CPA holds in conferences in different Commonwealth countries every year and the theme of Visakhapatnam conference, being organised by the AP chapter of CPA, is ‘Parliament and Media Law’, Speaker Kodela Sivaprasada Rao said at a press conference.
• "Discussions would be held on different aspects relating to the theme during the conference and the resolutions made by the delegates would be forwarded to the CPA,” Dr Sivaprasada Rao said. About 200 delegates are attending. All would reach here by April 7.
• All MPs, MLCs and MLAs of Andhra Pradesh have been invited to participate in the conference.
• Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu will inaugurate the conference on April 8 at Hotel Novatel. Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan and Union Minister for Parliamentary Affairs M. Venkaiah Naidu would also attend. The second day's deliberations would be at APTDC resort at Rushikonda the delegates would move to Araku Valley for the final day's meeting.
• Cultural programmes reflecting the culture and traditions of A.P. are being organised every evening. Some folk troupes from other States are also participating, Minister for Panchayati Raj Ch. Ayyanna Patrudu said.
• The Commonwealth conference would bring Visakhapatnam once again into international focus and help in its bid to attract foreign investment, Mr. Patrudu said and thanked Mr. Naidu and the Speaker for selecting Visakhapatnam as the venue of the conference.
• Earlier, Dr. Sivaprasada Rao held a meeting with Collector N. Yuvaraj, Commissioner of Police Amit Garg, VUDA VC T. Baburao Naidu, other officials and MP of Anakapalle M. Srinivasa Rao and MLAs and finalised the arrangements for the conference.
• The Speaker while announcing the topics of the conference said any one could send their opinions on the topics, to Prof. D.V.R. Murthy of Department of Journalism and Mass Communication of Andhra University through emaildwa100@gmail.com.
• The topics are the CPA and Parliament and media; the role of media as the fourth estate; Parliament and media: legal framework; Parliament and media; working groups; how has the social media impacted the institutions of Parliament and Parliamentarians; access to Parliamentary information; overview of access and rights to information; medial as accountability tool: collaborative governance across the national budget cycle.

P.V. Abdul Wahab is IUML RS nominee

• The Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) on Saturday chose P.V. Abdul Wahab, chairman of Peevees Group, as its candidate for the Rajya Sabha (RS) seat.
• If elected, it will be Mr. Wahab’s second term in the Upper House after a gap of five years.
• Apart from Mr. Wahab, IUML State general secretary K.P.A. Majeed’s name was also tipped for the post. A section in the party favoured Mr. Majeed while another strongly opposed him.

ED seeks chopper deal details from Defence Ministry

• The Enforcement Directorate, which has recorded the statement of Air Marshal (Retd.) Gautam Nayyar in connection with the Rs. 3,700-crore AgustaWestland VVIP helicopter deal, has sought information from the Defence Ministry on the post-retirement cooling-off period for Air Force officers.
• The ED last month summoned the retired Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief (Maintenance Command) and recorded his statement on the alleged links with Christian Michel, an accused.
• The agency said he received Rs. 1 crore from Michel’s Dubai-based firm Global Services after retirement. The agency has obtained documents suggesting that Michel had financed the foreign trips of the retired officer and his wife between 2010 and 2013.
• In a statement to the media, Mr. Nayyar denied his role in any defence deal, even the VVIP helicopter contract.

Kejriwal launches helpline to tackle graft

• Taking on the Narendra Modi government, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal urged the people of Delhi to register complaints against corrupt officials in three agencies reporting to the Union government — the Municipal Corporation of Delhi, the Delhi Development Authority and the Delhi Police — which have been removed from the jurisdiction of the Delhi government’s anti-corruption branch (ACB).
• Mr. Kejriwal was addressing a gathering after launching his government’s anti-corruption helpline.
• Soon after coming to power, the Modi government issued a notification on July 23, amending a 1993 notification, which fixed the jurisdiction of the ACB only “to the officers and employees of the Government of the National Capital of Delhi.”
• The three agencies face allegations of corruption.
• In a reference to the BJP, Mr. Kejriwal said the “party that spends Rs. 10,000 crore in its election campaign cannot punish the corrupt.”

Trial in criminal cases will be completed in 5 years: CJI

• Chief Justice of India H.L. Dattu said that the joint conference of Chief Ministers and Chief Justices had decided to complete criminal trials in five years.
• “We have taken a decision to try our best that five year should be the maximum time to finish a case [at the district level]. My priority is that it should not go beyond two years. But please keep in mind the judge-population ratio and lack of infrastructure also,” he said during an interaction with the media.
• There are 2.64 crore undecided cases in the subordinate courts and 42 lakh pending in the High Courts. Earlier in the inaugural session of the conference, the CJI said the current judge0population ratio of 1:61,865 was “unacceptable.”
• On the delay in deciding the December 16 Delhi gang rape case, the CJI said the appeal filed by the four condemned men came to the apex court only last year. “There are already 23 death reference cases pending in the SC. It [Delhi case] would certainly be decided on priority, if the matter is mentioned before the court,” he said.
• Chief Justice Dattu said the highest judiciary worked 24x7 during 190 working days, and spent court holidays writing judgments.
• “It is not an easy-go life. Having 20 years experience as judge, I can say, we work 24x7,” he said.
• Law Minister D.V. Sadananda Gowda said that almost 96 per cent of the subordinate courts had been computerised.

Online protest against Rajnath Singh

• Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh’s comments that there is “no non-lethal weapons strategy” for the Border Security Force (BSF) to man the India-Bangladesh border has attracted an online protest.
• A Kolkata-based human right organisation, MASUM, engaged in monitoring violence on the eastern border, launched the protest, based on an April 1 report.
• The chief of MASUM, Kirity Roy addressed the petition to President Pranab Mukherjee charging that Mr. Singh had negated the agreement of March 2011 between the BSF and the Bangladesh Border Guards (BGB) agreeing not to use lethal weapons along the 4,000-km. Indo-Bangladesh border.
• “There is nothing like a non-lethal strategy. What is paramount is that our border needs to be protected. I cannot allow [a situation in which] the jawans are attacked and they cannot fire in self-defence,” Mr. Singh had said during a visit to a floating border outpost at the North 24 Parganas district.
• “While everyone has the right to self-defence, the BSF usually fires shots and then lodges an FIR against the dead. This border was earlier referred to as the ‘trigger happy zone’ and the agreement between the two countries was reached after prolonged interventions by human rights organisations of both India and Bangladesh. Even children are not spared at the border. Mr. Singh’s comments were unconstitutional,” Mr. Roy said.

Operation Raahat: over 600 evacuated

• In the largest evacuation as part of Operation Raahat so far, three Air India flights airlifted 488 people from Sana’a to Djibouti while naval patrol vessel INS Sumitra rescued 203 people, including 19 foreign nationals from eight countries, from Ash Shihr via Al Muqalla port.
• India secured a four-hour window for evacuation from Sana’a.
• Meanwhile two Air Force C-17s with 452 passengers landed in Mumbai while an Air India AI-777 with 352 passengers landed in Kochi.
• In addition, the civilian liners Kavaratti and Corals , with a total capacity of 1100 passengers, have reached Djibouti and will join in the evacuation, officials said.
• Op Raahat is now a global endeavour with nationals from several countries evacuated by India; INS Mumbai evacuated 179 people from 17 countries from Aden.
• “Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam - The world is a family…” tweeted Syed Akbaruddin, External Affairs Ministry spokesperson.
• External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj meanwhile said the evacuation from Aden, which is witnessing heavy fighting between the warring sides, is now over. “The evacuation from Aden is complete - thanks to Indian Navy,” she tweeted.
• The Minister also turned down criticism that India had delayed its response, reminding citizens and netizens alike that India had issued three advisories — the first one as early as January — asking Indians to leave.
• In another tweet, Ms. Swaraj said: “My colleague General V. K. Singh who is shuttling between Sana’a and Djibouti is sparing no effort in accomplishing this difficult task.”
• As situation worsens and the anxiety of stranded citizens and their awaiting families mounts, Twitter continues to be the primary link between those stranded and the government to disseminate information.

Accord signed for Ambedkar memorial

• Clearing all hurdles in the construction of a memorial for Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar at the Indu mill land in Central Mumbai, a tripartite agreement was signed in New Delhi between the Union government, the National Textile Corporation (NTC) and the Maharashtra government.
• Prime Minister Narendra Modi will attend the stone-laying ceremony.
• The project was put on hold as the Central government had not presented the Bill in Parliament to hand over the mill land from the NTC to the State government.
• According to officials, the agreement was signed after Maharashtra’s Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis held discussions with the legal fraternity and it was clarified that the land could be transferred with approval from the Central government, without bringing the Bill.
• The agreement was signed as per section 11 of ‘The Textile Undertakings Nationalisation Act 1995’ with prior permission of the Centre, in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Mr. Fadnavis.
• The State government will buy the land from the NTC. A three-member committee will decide on the price and other technical details.

Muslim girl felicitated for winning Gita contest

• Political parties are now scrambling to felicitate 12-year-old Mariyam Siddiqui, a Class 6 student who won the Bhagvad Gita contest organised by ISKCON International Society last month for 4,500 students.
• Maharashtra Finance Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar felicitated Mariyam and her parents at a specially organised function at Vidhan Bhavan.
• “A Muslim student winning a competition on a great scripture like the Gita is a praiseworthy achievement,” said Mr. Mungantiwar, who assured the girl’s family of all support in her educational career.
• Mariyam, student of Cosmopolitan High School, received the first prize in an inter-school competition for explaining the teachings of the holy book. ISKCON International Society had organised the “Shrimad Bhagvad Gita Champion League” in which 195 schools including 105 private and 90 municipal schools participated.
• Mariyam topped the written examination consisting of 100 questions, scoring 100 out of 100 marks. Mumbai Congress chief Sanjay Nirupam said his party would felicitate Mariyam at the party headquarters on April 8.

CPCB officials stress need for uniform air quality data

• The new National Air Quality Index launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, gives current as well as 24-hour average data on particulate matter – PM2.5 or very fine particles smaller than 2.5 micrometres in diameter, and PM 10 which are less than 10 micrometers in diameter – as well as other pollutants including nitrogen dioxide, ozone and carbon monoxide.
• PM 2.5 levels are commonly used as the best indicator of severe air pollution, while PM 10 particles are also a cause of public health concern, but less lethal.
• India now grades air quality along a colour-coded chart based on pollutant levels.
• Officials from the Central Pollution Control Board warned that the quality of new monitoring stations was mixed across the country, and said Delhi was likely to have the most rigorous data. “There is still a lot of standardisation work we need to do to get all cities and all monitoring stations comparable. The new index should be seen as indicative,” the official said, asking not to be named.
• While comparable data for these 17 locations is available only for the last few weeks, particulate matter is heavily influenced by weather patterns. Anumita Roychowdhury, head of the Centre for Science and Environment’s air pollution and clean transportation programmes, compiled data for Delhi from October 2014 onwards.
• The data shows that while there were “moderate” days in October, February and March, the second halves of November and December, and the first half of January were consistently “very poor”.
• In 2014, the World Health Organisation compiled average annual PM 2.5 numbers for over 1600 cities across the world, including 124 from India. Delhi had the worst air quality in the world by that estimate, but 12 other Indian cities were among the world’s worst 20 – Patna, Gwalior, Raipur, Ahmedabad, Lucknow, Firozabad, Kanpur, Amritsar, Ludhiana, Allahabad, Agra and Khanna.
• The Centre for Science and Environment, which has for long advocated the adoption of the AQI, welcomed the government's move “For the first time, the government has taken the initiative to inform people about daily air quality with simple descriptions that people can understand. This can help build public awareness as well as public support for hard decisions needed to get cleaner air,”said CSE's executive director Anumita Roychowdhury.
• However, in stark contrast with other countries that have air quality warning systems, India does not yet have a mechanism or measures in place to bring down peak pollution levels. Beijing for instance, puts in motion a slew of operations when the warning signal for severe pollution is issued.
• On such days kindergartens, primary and middle schools close, there is a cap on the number of cars allowed on the roads and polluting factories either cut down emissions or shut down completely. Similarly, when the air quality index rose in Paris recently, the city made public transport free and removed almost 50 per cent of the vehicles off the road.
• 12 Indian cities were among the WHO list of the world’s worst 20 for air quality.

Maharashtra to set up memorial to R.K. Laxman

• The Maharashtra government will set up a memorial to cartoonist R.K. Laxman in the Sir J.J. School of Arts.
• State Culture Minister Vinod Tawde announced in the Assembly that the memorial would have eight halls exclusively exhibiting cartoons of the past eight decades.
• “We will also place cartoons by cartoonists across the country and abroad along with those of Laxman’s,” he said.
• He said the bungalow of Rudyard Kipling within the compounds of the School would be converted into a museum of rare paintings.
• Explaining the government’s initiative to promote Marathi cinema, which of late has been winning many national awards, including this year’s best film award, Mr. Tawde said all multiplexes in the city would have to play at least one show of a Marathi film at prime time.
• “Apart from playing the National Anthem at the start of the movie, a short film of a minute or two on the life of Dadasaheb Phalke, the father of Indian cinema, will be played in each theatre,” he said.
• He said the Culture Department was in consultation with the Law Department to change “Bombay” to “Mumbai” in various laws.
• “There are 199 Acts from the time of the British rule and all of them have the name ‘Bombay’ as it was known earlier,” he said. The process of changing it to Mumbai had already begun.
• “All multiplexes in Mumbai required to play at least one show of a Marathi film at prime time”.

Union Cabinet clears Real Estate Bill

• The Union Cabinet approved the Real Estate (Regulation and Development Bill) which will address a long-standing demand to bring in a regulator for the real estate sector.
• The Cabinet, however, deferred its decision on the proposed juvenile justice amendment bill that will allow minors between the age of 16-18 years accused of heinous crimes like murder or rape to be treated as adults.
• The Real Estate (Regulation & Development) Bill seeks to protect the interests of consumers and establish regulatory bodies at the Centre and States for ethical and transparent business practices in the real estate sector.
• The Bill provides for mandatory registration of all projects and real estate agents who intend to sell any plot, apartment or building with the Real Estate Regulatory Authority. It makes mandatory the disclosure of all information for registered projects like details of promoters, layout plan, land status, schedule of execution and status of various approvals. The Bill also seeks to enforce the contract between the developer and buyer and a fast track mechanism to settle disputes.
• The government said the Bill is expected ensure greater accountability towards consumers, and to significantly reduce frauds and delays. It said the proposed legislation is expected to promote regulated and orderly growth of the real estate sector through efficiency, professionalism and standardization
• “These measures are expected to boost domestic and foreign investment in the sector and help achieve the objective of the Government of India to provide ‘Housing for All by 2022’, through enhanced private participation,” a government release said.
• The Real Estate Regulation Bill was first introduced by the UPA government in the Rajya Sabha in August 2013 and was then referred to a Parliamentary Standing Committee, which had submitted its report in February 2014.
• The NDA government had made some important changes to the original legislation. The earlier Bill had mandated that a developer put 70 per cent of the buyer's investment into an escrow account that would be used only for the construction of that project.
• Last year, the Housing Ministry brought this down to 50 per cent, reportedly after much lobbying from the real estate companies. The other major change was to bring the commercial segment of the real estate sector within the ambit of the Bill, which was earlier limited to regulating only the residential segment.
• The Bill also now includes a condition that prohibits a developer from changing the plan in a project unless 2/3rd of the allottees have agreed for such a change.

India ranks lower than even Nepal

• Out of 133 countries rated on indicators of well-being such as health, water and sanitation, personal safety, access to opportunity, tolerance, inclusion, personal freedom and choice India has secured the 101th place.
• This is lower than India’s rank, of 93, for GDP per capita income. Even Nepal and Bangladesh rank higher than India on the Social Progress Index (SPI) ratings to be released globally.Norway has bagged the first rank; the U.S. is at the 16th place.
• On the parameter ‘Tolerance and inclusion’ India ranks 128th and is at the 120th place on ‘health and wellness’ that, says economist and executive director of the SPI, Michael Green, is the toughest parameter for a country to excel at. As a country becomes richer while tackling sanitation and water becomes easier, tougher challenges emerge such as air pollution and obesity. The U.S. despite its high levels of spending on health and wellness ranks 68th.
• Even harder to tackle are freedom and tolerance, he says. “The most striking findings for India are the worst performance on the tolerance and inclusion front…It’s a complex problem in a diverse country…another thing I will be watching for as India grows economically is when obesity as a crisis will start hitting.”
• The SPI was launched in 2013 and is based on 52 indicators of countries’ social and environmental performance. It includes no economic indicators and measures outcomes. The UN’s Human Development Index and Bhutan’s Gross National Happiness Index are also alternate measures for well being but they use GDP or other economic measures.
• Focusing exclusively on GDP implies measuring progress in purely monetary terms and failing to consider the wider picture of the real things that matter to real people. “GDP isn’t bad but it’s not the whole story… alongside economic growth social progress is more important for policymaking.”

Nasim Zaidi set to become new CEC

• Election Commissioner Nasim Zaidi will become the next Chief Election Commissioner later this month.
• The Law Ministry has initiated the file for the appointment as incumbent, H.S. Brahma retires on April 19. Mr. Zaidi will have a tenure up to July 2017, when he attains the age of 65.

Voluntary retirement no excuse to skip alimony, says apex court

• Deciding the case of a man who took voluntary retirement and stopped paying maintenance to his divorced wife, the Supreme Court held that he has to continue paying her as long as he is “healthy, able-bodied and is in a position to support himself.”
• In a judgment, a Bench of Justices Dipak Misra and Prafulla C. Pant said reasons given by estranged husbands to skip payment are bald excuses. “These have no acceptability in law,” Justice Misra, who authored the verdict, said.
• The right to get maintenance is “absolute” for a woman, and she cannot be reduced to the state of a “beggar” after being compelled to leave her matrimonial home. “If the husband is able-bodied and is in a position to support himself, he is under the legal obligation to support his wife, for the wife’s right to receive maintenance under Section 125 Cr.PC, unless disqualified, is an absolute right,” the court held in its April 6 judgment. The court held that the obligation of the man to pay maintenance is “heightened” when the couple’s children are with the wife. Again, the amount of maintenance should not be that which would only mean their “mere survival.”
• As per law, she should lead a life similar to the one she would have in her husband’s house. “And that is where the status and strata of the husband comes into play and that is where the legal obligation of the husband becomes a prominent one,” Justice Misra wrote.
• The court was deciding the case of an ex-Armyman who took VRS so that he did not have to pay her the monthly maintenance of Rs. 4,000.

PM announces enhanced input subsidy

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced enhanced input subsidy relief for farmers in distress.
• Farmers will now be eligible for input subsidy if 33 per cent of their crop has been damaged, as opposed to 50 per cent or more, which was the norm till now, the Prime Minister said at the launch of the Pradhan Mantri Micro Units Development and Refinance Agency Ltd (MUDRA) Yojana .
• Further, the input subsidy given to distressed farmers will be enhanced by 50 per cent of the existing amount.
• The Prime Minister expressed concern over the problems faced by farmers due to the abnormal weather in the past year.
• “Helping farmers in this time of distress is our responsibility, and therefore, the government has sent teams of Central Ministers to affected areas to assess the extent of the damage,” Mr. Modi said, according to an official release.
• He also gave the assurance that the Centre, State governments, banks and insurance companies would do their utmost to provide relief to the farmers.
• Mr. Modi said banks had been asked to restructure loans of farmers hit by unseasonal rain and insurance companies had been advised to pro-actively settle claims.

MUDRA bank launched

• He also launched the MUDRA bank with a corpus of Rs. 20,000 crore and credit guarantee of Rs. 3,000 crore.
• The bank will be responsible for refinancing micro-finance institutions in the business of lending to small entities.
• While big industrial houses provide jobs to only 1.25 crore people, small entrepreneurs have given employment to nearly 12 crore people, Mr. Modi said.
• The postal network would be used for increasing access to the formal financial system.Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said the MUDRA Bank was a step in the right direction for “funding the unfunded.” He had proposed the MUDRA Bank in his budget speech in February.
• MUDRA will be set up through a statutory enactment. It will be responsible for developing and refinancing all micro-finance institutions (MFIs) which are in the business of lending to micro and small business entities engaged in manufacturing, trading and service activities.
• It will also partner with State and regional-level coordinators to provide finance to last-mile financiers of small and micro business enterprises. Its proposed role includes laying down policy guidelines for micro enterprise financing business, registration, accreditation and rating of MFI entities.
• The agency will also lay down responsible financing practices to ward off over-indebtedness and ensure proper client protection principles and methods of recovery, according to an official release.
• These measures are targeted towards mainstreaming young, educated or skilled workers and entrepreneurs, including women entrepreneurs, the release said.
• “A vast part of the non-corporate sector operates as unregistered enterprises and formal or institutional architecture has not been able to reach out to meet its financial requirements. Providing access to institutional finance to such micro, small business units, enterprises will not only help in improving the quality of life of these entrepreneurs, but also turn them into strong instruments of GDP growth and employment generation,” the release said.

India will be able to create 109.7 mn jobs by 2022: study

• India will be able to create only 109.7 million jobs by 2022, latest estimates and studies on sector-wise human resource and skill requirements, commissioned by the newly-created Skills Ministry, show.
• An earlier official estimate said that by 2022, India will have to impart skills training to 500 million people. Union Minister for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Rajiv Pratap Rudy will release the new estimates.
• The estimate of 109.7 million jobs is for India’s qualitative skill gap in key job roles, explained a government source. “It is a demand-side projection from the industry’s point of view... it is different from the estimate of the labour-supply side for the need for jobs that was earlier projected at 500 million,” the source said.
• The studies for calculating India’s Skill Gap were undertaken in the wake of the launch of the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana that the Union Cabinet headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi approved last month.
• They involve mapping of top job roles in 24 sectors including unorganised parts and also of current supply infrastructure (both private and public)- capacity, quality and challenges. Government schemes for skill development for the sector were also factored into the assessment.
• The Modi government’s skills initiative is central to the success of the Prime Minister’s other pet schemes such as Make in India and Digital India.
• The studies have made recommendations for government, training partners, industry and the National Skills Development Council.

U.S. FAA upgrades India’s aviation safety rating

• In a major boost to the Indian civil aviation sector, more specifically for Air India and Jet Airways, the U.S. Federal Aviation Association (FAA) has upgraded the safety rating of Indian airlines as well as of the civil aviation regulator by granting a Category 1 rating to India under its International Aviation Safety Assessment (IASA) programme.
• This announcement was made by the U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx during his meeting with Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju in New Delhi.
• Secretary Foxx also announced that India now complies with international safety standards set by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO).
• “U.S. and Indian aviation officials have an important, cooperative working relationship,” said Secretary Foxx.
• “The U.S government commends the government of India for taking corrective action to address the safety oversight issues identified during the IASA process,” he said.
• A Category 1 rating means that the country’s civil aviation authority complies with ICAO standards and permits India’s airlines to add flights to the United States using their own aircraft and carry the code of the U.S. carriers on their operations.

Raju gets 7 years for Rs. 7,000-cr. fraud

• Former chairman of Satyam Computer Services Ltd. B. Ramalinga Raju and nine others, two of them family members, were sentenced to seven years rigorous imprisonment in the country’s largest-ever corporate fraud.
• The special court imposed a fine of Rs. 5.5 crore each on Raju and his brother Rama Raju, ex-managing director, and about Rs. 50 lakh each on their sibling Suryanarayana Raju and seven others.
• A confessional statement by Raju on fudging of accounts by his company on January 7, 2009, following the aborted acquisition of Maytas Properties and Infra, shook the corporate world as his meteoric rise had made him a household name among stock market investors.
• Raju, seated in the accused box, looked calm as Judge B.V.L.N. Chakravarthi delivered the verdict. Initially, the judge who pronounced them guilty, did not disclose the quantum of punishment as he wanted to hear the accused and their counsel.
• He delivered the sentence after the lunch break. Only the lawyers and accused were allowed inside the court hall while media personnel waited in the corridor outside.
• The court found the accused guilty under 14 counts for various offences and sentenced them to imprisonment for different periods besides imposing fines.
• The sentences will run concurrently and the maximum punishment each accused will get is seven years.
• Raju has already spent nearly 29 months in jail.

Direct flights to Colombo, Macau, Bangkok on cards

• The decision of IndiGo airlines to make Visakhapatnam International Airport a hub for its operations will put it in the fast track mode of development, according to Minister for HRD Ganta Srinivasa Rao.
• He was at the airport in connection with the flagging of the Air India flight to Port Blair by Union Minister of Civil Aviation P. Ashok Gajapathi Raju.
• Around 30 flights, including three to international destinations, were operating from Visakhapatnam to various destinations every day. Chief Minister N.Chandrababu Naidu was committed to making Visakhapatnam destination for IT and Tourism and industry hub. Air traffic growth augured well for all this, Mr. Srinivasa Rao said in an informal chat with media persons.
• He said efforts were being made to introduce direct flights to Colombo, Macau and Bangkok.
• He expressed the view that the day would not be far off when 100 flights took off everyday from the Visakhapatnam Airport.
• IndiGo, which had planned to operate from Visakhapatnam to Tiruvananthapuram via Chennai, with effect from March 29 had postponed the same reportedly due to technical problems.
• “They had given us the schedule but postponed the launch,” Airport Director C. Pattabhi said. The flight is now expected to begin operations on April 15.

Govt. freezes Greenpeace accounts

• The Union Home Ministry suspended the registration of Greenpeace India under the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) for six months and froze its seven accounts, prohibiting donations from abroad.
• This follows allegations about the organisation’s involvement in encouraging “anti-development” campaigns across the country.
• The action is being viewed as part of the government’s policy to clamp down on advocacy groups which, it says, have been indulging in acts prejudicial to national economic security.
• Greenpeace India has been served with a show-cause notice asking why its registration should not be cancelled.
• Citing various grounds for suspension of its FCRA registration, the Ministry of Home Affairs alleged that the organisation did not inform the authorities about transfer of foreign contributions received in the designated account to the FCRA utilisation account and then to five other accounts.

UNESCO report lauds India’s progress

• India has made remarkable strides towards ensuring education for all, a new global monitoring report shows. While access is now close to universal, the quality of education remains a major challenge, it says.
• In April 2000, the governments of 164 countries adopted the Dakar Framework to deliver “Education for All” commitments by 2015. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) published the “Education for All” Global Monitoring Report to evaluate the progress of countries on these goals.
• India is likely to reach the first goal of 80 per cent enrolment in pre-primary education by 2015, has already reached the second goal of universal primary enrolment, and will fall just short of universal youth literacy by 2015, the report said.
• The one measurable goal India will not reach is reducing its adult illiteracy rate by half (it has reduced it by 26 per cent). The country’s major success has been in reaching gender parity for primary and lower secondary enrolment, the only country in South and West Asia to do so. It has also made progress towards improving the quality of education, but major gaps remain.
• The report says nearly half of all countries have achieved universal pre-primary, primary and lower secondary enrolment.
• Only 25 per cent of the countries have reduced by half their levels of adult illiteracy, and women continue to make up two-thirds of the illiterate. Two-thirds of the countries have achieved gender parity at the primary level, but fewer than half at the secondary level.
• “Overall, not even the target of universal primary education was reached, let alone the more ambitious ‘Education for All’ goals, and the most disadvantaged continue to be the last to benefit. But there have been achievements that should not be underestimated. By 2015, the world has advanced beyond where it would have been if the trends of the 1990s had persisted,” the report says. “A lesson re-emerging over the past 15 years is that while technical solutions are important, gaining political influence and traction is of even greater significance,” it notes.
• However, major challenges remain. The efficiency of public spending in India comes in for criticism, as does the expansion of contract teaching jobs in public schools.
• Most crucially, the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) said that while India’s education system succeeded in enrolling many more children, there were wide disparities in students’ achievement of basic skills across the States, a finding validated in the official National Achievement Survey of Grade 3 students,” the report says.

Rafale purchase a setback to ‘Make in India’ pitch

• After the surprise announcement by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on buying 36 Rafale fighters in a direct purchase from France, the original Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) deal now hangs fire.
• This deal, under which the Rafale acquisition is being negotiated, had a substantial ‘Make in India’ component, is now heading towards a ‘Made in France’ endeavour
• .Speaking on the decision, Union Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar said: “India has finally broken the ice over the deal which has been pending for the last 17 years.” He added that the Rafale fighters in fly-away condition would be inducted into the Air Force in two years.
• Experts feel the decision was driven by operational necessities. Defence analyst Nitin Gokhale said: “It’s a decision born out of absolute operational necessity for the IAF and therefore, in a way, unavoidable. Under the circumstances it is the best beginning possible. Going by PM’s statement, under ‘Make in India’ Rafale could play a major role.”
• While this does address the immediate concerns of the Air Force, the surprising part of the announcement is the timing since the deal was on the verge of collapse. Just last month, Mr. Parrikar had reiterated that France had to adhere to tender norms. He had also said that if the deal was to fall through, India would buy additional Sukhois.
• Officials, however, indicated that there was potentially a larger ‘Make in India’ component to the direct purchase by inviting Dassault to partner with an Indian private entity and build more Rafales in India.
• Some see this decision as an acknowledgement that Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) is not capable of producing an advanced aircraft and irrespective of what is said, the fact remains that no private player in India has the capability to execute such a sophisticated project.

Modi makes strong pitch for U.N. seat for India

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a strong pitch for a permanent seat for India in the UN Security Council, saying it should get it as a “right” for its immense contribution to global peace.
• “Those days are gone when India had to beg. Now we want our right. No other country has such moral authority,” he said while addressing the Indian community.
• “This is an opportunity to recognise a peace-loving nation like India,” he said, asking the U.N. to reconsider its stand on the issue when it celebrates the 70th anniversary. Mr. Modi said India had the maximum presence in U.N. peacekeeping forces. Both during the World War I, when 14 lakh Indians went to the battle front, and the World War II, the participation of Indians was immense, he stressed.
• The world should understand this and change its outlook towards India, he said. India, he noted, had never been an aggressor against any country and firmly believed that the world must be rid of the spectre of war. “Sometimes, history is forgotten. Those who forget history will lose their right to write one,” he said.
• The Prime Minister, who spoke in Hindi to an estimated over 2,000-strong gathering, was repeatedly cheered with chants of “Modi, Modi.”

Indian-Americans among biggest philanthropists

• Three Indian-Americans are among 50 biggest philanthropists of 2015, including top business honchos such as Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, Apple CEO Tim Cook and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
• The list compiled by American lifestyle Town and Country Magazine figures New York-based Adarsh Alphons, Reshma Saujani and Shaila Ittycheria, all under 40 years of age.
• “These are the men and women whose serious dollars, bold ideas, and old-fashioned hard work have made them the year’s most noteworthy and inspiring givers,” says the magazine on its T&C 50: The Biggest Philanthropists of 2015 list.
• Ms. Saujani (39) is the founder of Girls Who Code, a three- year-old non-profit that teaches computer skills to girls from low-income communities to close technology’s gender-gap. “This is more than just a programme. It’s a movement,” said Ms. Saujani.
• Mr. Alphons (30) founded ‘ProjectArt’ to unleash the creative power in each child and change the way the world views arts education, because for him, art saves lives.
• His ‘Grand Plan’ is to help troubled New York City students via ProjectArt, which provides free art classes at public libraries in all five boroughs.
• It does this by public awareness and programmes. Using its unique library-partnerships model, it helps youth express their artistic visions, set goals and display their art in celebrated art galleries in New York, all at no cost to the students.
• Ms. Ittycheria (31) co-founded ‘Enstitute’ that bypasses college by placing its students in paid tech apprenticeships.

Government notifies NJAC, puts an end to collegium

• Acting on its words in the Supreme Court that “the judges’ job is to judge cases and not to appoint their brother judges,” the Union government notified the National Judicial Appointments Commission law and effectively brought to an end the two-decades-old collegium system of appointing judges.
• The notification brings into immediate effect the National Judicial Appointments Commission Act, 2014, and the 99th Constitution Amendment Act.
• Now, the political class and civil society have an equal voice, along with the judiciary, in the appointment and transfer of judges in the highest judiciary.
• The notification comes hardly 48 hours before a five-judge Bench of the Supreme Court was to hear a batch of petitions challenging the constitutionality of the NJAC law on April 15.
• But the notification was made possible by the Supreme Court itself on April 7.
• While referring the petitions to a larger Bench, the court had refused to pass a stay order on the law coming into force.

IMF predicts India will hit 7.5 % growth, overtake China

• The International Monetary Fund forecast India’s growth to strengthen from 7.2 per cent in 2014 to 7.5 per cent in both 2015 and 2016, overtaking China’s growth — for the first time since 1999 — that it projected will slow down to 6.8 per cent.
• The World Bank too projected India’s growth to accelerate to 7.5 per cent in 2015, but added that on the back of significant acceleration of investment, growth could even reach 8 per cent in 2017-18. The country is attempting to shift from consumption to investment-led growth, at a time when China is undergoing the opposite transition, the Bank said in its bi-annual South Asia Economic Focus report.
• Both the World Bank and the IMF’s projections for the current year are less optimistic than that of the Reserve Bank. The Central Bank-projected growth in 2015-16 (7.8 per cent) will be barely 30 bps faster than in 2014-15 (7.5 per cent) last week in its first bi-monthly monetary policy statement of 2015-16. At 8.1 per cent to 8.5 per cent, the Modi government’s growth projection for this year is the most optimistic.
• Speaking to reporters after the release of the Outlook, IMF Chief Economist Olivier Blanchard said there was an increasing divergence in the growth paths of the world’s major economies this year, as a pick-up in the euro zone and India is expected to be offset by diminished prospects in other key emerging markets. Responding to a question, he said, he agreed with the general consensus that the U.S. Federal Reserve would raise interest rates later this year.
• The Oulook projects global growth to reach 3.5 percent and 3.8 per cent in 2015 and 2016 from the ‘modest’ 3.4 per cent in 2014 — in line with the projections in the IMF’s January 2015 World Economic Outlook Update. It projected growth to be stronger in 2015 relative to 2014 in advanced economies, but weaker in emerging markets. Nevertheless, emerging markets and developing economies still account for more than 70 percent of global growth in 2015.

Gandhi statue defaced in South Africa

• A statue of Mahatma Gandhi here has been defaced by a group of people who threw buckets of white paint on it.
• The incident occurred on Sunday when the group came in a car at about noon and threw buckets of white paint on the statue and surrounding plaques detailing Gandhi’s history in South Africa, security guard Ntandzo Khwepe said. They had placards that read: ‘Racist Gandhi must fall’. The statue in the centre of the city is believed to be the only one in the world showing the Mahatma as a young lawyer in his court robes.
• The statue is on a public transport hub square which was renamed Gandhi Square because the offices in which he practiced law during his stay in the city are on the periphery of the square. “They said we should not stop them because Gandhi was a racist man,” Khwepe said, adding that the group was wearing African National Congress (ANC) regalia.

New visa scheme renamed “e-Tourist Visa”

• The “Tourist Visa on Arrival-Electronic Travel Authorization (TvoA-ETA)” scheme, which was launched last year to facilitate short duration visits by travellers from as many as 44 countries, has now been renamed “e-Tourist Visa” to clarify that it is not an on-arrival scheme.
• The government has issued 1.10 lakh visas under the new scheme that was launched on November 27 last year. According to the MHA, it will be extended to more countries and airports in a phased manner.
• “The name of the scheme [TVoA-ETA] is creating confusion among tourists, who are under the impression that the visa is being granted on arrival. However, in the present system, the pre-authorisation of visa has to be taken before travel,” said an MHA official.
• After some Indian embassies raised the issue with the Home Ministry seeking change of name, a committee comprising officials of the Bureau of Immigration, Home and External Ministries was formed to suggest a new name.
• “Keeping in view the application process and the purpose of the scheme, the committee suggested 'e-Tourist Visa' as the appropriate name,” said the official.

Net neutrality wins as Flipkart does U-turn

• Switching sides to support Net neutrality, e-commerce major Flipkart decided not to join Airtel Zero, which offers subscribers free browsing of websites of companies that join the platform for a fee.
• The proposed tie-up was in the eye of a storm as it raised questions on the need to maintain equal Internet access to all.
• Net neutrality provides for equal treatment of all traffic; any priority given to an application or company for payments made amounts to a violation of the concept.
• “We will be walking away from the discussions with Airtel for Airtel Zero,” Flipkart said. “We had not signed up for a deal.
• We were in the midst of discussions, and ... have pulled out of that. We, at Flipkart, have always strongly believed in the concept of Net neutrality. For, we exist because of the Internet.”
• Airtel Zero was launched last week, but outraged users termed it a violation of Net neutrality.
• Many consumers boycotted the popular e-tailer and even down-rated its mobile app to “1 star”.
• Airtel said, “The statement by Flipkart regarding their decision not to offer toll-free data service to customers is consistent with our stand that Airtel Zero is not a tariff proposition. It is merely an open platform for content providers to provide toll-free data services.”

‘Reformer-in-chief’: Obama’s name for Modi

• PM Narendra Modi is featured in the Time magazine’s list of 100 most influential people for this year with an article by U.S. President Barack Obama, who titled it “India’s reformer-in-chief.”
• “As a boy, Modi helped his father sell tea to support their family. Today, he is the leader of the world’s largest democracy, and his life story — from poverty to PM — reflects the dynamism and potential of India’s rise,” Mr. Obama wrote.
• Recalling how they reflected on the teachings of Martin Luther King and Mahatma Gandhi last year, Mr. Obama said Mr. Modi recognised that more than 1 billion Indians living and succeeding together can be an inspiring model for the world.
• “Like India, he transcends the ancient and the modern — a devotee of yoga who connects on Twitter and imagines a “digital India,” Mr. Obama added.

Raising of Pakistan flags intolerable: Mufti

• A day after Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh asked the Jammu and Kashmir government to take strictest possible action against those involved in raising pro-Pakistan slogans at a rally in Srinagar, Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed spoke the same language terming the act intolerable.
• Mr. Sayeed told NDTV that such an act was unacceptable and the law would take its course. He told the media that it was fine till the separatists kept to rallies, but the raising of Pakistani flags would not be tolerated and action would be taken against those who hoisted the Pakistani flag at the rally of Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani in Srinagar.
• The J&K police have registered a case under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act against Mr. Geelani, Masarat Alam and Peer Saiffulah. However, no arrests have been made so far.
• While Mr. Sayeed had struck an understanding with the BJP over providing a democratic space to all political views in Kashmir, the waving of Pakistani flags evidently crosses the threshold of the arrangement, provoking the BJP to cry foul and forcing the Chief Minister to act.
• Stating that the government would not tolerate any anti-national activity, Mr. Singh on Thursday said at Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh that he had spoken to Mr. Sayeed and sought strict action against those involved.
• Amid pro-Azadi and pro-Pakistan slogans, thousands of people in Srinagar welcomed Mr. Geelani with Tehreek-e-Hurriyat and Pakistani flags. The Hurriyat leader had returned to Kashmir after spending four months in Delhi.
• The Chief Minister decided to deny permission for a rally by separatists on Friday from Srinagar to Tral where a youth was killed by the Army in a “gun battle.”

Yechury is new CPI(M) chief

• Rajya Sabha member Sitaram Yechury was elected the fifth general secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) after it became evident that his supporters in the newly elected Central Committee (CC) would press for a vote if Polit Bureau (PB) member S. Ramachandran Pillai’s name was proposed by outgoing general secretary Prakash Karat.
• Eager to ensure a smooth transition by averting a vote, Mr. Pillai’s candidature was withdrawn paving the way for the unanimous election of the 91-member CC, after which Mr. Karat proposed Mr. Yechury for general secretary which was unanimously accepted. The new CC also elected a 16-member PB. Both bodies have a few new faces.
• Three party veterans — two former Chief Ministers, V.S. Achuthanandan from Kerala and Budhhadeb Bhattacharya from West Bengal, and Nirupam Sen — have been dropped from the CC, but made special invitees. Mr. Bhattacharya and Mr. Sen, who did not attend the congress, have also been dropped from the PB, as was K. Vardha Rajan — all on account of advancing age. The four new faces in the 16-member PB are Hannan Mollah, Mohd. Salim, Subhashini Ali and G. Ramakrishnan.
• Addressing the concluding session soon after, Mr. Yechury papered over differences by reiterating his commitment to “collective leadership” and said his effort would be to correct the weaknesses that may have come up or are inherent “in all of us.”
• Before the issue was clinched, the divide at the top was evident in the morning as Mr. Karat and Mr. Yechury left their hotel for the makeshift red township — Samar Mukherjee Nagar. Asked whether there could be a vote for the post of general secretary, Mr. Karat said: “This does not happen in our party.”
•  Mr. Yechury’s response was: “It is for the new CC to decide.”
• Mr. Yechury’s statement was seen as an indication that neither he nor his supporters would blink. Within hours, the party’s Malayalam television channel Kairali broke the news that Mr. Pillai had withdrawn from the race just before the CC election.

Nasim Zaidi takes over as new CEC

• Nasim Zaidi, assumed charge as the 20th Chief Election Commissioner succeeding H.S. Bramha who retired after completing his term.
• After assuming charge Mr. Zaidi said: “I feel privileged and honoured that I have been given this responsibility to lead one of the finest institutions that the Indian Constitution has provided. I am conscious of the onerous task in hand.”
• “Election Commission of India will formulate a strategic plan for efficient election management based on principles of independence, transparency, professionalism, inclusiveness and measurable outputs,” he told the media.
• Mr. Zaidi further stated that he would like the Election Commission to become a more vibrant and transparent organisation, which is open to receiving new ideas and best practices.
• “Commission would like to formulate its guiding principles based on good governance,” he said.

Indira, Rajiv names dropped from two Hindi awards

• The BJP-led NDA government has dropped the names of former Prime Ministers Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi from two awards for propagating Hindi.
• The two awards have been discontinued by the Union Home Ministry, which instead launched two new schemes for doing outstanding work for promoting the progressive use of official language.
• According to a Home Ministry order, the ‘Indira Gandhi Rajbhasha Puraskar’ and ‘Rajiv Gandhi Rashtriya Gyan-Vigyan Maulik Pustak Lekhan Puraskar’, launched more than two decades ago, have given way for ‘Rajbhasha Kirti Puraskar’ and ‘Rajbhasha Gaurav Puraskar’.

Ford Foundation on Centre’s watch list

• The Ford Foundation, a U.S.-based funding agency which has been accused by the Gujarat government of interfering in the country’s internal affairs and fanning communal disharmony, was put on the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) watch list.
• Citing “concerns for national interest and security,” the MHA informed the Reserve Bank of India that Ford Foundation had been included on the list of foreign funding agencies which required prior approval from the Ministry for each transaction.
• It invoked Section 46 of the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act.

Rajnath and AAP face off; FIR blames party workers

• Home Minister Rajnath Singh has backed the Delhi Police which is under fire for allegedly not doing enough to stop the farmer Gajendra Singh from committing suicide during an Aam Aadmi Party rally.
• The FIR said the police received no cooperation from AAP volunteers or leaders. “This is totally an incident where AAP workers and leaders instigated the man to commit suicide and they also did not pay heed to requests made by police,” the FIR says.
• Inspector S.S. Yadav says in the FIR that party workers obstructed the police from rescuing Singh.
• The Minister said in the Lok Sabha on Thursday that while the policemen on duty called up the control room and tried to get help from the fire brigade to stop the suicide, AAP volunteers egged the farmer on. Instead of talking him out of the suicide, as was generally done, the crowd kept clapping and raised slogans, he said.
• “The crowd was clapping. The police requested them to stop raising slogans,” he said.
• The AAP accused the Home Minister of lying in Parliament. The party declared an assistance of Rs. 10 lakh for the family of the deceased, and promised to support his children’s education.

eVisa to Chinese nationals likely

• India may extend e-visa on arrival facility to Chinese nationals when Prime Minister Narendra Modi visits China from May 14 to 16, a move that has been held up for several years due to opposition from security agencies.
• The Home Secretary is expected to chair a series of meetings focussing on Chinese concerns next week, when the decision could be taken.
• Ahead of Mr. Modi’s visit, Chinese companies have raised serious issues over investing in India, also calling for an end to the government’s policy of “security clearances for countries of concern” that applies to China.
• Sources have confirmed that the Ministry of External Affairs made a representation to the Home Ministry’s policy, which “discriminates” against Chinese investors, saying that visas were being given in a manner that “lacked objectivity and predictability.”
• The issues are being taken more seriously after Chinese truck manufacturer Beiqi Foton Motor, which had announced the biggest FDI of $400 million for a plant near Pune in 2011, began to downsize its plans this February as it could not meet deadlines for setting up production because of bureaucratic hurdles.

SC seeks govt. response on renaming India as ‘Bharata’

• The Supreme Court sought a response from the government on a petition seeking a declaration that the Republic be called ‘Bharata’ instead of ‘India.’
• A Bench led by Chief Justice of India H.L. Dattu issued notice to the Centre and all the States on a public interest petition filed by social activist, Niranjan Bhatwal from Maharashtra, that the public should have an “unambigous understanding” that the country’s name is ‘Bharata.’
• It sought a clarification on the phrase — “India, that is, Bharat shall be a Union of States” — used in Article 1 of the Indian Constitution. The petitioner represented by Ajay G. Majithia and Rahul Pandey said there the word ‘India’ is not a literal translation of the word ‘Bharata.’ Besides the country, both historically and in the Scriptures, is known as ‘Bharata.’

RSS think tank pitches for Institute for Classical Studies

• After the aggressive appropriation of B.R. Ambedkar as a nationalist Hindu icon, taking a leaf out of the Chinese government rule book, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) has now proposed that Union Human Resource Development Minister Smriti Irani establish an Indian Institute of Classical Studies to promote Indian languages abroad, on the lines of China’s Confucius Institute.
• The proposal comes from the India Policy Foundation, a think tank funded entirely by the RSS, with senior Sangh functionaries Dattatreya Hosabale and Manmohan Vaidya on its board.
• While Mr. Hosabale, sah sarkaryavah or joint secretary of the RSS and tipped to take over its reins in the near future, Mr. Vaidya is the All India Prachar Pramukh of the RSS.
• The foundation, it is learnt, wields considerable clout and has stalled key legislation in the past.
• Looking to the Confucius Institute for inspiration, in a letter dated April 23, the honorary director of the institute, Rakesh Sinha, writes: “Given that Indian literature and languages are already recognised as one of the most scientific languages in the world, the Government of India must consider conceptualising an institution/centre which could be established in reputed universities in foreign countries — on the lines of the Confucius Institute.”
• The India Policy Foundation, a think tank funded entirely by the RSS, has written to Human Resources Minister Smriti Irani calling for the setting up of Indian Institute of Classical Studies to promote Indian languages abroad.
• Director of the Institute Rakesh Sinha’s letter to Ms Irani says, “The global integration is demanding a coordinated effort of economic, education and cultural initiatives in the present context of geo-political developments. An institutionalised initiative by the MHRD, under your leadership (Ms Irani) will mark an international presence of Indian language, literature and civilisational culture helping India in its philosophical dignity and global endeavours.”
• Mr Sinha adds, “For example, the Confucius Institute has established more than 450 institutions in universities close to 100 countries in past 10 years to promote Chinese language and culture, support local Chinese teaching internationally and facilitate cultural exchanges.”
• In its endeavour, the RSS seems to be diluting its aggressive Hindi stance by making a pitch for other classical Indian languages, namely Kannada, Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, Bangla, Marathi, Assamese, Odiya and several others. “Indian cultural and intellectual heritage that have given India pre-eminence in the world need our rejuvenated efforts to make them available to general readers. It will help people in India and abroad to find the glorious tradition in our cultural history is one of the pillars of cultural nationalism,” the letter states.
• Incidentally, the Confucius Institute is governed by a council whose members are drawn from the leadership of the Communist Party of China.

Maharashtra announces awards for film legends

• Senior cinematographer in the Hindi and Marathi film industries Suryakant Lavande and veteran actor Shashikala will be conferred the V. Shantaram and Raj Kapoor Life Time Achievement Awards respectively by the Maharashtra government.
• State’s Minister for Culture Vinod Tawde on Monday made the announcement. Actors Sonali Kulkarni and Vidya Balan will be presented the V. Shantaram and Raj Kapoor special contribution to the film industry awards respectively.
• The awards are given every year by the Maharashtra government on the birth anniversary of Dadasaheb Phalke, founder of the Indian Film Industry.
• “The life time achievement awards are given for their extra ordinary contribution to the film industry. We are happy to felicitate two legends of the industry,” said Mr. Tawde. The award ceremony will take place in Pune on April 30.

Centre recasts Nehru memorial society

• With Prime Minister Narendra Modi as the head, the Nehru Memorial Museum Library Society (NMMLS), considered a Congress legacy, has been reconstituted to include 34 members, and eight new members to the Executive Council.
• An order dated April 27 announced Home Minister Rajnath Singh; Finance Minister Arun Jaitley; Human Resources Development Minister Smriti Irani; Culture Minister Mahesh Sharma; Dr. Karan Singh; Narayana Murthy, founder, Infosys; Centre for Policy Research president Pratap Bhanu Mehta; NITI Aayog member Bibek Debroy; former ISRO chief Dr. Kasturirangan; academic Nayanjot Lahiri; Prasar Bharati Chairperson Surya Prakash; former Foreign Secretary M.K. Rasgotra; columnist Swapan Dasgupta, and a member of the Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Fund, as some of the new members to the society.
• The 34 members of the society will have a tenure of five years.
• The Executive Council comprises president of ICCR Lokesh Chandra as chairman, former editor and BJP member M.J. Akbar as vice-chairman, Pratap Bhanu Mehta, Nitin Desai, Surya Prakash, the financial adviser of the Ministry of Culture, an ex-officio member, and Dr. Mahesh Rangarajan as director.
•  Chandra was in news for calling Modi god incarnate.Regarded as a Congress fiefdom, one of the last decisions of the Congress-led UPA, with barely 48 hours left for the announcement of election results in 2014, was to extend the services of director Mahesh Rangarajan, originally for three years to 10 years.
• Previous NMML directors have served till the age of 60, and by extending Rangarajan’s tenure for 10 years, the Congress had ensured that he would continue till his retirement.
• Congress president Sonia Gandhi had stepped down as president of NMML last year.

‘Unbelievable support from India’

• Nepal said India has led the relief and rescue operations being carried out in the quake-hit nation and was the first to rush aid to the people.
• Nepal’s Ambassador to India Deepak Kumar Upadhyay said there has been “unbelievable support and assistance” from India and the assurance of help from the Indian government has been like a “blank cheque.”
• The Ambassador said though countries like the United States, China and Israel have been quick with relief material and help, the Nepalese people have received “overwhelming love and support” from India immediately after the quake hit.
• The embassy in Delhi, which is coordinating relief work, has also asked the External Affairs Ministry to facilitate the movement of registered NGOs, who have been recommended by the embassy and registered in India, to help in rescue and rebuilding work.
• “We are getting a lot of requests from NGOs who want to go and help in Nepal, but we cannot have a rush of people there, so we have asked the MEA to help us verify the registered NGOs who can then be asked to pitch in with relief work,” the Ambassador said.
• Appreciating India’s efforts, he said help started pouring in soon after Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke to his counterpart.

‘NREGA, the only insurance for India’

• The World Bank said that the spike in ‘unmet demand’ for MGNREGA jobs is an indicator of increasing rural distress. Since the scheme is the only and therefore the best bet India has for mitigating the impact on the poor of the recent unseasonal rains, the government should take steps aimed at arresting delays in wage payments and the rising unmet demand for jobs.
• “If you are a State hit by the unseasonal rains, now is the time to tell those responsible for implementing the MGNREGA to give their best…it is the only insurance India has…,” said World Bank Country Director in India Onno Ruhl. He was speaking at the release of the Bank’s latest India Development Update which analyses the performance of the scheme in States such as Bihar.
• The update projects that provided there is a pick-up to 11 per cent in the rate of investment in the economy, growth in the current year would be 7.5 per cent, 7.9 per cent in 2016-17 and 8 per cent in 2017-18.
• “The government has made progress in several policy areas, and long-term prospects for growth remain bright for India,” said Mr. Ruhl. Continuous strong momentum in reforms aimed at strengthening the business environment and enhancing the quality of public spending will further unleash the productivity that Indian firms need for creating jobs and becoming globally competitive, he said.
• He stressed the need for reducing the pipeline of stuck projects, especially in the Public Private Partnership space for lifting the investments rate. Balance sheets of both companies and banks, he said, are stressed due to the stuck projects.
• The analysis of MGNREGA in the update shows that the programme’s impact on rural poverty in Bihar is only 1 percentage point as against its potential of reducing poverty by at least 14 percentage points. Among the main reasons why the potential is not being realised, the study says, is that the supply side is too slow to respond to the demand for work from the poor, workers not receiving the full scheme wage and delays in wage payments.
• “Discrepancies in the stipulated wage rages and the actual wages received by workers are contributing to the gap between potential and realised impacts…payment delays have emerged as a major bottleneck and are a strong disincentive to participating in the programme,” said a statement. “If MGNREGA were to be implemented effectively, its design would ensure that there is no unmet demand for work,” said the study’s author and lead economist at the Bank Rinku Murgai.

Modi may attend Afghan Parliament inauguration

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to attend the inauguration of the new Parliament building in Kabul after he was extended an invitation by visiting Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani.
• According to a source, the Indian side was recently informed that as elections are drawing near, the outgoing Parliamentarians have expressed a wish to mark the end of their term from the new Parliament building.
• “The Central Public Works Department (CPWD), which is carrying out the work on India’s behalf, has assured Afghan officials that all work will be wound up by September 30, and the Parliament building will be functional by October for their last session. The only work left is carpeting and sound system, the rest has been completed,” the source told .
• The Rs.710-crore project, initiated in 2009 and initially scheduled for a December 2012 completion, is part of India’s $2-billion aid.

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