Current Affairs - 21 January 2014

CM on the road

• Leading a group of an estimated 150 cadre from his Aam Aadmi Party, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal defied prohibitory orders on Monday to launch an unprecedented protest outside Parliament House, demanding executive control of the Delhi Police and the transfer of police personnel his government says defied orders from Ministers.
• A visibly-angry Mr. Kejriwal also said his party would not be responsible for any disruption to the upcoming Republic Day parade, the route for which passes just metres from the protest site.
• He also said his party would “teach a lesson” to the Congress, which supports the AAP government in Delhi, in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. Mr. Kejriwal’s protests come days after Delhi Law Minister Somnath Bharti controversially led a vigilante group which forcibly detained four Ugandan and Nigerian women, alleging they were involved in prostitution and drug trafficking. The Delhi Chief Minister also accused the police of mishandling a gang-rape of a 51-year-old Danish tourist early last week.
• The Union Home Ministry has said it will expedite a probe into the conduct of the police officers, but an FIR and been registered against unknown perpetrators involved in the vigilante action.
• Mr. Shinde dismissed Mr. Kejriwal’s demands, and asked the chief minister to await the findings of a judicial inquiry ordered by the Lieutenant-Governor.

Industry Ministry says, Delhi government cannot de-notify FDI in retail

• As the Centre and the Arvind Kejriwal government cross swords over the demand for suspension of four Delhi policemen, the two appear to be headed for another confrontation, this time over Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in multi-brand retail.
• The Centre has rejected the Delhi government’s proposed de-notification of FDI in the State.
• “The Centre’s policy is that we give States an option to decide if they would like FDI in retail.
• Once they say ‘yes’ and the Industry Ministry notifies it, there can be no reversals,” the sources added.
• Union Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma had told reporters that the Centre had approved FDI in response to “expressed demands” from farmers and consumers.
• “It seems the AAP does not understand aam aadmi issues. The FDI policy carries conditions on creation of back-end rural jobs.

Iran's uranium enrichment plan

• The U.N. atomic watchdog on Monday confirmed that Iran’s partial nuclear freeze, part of a landmark deal with world powers struck in November, began on Monday as planned.
• The International Atomic Energy Agency said in a report to member states that Iran “has ceased enriching uranium above five per cent” fissile purities at the Natanz and Fordo facilities.
• The report said Iran was also converting medium-enriched uranium, a particular concern to the international community since it can be relatively easily further purified to weapons-grade.
• It added that Iran “is not conducting any further advances to its activities” at Natanz, Fordo or the heavy-water reactor under construction at Arak, which could in theory provide Iran with weapons-grade plutonium.
• In addition, Iran “is continuing to construct” a plant for the conversion of low-enriched uranium needed to ensure that its reserve of this material does not grow during the next half-year, the report said.

Moily sets up team to reassess hydrocarbon resources

• Moving to re-assess the oil and gas potential of the country, Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Veerappa Moily on Monday announced setting up of a Multi Organisation Team (MOT) to carry out the re-assessment of hydrocarbon resources in all 26 sedimentary basins.
• The assessment is to be completed within 30 months. The Keshav Dev Malviya Institute of Petroleum Engineering (KDMIPE) of the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) will act as MOT leader with the Director (Exploration) of the ONGC being its chairman, and the Director (Exploration & Development) of Oil India Ltd (OIL) as the co-chairman. A National Level Committee headed by the Petroleum Secretary will monitor and review the progress of work periodically, an official statement said.
• The last such exercise was carried out in 15 sedimentary basins about two decades ago and is overdue for a full-scale revision in view of the vast amount of data collected since then.
• There is also an urgent need for the fresh estimation in the remaining 11 sedimentary basins as well, for which no hydrocarbon resources have been estimated so far.
• During the course of implementation of pre-NELP (New Exploration Licensing Policy) and NELP rounds and other exploration and production activities, substantial geo-scientific data have been acquired and interpreted.
• New oil and gas fields have also been discovered by utilising improved geological understanding and new technology. With the increase in exploration spread and quantum jump in availability of geo-scientific data generated under the NELP, it was felt there is a need to revisit the hydrocarbon resource assessment of India.

Global weather events & EL Nino

• The world’s most devastating global weather phenomenon — the weather events associated with “El Nino” — will double in frequency to once a decade if global warming remains unchecked, according to what scientists believe is a major step forward in the understanding of such events.
• The last extreme El Nino, in 1997—98, resulted in the hottest year on record, and the accompanying floods, cyclones, droughts and wildfires killed an estimated 23,000 people and caused £21bn—£28bn in damage, particularly to food production. But until now scientists have been unable to agree how climate change will affect the frequency of extreme El Ninos.
• The new study, published in the journal Nature Climate Change, concludes that in stark contrast to earlier work, the current rate of carbon emissions would mean twice as many extreme El Ninos over the next 100 years, with profound socioeconomic consequences.
• By focusing on those models known to best represent the changes in temperature, currents and clouds that occur in the real world, the researchers were able to produce a clear result for the first time.
• The work showed that climate change is most likely to warm the tropical Pacific waters that drive El Nino more rapidly than surrounding regions, meaning that extreme events would become twice as common.

Woman mayor elected CAR’s interim president

• The mayor of Bangui, Catherine Samba-Panza, was on Monday elected interim president of the Central African Republic tasked with restoring peace to the country torn by sectarian bloodshed.
• Samba-Panza was elected in a second-round vote by the transitional parliament, securing 75 votes against 53 for Desire Kolingba, the son of a former Central African president.
• Cheers broke out in the assembly as the result was announced, with lawmakers singing the national anthem in celebration.

RBI standardises gold loan norms

• The Reserve Bank of India (RBI), on Monday, said that it had been decided to prescribe a loan-to-value (LTV) ratio of not exceeding 75 per cent for banks’ lending against gold jewellery, including bullet-repayment loans against pledge of gold jewellery.
• “Therefore, henceforth loans sanctioned by banks should not exceed 75 per cent of the value of gold ornaments and jewellery,” the RBI said in a notification to all banks.
• Further, it has been decided that gold jewellery accepted as security / collateral will have to be valued at the average of the closing price of 22 carat gold for the preceding 30 days as quoted by the India Bullion and Jewellers Association Ltd. [Formerly known as the Bombay Bullion Association Ltd. (BBA)].
• The central bank reiterated that banks should continue to observe necessary and usual safeguards, and also have a suitable policy for lending against gold jewellery with the approval of their boards of directors.

MCX-SX starts Interest Rate Futures

• The MCX Stock Exchange (MCX-SX), on Monday, started live trading in cash-settled Interest Rate Futures (IRF) in its Currency Derivatives Segment, which witnessed a turnover of Rs.928.39 crore.
• “Among the first to trade on the product were IDBI Bank and ICICI Securities Primary Dealership Ltd from the institutional side and the East India Securities Ltd from the intermediary side.
• The product witnessed turnover of Rs.928.39 crore on the exchange, with total traded volume at 45,642 lots. At the end of trading day, the Open Interest (OI) position stood at 10,690 lots,” MCX-SX said in a release.
  
  
  Source UPSC Portal