Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 23 March 2017

:: National ::

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has defended the amendment to link Aadhaar with PAN

• Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has defended the amendment to the Finance Bill, cleared by the Lok Sabha, making an Aadhaar number mandatory for issuing a PAN card. The biometric security of Aadhaar, he said, would prevent individuals holding multiple PAN cards and evading tax.

• “In a situation where it has come to light that one citizen has up to five PAN cards, to avoid that, we have linked the PAN to Aadhaar,” Mr. Jaitley said in the Lok Sabha.

• About 98% of the adult population is covered by Aadhaar and 108 crore cards have been issued.

• It is an anti-evasion measure and for the benefit of the country.”

• He also sought to allay concerns in Parliament about aggressive and unwarranted searches and seizures by Income-Tax officials. The assessing officer, he said, could only make searches after recording the source of their information regarding undisclosed income.

• Mr. Jaitley said the Central Board of Direct Taxes had so far identified 18 lakh names whose large bank deposits did not match their income profile. Communications had been sent to all the 18 lakh assessees and and 8.78 lakh people had already responded.

• The fear is that there will be many searches and seizures under Section 132A,  he said. “But before searching, the assessing officer has to get the information about undisclosed income. The source of the information and all other details have to be explained.”

• The political verdict of the people on demonetisation was clear, the Finance Minister said alluding to the performance of the BJP in the recent Assembly elections in five States.

• “One of the benefits of demonetisation is that the anonymity associated with cash has been hurt and this will have an effect on the economy. Crime does not end. But does cash incentivise crime? Experience from around the world has shown that more cash leads to more tax evasion and more crime.”

• Mr. Jaitley said the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council was trying to implement the new tax regime by July 1,2017. “The GST Council has met 12 times so far and all the significant decisions were taken by consensus.”

Ceasefire violations and casualties reduced post surgical strikes

• The Centre told the Rajya Sabha that ceasefire violations and casualties on the Indian side of the Line of Control (LoC) and the international border had come down after the surgical strikes..

• It said this in reply to a question as to whether terrorist activities had increased after surgical strikes along the LoC.

• The ceasefire violations by Pakistan have come down post-surgical strikes. There were 228 ceasefire violations at the LoC in 2016 and 221 at the IB [international border]. However, till February 2017, there have only been 22 ceasefire violations and six on the IB,” Minister of State for Home Affairs Hansraj Gangaram Ahir said.

• The civilian casualties and injuries in 2017 have been zero at the IB and the LoC, whereas in 2016, there were 13 civilian casualties and 83 injured on the LoC and 8 casualties on the IB and 74 were injured. Five BSF jawans lost their lives and 25 were injured along the international border.

• While Leader of the Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad accused the government of not giving the full reply, Home Minister Rajnath Singh disagreed with him.

• Mr. Singh also put the onus on Pakistan for the resumption of dialogue, saying it should end cross-border terrorism. Pakistan should at least make a beginning and say it is willing to talk and end the terrorist activities Pakistan should take an initiative.

• CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury asked why there was no movement on a dialogue with all stake-holders in Kashmir despite an all-party delegation led by the government calling for it.

• Listing some of the initiatives, Mr. Singh said the selection process for the armed police forces was over and job opportunities for Kashmiri youth had increased.

Mars could once have had rings, and the Red Planet may regain them again

• Mars could once have had rings, and the Red Planet may regain them again, according to a new study.

• A new model developed by scientists at Purdue University in the U.S. suggests that debris that was pushed into space from an asteroid slamming into Mars around 4.3 billion years ago alternates between becoming a planetary ring and clumping together to form a moon.

• According to one theory, Mars’ large North Polar Basin or Borealis Basin which covers about 40% of the planet in its northern hemisphere was created by that impact, sending debris into space.

• That large impact would have blasted enough material off the surface of Mars to form a ring.

• As the ring formed, and the debris slowly moved away from the planet and spread out, it began to clump and eventually formed a moon.

• Over time, Mars’ gravitational pull would have pulled that moon towards the planet until it reached the Roche limit, the distance within which a planet’s tidal forces will break apart a celestial body that is held together only by gravity.

• Phobos, one of Mars’ moons, is getting closer to the planet. According to the model, Phobos will break apart upon reaching the Roche limit, and become a set of rings in roughly 70 million years.

• Depending on where the Roche limit is, Mr. Hesselbrock and David Minton believe this cycle may have repeated between three and seven times over billions of years. Each time a moon broke apart and reformed from the ring, its successor moon would be five times smaller than the last.

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:: International ::

Sri Lanka’s persistent failure to probe war-era atrocities condemned by UN

• The UN rights chief condemned Sri Lanka’s persistent failure to probe war-era atrocities, suggesting that the government was afraid of punishing soldiers who committed abuses during the conflict.

• The criticism from ZeidRa’ad Al-Hussein is the latest volley in an escalating war of words between the United Nations and Sri Lanka over impunity for crimes committed during the 37-year civil war, which ended in 2009.

• Mr. Hussein and the council have called for international judges to help investigate possible war crimes to guarantee impartiality.

• But earlier this month, Sri Lankan President MaithripalaSirisena rejected the appeal, saying he would not “allow non-governmental organisations to dictate how to run my government”, nor heed calls to “to prosecute my troops”.

• Colombo has also asked the UN for two more years to set up a war-era probe, after Mr. Sirisena’s government agreed to the terms of an October 2015 UN resolution calling for an inquiry to be formed within 18 months.

• At least 1,00,000 people were killed during the separatist war between government forces and rebels from the Tamil Tigers group, with atrocities recorded by both sides.

China is in the middle of a complex diplomatic dance with West Asia

• China is in the middle of a complex diplomatic dance with West Asia, by engaging rivals such as Syria, Saudi Arabia, Israel and Iran, all at the same time.

• Visiting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Chinese President Xi Jinping announced an “innovative comprehensive partnership” between both countries.

• China’s focus in the “partnership” is on maximising absorption of Israel’s technology in hi-tech and other advanced domains.

• That dovetails well with the ‘Made in China-2025’ strategy of transitioning China’s manufacturing to the advanced level by leveraging the Internet, Big Data and robotics among the key tools.

• In that endeavour, China is pursuing the industry 4.0 model pioneered by Germany. In his remarks as paraphrased by Xinhua, President Xi singled out “innovation cooperation” as the motor driving overall ties with Israel.

• Israel hopes to participate in the Belt and Road Initiative — fast becoming a litmus test defining the health of any nation’s ties with China.

• With energy, and infrastructure investments by China as the centre, the two countries ended up signing agreements and letters of intent worth around $65 billion involving investment, energy, space and other areas.

• Closer ties with Riyadh have not diluted China’s strong relationship with Iran, Saudi Arabia’s archrival, highlighting Beijing’s non-zero sum approach to the region.

• China and Russia have been active partners preventing “regime change” in Syria, which is also strongly backed by Iran.

• It adds: “Under such circumstances, China should continue its present stance and work firmly on economic cooperation. To strengthen its economic power and partnership in a low-profile manner is the right strategy for China's Middle East policy.”

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