Current Affairs for IAS Exams – 21 January 2016

:: NATIONAL ::

Terrorist attack in Bacha Khan University

• Armed militants stormed a university in volatile north-western Pakistan, killing at least 20 people and wounding dozens a little more than a year after the massacre of 134 students at a school in the area.

• The violence nevertheless shows militants retain the ability to launch attacks, despite a nationwide anti-terrorism crackdown and a military campaign against their strongholds along the lawless border with Afghanistan.

• Death toll could rise to 40 at Bacha Khan University in Charsadda. The Army said it had concluded operations to clear the campus six hours after the attack began, and that four gunmen were dead.

• A spokesman for rescue workers said 19 bodies had been recovered, including those of students, guards, policemen and at least one teacher, named by the media as chemistry professor Syed Hamid Husain. Husain reportedly shot back at the gunmen with a pistol to allow his students to flee.

PSLV C-31 put fifth IRNSS-1E satellite in orbit

• In yet another textbook launch, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) launched IRNSS-1E, the fifth of the seven-satellite Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS) into space.

• ISRO’s workhorse PSLV C-31 rocket lifted the 1,425 kg satellite from the second launchpad of the Satish Dhawan Space Centre and placed it in the intended orbit some 19 minutes later. This is ISRO’s first launch for this year.

• IRNSS-1E with a mission life of 12 years was launched into a sub geosynchronous transfer orbit with a 284 km perigee (nearest point to Earth) and 20,657 km apogee (farthest point from Earth) with an inclination of 19.2 degree with reference to the equatorial plane.

• IRNSS-1E carried navigation and ranging payloads, including a rubidium atomic clock, C-band transponder and corner cube retro reflectors for laser ranging.

• The signal-in-space of four satellites has already been validated by various agencies within and outside the country.

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:: INTERNATIONAL ::

Srilanka ready to come up with new constitution

• Even as Sri Lanka is preparing to come up with a new Constitution with devo- lution as one of the key issues,the 13 th Amendment, which created provincial councils in the country, is again in the limelight.

• While former President MahindaRajapaksa has argued that the proposed scheme of devolution should not exceed the terms of the amendment, with no to any merger of provinces and the transfer of land and police powers to provincial councils.

• The amendment was an outcome of an agreement re- ached between India and Sri Lanka in 1987.

• Pointing out that Sri Lanka is estimated to have 89,000 war widows, including around 54,000 in the Northern Province, he says “lack or absence of livelihood opportunities” is the major problem being faced by the women.

2015 temperature was 0.9 Celsius more than 20th century margin

• Last year was the planet’s hottest in modern times by the widest margin on record, setting a troubling new milestone as the climate warms at an in- creasing pace, U.S. scientists.

• During 2015, the average temperature across global land and ocean surfaces was 1.62 [0.90 Celsius] above the 20th century average.

• This was the highest among all years in the 1880- 2015 record. This is also the largest margin by which the annual global temperature record has been broken.

• The report, which was confirmed by a separate analysis from NASA scientists, marks the fourth time a global temperature re- cord has been set this century.

• The latest finding adds to a steady rise in heat across land and sea surfaces that have seen records repeatedly broken over the years.

Rupee slumps worries investors in India

• India’s benchmark equity indices fell to their lowest levels in 20 months as concerns about a global economic slowdown amid slumping commodity prices and a weakening rupee spurred investors to sell shares.

• The rupee breached the 68a-dollar mark for the first time since August 2013. It closed at a record low of 68.85 a dollar on August 28, 2013, just days before Raghuram Rajan took charge as RBI Governor.

• The fall in the Indian indices was in line with that of the negative trend in the global markets. Among the leading Asian indices, both Hang Seng and Nikkei lost more than 3 per cent each.

• India is better placed to recover but will have to wait for an overall upturn. The markets will consolidate at current levels and then will wait for cues from the budget.

• Equity markets globally have been witnessing weakness on account of an economic slowdown in China. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has already cut its global growth outlook thrice in less than a year.

• Crude futures fell below $28 per barrel – the lowest level since 2003–over concerns of an oversupply amidst falling demand on account of the bearish economic outlook.

• Data as per the National Securities Depository Ltd (NSDL) shows that foreign institutional investors (FIIs) have sold Indian shares worth Rs.7,146 crore.

In order to promote renewable energy new tariff policy approved by cabinet

• The Union Cabinet has approvedseveral amendments to the national power tariff policy with a viewto promote renewable energy andimprove the ease of doing businessfor developers in the sector.

• In a major shift, power companies are allowed to pass costs on toconsumers arising out of any changes in taxes, cesses and levies levied on them.

• The policy also seeks to “create a win-win between the generator,utilities and consumers” by allow-ing power generators to sell theirsurplus power on the power ex-change and sharing the proceedswith the state government.

• The amendments are based on four Es—electricity for all, efficiency that will ensure affordable tariffs, the environment, and ease of doing business to attract greater investment in the sector

• The amended tariff policy also imposes a renewable energy obligation on new coal or lignite-based thermal plants, requiring them to establish or purchase renewable capacity alongside their own generation units.

• The new policy also mandates that no inter-state transmission charges will be levied until a time to be specified by the government.

• The costs and business models fordifferent renewable alternatives such as rooftop solar or grid-connected sources are constantlyevolving so the decision won’t be top-down any longer,”

• To encourage efficiency, the policy allows power producers to expand up to double their capacity through the automatic route, at their existing unit locations.

• This automatic approval was earlier limited to 50 per cent capacity expansions.

• Further, the tariffs for multi-state power projects will be deter-mined by the Central ElectricityRegulatory Commission, thereby removing a major point of uncertainty to do with such projects.

• The amended policy also said that the power regulator has to come up with a clear action plan to ensure 24x7 power supply to all consumers by 2021-22 or earlier.

• Towards the power for all initiative, the policy enables the creation of micro-grids in remote villages as yet unconnected to the grid, and also says that these micro-grids can sell their surplus power to the grid when it reaches those areas.

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Sources: Various News Papers & PIB

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