Euthanasia

Introduction

Euthanasia is the termination of a very sick person's life in order to relieve them of their suffering.The term is derived from the Greek word euthanatos which means easy death.

Ethics Involved :

Euthanasia raises a number of agonising moral dilemmas:

• is it ever right to end the life of a terminally ill patient who is undergoing severe pain and suffering?
• under what circumstances can euthanasia be justifiable, if at all?
• is there a moral difference between killing someone and letting them die?

Why Euthanasia should be forbidden ? 

Religious opponents of euthanasia believe that life is given by God, and only God should decide when to end it.
"First, do no harm" is the oldest oath in medicine. It solemnly confers the doctor's duty to prevent rather than cause distress. When it comes to treating children, doctors are especially mindful of this obligation.

Maoist

Introduction : 

Naxalites of the Communist Party of India (Maoist), or Maoists in short, founded in September 2004, is the largest and most lethal Naxalite outfit in India having a presence –– intense to nominal –– in 20 states, spread across 203 districts.

To run a war machinery of this size the outfit requires large amounts of funds.

Financial Policy Adopted by them : 

At the 9th/Unity Congress, held in 2007 January, the CPI (Maoist) adopted a document entitled “Our Financial Policy”. This document enumerates the Maoists’ financial policy, identifies sources of finances, mentions areas of expenditure and issues guidelines to avoid wrong, wasteful expenditure.

Actors : 

Through a consultative process involving various levels the Central Committee fixes the annual amount to be collected at the all-India level. The Zonal Committee appears to be the basic unit responsible for conveying the decision on the amount to be collected from each source.

Maldives

Feb 2014 :

Religious Conservatism :

• The Maldives, a string of 1,192 islands, has made several moves to cement the supremacy of Sunni Islam since Yameen was sworn in as president in November 2013.
• The Ministry of Islamic Affairs has set its top priorities for 2014, which include blocking all religions except Islam in the nation, ensuring that all laws and regulations adhere to Islamic principles and developing and strengthening the Islamic Fiqh Academy to issue fatwas. 
• The ministry has also signed an agreement with the Saudi Arabian Muslim Scholars Association to receive a grant of MVR1.6 million, or $104,166, for the “mutual goal” of developing and improving the study of the Quran and religion.
• The Ministry of Education has meanwhile introduced Arabic as a subject in schools.

Before 2014 :

• Just before it hosted the SAARC summit in 2012, the Maldives allowed China to open an embassy. 
• Maldives requested China for a soft loan of Rs. 250 crore for an IT infrastructure project.
• The Sri Lankan subsidiary of Chinese telecom equipment-maker Huawei Technologies has signed an agreement with the National Centre of Information Technologies, Maldives, to develop the IT infrastructure under the ‘Smart Maldives Project.’
• EC declares presidential elections to be held on september 2013.
• India stiffens medical visa facility for Maldivians
•  India is also angry over detention and deportation of Indian travelers and confiscation of the passports of Indian workers there by their employers.
• Nasheed, who defeated former autocratic President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom in the 2008 election but was ousted in an alleged coup in February 2012, had promised to bring true democracy for the nation’s progress.

Namdapha National park

October 2013 : 

• Center cleared a 157km Miao-VijayNagar road project that will connect Vijaynagar circle in Changlang district of Arunanchal Pradesh along the Indo-Myanmar border,100 km of which passes through Namdapha National Park.

About :

• Namdapha National Park is the largest protected area in the Eastern Himalaya biodiversity hotspot and is located in Arunachal Pradesh in Northeast India.
•  It is also the third largest national park in India in terms of area.
•  The area is also known for extensive Dipterocarp forests.
• The park is located in Changlang district of the Northeastern state of Arunachal Pradesh, near its border with Myanmar.
•  The park is located between the Dapha bum range of the Mishmi Hills and the Patkai range

Fauna :  

•  Four big cat species occurre in the park: snow leopards, clouded leopards, common leopards and tigers
• Smaller carnivores include red panda, red fox

National Disaster Response Force

Formation : 

• Two national calamities in quick succession in the form of Orissa super cyclone(1999) and Gujarat Earthquake(2001) brought about the realization of having a specialist response mechanism at National Level to effectively respond to such disasters.
• This realization led to the enactment of Disaster Management act on 26 Dec 2005.
• The NDMA was constituted to formalize the plans,policies and guidelines for DM.
• NDRF established in 2009

Constitutes : 

• DM act has made statutory provisions to make NDRF  for the purpose of specialized response to natural and man-made disasters.
• Accordingly , NDRF was constituted with 8 battalions(2 each from BSF,CRPF,ITBP,CISF).
• Present location of NDRF Bns are as follows:
• Ghaziabad
• Bhatinda
• Kolkata
• Guwahati
• Mundali,Orissa
• Arakkonam , TN
• Pune
• GandhiNagar
• Patna(under construction)
• Guntur, Andhra Pradesh(under construction)

News : 26 Jan - 31 Jan 2014

News

Appointments : 

1. Sushil Koirala is set to become Nepal’s next Prime Minister after being elected on 26 Jan as the Parliamentary Party leader of the Nepali Congress, which emerged as the single largest party in the Constituent Assembly elections.
2. Hery Rajaonarimampianina : New president of Madagascar
3. U.S. President Barack Obama has nominated Vice Admiral Michael Rogers, a Navy cyber-warfare specialist to be the next Director of the National Security Agency

Resignations/Retirements

Obituaries

Awards

1. Susanne Hoeber Rudolph, the William Benton Distinguished Service Professor Emerita at the University of Chicago, and Lloyd I. Rudolph, Professor Emeritus of Political Science at the University of Chicago, will each receive the Padma Bhushan, the third highest civilian award in India.Three Indian-Americans — Ashok Kumar Mago, Dr Siddharth Mukherjee and Dr. Vamsi Mootha — will receive the Padma Shri awards.  
2. Grammy Awards : Daft Punk, a French duo who hide their faces under robot-like helmets and have become elder statesmen of electronic dance music, won four prizes, including album of the year for Random Access Memories and record of the year for Get Lucky, their ubiquitous hit with Pharrell Williams and Nile Rodgers. 

Sports

1. Stanislas Wawrinka beat an injured Rafael Nadal 6-3, 6-2, 3-6, 6-3  in Australian Open final which will take the Swiss to third in the world. 

International

1. After decades of dictatorship and two years of arguments and compromises, Tunisians have a new constitution laying the foundations for a new democracy.An entire chapter of the document, some 28 articles, is dedicated to protecting citizens’ rights, including protection from torture, the right to due process, and freedom of worship. It guarantees equality between men and women before the law and the state commits itself to protecting women’s rights. Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki and outgoing Prime Minister Ali Larayedh signed the document 
2. Karzai’s government has presented evidence of dubious authenticity in an attempt to substantiate U.S. collateral damage in  Afghanistan to avoid signing the bilateral security agreement (BSA) with the United States – an agreement that would grant a legal basis for U.S. troops to remain in Afghanistan after 2014.
3. Ukraine’s President Viktor Yanukovich has offered the post of Prime Minister to one of the opposition leaders Arseny Yatsenyuk , in apparent effort to head off mounting violent protests against his rule. #ukraine Crisis
4. India and Japan signed 8 pacts and was an effort for continuing efforts in the direction of security,political and defense ties.More
5. The 13^th edition of joint exercise by the Indian Coast Guard and its Japanese counterpart held approximately at 20 nautical miles off Kochi. The bilateral exercise titled ‘Sahayog-Kaijin 2014’ was successfully conducted by both the countries. 
6. Teenage activist Malala Yousafzai’s bestselling book I am Malala cannot be discuss in her native province as the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provincial government stopped the University of Peshawar from holding a programme on it.

Ukraine Crisis

Reason : 

• Public protests started in December 2013 over President Viktor Yanukovych’s decision to abandon a deal with the European Union in favour of aid and natural gas agreements with Russia.

Effects

• Ukraine’s Prime Minister Mykola Azarov tendered his resignation in order to facilitate “peaceful settlement” of the political crisis even as the Parliament repealed the harsh anti-protest laws that triggered violent anti-government protests in Jan 2014

President took Steps : 

• Ukraine’s President Viktor Yanukovych has signed into law repeal of anti-protest laws and a controversial amnesty for protesters.
• The opposition supported the bill scrapping harsh anti-protest laws which had triggered violent clashes with police last week, but rejected the amnesty bill because it was conditional on protesters vacating government offices they seized in the capital Kiev and other cities.
• Mr. Yanukovych has softened his position by putting an amnesty for protesters through Parliament and by offering the prime ministership and deputy prime ministership to the respective opposition leaders, Arseny Yatsenyuk and Vitali Klitschko. But the opposition parties are furious that the amnesty requires the protesters to vacate the occupied buildings, and the offer of political posts has been rejected. 

Industrial Employment Standing Orders Act, 1946

Introduction : 

• To avoid friction between employers and the workmen employed in the company.
• Steps taken by the central government to enact Industrial employment (Standing Orders ) act 1946 with a view to protect workmen.

Objectives

• This order regulates the conditions of employement , grievances,misconduct etc of the workers employed.

Procedure for the approval of Standing Orders : 

• Procedure for the submission of Draft Standing orders {Section 3}
• Procedure for the conditions for certification of Standing Orders{Section 4}
• Procedure for certification for Standing Orders(Procedure for Adoption){Section 5}
• Appeals{Section 6}

Foreign Portfolio Investment

• In economics, foreign portfolio investment is the entry of funds into a country where foreigners make purchases in the country’s stock and bond markets, sometimes for speculation.
• It is a usually short term investment (sometimes less than a year, or with involvement in the management of the company), as opposed to the longer term Foreign Direct Investment partnership (possibly through joint venture), involving transfer of technology and "know-how".
• Foreign Portfolio Investment (FPI): passive holdings of securities and other financial assets, which do NOT entail active management or control of the securities's issuer
• FPIs bring together all the three investment categories — foreign institutional investors (FIIs), their sub-accounts and qualified foreign investors (QFIs).
• The Central Board of Direct Taxes has notified that the new class of investors, FPIs, would be treated as FIIs under the Income Tax Act, 1961

Jan 2014

• The government has said that foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) will attract uniform tax rate across categories. 
• It will be beneficial to QFI. 
• Under the new norms, FPIs have been divided into three categories as per their risk profile and the KYC (Know Your Client) requirements, and other registration procedures would be much simpler for FPIs compared to the current practices.

MNREGA

• MNREGA will help implement direct benefit transfers.
• MNREGA has brought momentum in the financial inclusion of our rural population. More than four crore accounts have been opened in banks while more than that have been opened in post offices. These accounts will assist us in reaching the incentives of the Direct Benefit Transfer Scheme to the rural population

News : 15-22 Oct 2013

Appointments :

1. The Madhya Pradesh government  constituted a judicial commission headed by Rakesh Saxena to probe the stampede at Ratangarh in Datia district on October 13.

Books

1. RICHARD DAWKINS : An Appetite for Wonder

International

1. India has moved from 65 to 63 in the Global Hunger Index, making a marginal improvement since 2012, but continues to languish far behind other emerging economies. The score for the country improved slightly from 22.9 in 2012 to 21.3 this year. As has been the trend, within SAARC countries too, India continued to trail behind Pakistan and Bangladesh on the index.The index is prepared by the International Food Policy Research Institute along with Welthungerhilfe and Concern Worldwide.


2. Pre-COP (Conference of Parties), is organised to firm up the agenda for the meeting, where all member-countries of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change gather held at POLAND.


3. Typhoon Wipha, packing winds of 140 kilometre per hour (km/hr), is moving towards north Tokyo where the crippled Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant lies