Civil Service Examination 2015

UPSC : Civil Service Examination 2015 notification is out.

More Details : http://www.upsc.gov.in/

Notification : http://www.upsc.gov.in/exams/notifications/2015/CSP_2015/CSP_2015_eng.pdf

The Government has approved the following in respect of Civil Services Examination: 

• An Expert Committee would be constituted to comprehensively examine various issues raised from time to time namely, eligibility, syllabus, scheme and pattern of Civil Services Examination. 
• Till such time the Government takes decision on the recommendation of the above Committee, the General Studies Paper-II(CSAT) in the Civil Services(Preliminary) Examination will remain a qualifying paper with a minimum qualifying marks fixed at 33%. 
• The English Language comprehension skill portion from General Studies Paper-II of Civil Services(Preliminary) Examination will continue to remain excluded. 
• The above decisions are incorporated in the CSE Rules-2015. 


The Civil Services Examination, 2015, which was scheduled to be notified on 16.05.2015 is now being postponed. The revised date of notification will be intimated in due course.

News : Apr 1- Apr 7 2015

 

Appointments : 

Resignations/Retirements

Obituaries 

• Malli Mastan Babu, Indian mountaineer, was found dead in the Andes mountain ranges in Chile in South America.Mastan Babu had the distinction of setting a Guinness Book record by surmounting seven peaks in seven continents in 172 days in 2006.

Awards

Sports

International 

• The Mount Sinabung volcano in Indonesia’s North Sumatra province erupted.Mount Sinabung is among over 120 active volcanoes in Indonesia, which is prone to seismic upheavals owing to its location on the “Pacific Ring of Fire”.
• “The Future of World Religions: Population Growth Projections, 2010-2050,” by the Pew Research Center : World population of Hindus grow rapidly from now to 2050.But muslims tend to surpass all religion by 2050.Fertility rate : Muslims : 3.1 Children per women , Hindus : 2.4 per woman then Jews then buddhism.India will surpass indonesia in Muslim population by 2050.
• IS works with al-Qaeda to seize most of Palestinian camp in Damascu.
• Russia has decided to join the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) 
• Forbes Middle East has released the names of the 100 richest Arab personalities in the world, the first position going to Saudi Arabia’s Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Al Saud with an estimated fortune of $22.6 billion.Bill Gates presides over the ranking this year, with $79.2 billion.
• Malaysia's lawmakers passed an anti-terrorism bill that reintroduces detention without trial, three years after it was revoked. 

National 

• The Navy has dispatched its destroyer INS Mumbai and stealth frigate INS Tarkash and patrol vessle INS Sumitra for evacuation of Indians from Aden in Yemen. : Operation RAAHAT
• Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu and PepsiCo chairperson and chief executive officer Indra Nooyi jointly inaugurated the company’s largest unit of Greenfield production unit at Sri City in Chittoor district.

Polity 

•  National Democratic Alliance government re-promulgated the land acquisition ordinance just a day before it lapsed.Though the government had passed the Right to Fair compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Resettlement and rehabilitation (Amendment) Bill, 2015, (LARR) in Lok sabha during budget session, it was not able to get it push it through Rajya Sabha where the Bharatiya Janata Party is in minority.President Pranab Mukherjee signed the ordinance. If the amendment comes into effect, public-private partnership projects, including private health and educational institutions, defence manufacturing projects, land purchase for affordable housing projects, industrial corridors and rural infrastructure will not require consent from land owners/farmers; SIA will also not be mandatory.

Economics

• The core infrastructure industries of coal, crude oil, oil refining, natural gas, steel, cement, electricity and fertilisers account for 37.9 per cent of the industrial output.Five of the eight sectors have shown negative growth rates.8 sectors showed a marginal growth of 1.4 per cent in February.

Env & Ecology 

• Super typhoon Maysak slows down,earlier hit Micronesia region ,east of the Philippine.
• Recent warming of the Pacific Ocean may signal an El Nino weather event is forming.Such climatic conditions would prove a blow for Australian wheat production, which is reliant on rains in winter and spring. 
• Kerela scientists  have reported the discovery of a rare species of plant Named Oldenlandia dineshi, the plant is a shrub with long linear tapering leaves and dark blue flowers, from the Palakkad gap region of the Western Ghats, highlighting the floral diversity.
• The Russian Federation has submitted its Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs). It has committed to cutting anthropogenic (human activity-led) greenhouse gas emissions by 25-30 per cent by 2030 over 1990 levels. This makes it the 32nd developed nation to submit its climate action plan. These countries represent nearly 80 per cent of total emissions from industrialised nations.In all, 35 countries have formally submitted INDCs, including Mexico as the first developing country and Gabon as the first African country to give their climate plans

Science & Tech 

• Darbha (Desmotachya bipinnata) is a tropical grass considered a sacred material in Vedic scriptures and is said to purify the offerings during such rituals.Traditional tropical grass, Darbha, has been identified as an eco-friendly food preservative. 
• A recent study by Indian and Austrian scientists has led to the discovery of the cause of the ‘Blood Rain’ phenomenon to be dispersal of spores of micro algae. Since 1896, reports have been coming in of sporadic instances of red coloured rain over parts of Kerala and Sri Lanka. The latest one was in 2013 over Kerala.
• Armed with an asteroid hunter, lunar flashlight and DNA kit, NASA will launch the unmanned Orion spacecraft using the Space Launch System (SLS) — its largest, most powerful rocket booster ever built — in 2018.
• The secondary payloads are Near—Earth Asteroid (NEA) Scout, Lunar Flashlight and BioSentinel.
• NEA Scout, using solar sail propulsion, will fly by a small asteroid, taking pictures and making observations that will enhance the current understanding of an the asteroid environment.
• NASA’s Lunar Flashlight will scout for locations on the lunar surface that are rich in resources that, once broken down into their component molecules, could be used in future exploration.
• The BioSentinel mission will be the first time living organisms have traveled to deep space in over 40 years and the spacecraft will operate in the deep space radiation environment throughout its 18—month mission.

Health  

• The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) has indicted Maharashtra for generating the highest amount of solid waste in the country. 
• An M3 score reflects your mental health – whether or not you are suffering from depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, or post traumatic stress disorder; and if so, how severe the problem is.
• The Rajasthan State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) has asked the government to take a fresh look at the Mines Act, 1952 to contain the alarming spread of occupational diseases and effectively deal with violators.SHRC has said it should be made compulsory for mine owners to use modern technology for extraction of sandstone and other dimensional stones.Silicosis is an incurable respiratory disease caused by inhaling silica dust and is widespread among miners.
• PM Narendra Modi released the national Air Quality Index (AQI) and health alert for public information. The Index that was launched in New Delhi will be used to inform people about daily air quality and to provide advisories on health consequences.he new AQI has been hosted on the website of the Central Pollution Control Board. The AQI has been developed for six pollutants – PM2.5, PM10, nitrogen oxides, sulphur dioxide, ozone, and carbon monoxide.India has joined the global league of countries like the US, China, Mexico, France and Hong Kong that have implemented smog alert systems
  

Culture

• Eeshanya was a two-day cultural festival organised by the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, Southern Regional Centre, an initiation towards deeper recognition of the culture of North East India.
  
  • The troupe Nyokum Ane led by Tamar Taddar presented Rekham Pada, a tribal dance from Arunachal Pradesh. It is a Nyishi dance which is performed during the festival of Nyokum. Nyokum is defined by Nyok (land) and Kum (people).
  • The J.K. Women’s Cultural group from Nagaland performed Apilo Kuwo. It is a dance performed during the festival of Tuhini and Ahuna
  • Songs from the tribe of Temang or Temang Selo were danced to by Ujwala Kala Kendra from Sikkim.
  • A Manipuri ensemble presented Dasa Avatharam, the ten incarnations of Vishnu and Raas Leela, a Natwari Nritya of Krishna with his Sakhis

Facts : 

• Federal Reserve Chair of Borad of Directors : Janet Yellen
• India’s foreign exchange reserves increased by $4.26 billion to $339.99 billion for the week ended March 20, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) data showed.With higher interest rates in the US, the foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) are expected to be led away from the emerging markets such as India.
• National Highway 75 connecting Hassan and B.C. Road.
  

Yemen Insurgency

 

Yemen as of April 2015

• EverNote Link1
• EverNote Link2 

Who are the Houthis?

The Houthis are followers of the Shia Zaidi sect, the faith of around a third of Yemen’s population. Officially known as Ansarallah (the partisans of God), the group began as a movement preaching tolerance and peace in the Zaidi stronghold of North Yemen in the early 1990s.

After some protests pitted it against the government, the group launched an insurgency in 2004 against the then ruler Ali Abdullah Saleh that lasted till 2010. Their opponents view them as a proxy of Shia Iran. The group is hostile to the United States but has also vowed to eradicate al-Qaeda. They participated in the 2011 Arab Spring inspired revolution in Yemen that replaced Saleh with Abdrahbu Mansour Hadi.Shia rebels and their allies have captured the presidential palace in Aden following heavy clashes in the commercial centre of this southern coastal city. 

Who are fighting whom?

› Houthis:
The rebel group controls nine of 21 provinces as of Apr 2015

› Saudi-led coalition:

Saudi Arabia:
UAE:
Bahrain:
Kuwait:
Qatar:
Jordan:
Sudan:
Egypt: 

› Yemeni security forces:
The military is now split as units that support Mr. Hadi, units that support the Houthis, and units that support a still-influential Saleh, who is in the Houthi camp for now.

› Popular Resistance 

• Committees:Militia loyal to Hadi in his stronghold of south Yemen. 
• AQAP: Mr. Hadi and Houthis are fighting al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, which has staged several attacks in the country and is strong in the south. Active since 2009. 
• IS: A new group of militants inspired by the Islamic State group has claimed major attacks. 
• U.S : CIA drones have continued to target top AQAP leaders, but the campaign has suffered from Mr. Hadi’s absence.

News : 12 Jan - 18 Jan 2015

Appointments : 

• A.S. Kiran Kumar is the new Secretary of the Department of Space as also Chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation and the Space Commission ,succeeds K. Radhakrishnan,and as eight's chief.
• Arvind Panagariya, Vice-Chairman of the newly-created NITI Aayog, is a non-resident India
• Justice S K Sinha was appointed Chief Justice of Bangladesh to become the first Hindu to hold the highest judicial post in the Muslim-majority country
• 
  

Resignations/Retirements

• Four-month-long impasse between Jadavpur University Vice-Chancellor Abhijit Chakrabarti and the students, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee announced  that Mr. Chakrabarti had decided to resign.
• Avinash Chander as chief of the Defence Research and Development Organisation sacked.
• Italian President Giorgio Napolitano handed in his resignation as head of state leaving Prime Minister Matteo Renzi with the politically delicate task of finding a successor.

Obituaries

Awards

Sports

International

• U.S.-India Investment Initiative launched ahead of Barack Obama’s visit.
• Yemen’s al-Qaeda branch claimed responsibility for last week’s deadly attack on a Paris satirical newspaper, with one of its top commanders saying the assault was in revenge for the weekly’s publications of cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, considered an insult in Islam.
• Reflecting revival of the U.S. economy, the country’s budget deficit has dropped by USD 72 billion in 2014 than the previous year.In 2014, the U.S. racked up its smallest budget deficit since 2007, marking an economic shift of fortunes
• Japan’s Cabinet has approved the country’ largest defence budget, with plans to buy P-1 surveillance aircraft and F-35 fighter jets to improve defences of disputed islands amid China’s assertiveness in the region.Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s Cabinet  approved a nearly 5 trillion yen ($42 billion) budget for the year beginning in April, a 2 per cent rise. The budget must still be approved by Parliament.The military outlays were included in a record 96.3 trillion yen ($814 billion) total budget for the coming fiscal year.
• US has designated Maulana Fazlullah, commander of Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP), as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist.
• Kerry announced  $250 million money, to Pakistan ,will be given to emergency relief efforts in the tribal areas, mainly North Waziristan. Hundreds of thousands of people fled the area due to the fighting.
• Saudi Arabia is remaining silent in the face of global outrage at the public flogging of the jailed blogger Raif Badawi, who received the first 50 of 1,000 lashes on Friday, part of his punishment for running a liberal website devoted to freedom of speech in the conservative kingdom.

National

• Idukki will be the first district in the country linked to the National Optic Fibre Network (NOFN), which will ensure broadband connection to rural areas of the district. It is being implemented as part of the Digital India project of the Union government. Kerala’s widespread optical fibre network in the country and the high digital literacy rate helped in tipping the scales towards the State
• The country had just two per cent skilled workforce compared to 70 per cent in the U.K., 74 per cent in Germany, 80 per cent in Japan, and 96 per cent in South Korea. 
• Sandesh : In this a entrepreneur's network will be setup in all the local bodies of Kerela. It is an entrepreneur driven venture supported by the state government.Entrepreneur will focus on innovative solutions to challenges.In this lead entrepreneur is a woman.
• The NSC Bose International Airport kolkata has now started the facility for Visa on Arrival for tourists of 43 countries.
• The Calicut International Airport at Karipur has passed a historic milestone by becoming the first airport in the country to implement zero waste management effectively.

Polity

• The government decides to accept the Election Commission's recommendation to allow Non-Resident Indians to vote from overseas through e-postal ballots or proxy voting which removes an “unreasonable restriction” posed by Section 20(A) of the Representation of the People (Amendment) Act of 2010, requiring overseas electors to be physically present in their constituencies to cast their votes.

Economics

• Assocham unveils plan to promote industry in Gwalior : Upgradation of connectivity with major commercial hubs, establishment of state of the art training and skill development centres, setting up of knowledge based industries like business process outsourcing and knowledge processing outsourcing and cluster based approach to drive down costs, increase efficiency and speed up production in small and medium enterprises can lead the district on a growth trajectory

Env & Ecology

• Black carbon soot generated by use of cow dung, coal and vehicular pollution is said to be the main cause behind major pollution in Agra.The district administration has banned burning of cow dung cakes in the city while use of coal by small units will also be prohibited soon.

Science & Tech 

•  Use of the Internet and search engines to promote sex determination technologies in violation of the Pre-conception and Pre-natal Diagnostic Techniques (Prohibition of Sex Selection) Act.Under the 2000 Act, an “intermediary” (search engine) is protected from being held liable for any third party information, data or communication link. But this protection depends on the “due diligence” on the part of the search engine to remove or disable “expeditiously” access to a material used to commit an unlawful act.
• The government excluded comments expressing political dissent, contrarian views and “decent” humour from what constitutes “grossly offensive” or “menacing” on social media, and thus, violative of Section 66 A of the Information Technology Act of 2000.Section 66A uses vague terminologies like “annoyance” and “menacing character”, and the “width of the provision exceeds the permissible restrictions on free speech.”
• Four Silicon Valley companies, including Apple Inc. and Google Inc. have agreed to a new settlement that would resolve an antitrust class action lawsuit by tech workers, who accused the firms of conspiring to avoid poaching each other's employees.

Yeshasvini Scheme

"Yeshasvini Cooperative Farmers Health Care Scheme" (Yeshasvini Scheme) was introduced by the State Government to the Co-operative farmers of Karnataka. 

Scheme was operationalised with effect from 1st June 2003. 

Karnataka has become role model state with the introduction of ‘Yeshasvini Self Funded Health Care Scheme’.

Features : 

• Yeshasvini is one of the largest Self Funded Healthcare Scheme in the country.
• It is a contributory scheme wherein the beneficiaries contribute a small amount of money every year to avail any possible surgery during the period.
• The beneficiaries are offered cashless treatment subject to conditions of the scheme at the Network Hospitals spread across the State of Karnataka

Group of Ministers

• At present there are nine Empowered Groups of Ministers (EGOMs) and 21 Groups of Ministers (GOMs), which were set up by the previous UPA government to take decisions on various matters before bringing them for the Cabinet's consideration. During UPA-II regime, 27 GoMs and 24 EGoMs were appointed.
• EGOM : Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) is a Group of Ministers (GoM) of the Union Government are also authorised (empowered) by the appointing authority to take decisions in such matters after investigation.
• GOM : While a GoM investigates and reports to the Cabinet, which takes the decision, an EGoM additionally takes decisions on matters it is authorised for, and such decisions have the force of the Government decision.
• Both EGoM as well as the GoM get appointed under the Government of India’s Transaction of Business Rules 1961, which at para 6 (4) provides that ‘Ad hoc Committees of Ministers including Group of Ministers may be appointed by the Cabinet, the Standing Committees of the Cabinet or by the Prime Minister for investigating and reporting to the Cabinet on such matters as may be specified, and, if so authorised by the Cabinet, Standing Committees of the Cabinet or the Prime Minister, for taking decisions on such matters.’
• Rule 6(6) further provides that ‘any decision taken by a Standing or Ad hoc Committee may be reviewed by the Cabinet’. Therefore decisions in a matter taken by EGoM remain subject to review by the Cabinet at the latter’s discretion. 
• However it was argued that the system of GoMs and EGMos was meant to operate as a single window clearance on issues related to various ministries with the objective of expediting policy making.