UPDATED CURRENT AFFAIRS APRIL/29/2015

CURRENT AFFAIRS APRIL/29/2015

1. Sri Lanka's parliament passed Constitutional Amendment Bill (19A) to reduce President's power

Sri Lanka's parliament passed the landmark 19 th. Constitutional Amendment Bill (19A).In the 225-member parliament, 215 voted for while one voted against it, one abstained and seven parliamentarians were absent.

The reforms ensure an independent judiciary, checks President’s power to dissolve the parliament and reduces the term of the President from 6 to 5 years

Under 19A, the directly elected Executive President “shall” act on the advice of the Prime Minister and his cabinet, though the President will continue to be the Head of the Executive and the Cabinet with the right to hold cabinet portfolios

The amendment to the constitution was an electoral promise of President Sirisena who had promised to dismantle near dictatorial system presided over by his predecessor, Rajapaksa

2. Indigenously made Cryogenic engine tested successfully PM Narendra Modi hails space scientists

Indigenous made cryogenic engine has been tested successfuly this cryogenic engine would help India put satellites of up to four tonnes in geostationary orbit. 

Engine was tested at ISRO's propulsion complex at Mahendragiri in Tirunelveli district of Tamil Nadu

The powerful and advanced version of the cryogenic engine was ground tested at the Liquid Propulsion systems centre (LPSC)

Team headed by Director D Karthikesan led the testing the test and the test was conducted for 635 seconds

The successful testing is an important milestone in developing lift launch vehicles GSLV MK-3 for the next generation.

3. Raja Rajeswari is New York’s first Indian-American woman judge

Raja Rajeswari,43,has been sworn-in as a criminal court judge of New York city by Mayor Bill de Blasio, she is the first Indian-American woman judge of New York

She migrated to the U.S. from Chennai when she was 16

she has  previously worked with the Richmond County District Attorney’s Office for her entire career in several bureaus including Criminal Court, Narcotics, Supreme Court, and the Sex Crimes Special Victims Bureau, where she last served as Deputy Chief.

she took the oath along with 27 other judges appointed earlier this month to the Family Court, Criminal Court, and Civil Court, which are part of the New York State Unified Court System

The mayor appoints judges to 10-year terms in the New York City Criminal Court and the Family Court within the city

Presently there are two male judges of Indian origni in civil court settings Jaya Madhavan on the New York City Housing Court in Bronx County, and Anil C. Singh of New York County Supreme Court, 1st District

4. Rajya Sabha passes Regional Rural Banks Amendment Bill,2014

The Regional Rural Banks (Amendment) Bill, 2014, got the assent of the Rajya Sabha by voice vote The Bill seeks to help Regional Rural Banks (RRBs) raise their authorised capital and direct funds from capital market to help strengthen them.

The Act specifies the composition of the Board of Directors of the RRB to include a Chairman and directors to be appointed through the central government, NABARD, sponsor bank, Reserve Bank of India, etc. The Bill states that any person who is a director of an RRB is not eligible to be on the Board of Directors of another RRB.

The Act specifies the term of office of a director (excluding the Chairman) to be not more than two years. The Bill raises this tenure to three years. The Bill also states that no director can hold office for a total period exceeding six year

5. Loretta Lynch appointed as US attorney general

Loretta Lynch was sworn in Monday as the 83rd U.S. attorney general

She has become the first African-American woman to serve as U.S. attorney general who is the nation's top law enforcement official

Vice President Joe Biden administered the oath of office to Lynch at a Justice Department ceremony

55-year-old Lynch replaces Eric Holder, who left the position Friday after serving as attorney general for six years.

Riots are unfolding in Baltimore so its a big challenge for her to quell the riots in Baltimore

6.After Golden Quadrilateral now it's Bharat Mala:PM Narendra Modi's ambitious14,000 crore programme

Former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee built the Golden Quadrilateral and Narendra Modi wants to build Bharat Mala.

It is an ambitious programme of the Modi government programme to built road along India's vast west-to east land border, from Gujarat to Mizoram at an estimated budget of at a cost of around Rs 14,000 crore

Bharat Mala will be further linked that to a road network in coastal states, from Maharashtra to Bengal

This is a road network will be garland the territory of India and called  Bharat Mala

Indian government to introduce a Bill to unlock CAMPA funds

States had been demanding the release of more funds from CAMPA

Photo: Forest Survey of India

The Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, cleared a Bill on April 29 to unlock the compensatory forestation fund of Rs 38,000 crore, the use of which is currently being supervised by the Supreme Court. The Compensatory Afforestation Fund (CAF) Bill, 2015, will be introduced in Parliament during the current session.

The proposed law seeks to provide an institutional mechanism, both at the Centre and in the states, to ensure “expeditious utilisation” of the amounts realised from diversion of forest land to non-forest purposes. As per law, the promoter of a project coming up on forest land needs to deposit an amount with the government for afforestation of non-forest land equal to the land diverted or of degraded forest land twice the area of land diverted. Besides, the project proponent also deposits a net present value of the forest in lieu of the non-tangible benefits lost with the loss of forests. Such amounts are currently kept in nationalised banks and are being managed by an ad-hoc Compensatory Afforestation Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA).

According to Supreme Court orders, only 10 per cent of the amount accrued with CAMPA is being released to the states for the fear of it being misused. States had been demanding the release of more funds from CAMPA. To address this demand, the government has come up with the new Bill. “These amounts would be brought within broader focus of both Parliament and State Legislatures and in greater public view, by transferring them to non-lapsable interest-bearing funds, to be created under public accounts of the Union of India and each state,” says a Cabinet press release.

The Bill intends to establish a National Compensatory Afforestation Fund (CAF) and state-level CAF to credit amounts collected by state governments in lieu of forest land diverted for non-forest purposes. CAF authorities will be created at the Centre and state level to control and manage these funds. As per the Bill, a monitoring group will also be established to assist the national authority in evaluation of activities undertaken from amounts released from the national CAF and state CAFs.

Bihar’s earthquake toll due to poor condition of houses

Census data shows Bihar among the three states with lowest proportion of houses which can be categorised ‘good’

What made Bihar vulnerable to the Nepal earthquake and led to the reported deaths of 51 persons in the state? Proximity to Nepal and, therefore, the epicenter is certainly a primary reason. The other major reason is the condition of houses in the state. Almost all the deaths due to an earthquake are caused by the collapse of buildings. The condition of houses, therefore, is a key determinant of whether people survive or fall victim to an earthquake. Former National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) Member, Vinod Menon, says that as many as 61 per cent of houses in rural India have been built without following engineering guidelines. “These are un-engineered houses which have been built using local knowledge, customs and material. They do not follow any safety regulations,” he said.

A set of indicators on the condition of houses captured by Census throws light on the subject.

Where condition of houses is good

This is a key indicator to determine the ability of a house to withstand an assault caused by an earthquake. Census data shows that Bihar is among the three states that have the lowest proportion of houses which can be categorised as ‘good’. While Odisha is at the lowest rank with only 29.5 per cent of its houses which Census 2011 found to be ‘good’, it is followed by Assam (32.8 per cent) and Bihar (36.1 per cent). On the other hand, states such as Puducherry (75 per cent) and Himachal Pradesh (72.4 per cent) are resilient against natural disasters of this type.

In Bihar, the districts which have reported deaths caused by the earthquake include Madhubani, Purba and Paschimi Champaran and Saran. All these districts have a very small proportion of houses in a good condition. While Patna leads the state at merely 46 per cent, Madhubani at 44.7 per cent, Paschim Champaran at 32.7 per cent, Purba Champaran at 39.3 per cent and Saran at 40.8 per cent do not compare well with many other districts of India such as Hamirpur district of Himachal Pradesh, which has 78 per cent houses categorised ‘good’.

Where condition of houses is dilapidated

The triumvirate – Odisha, Assam and Bihar – lead India as states with the largest proportion of dilapidated houses. Odisha leads with 9.9 per cent of houses being dilapidated, followed closely by Assam (8.3 per cent) and Bihar (7.4 per cent). At the district level, similar trends are available with Saran reporting 8.6 per cent of houses as dilapidated, while Sitamarhi (6.2 per cent) and several other districts recording figures a little above or below the state average.

Where houses are livable

But Bihar’s 36.1 per cent ‘good’ houses and 7.4 ‘dilapidated’ houses do not quite constitute a major chunk of all houses in the state. The indicator ‘Condition of houses – livable’ offers an insight. The states with the largest proportion of houses in the ‘livable’ category, once again, are Odisha, Assam and Bihar, according to Census 2011 data. Odisha leads with 62.1 per cent houses as ‘livable’, followed by Bihar (55.6 per cent) and Assam (55.4 per cent). On the other hand, a relatively prosperous state such as Kerala (38.4 per cent) has less proportion of houses in the livable category. The ‘livable’ category is somewhere between ‘dilapidated’ and ‘good’. A ‘livable’ house may not be dilapidated but is does not assure the safety and strength a ‘good’ house does.

Menon says the Disaster Management Act has made it mandatory for house owners to comply with safety standards, but it may be a long time before compliance follows.

Anupam Srivastava is the author of The Brown Sahebs, a novel

INDIA ENVIRONMENT PORTAL

• The North Bihar earthquake of the 15th January, 1934

  Guide to developing disaster recovery frameworks

  World risk report 2014: the city as a risk area

  Learning from megadisasters: lessons from the great East Japan earthquake
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Russian spacecraft out of control, falling to Earth

The unmanned spacecraft was to dock with the International Space Station on April 30

ISS Progress 47 docked at the International Space Station (Photo courtesy: NASA)

Russian mission Progress M-27M, an unmanned spacecraft carrying supplies for astronauts at the International Space Station (ISS), has spun out of control and is descending towards Earth, an official told Agence France-Presse (AFP) on Wednesday.

The official said efforts are being made to contact the spacecraft, but it unlikely that these efforts will rescue the mission. Controllers had also attempted changing the flight plan to fix the problem.

The Russian space agency has not yet commented on the descent of the spacecraft. The AFP report says an official statement is expected today.

Progress M-27M was launched on Tuesday but communication with the spacecraft was lost soon afterwards. It was carrying "1,940 pounds (880 kilos) of propellant, 110 pounds of oxygen, 926 pounds of water, and 3,128 pounds of spare parts, supplies and scientific experiment hardware," the agency report quoted NASA as saying. NASA also said that none of the supplies were urgently required by the US section of the ISS and that astronauts have enough to sustain themselves for months.

This is the latest in a series of failures that the Russian space agency has encountered in the recent past. It has already lost expensive satellites and a similar Progress supply ship in 2011, the AFP report said.

CURRENT AFFAIRS APRIL/29/2015

CURRENT AFFAIRS APRIL/29/2015

1. MAGNUS CARLSEN WON SHANKIR CHESS TOURNAMENT:

i.  Norway’s Magnus Carlsen has won Shamkir Chess Tournament.

ii. World  Champion Magnus Carlsen defeated Rauf Mamedov of Azerbaijan in the Final.

iii.  India’s Vishwanath Anand, five time world Chess champion drew his final mactch with Fabiano Caruana of Italy to secure second spot.

About Azerbaijan –

·         Capital – Baku

·         Currency – Manat

·         President – Iiham Aliyev

·         Prime Minister – Artur Rasizade

About Italy-

·         Capital – Rome

·         Currency – Euro

·         President – Sergio Mattarella

·         Prime Minister – Matteo Ranzi

2.   CALBUCO VOLCANO ERUPTED AFTER 42 YEARS:

A.   Calbuco Volcano of Chile erupted twice ater 42 years.

B. Capital of Chile – Santiago

C.  Currency of Chile – Peso

D.  President of Chile – Michelle Bachelet

3. NAVY DEPARTED INS TARANGINI FOR LOKAYAN-2015:

A. Indian Navy has departed INS Tarangini, the Sail Training ship of Indian Navy for Lokayan, 2015.

B. Theme for Lokayan-2015 is, ‘ Taking for a Broader Reach’.

C. INS Tarangini was flagged off by Vice Admiral Sunil Lanba.

Note: About 300 Sail ships of various sizes from all over the world are expected to participate this year. INS Tarangini left from Kochi.