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Current Affairs

20151008

Chemistry Nobel for mapping how cells repairdamaged DNA

Tomas Lindahl, Paul L. Modrich and Aziz Sancar were awarded theNobel Prize in Chemistry on Wednesday for having mapped andexplained how the cell repairs its DNA and safeguards its geneticinformation.

4 Science & Technology

Banks killed road sector: officialBanks caused a bubble, failed to do due diligence and lent morethan what was warranted to developers, and this has led to the highNonPerforming Assets (NPA) arising out of the road sector, RoadSecretary Vijay Chhibber told The Hindu in an exclusive interviewon Wednesday. “The banks have killed the road sector,” he said.“There was a bubble because the banks would give developers

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money even before the land was made available… Certainly thebanks have a lot of explaining to do. Because it wasn’t just thatthey allowed funding to happen to these projects which were not yetready for construction, but they agreed to costs and TPCs [totalproject cost] much higher than what NHAI had assessed,” Mr.Chhibber said.

Page 1 Economics

Pranab warns against letting go of India’s corevalues

India’s core civilisational values of diversity, tolerance and pluralityhave kept it united for centuries and that cannot be wasted, warnedPresident Pranab Mukherjee on Wednesday, extemporising at theend of a speech he made at Rashtrapati Bhavan.The President’s stern reminder came in the wake of the recentlynching of 50yearold Mohammad Akhlaq in an Uttar Pradeshvillage by a mob that alleged that he had stored and eaten beef.The incident and its aftermath – communally polarising speechesby BJP leaders — has triggered nationwide outrage.

Page 1 Indian Polity

After PoK, India turns focus on BalochistanAfter highlighting the alleged human rights violations in thePakistanoccupied Kashmir (PoK), India is preparing to take anaggressive position on Balochistan, in a marked departure fromSouth Block’s Pakistan policy of the past.The new Indian position over Balochistan became public whenBalochistan Liberation Organisation (BLO) representative BalaachPardili addressed a gathering in New Delhi on October 4, readingout a statement from BLO’s exiled leader Nawabzada HyrbyairMarri.

Page 13 International Relations

India to oppose uniform migration policy at BRICSmeet in Sochi

India might be home to a considerable number of refugees, but ithas decided not to be a signatory to a uniform migration policy that



is coming up for discussion at the first BRICS Migration Conferencein Sochi, Russia, on Friday. India will also push for a liberalisedvisa regime for “skilled workers” among BRICS nations to promotebusiness and economic interests, a senior government official said.According to a United Nations report, “Globally, one in 122 humansis now either a refugee, internally displaced, or seeking asylum.”


Govt. to create database on human traffickersHuman trafficking was a borderless organised crime in which morethan 1.5 lakh people became victims every year, Home MinisterRajnath Singh said here on Wednesday. He said that his Ministrywould create a national database of persons involved in humantrafficking.Inaugurating a conference on antihuman trafficking, Mr. Singh saidIndia was not the only victim of human trafficking but that it was aglobal phenomenon.

Page 13 Social Issues

Hoesung Lee to head U.N. climate panelHoesung Lee, 69, a Korean professor of economics of climatechange, energy and sustainable development, was on Tuesdayevening elected as head of the Intergovernmental Panel forClimate Change at its 42nd session in Dubrovnik, Croatia.He succeeds R.K. Pachauri, of India, who stepped down inFebruary after a female researcher accused him of sexualharassment.

Page 13 Environment

Indian NGO criticises U.S. climate action plansIn the runup to the U.N. climate summit in Paris in December,Indian environmental NGO, Centre for Science and Environment(CSE), released a report which came down heavily on the U.S. —the second largest emitter of CO2 globally — for not doing enoughabout climate change, while preaching to other countries, includingIndia, to “act.”In its report ‘Captain America U.S. climate goals: a reckoning,’ the



CSE concluded that with five per cent of the global population, theU.S. would disproportionately eat into 17.25 per cent of the globalcarbon budget till 2030, and nothing would be left for other countriesafter that.

Page 13 Environment

Access at the cost of Net neutrality?In the case of apps like Free Basics, the consumer has no choicein the sites she will access; what he has is a paternalistic web,where information is shackled by constraints imposed by theservice provider.In the Net neutrality debate, there is a conflict between two corevalues: ease of access and neutrality. The ease of accesspromised by applications like Free Basics compromises neutralityand may later morph into a method of predatory pricing.

Page 10 Science & Technology

Getting down to businessChancellor Angela Merkel’s visit to India and her meetings withPrime Minister Narendra Modi represented a muchneeded dosisrealitaet , or “dose of reality”, for both India and Germany. The factthat Ms. Merkel came to India despite a brewing refugee crisis backhome that kept both her Economy Minister and Defence Ministerback in Berlin, shows the importance that she accords to therelationship.Mr. Modi, during his third meeting with Ms. Merkel in six months,demonstrated that he sees Germany as an important partner intrade, a provider of technology and means to clean energy, and asa partner on the UN stage.


Dealing with black moneyThe worth of the new, stringent law against Indians stashing awayunaccounted money in foreign destinations cannot be judged by thequantum of assets disclosed within the compliance window thatended on September 30. Assets worth Rs. 4,147 crore, yielding taxto the tune of Rs.2,488 crore, were disclosed within the deadline.



If one believes that fabulous sums lie in safe havens abroad,untouched by Indian law, the amount may seem woefullyinadequate. On the other hand, if one believes that much of theblack money resides comfortably in India, and undisclosed incomein foreign countries represent only a small fraction of the total, itmay seem a significant disclosure. In any case, the figure fallsshort of the Rs. 6,500 crore cited by Prime Minister Narendra Modiin his Independence Day address.

Page 10 Governance

These migrants need attention, tooWhen species shift northward or higher, not all in an ecosystemmay move, disrupting the interconnectedness that has evolved overdecades.Life is an interconnected web, and we ignore changes in the lifecycles of other species at our peril.

Page 11 Environment

‘Myanmar can better IndiaChina ties’Myanmar can help India and China “overcome their problems”, saysopposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Speaking to journalist KaranThapar on the India Today TV programme To The Point in her firstinterview in months.Ms. Suu Kyi, whose party, the National League for Democracy(NLD), is expected to lead general elections next month, said betterIndiaChina relations are “to the benefit” of Myanmar as well.


Health insurance panel report ready: IRDAIA committee of the Insurance Regulatory and DevelopmentAuthority of India (IRDAI) that studied various aspects of healthinsurance, including the possibility of introducing longterm policies,is ready with its report. “The report is more or less finalised, we areevaluating that,” IRDAI Chairman T. S. Vijayan said here onWednesday.The panel on health insurance, like other such committees of theregulator, had representation from the industry and consumers too.



Such an approach ensured in the resultant view beingcomprehensive and not just that of IRDAI, he said, speaking topresspersons at an ICICI Lombard event to mark issue of one lakhlongterm two wheeler insurance policies.

Page 16 Economics

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