General - Current Affairs for September, 2015

NIRF has been developed by a team of experts in education and heads of institutions, the portal and the framework is presently available for engineering and management institutions and it provides methodologies, parameters and process for ranking universities along with architecture and planning institutions online.National Institutional Ranking Framework follows an Indian approach which considers India-centric parameters like diversity and inclusiveness apart from excellence in teaching learning and research.

This framework for engineering and management institutes will be extended to other disciplines like architecture, pharmacy and humanities and for universities within the next four weeks.NIRF will ensure a level playing field in ranking for institutions which have been working in languages other than English and excelled relatively in the recent past. The parameters of the ranking framework constitute the following:(i) teaching learning and resources; (ii) research, consulting and collaborative performance; (iii) graduation outcomes; (iv) outreach and inclusivity and (v) perception.

A Tripura court has awarded RI to a man convicted of molesting a child and this marks the first conviction under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) in the state. The special trial judge passed the judgement holding C. Das of being guilt of child molestation in a nursery school close to Agartala in the year 2013. POCSO or Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act was given approval by the Parliament on May 22, 2012.

It has been drafted for strengthening legal provisions for protection of children from sexual abuse and exploitation. IPC does not provide punishment for all types of sexual offences against children and does not distinguish between adult and child victims. The POCSO Act defines a child as a person below 18 years of age and provides protection to children from sexual assault, harassment and pornography. The punishments range from simple to RI.

The offences that have been covered under the act include Penetrative Sexual Assault, Aggravated Protective Sexual Assault, Sexual Assault , Sexual Harassment and Use of Child for Pornographic Purposes. Act also makes provision for special courts for trial of offences under the act, keeping the best interests of the child in mind.

Indian Railway Knowledge Portal is a venture of National Academy of Indian Railways and has collected all available knowledge about Indian Railways at one place through linkages of websites, documents for dissemination of knowledge on the public transporter. Railways needs to share best innovations and practices and have a one stop destination for those interested in Indian Railways.

The home page of the portal also provides a short brief of social media activities of Indian Railways and e-access to existing libraries clustered to have single interface via e-Granthalaya by NIC.

Continuing the series of Joint Exercise between India and Sri Lanka. Exercise Mitra Shakti 2015 will be conducted at Aundh Camp, Pune on 29th September 2015. This marks the third joint training exercise between the armies of the two countries. The aim of the exercise is sharing military practices and promoting deep military to military relations by developing joint strategies to share expertise. The confidence building exercise will take place for 14 days.

Vedas date back to 6000 BC, 4500 years older than previously thought. Vedic civilisation has proved to be more ancient than even the Indus Valley civilisation. Previously, India and European historians had seen the Vedas as dating back to 1500 BC and the Harappan civilisation as around 2500 to 1800 BC. This made the crux of the theory that Aryans were migrants to India. Present claim is that Vedas pre-date Harappan civilisation making Aryans ancestors of Hindus.

A judgement issued by division Bombay HC bench headed by Justice W. M. Kanade has stayed the implementation of circular on edition issued in August 2015 in Marathi. The circular against sedition was issued on August 27, 2015 to halt misuse of Section 124 of the IPC dealing with sedition and laid down specific conditions for initiating action against a person through it. Bombay HC has asked the state government to not undertake circular implementation and asked state to reply to petitions challenging its constitutional validity. 2 petitions challenged the circular-one by well known cartoonist Aseem Trivedi and 3 others and another by advocate Narendra Sharma.

Indian filmmaker Rahul Rawail has resigned from the Oscar Selection Jury citing personal differences with chairperson of the jury, Amol Palekar. Resignation was tendered after the selection of National award-winning Marathi film Court as India’s official entry for Oscars 2016 (88th Academy Awards) by the jury. Court is a film directed by Chaitanya Tamhane and it has been named best picture at National Film Awards 2015 apart from winning 17 different international awards. Indian film director Rahul Rawail is known for his movies like Love Story (1981), Betaab (1983), Jeevan Ek Sanghursh (1990), Anjaam (1994) and Jo Bole So Nihaal (2005). He has been nominated as the best director twice for Filmfare Awards

C. Tamhane’s well known and critically acclaimed Marathi film Court was selected as the official entry of India into the Best Foreign Language category of the 2016 Academy Awards. Debutant Tamhane’s film outdid ‘PK’, Cannes winner ‘Masaan’, ‘Mary Kom’,‘Haider’, Kaaka Muttai’ and ‘Bahubali’ in the Oscar race. The internationally acclaimed film has been featured in 19 national and international film festivals and picking up 16 awards. It has won 2 coveted awards at Venice International film festival in 2014. ‘Court’ is the third Marathi film after Shwaas (Breath) in 2004, and Harishchandrachi Factory (Harischandra’s Factory) to be selected as India’s entry to Oscars.

IIM Sambalpur in Odisha will be mentored by IIM Indore till it moves to a permanent campus or is able to operate independently. Till then, IIM Indore faculty will teach at the facility. The first PGP programme was started in IIM Sambalpur Odisha with 49 students. The director of IIM Indore, Professor. R. T. Krishnan is the Mentor Director of this educational institution. State of Odisha has allotted 200 acres of land to IIM Sambalpur. Sum of INR 80 crore has also been sanctioned for an airport to improve air connectivity of the IIM.

The Indian Diaspora in the US which is 3 million strong launched Mission 2022 on 22nd September 2015 in partnership with CII to further Indian collaboration. As India turns 75, the dialogues will be held every 6 months with the Diaspora over the next 7 years as part of this mission. Indian American Diaspora is deeply invested in the American system and can fuel a productive Indo-US partnership.

Following undo, tech major Google has now introduced block and unsubscribe features for Gmail service allowing users to block email ID and unsubscribe from news letters in just a few clicks. Through the new features, specific email addresses can be blocked in Gmail on the web and future mail will go to spam folder. Users can also opt out of eligible mailing lists directly from the Gmail app. The “undo” option was introduced in June and gmail currently attracts more than 900 million users internationally.

The National Health Profile/NHP prepared by Central Bureau of Health Intelligence was released on 22nd September 2015. It covers demographic, socio-economic, health status and health finance indicators, along with detailed information on health infrastructure and human resources in health. NHP estimates there is one hospital bed for every 1833 people and the ratio of 1:11000 for the number of government doctors to patients, with Bihar and Maharashtra attaining the worst rations. India currently has 9.4 lakh allopathic doctors, 1.54 lakh dental surgeons and 7.37 lakh AYUSH doctors. Its 400 medical colleges admit an estimated 47000 students annually. NHP was launched in 2005. It seeks to understand data for health indicators of the nation and studied data under following 6 categories-demographic, socio-economic, health finance and health status indicators, comprehensive information on health infrastructure and human resources in health in India.

The people of Saudi Arabia celebrated Saudi National Day on 23rd September 2015. Indo-Saudi diplomatic relations can be traced to the 1940s and upgraded completely in 1954. Foundation of foreign bilateral relations was laid when Crown Prince Faisal visited India in 1955. This was followed by the first ever visit of Head of State, King Saud bin Abdul Aziz Al-Saud in December 1955. Several agreements have been signed including DTAA, BIPPA and cooperation in the field of sports between the two nations. Delhi Declaration marks a major turn in the India-Saudi Arabia relations.

Archeologists discovered a pre Roman era tomb in Pompeii on 19th September 2015. This tomb was buried in a AD 79 volcanic eruption. Tomb was unearthed by team of researchers from French Jean Berard Centre in Southern Italy. It dates back to Samnites era and is located at Pompeii’s Herculaneaum Gate. Samnites refer to tribals who engaged in fierce battles with Romans in 4th century BC. Tomb contains numerous vases and amphoras to give rare insight into funerary practices of that era. Excavations prove city of Pompeii is alive. The ancient city was suspended in time after the eruption of Mount Vesuvius on August 24, AD 79. This is the second most visited attraction in Rome after the Colosseum with 2.7 million visitors in 2014.

IIT-B and DeiTY has launched the NCETIS recently. Former RAW chief A. Joshi who heads National Technical Research Organisation launched the centre. NCETIS is a JV between IIT-B and DeitY to develop indigenous technology in electronic system design manufacturing in strategic security. Centre will also locate partners for commercialisation of developed technology. and focus on wireless communication system, social networking and internet, video surveillance and analysis, Ground Penetrative Radar (GPR) for landmine detection, unmanned vehicles, cyber and data security, biometric applications, sensors and detectors for explosives, landmines, chemical and biological warfare, thermal imaging, product design, product interaction design and prototyping.

CCS (Cabinet Committee on Security) has approved the deal for Apache and Chinook helicopters. The deal has been valued over USD 2.5 bullion and pending since 2013.American companies have over the last 10 years bagged defence contracts from India worth around $10 billion, including for aircraft like P-8I maritime surveillance planes, C-130J Super Hercules and C-17 Globemaster-III in the transport category. Helicopter deal has survived 10 price extensions.

Trust Fund for Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities, Department of Empowerment of People with Disabilities (DEPwD), Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment (MOSJ&E), formed an MoU for this company aimed at providing an affordable health insurance, Swavlamban Health Insurance Scheme, for the Persons with Disabilities (PwDs) and improving the general health condition and quality of life of persons with disabilities. Scheme can be availed by the beneficiary aged between 18 years and 65 years with family income of less than INR 300000 per annum and it will provide health insurance cover of up to INR 200000 per annum. National Institutes and Composite Regional Centres for Persons with Disabilities (CRC’s) under the DEPwD, MOSJ&E are some of the participants in this MoU’s implementation.

Cow, an animal which is sacred to Hindus has been declared the national animal of Nepal in the freshly unveiled secular constitution. The new constitution has been adopted following considerable discussions and violence. The cow will now have constitutional protection and cow slaughter has been banned in the nation. The one horned rhino had also been proposed as a national animal for Nepal.

World bank economist Kaushik Basu has found new proof of the Pythagorean theorem. Cornell University economist, Basu demonstrated his proof in a paper titled "A New and Very Long Proof of the Pythagoras Theorem By Way of a Proposition on Isosceles Triangles.” Greek mathematician Pythagoras proved the same theorem around 500 BC. James Garfield also completed his proof of the Pythagoras theorem in 1876, 4 years prior to his election as a president. In deriving the proof Basu discovered some new things about the properties of isosceles triangles — ones with at least two sides of equal length. Right triangles are ones with one square (90-degree) angle.

Vikas Purohit, heading the key fashion and lifestyle category at Amazon India has moved on from the company . Since the launch of this category in September 2013, it has emerged as one of the top three stores on Amazon.in, in terms of volume and value. Susan Saideman, VP for global vendor management has been appointed the interim head for this business. Fashion is one of the biggest potentials for US based companies in India. The top online fashion retailers include Myntra and Jabong. Purohit has worked for Tommy Hilfiger, Diesel, Madura Garments and Planet Retail before this.

Indian monk, Gyalwang Drukpa has helped to restore Lord Buddha relics sent by Emperor Ashoka. Gyalwang, spiritual head of the Drukpa lineage in Ladakh consecrated the stupa along with an Ashokan pillar and massive golden statue of Lord Buddha on 18th September 2015. Nangchen stupa was first discovered in the Tibetan region. It is one of 19 stupas containing Lord Buddha relics and sent by Emperor Ashoka to China. Of the 19 stupas, 4 stupas including Nangchen have been discovered. The other three are located in Xian, Nanjing and close to Ayuwang in Zhejiang Province. As per legend , close to 2500 years ago, Buddhist disciples recovered a skull bone, 2 scapulas, 4 teeth and 84,000 Sariras or relics. Legend has it that Emperor Ashoka collected the sariras of the Sankhyamuni , stored then in shines and send them to different parts of the world.

Goan artist Francis Newton Souza’s epic work titled Birth sold for an astounding $4 million (Rs 28 crore approx) at a Christie's sale. The previous record for the country's priciest piece of art was held by V S Gaitonde who sold for $3.7 million at Christie's debut auction in Mumbai in 2013. Birth was painted in 1955 and the painting has many subjects found in his early practice.

Gir National Park has completed 50 years as a sanctuary on September 18 2015. It had 174 lions when it was notified as a sanctuary on September 18, 1965. This park is the only abode of the Asiatic Lion in the world. To commemorate this, a special postage stamp and year long festivities have been launched. People of Peninsular Saurashtra where this sanctuary is located have saved the Asian lion from extinction. Gir’s lion population has grown to 523 and the protected area which was 1265 sq. km in 1965, has now expanded to 22,000 sq. km.

Expert Group has submitted a “Roadmap for Effectively Tackling Cyber Crimes in the Country“ to the Home Minister on Tuesday after examining the international practices on cyber crime prevention. The centre will check attempts by global gangs to penetrate Indian government communication networks and advance application for Social media Analytics to monitor special media platforms in activities pertaining to the government organisations, departments and ministries. Committee also indicated government should reduce dependence on foreign servers and ensure a dedicated secure gateway for all government communication. Separate agency was also proposed for online cyber crime registration. Expert committee has also asked for changes in Evidence Act as per changing environment to prosecute cyber crimes, public awareness campaign, sensitisation of states and setting up of cyber forensic labs in states.

Government has banned for five years Naga militant outfit NSCN-K, which has been involved in a series of attacks, including the killing of 18 soldiers of the Army in Manipur in June.

The ban on National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN-K) led by S.S. Khaplang has a strength of around 1,000 cadres with several camps across the border.

Housing Dot Com CMO Pratik Seal has resigned from the company less than a year into the tenure. He headed the Look Up marketing campaign. Portal spend INR 150 crore funding on this campaign. Company has hired a new CMO and this ouster follows the exit of former Housing Dot Com founder Rahul Yadav.

CRIPR is a gene editing technique for human embryo modification. Developed by Sun Yat sen University in Guangzhou, this gene editing technology was used to edit 86 single cell embryos from fertility clinics. The gene editing tool can provide humans with the power to edit, add, replace, delete, activate or suppress specific genes. This can lead to editing of disease causing mutated genes and trait determining genes. CRISPR is used as a site specific DNA scissor where RNA is created for unzipping DNA strand which is then lodged in protein called Cas9 and the complex then chip away the DNA. The debate centers around whether CRISPR should be allowed because it can be used for editing germline or pluripotent stem cells.

A 108 m tall Buddha statue will be set up near Dev ni Mori in Shamiaji, north of Ahmedabad. This will be the second tallest Buddha statue in the world. The first tallest is the 153 m statue in China’s Spring Temple. It will also be the tallest statue of a sitting Buddha beating a 92m statue in Thailand. The historic site will cost INR 700 crores to build. The 100 acre site will have stupas, parks and monasteries as well.

SEBI introduced the concept of anchor investors in public issues in 2009. This move was to impact pricing of IPOs. Anchor investors benefit IPOs as equity markets are volatile. Anchor investors attract investors to public offers before hitting capital markets to infuse confidence. Value and volume of anchor subscriptions are an indicator of the soundness of the firm’s offer. This also sets a benchmark and provides for guidelines for issue pricing and interest among QIBs

A business report written by a robot journalist designed by Asia’s largest Internet company, Tencent has been published. This report was completed in just 1 minute. The perfect 916 word article was released through the instant messaging service of the company. Subject of article was China’s August CPI. This is the first business report ever written by a robot journalist in the world.

Central Board of Secondary Education has made self defence classes compulsory for girls from standards I to X. The announcement was made by D. T. Sudarshan Rao, JS academics and training, CBSE. Schools have been requested to organise week long training sessions and weekly self defence classes as part of this directive.

Insect farming in the European market is projected to be around USD 73 million by 2020. Edible insect farming or entoprise uses 70% of the agricultural land and water for livestock production only. A UN report released in 2013 urged governments and food agencies to consider insects as a means of feeing the world’s growing population projected to be around 9 billion by 2050. Insect farming is also nutritious- a single kilogram of field yields 12 times more edible cricket protein as compared to beef protein.

Pakistan has assessed India to have enough fissile material for more than 2,000 nuclear warheads. India’s growing nuclear arsenal and absence of conflict resolution mechanism have spurred Pakistan to maintain full spectrum deterrence capability. This resolve was stressed in a meeting of National Command Authority chaired by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif held at Joint Staff Headquarters in Chaklala, Pakistan.

European Commission has not only banned cloning of farm animals, but sale of cloned livestock as well as offspring and products derived from them. This is because the technique of cloning has not advanced and animal welfare should be respected. High mortality rates at development stages of cloning raises animal welfare and ethical concerns.

Rajasthan has submitted the State Annual Action Plan under AMRUT or Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation. State government has proposed projects under universal coverage of water supply and sewerage of all urban households as part of this scheme. As part of the plan, AMRUT projects will be taken up in 13 of 28 AMRUT cities in Rajasthan.

1 in 4 people will be above 60 by 2050 according to WHO estimates as between 2000 and 2050, number of world’s population above 60 years will double to 22% from 11%. In absolute numbers, the rise will be from 901 million in 2015 to 1.4 billion by 2030 and 2.1 billion by 2050. The number could rise to 3.2 billion by 2100. Europe will have 34% of its population above 60 by 2050. The percentage in Asia, Caribbean and Latin America will be 25%. India will be facing the feminisation of its raging population. Quarter of the world’s elderly will be in India by 2015 and constitute more than 12% of the population by 2026.

NCRB data in a study called `Hanging in Balance: Arbitrariness in Death Penalty Adjudication in India', found that convicts in Delhi and Jammu & Kashmir were 6 and 6.6 times respectively more likely to be given death row than the national average. Disparity in death penalty jurisprudence was noted with a person from Jharkhand 2.4 times more likely to attain a death sentence than national average, while the number was 2.5 for Gujarat, 3 for WB, 3.2 for Karnataka. Law Commission headed by Justice A. P. Shah demanded that apart from terrorism cases, death penalty should be abolished in India.

The External Services Division of AIR has commenced with the broadcast of lessons in Hindi in China and SE Asia. The 20 minute programme is broadcast every Sunday and it aims to counter China Radio International, which broadcasts in 56 world languages including Hindi and regional languages. The airing of this programme commenced on Independence day this year. It is called , Xue Xi Yindiyu Jie Mu (Learning Hindi programme or Aao Hindi Seekhein) and has a JNU professor teaching the language to Chinese persons.

Durrington Walls is home to the Stonehenge and it is the venue of the discovery of large Neolithic stone monuments or superhenge which are 90 large standing stones that dwarf the Stonehenge. This structure is thought to have been created 4500 years ago. The stones some of which have been measuring 4.5 m in height, have been underground for centuries. The new stone monuments discovered include 17 priorly unknown ritual monuments. Non invasive X ray and remote sensing technologies have been used to explore this new discovery.

The Tughlaq era Baradari and Lodhi era Imam Bara have recently been restored through a conservation efforts of the Department of Archeology in Delhi as well as Intach. Project lasted 10 months and involved alterations of partition walls as well as temporary structures constructed inside the monuments.

200 megalithic burlal sites were found in the reservoir bed of the Nagarjunasagar dam after water receded the Minimum Draw Down level. Officials indicated this site could have been used for megalithic community burials.

She is 15 year old and pursuing her first year B.Tech degree in Comp. Science.

Indian Railway has over 30 thousand level crossings out of which nearly 40% are unmanned ones. The West-Central Railway (WCR) Zone, with its headquarters at Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh, became the first-ever zone of the Indian Railway to have eliminated all unmanned level crossings.