Current Affairs from The Hindu DATE:14-03-15
S.NO. / NEWS ITEM / SYLLUBUS / ESSENCE OF THE ARTICLE1. / Modi calls for implementation of 13th Amendment in full (Page 1) / a) I.R / a) PM Modi said that India stands for a united Sri Lanka but wants an early and full implementation of the 13th Amendment that provides for devolution in the Tamil majority Northern and Eastern provinces.
2. / Modi moots meetings of fishermens groups (Page 10) / a) I.R / a) Referring to the issue of fishing rights that has led to tensions between India and Sri Lanka, PM Modi said that it must be handled as a humanitarian concern.
3. / Colombo seeks Delhis help in probe against Rajapaksa (Pg 10) / a) I.R / a) The Sri Lankan govt has asked India to help with its investigation against the former regime of Mahinda Rajapaksa for alleged corruption.
4. / India protests 26/11 masterminds release (Page 10) / a) I.R / a) India summoned Pakistan High Commissioner and presented a strong protest over a Pakistan courts order to release Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, mastermind of 26/11 terror attacks in Mumbai.
5. / Pakistan tests homemade armed drone, missile: military (Page 12) / a) International / a) Pakistan successfully tested a homemade armed drone and a laser-guided missile, taking it a step closer to acquiring the technology it has long demanded from US.
6. / Japan, France sign pact (Page 12) / a) International / a) Japan and France agreed to work together on researching military equipment, as Tokyo looks to broaden its defence ties and strengthen its international profile.
7. / The Prison house of identity (Page 8) / a) National / a) The killing of Syed Sarifuddin Khan, a 35-year-old Assamese man accused of rape and remanded to police custody in Dimapur (Nagaland) on March 5 2015 is one of the most troubling of Indias repeated crises in law and order in recent memory.
8. / Trade deficit narrows (Page 13) / a) Economy / a) Indias trade deficit decreased to a 17-month low of $6.85 billion in Feb on an over 55 percent decline in oil imports.
9. / SBI may reject $1 bn. Adani loan plea (Page 1) / a) Economy / a) The SBI is preparing to turn down a $1 billion loan request from Adani Enterprises intended for a coal project in Australia.
10. / INS Alleppey decommissioned (Page 11) / a) S&T / a) INS Alleppey (one of the six Pondicherry class coastal minesweepers purchased from the erstwhile USSR in the 1970s) was decommissioned.
S.NO. / NEWS ITEM / SYLLUBUS / BACKGROUND / IMPORTANT POINTS
1. / Modi calls for implementation of 13th Amendment in full (Page 1) / a) I.R / a) India – Sri Lanka relations
b) 13th Amendment / a) PM Modi said that India stands for a united Sri Lanka but wants an early and full implementation of the 13th Amendment that provides for devolution in the Tamil majority Northern and Eastern province.
b) He also referred to going beyond the 13th Amendment that would contribute to the processof building a future that accommodates the interests of all sections of society, including Sri Lankan Tamil community.
c) CM of Northern Province Wigneswaran had called upon India to remember its role as guarantor of Tamil rights, saying the 13th Amendment was inadequate and seeking something beyond it.
2. / Modi moots meetings of fishermens groups (Page 10) / a) I.R / a) India – Sri Lankan relations
b) Fishermen issue
c) Indias projects in Sri Lanka
d) Sampur power project / a) Four MoUs (on visa exemptions for official passport holders, customs cooperation, youth exchanges and education, and the construction of a university auditorium) were announced during the discussion between PM Modi and Sri Lankan President.
b) Modi also announced e-visa on arrival services for Sri Lankans, a $ 318 million Line of Credit to upgrade Sri Lankas railways and a promise to build Trincomalee as a petroleum hub, while seeking movement on the 500 MW Sampur power project, that has been delayed for years due to environmental concerns.
c) Referring to the issue of fishing rights that has led to tensions between the two countries, he said it must be handled as a humanitarian concern. It is also important that fishermens associations of India and Sri Lanka meet at the earliest to find a mutually acceptable arrangement.
3. / Colombo seeks Delhis help in probe against Rajapaksa (Pg 10) / a) I.R / a) India – Sri Lanka relations
b) Sri Lankas internal issues / a) Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera told that the Sri Lankan govt has asked India to help with its investigation against the former regime of Mahinda Rajapaksa for alleged corruption.
b) He said we need the support of various international agencies to find the money looted by the Rajapaksa family. We have asked India for help in this and quite a few other countries too.
c) The Sirisena govt has already launched several investigations into allegations of corruption against Rajapaksa family and associates.
4. / India protests 26/11 masterminds release (Page 10) / a) I.R / a) India – Pakistan relations
b) Terrorism
c) 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks
d) LeT / a) India summoned Pakistan High Commissioner and presented a strong protest over a Pakistan courts order to release Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, mastermind of the 26/11 terror attacks in Mumbai.
b) Lakhvis release comes shortly after Foreign Secretary Jaishankars visit to Pakistan as part of his SAARC Yatra, where he raised the issue with his counterpart.
c) External Affairs Ministry spokesperson said this goes against Pakistans commitment to combat terrorism, including its recently stated policy of not differentiating among terrorists.
d) Lakhvi(a top commander of the banned LeT) has been in jail since 2009.
5. / Pakistan tests homemade armed drone, missile: military (Page 12) / a) International / a) Pakistan – US relations
b) Defence ties
c) North Waziristan tribal area / a) Pakistan successfully tested a homemade armed drone and a laser-guided missile, taking it a step closer to acquiring the technology it has long demanded from the US.
b) The US has run a controversial drone programme against militant hideouts in northwestern tribal areas bordering Afghanistan since 2004.
c) Pakistan publicly opposes the missile strikes by US drones, terming them a violation of its territorial sovereignty and has long asked the US to give them the technology required to run their own programme.
d) US pressed Pakistan for years to remove the Islamist militant hideouts in the North Waziristan tribal area.
6. / Japan, France sign pact (Page 12) / a) International / a) Japan – France relations
b) Defence ties
c) G7
d) Terrorism
e) Ukraine crisis
f) Syria and Iraq issues
g) Islamic State / a) Japan and France agreed to work together on researching military equipment, as Tokyo looks to broaden its defence ties and strengthen its international profile.
b) In the latest meetings, the fellow G7 members signalled a closer working relationship.
c) The officials of both countries committed to fight terrorism to help bring stability to Ukraine and to seek political solutions to Syria and Iraq.
7. / The Prison house of identity (Page 8) / a) National / a) Dimapur (Nagaland) incident
b) Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA)
c) Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA)
d) Violence in Nagaland and Assam
e) Nagas
f) Chinkis / a) The Killing of Syed Sarifuddin Khan (a 35-year-old Assamese man accused of rape and remanded to police custody in Dimapur, Nagaland on March 5 2015) is one of the most troubling of Indias repeated crises in law and order in recent memory.
b) At the time that he was killed, it was not known with any legal certainty whether he had committed rape and now it will probably never become clear what transpired. His own statement recorded before he died and the statements of his relatives after his death all reject rape allegations.
c) The abduction, rape and murder of Thangjam Manorama (a Manipuri woman) allegedly by Indian paramilitaries led to a naked protest by about 30 Manipuri mothers in Imphal, outside the Kangla Fort headquarters of the Assam Rifles in July 2004.
d) As recently as Dec 2014, the Supreme Court directed that Rs.10 lakh be awarded as compensation to Manoramas family. But because the Assam Rifles had been deployed in Manipur under the AFSPA (which grants immunity to military and paramilitary forces), the court could not announce any punishment for the accused.
e) The two incidents in two restive Northeastern States (Manipur and Nagaland) are diametrically opposed - in one case, the person who died was the victim of rape and in the other, the alleged perpetrator. In the one case, the killers were members of the armed forces and in the other, common citizens. Both involved horrible violence against individuals and both created a storm of anger, distress, protest and intercommunity tension in the region.
f) Following Manoramas disappearance and death, public opinion as well as the legal and legislative process quickly surpassed the issue of rape and became focussed on the real problem - the existence and persistence for the AFSPA in Manipur and other States of the Northeast.
g) In the Dimapur killing too, we need to read the writing on the wall. This is not about whether Syed Sarifuddin Khan raped a local woman or not; it is about the relationship between the State of Nagaland and the rest of the Indian union, a problem unresolved since the 1930s.
h) It was a particularly violent enactment of the rage and frustration that many feel on this charged subject. There may be an element of truth to this analysis.
i) The racism contained in this false identification of Khan extends not just to immigrants from Bangladesh but also to those people living in Nagaland who might be Assamese or Bengali, i.e., from nearby States within India.
j) Dimapur is a major commercial hub in the Northeast, on the border between Assam and Nagaland. Unlike other parts of Nagaland, it does not fall within the Inner Line, which means Indians other than Nagas do not require a special permit to travel, work or live there.
k) The mirror image of this racism is the way in which people from Northeastern States are all grouped together and referred to as Chinki throughout India - a criticalname suggesting not that these are literally people from China but that their ethnic, racial and cultural identity is distinct from, other to and as good as foreign for those in the heartland or mainstream of India.
l) Note that the term under erasure in this horriblekilling of a so-called Bangladeshi by so-called Chinkis is Indian. And this is precisely the point thatIndian is an identity that the Muslims of East Bengal iteratively seceded from in 1947 and 1971, and that the Nagas never quite accepted, despite Nagaland becoming a state of Indian Union in 1963.
m) This story of forcible, partial and unwilling accession to India; the still-incomplete and problematic integration into the Union of India; continuous low-intensity warfare between various tribes and factions; the long-term, indeed indefinite deployment of emergency laws and martial rule via the AFSPA, and of the feared instrument of counter-terrorism, the UAPA, by the Indian state - these realities are writ large across the Northeast, including Nagaland and Manipur.
n) Cross-border movement and resettlement of people between India and Bangladesh, and the resulting demographic flow are also constant factors. A fracture between Assam and Nagaland is only one way to understand the political landscape - there are numerous smaller fractures within each of these so-called units like Assam and Nagaland. Violence in the entire regional neighbourhood has been more or less continuous for decades.
o) The discontinuity between Assam and Nagaland runs like a fissure in the bedrock of a painfully, precariously, and always contingently constructed national identity. The implications of Khans killing are truly terrifying for what they reveal, not just about where we have arrived in the debate on rape but also the decreasing state of affairs in Indias Northeast.
8. / Trade deficit narrows (Page 13) / a) Economy / a) Trade deficit
b) Indias imports and exports / a) Indias trade deficit decreased to a 17-month low of $6.85 billion in Feb on an over 55 percent decline in oil imports. The deficit in Feb 2014 was $8.3 billion.
b) Falling for the third straight month, exports fell 15.02 percent to $21.54 billion, extending Jans 11.2 percent decline.
c) The bad exports performance was despite the 2 percent drop in the value of the rupee since Feb 1, indicating exporters might be failing to take advantage of increase in the currencys competitiveness.
9. / SBI may reject $1 bn. Adani loan plea (Page 1) / a) Economy / a) India – Australia economic ties
b) Adani group
c) Coal project / a) The SBI is preparing to turn down a $1-billion loan request from Adani Enterprises intended for a coal project in Australia, stopping an agreement signed last year.
b) A preliminary loan deal was struck in November and signed during a visit to Australia by PM Modi.
10. / INS Alleppey decommissioned (Page 11) / a) S&T / a) INS Alleppey / a) INS Alleppey (one of the six Pondicherry class coastal minesweepers purchased from the erstwhile USSR in the 1970s) was decommissioned after nearly 35 years of service under the Western Naval Command.
b) It was the last ship from the first batch of minesweepers purchased by India from the erstwhile USSR between 1978 and 1980.
c) The ship was built in 1979 at Leningrad and was handed over to the Indian Navy on June 10 1980.
d) The ship was designed to detect and destroy underwater mines near the harbour.
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