Current Affairs from The Hindu DATE: 10-01-15
S.NO. NEWS ITEM
1.
Modi speaks to a)
Hollande,
condemns terror
attack (Page 12)
SYLLUBUS
I.R
a)
BACKGROUND
Terrorism
b) Attack on Charlie
Hebdo
c) India – France
relations
IMPORTANT POINTS
a) Modi strongly criticised
the terror attack on the office
of satirical magazine Charlie
Hebdo in Paris and conveyed
condolences on behalf of the
people of India with French
President.
b) Expressing solidarity
with the people of France, he
expressed confidence that
President and the people of
France will deal with this
moment of distress and
challenge with courage and
that they will succeed in
combating the forces of
terrorism.
c) He also restated his
commitment to counterterrorism cooperation as a
key element of the growing
strategic partnership between
India and France.
d) Thanking Modi for the
solidarity and support,
French President said this
support from the worlds
largest democracy meant a
lot to the people of France.
2.
Sirisena likely to a)
stop China tilt
(Page 12)
I.R
a)
Sri Lankas politics
b)
India – Sri Lanka
e) The French President
underlined his commitment
to deepen defence and
security cooperation between
India and France and said he
was looking forward to
Modis visit to France this
year.
a) Sri Lanka watchers in
India believe that with
Maithripala Sirisena coming
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Current Affairs from The Hindu DATE: 10-01-15
relations
to power in Sri Lanka, the
island nations move towards
c) Chinas projects in Sri China will be reduced
considerably.
Lanka
d)
Indias concerns
b) They have been critical
of the former President
Rajapaksa for his move
towards China and ignoring
Indias appeal to grant
devolution of powers to the
Tamil-majority northern
region, as he had repeatedly
promised.
c) The move towards
China will be reduced
considerably with this
stunning victory and if India
is willing, it can be given the
advantage of that.
d) During Rajapaksas
tenure, China won a primary
role as a donor and investor,
also loaning approximately
$500 million for
development projects.
e) It also bagged some of
the biggest projects,
including the $1.5 billion
Colombo port reclamation
project for state
corporations.
f) India has also been
concerned about Chinas
strategic influence in Sri
Lanka and National Security
Adviser had reportedly
complained about the
docking of Chinese
submarines in the Colombo
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Current Affairs from The Hindu DATE: 10-01-15
harbour.
g) India must reclaim the
strategic space that it has lost
by default to China now.
3.
Will 2015 be the a)
year of the LeT?
(Page 11)
International
a)
Terrorism
b) Lashkar-e-Taiba
(LeT)
c)
MDI
d) Jamaat-ud-Dawa
(JuD)
h) By congratulating
Sirisena, Chinese official
said our friendship runs deep
and successive govts of Sri
Lanka have had a friendship
policy towards China.
a) The Pakistan Supreme
Court ordered Mumbai 26/11
master-conspirator Zaki-urRehman Lakhvis further
detention on Jan 6 2015,
referring back the case for
hearing both the sides by the
Islamabad High Court.
b) Even as a troubled
e) Deobandi Taliban of Pakistani establishment
struggles to avoid
the Tehreek-e-Taliban
international criticism on his
imminent release, the LeT
f) Inter-Services
seems poised to emerge in a
Intelligence Directorate
more high profile role in
(ISI)
2015.
g) Sleeper cells
c) Eight reasons were
given for waging jihad.
d) The first objective is to
end the oppression of
Muslims wherever it takes
place.
e) The second and third
objectives are to restore the
Muslim caliphate and
establish the dominance of
Islam.
f)
The fourth objective is
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Current Affairs from The Hindu DATE: 10-01-15
to help weak and oppressed
Muslims wherever they are.
g) The fifth makes taking
revenge for murder of fellow
Muslims.
h) The sixth entails
punishment to those who
violate their oaths with
Muslims.
i) The seventh objective is
to fight to defend oneself and
the eighth is to recapture
occupied Muslim territory.
j) Organisations such as
MDI, JuD and LeT
understand and use the
concept of jihad in the sense
of killing.
k) Soon after LeTs
formation, Hafiz Mohammad
Saeed started presenting
the jihadi discourse in Indian
Kashmir as a struggle
between Islam and unbelief.
l) Kashmir was projected
as the entry point but the aim
was to break up the whole of
India.
m) Ahle Hadith members
of MDI were asked to
establish sleeper cells in
different parts of India.
n) After the proscribing of
LeT, other front names like
MDI or JuD were supported
up to divert focus and
suggest that their work was
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Current Affairs from The Hindu DATE: 10-01-15
bigger than that of LeT but
its leadership has always
claimed that they would
return to the banner of LeT
one day, as the army the
Prophet led into Mecca was
also called LeT or the Army
of Medina.
o) The LeT was formed in
1993 as part of the power
struggle by Saeed and Iqbal
to sideline ulemas such as
Allama Rashidi.
p) The ISI was preparing
the ground for a new jihad in
Indian-held Kashmir even as
the Afghan jihad was losing
momentum after the Soviet
pull-out in 1988.
q) As the deadline for
withdrawal of
US/International Security
Assistance Force troops from
Afghanistan passes, the ISI
could also be looking for a
new role for the LeT there.
r) As Deobandi Taliban of
the Tehreek-e-Taliban
Pakistan group seem no
longer under Pakistani
militarys control, the aim
could be to use the LeT
against them, while
continuing to utilise it as
proxy against Indian
interests in Afghanistan too.
s) Pakistans security
establishment categorises
militant organisations into
three groups: first, those that
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Current Affairs from The Hindu DATE: 10-01-15
are a threat to Pakistan only;
second, groups that pose a
threat to both Pakistan and
the US; third, groups that are
a threat only to the US, India
or any other country. LeT/
JuD fall into the third
category.
t) The Armys support of
JuD is based on a faulty
belief that it would not spin
out of their control or
wage jihadagainst Pakistan.
u) JuD leaders have
publicly held they would not
stop jihad even if Indian
Kashmir was liberated.
v) LeT activists
shamelessly claim that they
enjoy the support and
sympathy of employees of
almost every govt
department in Pakistan.
w) LeTs younger
ideologues believe that
Pakistan is destined to lead
the global jihad and JuD
would not be against to
having an Islamic caliphate
in South Asia.
x) Though, (at present) the
Army leadership appears
sanguine about controlling
the LeT, given the JuDs
ability to systematically and
extremely follow its plans,
this may inevitably bring it
into confrontation with the
Pakistan Army in the days
ahead.
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Current Affairs from The Hindu DATE: 10-01-15
4.
UN extends use a)
of meningitis
vaccine in
b)
African infants
(Page 11)
International
a)
Health
b) Meningitis Vaccine
Project (MVP)
c)
Meningitis vaccine
a) The WHO has
approved giving a
groundbreaking meningitis
vaccine to babies across
Africa.
WHO
b) WHOs thumbs up for
MenAfriVac in mass
immunisation programmes
will increase the campaign
against meningitis in the
worlds poorest continent.
c) Launched in 2010, the
vaccine has been
administered to more than
215 million people in the 15
countries of the African
meningitis belt.
d) MenAfriVac was
developed by MVP and is
manufactured by the Serum
Institute of India.
4.
Choosing thy
a)
neighbour (Page
11)
b)
National
a)
Social bias in India
Social issue
b)
Religion
c)
Caste
d)
OBC
e)
SC
f)
ST
e) WHOs approval means
the vaccine meets
international safety and
quality standards and can be
used in children under a year
old.
a) Popular debate around
social biases in India is
structured around two
competing narratives.
b) One view holds that as
an urbanising country with
rapid economic growth over
the past few decades, the
importance of ascriptive
identities such as caste and
religion is gradually eroding.
c)
An opposing view
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Current Affairs from The Hindu DATE: 10-01-15
holds that these biases have
remained strong in India,
even in the face of
substantial economic
development and
increasingly heterogeneous
cities.
d) Such a simple
dichotomy understates the
complexity in characterising
social biases in India.
e) While social biases
often result from harm or
chauvinism, they may also
result from legitimate
worries about or threats from
another social group.
f) In order to develop a
deeper understanding of the
profile of social biases in
India, we analyse new data
from the Lok Surveys, taking
advantage of both the scale
and the geographic spread of
the sample.
g) Rather than depending
on complex typologies that
can be impacted by
preconceived notions, we
focus our analysis on a
simple topic, which we
believe represents a core
form of social bias:
differences in preferences for
the identity of ones
neighbours.
h) They involve beliefs
about how different social
groups affect social
solidarity in a
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Current Affairs from The Hindu DATE: 10-01-15
neighbourhood, as well as
apprehensions about
interacting with different
social groups.
i) We randomised whether
the respondent would receive
a cause for religious or caste
bias.
j) For instance, a Hindu
respondent placed to receive
a religious bias cause might
be asked about a Muslim
neighbour and a Muslim
respondent might be asked
about a Hindu neighbour.
k) Similarly, an upper
caste individual placed to
receive a caste bias cause
could be asked about OBCs,
SCs or STs.
l) In this manner, we
generated data on a complex
set of social interactions in
Indian society.
m) Overall, 27 percent of
the sample population
directly admitted that they
were against having a
neighbour from a different
religious or caste
community.
n) There is significant
variation in levels of social
bias across States.
o) Punjab displays the
highest level of social bias
with 36 percent of
respondents displaying an
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Current Affairs from The Hindu DATE: 10-01-15
aversion to living near those
of another caste or religion,
while the post-split Andhra
Pradesh (Seemandhra)
displays the lowest levels of
social bias with 12 percent of
respondents displaying
aversion.
p) Tamil Nadu, Karnataka,
Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan
also had relatively high rates
of social bias.
q) The education level or
wealth of respondents had
little impact on whether they
would report social bias.
r) The majority of the
variation in social biases is
seen between specific
identity groups.
s) Social bias may also be
generated from threats to
power and intensifying
economic and social
competition.
t) In order to understand
the role of social and
economic ascendance on
preferences for neighbours,
we also investigated the
relationship between middle
class identification and
social bias.
u) However, it is precisely
this socially mobile group
that accounts for much of the
social bias we observe in our
sample.
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Current Affairs from The Hindu DATE: 10-01-15
v) Among those who do
not identify as middle class,
only 17 percent of
respondents said they did not
want a neighbour from a
different community.
w) Based on our data, we
suggest two very different
causes for bias in ones
preferences for neighbours.
x) We conclude that the
very process of development
and change in India may be
generating new forms of
social and economic
competition that manifest
themselves in terms of social
bias.
6.
Governors rule in a)
J&K (Page 1)
National
a)
Governors rule
b)
Article 370
c) Section 92(1) of the
Constitution of J&K
d)
Presidents rule
y) A modernising India
may cause the erosion of
certain traditional hierarchies
while opening the way for
new split based around
social and economic
contestation.
a) J&K came under
Governors rule with no
political party coming
forward and supporting
claim to form the govt and
National Conference leader
Omar Abdullah asking to be
relieved as caretaker CM.
b) As none of the parties
has so far support claim to
form the govt, the
governance of the State
cannot be carried out in
accordance with the
provisions of the
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Current Affairs from The Hindu DATE: 10-01-15
Constitution of the State.
c) Consequently, with the
approval of the President of
India, Governors rule has
been imposed in the State
under Section 92(1) of the
Constitution of J&K with
effect from Jan 8 2015.
7.
PM for
a)
mechanism to
ensure
b)
accountability of
doctors (Page 11)
National
a)
Health
b) Child and maternal
mortality
c)
Healthcare
Encephalitis
d) Swachh Bharat
Abhiyan
d) This is the second time
that J&K has come under
Governors rule during N.N.
Vohras tenure.
a) PM Modi called for
establishing mechanisms to
ensure accountability of
doctors and health officials
in the public sector and a
road map for reducing child
and maternal mortality.
b) He instructed the
Health Ministry to improve
the efficiency of existing
mechanisms and schemes.
c) He expressed concern
over the prevalence of
diseases like encephalitis
(especially among children)
and instructed the Ministry
officials to prepare a road
map to tackle such diseases
and also prepare a follow-up
action plan on making
SAARC a polio-free region.
d) He called for reviewing
the progress of key health
indicators such as under-five
mortality rate and maternal
mortality ratio and asked for
specific identification of
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Current Affairs from The Hindu DATE: 10-01-15
worst performing districts.
8.
RBI Governor a)
hails decision to
free banks (Page
16)
Economy
a) Public sector banks
(PSBs)
b)
RBI
e) He said the effects of
the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan
should be visible in
hospitals.
a) The RBI Governor
Raghuram Rajan said that
the decision of the govt to
give freedom to PSBs to
function independently is a
land mark decision.
b) Modi said that the
government will not interfere
in the functioning of PSBs.
c) He also called for
ending lazy banking and said
that banks must prioritise
lending to employmentgenerating sectors.
9.
Saturns position a)
pinpointed (Page
9)
S&T
d) Rajan said that
institution plays an important
role in the intellectual
development of students.
a) Cassini spacecraft
a) Scientists have used
NASAs Cassini spacecraft to
b) Very Long Baseline pinpoint the position of
Saturn and its family of
Array radio-telescope
moons to within about 4 km,
system
a measurement which is
c) Deep Space Network around 50 times more
precise than those provided
by ground-based optical
d) Saturn
telescopes.
b) Scientists used the
National Science
Foundations Very Long
Baseline Array radiotelescope system to pinpoint
the position of Cassini as it
orbited Saturn over the past
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Current Affairs from The Hindu DATE: 10-01-15
decade by receiving the
signal from the spacecrafts
radio transmitter.
c) They combined this
data with information about
Cassinis orbit from NASAs
Deep Space Network.
d) The combined
observations allowed the
scientists to make the most
accurate determinations yet
of the position of the centre
of mass of Saturn and its
moons.
14