Current Affairs from The Hindu DATE: 22-01-15
S.NO
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NEWS ITEM SYLLUBUS
1. Presidents visit will be a new era in ties: US envoy
(Page 10) a) I.R
2.
3.
The promise of a presidential visit
(Page 9)
Obamas wish list may hurt India
(Page 10) a) I.R a) I.R
4.
5.
Reasserting a friendship (Page
8)
Cuba, US open historic talks
(Page 12) a) I.R
ESSENCE OF THE ARTICLE a) The former US envoy set new goals for the India-
US relationship and address common issues arising out of Chinas rise. a) US economic policy proposals for the Trans-Pacific
Partnership and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment
Partnership. a) Sri Lankan new govt promised India that it would correct the pro-China move in foreign policy. a) US envoy expected defence co-production renewable energy deals during Obamas visit to India. a) International a) US and Cuba opened historic talks to re-establish diplomatic relations.
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8.
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10.
11.
Modi seeks recast a) National of Housing for All scheme (Page 11) a) National Rs. 500 crore project to revive heritage of 12 cities (Page 11)
First nuclear bomb set off the
Anthropocene
(Page 14) a) S&T b) Geography a) S&T Why stars feast and fast partly resolved (Page
14)
Dawn zeroing in on dwarf planet
Ceres (Page 14) b) Geography a) S&T b) Geography a) S&T Why tectonic plates move suddenly (Page
14) b) Geography a) Linking Housing plan with the Ganga cleaning plan. a) Preserving and rejuvenating the rich cultural heritage of the cities by using the scheme HRIDAY. a) Defining substantial changes in the Earth system by using physical and chemical markers. a) Shining and dimming behaviour of binary stars. a) Findings about dwarf planet Ceres. a) The combining effects of thick crustal plugs and weakened mineral grains may explain the tectonic plates sudden movements.
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Current Affairs from The Hindu DATE: 22-01-15
S.NO
.
NEWS ITEM
1. Presidents visit will be a new era in ties: US envoy
(Page 10)
SYLLUBUS a) I.R
2. The promise of a presidential visit
(Page 9) a) I.R
BACKGROUND a) India – US relations b) Civil nuclear deal c) Defence Trade and
Technological Initiative
IMPORTANT POINTS a) The newly appointed
American Ambassador to
India has said that US
President Obamas visit will show in a new era in India-
US partnership. d) Partnership to
Advance Clean Energy b) He said that Obama and
Modi would try and address the deadlock in the nuclear deal during the visit. c) He listed progress in defence ties (with US defence sales to India topping $10 billion) and bilateral trade that had grown five-fold to $100 billion in the past decade. a) India – US ties b) Economic cooperation c) Defence cooperation d) He expected defence co-production deals under the DTTI, renewable energy deals under PACE and a commitment to cut Indias carbon emissions by 25 percent from the 2005 levels. a) The former US
Ambassador to India Frank
Wisner set new goals for the
India-US relationship and address common issues arising out of Chinas rise. d) Civil nuclear agreement 2005 e) Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) f) Bilateral investment treaty b) He said our common objective should be to shape the environment within which China follows legitimate ambitions, so that
Chinas search for status does not threaten its neighbourhood and the US. g) Asia-Pacific c) Similarly, India and the
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Current Affairs from The Hindu DATE: 22-01-15
Economic Cooperation h) Terrorism
US are preoccupied with
Afghanistans future and with the deteriorating situation in
Pakistan. d) The US has serious issues with Russia and in the
Middle East. e) He said we face a common threat from terrorism. f) We have challenges ahead in coordinating our respective approaches to climate change; this subject will require hard and specialised work. g) The use of terror affects
India, the US, Europe,
Russia and China, among many other nations. h) He said that the Modi and Obama should give US-
Indian cooperation in counter terror the highest priority. i) As the security of our two nations is increased by the closest possible cooperation, expanding defence cooperation is an especially promising area in the Indian-American relationship. j) He said that India must reach an agreement with the
US on the protection of defence information.
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Current Affairs from The Hindu DATE: 22-01-15 k) He said that Modi wishes to expand rapidly
Indias manufacturing base and he welcomes American and foreign investment as key drivers in Indias economic performance. l) The landscape of US-
India economic cooperation is filled with investment disputes. Our 2005 civil nuclear agreement has yet to produce the first investment. m) India can reasonably look to Obama to set out his administrations policy on high-tech immigration and other irritating issues like social security totalisation. n) India can also look forward to his help in securing early passage of
GSP, the trade enhancing regime that has long facilitated Indias exports to the US. o) India has yet to complete a bilateral investment treaty with the
US and it is not party to current WTO negotiations on subjects as important as IT services and government procurement. p) More importantly, India is not a member of the Asia-
Pacific Economic
Cooperation and is not in consideration for membership in Trans-Pacific
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3. Obamas wish list may hurt India
(Page 10)
Current Affairs from The Hindu DATE: 22-01-15 a) I.R trade negotiations. q) Obama will shortly seek Trade Promotion
Authority to permit the US to advance these new supertrade regimes for the
Atlantic area and the
Pacific. r) It is reasonable to expect the US to be Indias friend and sponsor if India decides to refocus its trade policy and go global. a) India – US relations b) Trans-Pacific
Partnership c) Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partner ship s) Expanding Indias trade horizon is central to building
Indian strategic strength and in consolidating the US-
India relationship. a) President Obamas annual State of the Union address contained economic policy proposals such as increased trade authority and a tax prevention on businesses that may impact economic ties with other nations including India. d) Intellectual property rights (IPRs) b) It is a clear reference to the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership. c) He said the trade deals would provide a level playing field for American businesses and help to bring jobs back from China. d) Ahead of his visit to
India, officials stressed certain obstacles including
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4. Reasserting a friendship (Page
8)
Current Affairs from The Hindu DATE: 22-01-15 a) I.R philosophical differences regarding IPRs protection and protectionist trends. e) If Congress grants his wish on tax reforms, it may result in US investors pulling back funds intended for
Indian shores. a) India – Sri Lanka relations b) Fishermen issue c) UNHRC a) After the new govt in
Sri Lanka was sworn in, the
Foreign Minister
Samaraweeras visit to India sends the clear message of an enduring friendship between the two countries. d) Free Trade
Agreement (FTA) b) New Delhi remained deeply engaged with the
Rajapaksa govt until the end. e) Comprehensive
Economic Partnership
Agreement (CEPA) f) Defence Cooperation pact g) Maritime security cooperation c) Sri Lankas list of complaints against India is probably long and these would include irritating by extremist Tamil groups in
Tamil Nadu and committing offence by Indian fishermen into its waters. d) Differences over the former Presidents unwillingness to address post-war political and human rights issues relating to the
Tamil minority led to India voting against Sri Lanka twice at the UNHRC and restraining once. e) There was also concern when a Chinese submarine docked in Colombo twice in a span of two months last
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5.
6.
Current Affairs from The Hindu DATE: 22-01-15 year. f) He said that his govt would correct the pro-China move in foreign policy have delighted India. g) Indias foremost expectation from the new govt would be an early settlement of the Tamil question. h) Secondly, New Delhi is hopeful that Colombo would upgrade the existing FTA with a CEPA, for which a draft was finalised in 2008. i) Third, the two sides finalised a draft defence cooperation pact in 2003.
Cuba, US open historic talks
(Page 12) a) International a) US – Cuba relations b) Cold War j) Domestic political compulsions in India ensured it did not progress. It could be revisited given the potential for maritime security cooperation in the
Indian Ocean region. a) The US and Cuba opened historic talks in
Havana to end decades of
Cold War-era hostility and re-establish diplomatic relations.
Modi seeks recast of Housing for All a) National b) The meetings in
Havana follow the historic decision by US President
Obama and Cuban leader
Raul Castro in Dec to seek normal diplomatic relations. a) Housing for All by a) Reviewing the Union govts progressive Housing
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7. scheme (Page 11)
Current Affairs from The Hindu DATE: 22-01-15
Rs. 500 crore project to revive heritage of 12 cities (Page 11) a) National
2022 scheme b) Ganga cleaning plan c) Poverty for All by 2022 programme,
PM Modi asked the Ministry to recast the flagship scheme, under which two crore houses are to be built for slum dwellers and other weaker sections. b) He asked for priority to be given to areas along the
Ganga, so that the river rejuvenation programme could be linked with the housing plan. a) Heritage
Development and
Augmentation Yojana
(HRIDAY) b) Cultural heritage c) Smart cities c) He said the safety concerns of specific areas
(such as coastal zones, ecosensitive zones and disasterprone areas) should be factored into the planning process in cities. d) The programme will cover the urban poor living in slums, urban homeless and new migrants to urban areas in search of shelter. It would cover metros, small towns and all urban areas. a) The Centre launched the progressive 500 crore project for reviving the heritage of 12 cities including Varanasi, Mathura,
Gaya, Dwarka and Puri. b) Speaking at the launch of the HRIDAY that seeks to preserve and rejuvenate the rich cultural heritage of the cities, Urban Development
Minister said the programme was a step towards reviving the soul of cities hosting rich
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8. First nuclear bomb set off the
Anthropocene
(Page 14)
Current Affairs from The Hindu DATE: 22-01-15 a) S&T b) Geography a) Nuclear Bomb explosion b) Alamogordo explosion c) Hiroshima &
Nagasaki explosion d) Earth system e) Anthropocene f) Cretaceous period g) Paleogene period heritage. c) The 12 cities selected for the scheme are Ajmer,
Amritsar, Amravati, Badami,
Dwarka, Gaya, Warangal,
Puri, Kanchipuram, Mathura,
Varanasi and Velankanni. a) Two recent scientific papers say the Anthropocene could be described to a precise moment on 16 th
July
1945, the day the worlds first nuclear bomb exploded in
Alamogordo, New Mexico. b) The atomic bomb represents an immediate shift into another geological period, much like the
Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary is placed at the moment a meteorite impacted the Yucatan
Peninsula. c) The Alamogordo explosion, followed soon by the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs in August 1945 and other bombs detonated at the average rate of one every 9.6 days until 1988 produced markers across the globe in the form of radionuclides, found in all continents and in polar ice on both poles. d) Physical and chemical markers (especially in deposits in rock strata and their fossil contents) are important tools in defining periodical boundaries as they signal substantial changes in
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9. Why stars feast and fast partly resolved (Page
14)
Current Affairs from The Hindu DATE: 22-01-15 a) S&T b) Geography the Earth system. e) The first atomic bomb provide a unique signal of the start of the Great
Acceleration with the release of radioactive isotopes that spread worldwide and entered the sedimentary record. f) Scientists say that in this phase, the Earth crossed four out of nine planetary boundaries: climate change, loss of biosphere integrity, land-system change, altered biogeochemical cycles
(phosphorus and nitrogen). g) These misdeeds mean that the risk of destabilising the global environment is increasing with obvious risks for human well-being. a) Binary star b) Supergiant fast x-ray transients (SGXT) a) SGXT is the name for a certain type of binary star - a pair of stars revolving around each other. c) NuSTAR b) They are a pair in which one partner is a big bright star and the other is a highly condensed dark companion which attracts mass from the bright star. c) As the material spirals into the dark star, it emits xrays. Hence, it appears to the observer that they are shining brightly in x-rays. d) Suddenly, without warning, the pair dims to a
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10. Dawn zeroing in on dwarf planet
Ceres (Page 14)
Current Affairs from The Hindu DATE: 22-01-15 a) S&T b) Geography fraction of its brightness within minutes. This behaviour of shining and dimming (fasting and feasting) has puzzled astronomers for a decade now. e) There were several competing theories as to why the fasting and feasting behaviour happens. One is that the large star gives out a clumpy wind and when this wind hits the dense star, it would glow. f) The other theory is that the dense star has a high magnetic field and this served as a barrier that would dam the wind until the pressure built up and broke the dam and the matter carried by the wind would suddenly fall into the compact star, causing a glow. g) A team observed the binary using a space x-ray telescope known as NuStar
(a NASA space mission). It is the first x-ray space telescope that can focus on very high energy x-rays. a) Dwarf planet Ceres b) Dawn spacecraft h) NuSTAR is used to study the most extreme environments in the universe, which emit x-rays. a) The Dawn spacecraft has obtained navigational images of more than half of
Ceres using its framing
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Current Affairs from The Hindu DATE: 22-01-15
11. Why tectonic plates move suddenly (Page
14) a) S&T b) Geography c) Hubble Telescope camera. a) Tectonic plate movements b) Earthquakes b) These images are just under the resolution obtained by the Hubble Telescope. a) A biggest mystery in geology (abrupt shifting of tectonic plates) has been solved. b) The effects of thick crustal plugs and weakened mineral grains acting together may explain a range of relatively speedy (million years or longer) moves among tectonic plates around the world.
NOTE : Read all the articles of S&T Page 14.
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