25 October 2015

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Supreme Court takes up cause of Muslim women  –    (Indian Polity)

  • Thirty years after the Supreme Court urged the government to frame a uniform civil code to “help in the cause of national integration” in the Shah Bano case.
  • A two-judge Bench of the court has suo motuordered registration of a public interest litigation petition and asked the Chief Justice to set up a Special Bench to consider gender discrimination suffered by Muslim women owing to “arbitrary divorce and second marriage of their husbands during the currency of their first marriage”.

 

Women will soon pilot fighter aircraft of IAF   –    (Indian Polity)

  • ​By June 2017, the first batch of women fighter pilots will be serving the Indian Air Force, the government announced on Saturday, dramatically altering the male-dominated combat frontiers of the country’s military.
  • “The Ministry of Defence has approved the induction of women into the fighter [combat] stream of the IAF,” said an official statement. The decision came just two weeks after the IAF chief made the surprise announcement during the Air Force Day celebrations on October 8. The induction of women into the fighter stream would be the first formal entry of women into combat role with any arm of the military.

 

 

Buddhism on the ascendant  –    (Indian Culture)

  • Driven by conviction, scores in Telangana have started walking along the eight-fold path or Ashtanga Marg to pursue the Buddhist way of life.
  • The path which stresses on pursuit of the right view, intension, speech, conduct, livelihood, effort, mindfulness and concentration, has found a record number of 750 followers distributed across the 20 Buddha Viharas in Hyderabad, only the previous year.

 

 

Four new crab species found in Kerala  –   (Environment)

  • Hermit crabs are ubiquitous animals often not considered to be ‘true’ crabs as they lack an external shell on their soft abdomen which leaves them vulnerable to predators. To protect themselves, they live in abandoned gastropod (snail) shells and often select larger shells as they grow up. Their last two pairs of legs are small and modified and, along with their uropods (appendages at the end of the abdomen), are used to clamp onto the internal whorls of the shell.
  • More than 40 species of hermit crabs were documented from the Kerala coast during the research project.

 

Exports slow, but some still hire big  –    (Economics)

  • In the quarter ended March 2015, exports grew at a much slower 15 per cent; yet it added 39,000 employees to its workforce in exporting units. This trend of slowing export growth but increasing export-oriented employment is apparent in the previous two quarters too.
  • Other industries are following a more predictable path. The leather, automobiles and gems and jewellery sectors have either reduced the additions to the export-oriented workforce or downsized it. Instead, most of these sectors are favouring their non-exporting units.

 

 

Prasar Bharati move sparks row  –    (Indian Polity)

  • Public service broadcaster the Prasar Bharati Corporation’s decision to offer its platform to explore the idea of putting the media in a straitjacket has led to considerable concern.
  • The occasion is the Sardar Patel Memorial Lecture on October 26 to be delivered by Information and Broadcasting Minister Arun Jaitley, has led to considerable speculation on social media on the government’s intent.
  • Reasonable restrictions to free speech are part of Article 19 (2) of Constitution.

 

IS claims anti-Shia blasts in Bangladesh  –    (International Relation)

  • The Islamic State (IS) terror group has claimed responsibility for three blasts in Dhaka that killed at least one person and injured 87 early Saturday, according to the U.S.-based SITE Intelligence Group.
  • The same group had earlier reported that IS was behind the the murders of two foreign nationals in Bangladesh — Italian Cesare Tavella and Japanese Kunio Hoshi. The claim, however, was refuted by the Bangladesh authorities.

 

 

Intervention puts Moscow’s military prowess on display for the world   –    (International Relation)

  • The air campaign in Syria, Russia’s first military action outside the former Soviet Union since the war in Afghanistan, shows a revamped Russian military, which sharply differs in both capability and mindset from the old, Soviet-style force. It is capable of quickly projecting power far from Russian borders, widely uses drones and precision weapons, and cares about soldiers’ comfort.
  • The thunder of Syria’s civil war couldn’t be heard at Hemeimeem, located in the coastal province of Latakia which has largely been spared the chaos and destruction of more than four-and-a-half years of fighting.

 

‘Do not expect much from Pak. on LeT promise’   –    (International Relation)

  • South Asia watchers in the U.S capital acknowledge that Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s commitment to take action against the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) is technically a new one, but warn that it may be too early to celebrate.
  • They point out that Pakistan has made commitments on similar issues earlier too but what matters is the extent of its willingness and ability to make good on its commitment. “So I would not uncork the champagne just yet,” said Ashley Tellis, Senior Associate at the South Asia Program in the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

 

China may supply 1,000 MT of fuel to Nepal   –    (International Relation)

  • Amid a blockade of trade points between India and Nepal by agitating Madhesi parties, China is mulling providing 1,000 metric tonnes of fuel to help the landlocked country tide over an acute shortage of petroleum products during the festival season.
  • The first shipment is expected to arrive in the Nepalese capital Kathmandu in a few days, said sources at state-owned Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC).

 

L-1B visa rejections on the rise, says US law firm  –    (International Relation)

  • Employment-based immigration law firm Fakhoury Law Group, PC of the U.S., which provides global immigration services to large Indian corporates for placing their personnel abroad more specifically in the U.S.
  •  Said it has seen a spurt in the denial of L-1A/B visas, meant for specialised knowledge professionals, in recent times and this would adversely impact Indian IT companies unless corrective measures are taken.

 

Buddhist motifs for Brand Amaravati  –    (Indian Culture)

  • As it goes about building its new capital, Amaravati, Andhra Pradesh is emphasising the Buddhist aspect of its long history of two and a half millennia to attract investments from East and Southeast Asia.
  • It is a strategy stressed by the Buddhism-loving staff of Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, and eagerly adopted by him as it fits in well with his mission of raising finances from the cash-rich economies of China, Singapore and Japan.