Weekly Current Affairs (8th July to 14th July, 2013)

NATIONAL
1. Pranab Mukherjee revoked President's Rule revoked in Jharkhand President Rule in Jharkhand was revoked by the President of India, Pranab Mukherjee on 13 July 2013. The President on 13 July 2013 signed the Proclamation under clause (2) of the Article 356 of the Constitution of India and revoked the Proclamation that was issued for the state on 18 January 2013. The Presidents rule was revoked from Jharkhand, to pave a way from installation of a Government in the state that is led by Hemant Soren, JMM leader. Supreme Court: Person in Jail or Police Custody cannot Contest Elections The Supreme Court in its landmark Judgement on 11 July 2013 barred Persons in Jail or Police Custody from contesting election for legislative bodies. The Supreme Courts decision would help in bringing an end to the era of the under trial politicians, who contest elections from behind the bars. The Supreme Court ruled that only an elector can contest the polls and the elector ceases the right to cast vote due to confinement in prison or being in custody of Police. The court, however, made it clear that disqualification will not be applicable to person subjected to preventive detention, under any law. The Supreme Court Bench that comprised Justice AK Patnaik and Justice SJ Mukhopadhayay, while referring to the Representation of Peoples Act said that the Act (Section 4 & 5) lays down the qualifications for membership of the House of the People and Legislative Assembly and one of the qualifications laid down is that he must be an elector. The SC Bench in its Judgement cited Section 62(5) of the Representation of People Act, 1951 (Acts of Parliament) that no person shall vote in any election if he is confined in a prison, whether under a sentence of imprisonment or transportation or otherwise, or is in the lawful custody of the police. Reading sections 4, 5 and 62(5) together, the apex court came to the conclusion that a person in jail or police custody cannot contest election. IOR countries to pursue open regionalism to stimulate growth Trade and industry ministers of Indian Ocean Rim Association for Regional Cooperation (IORARC) member nations agreed to promote trade within the grouping to encourage economic cooperation and development in the strategic Indian Ocean region. India (Gurgaon) and Mauritius co-hosted the first economic and business conference under the theme of Deepening Economic Linkages for Balanced, Inclusive & Sustainable Growth. They decided to encourage open regionalism and reconcile trade practices in line with international norms and lower trade barriers. The group also agreed to build on the complementarities and identify key growth sectors. The members also expressed concern over the debilitating global economic environment and how low rates of growth in advanced economies have affected developing economies through slower international trade and lesser FDI inflows and urged member nations to adopt measures, consistent with their WTO obligations to boost growth and development in the region.

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Weekly Current Affairs (8th July to 14th July, 2013) What is IORARC? IORARC is Indian Ocean Rim Association for Regional Cooperation (IORARC) is an association of 20 member countries. The group came into being in March 1995 in Mauritius. Through it pass some of the most important energy transport routes from Middle East to South-East and East Asia, and securing these routes has become a global priority. Objectives of IORARC: 1. To promote sustainable growth and balanced development of the region and Member States 2. To focus on those areas of economic cooperation which provide maximum opportunities for development, shared interest and mutual benefits 3. To promote liberalization, remove impediments and lower barriers towards a freer and enhanced flow of goods, services, investment, and technology within the Indian Ocean rim. 4. India and Albania signed an Agreement for Avoidance of Double Taxation The Union Government of India and Government of Albania on 8 July 2013 signed an Agreement for Avoidance of Double Taxation and the Prevention of Fiscal Evasion with respect to the Taxes on Income and on Capital (DTAA). The agreement was signed to provide tax stability for the residents of both the nations. It would also facilitate mutual economic cooperation between the two countries. The signed agreement would also stimulate the flow of investment, technology and services between India and Albania. The agreement incorporates provisions for effective exchange of information between tax authorities of the two countries, which also includes exchange of banking information and supply of information without recourse to domestic interest. Major Points of the Agreement Signed Business profits would be taxable in the source state if the activities of the enterprise constitute a Permanent Establishment (PE) in that state. It provides fixed place PE, building Site, Service and Agency PE as well as Construction and Installation of PE. Para 2 of Article 9 of the agreement incorporates concerns related to Associated Enterprises and thus involves recourse to Mutual Agreement Procedures for relieving double taxation in cases that involves transfer pricing adjustments The signed agreement makes Dividends, Interest and Royalties & Fees for Technical Services income taxable in both the countries, the country of source and residence. The withholding rates of taxation for dividend, interests and royalties & fees for technical services of 10 percent each will help in promoting investment, technology and technical services flow between the two nations. The Agreement also has the provisions for effective exchange of information between tax authorities of the two counties in line with latest international standard. It includes exchange of banking information and supplying of information without recourse to domestic interest. An article on the Assistance in Collection of Taxes is also mentioned under the Article and includes provisions to take measures on conservancy

Weekly Current Affairs (8th July to 14th July, 2013) It includes anti-abuse (limitation of benefits) provisions to ensure that the benefits of the Agreement are availed of by the genuine residents of the two countries. The agreement was signed by the Chairperson of Central Board of Direct Taxes, Dr. Sudha Sharma and the Ambassador of Republic of Albania, Fatos Kercikuon at New Delhi. 5. MPs, MLAs to be disqualified on date of criminal conviction The Supreme Court on Wednesday held that charge-sheeted Members of Parliament and MLAs, on conviction for the offences, will be immediately disqualified from holding membership of the House without being given three months time for appeal, as was the case before. A Bench of Justices A.K. Patnaik and S.J. Mukhopadhaya struck down as unconstitutional Section 8 (4) of the Representation of the People Act that allows convicted law makers a three-month period for filing their appeal to the higher court and to get a stay of the conviction and the sentence. The Bench made it clear that the ruling will be prospective and those who had already filed appeals in various High Courts or the Supreme Court against their convictions would be exempt from it. Section 8 of the RP Act deals with disqualification on conviction for certain offence: A person convicted of any offence and sentenced to imprisonment for varying terms under Sections 8 (1) (2) and (3) shall be disqualified from the date of such conviction and shall continue to be disqualified for a further period of six years since his release. But Section 8 (4) of the RP Act gives protection to MPs and MLAs as they can continue in office even after conviction if an appeal is filed within three months. The Bench found it unconstitutional that convicted persons could be disqualified from contesting elections but continue to be Members of Parliament and State Legislatures once elected. INTERNATIONAL 1. TAPI project: Countries agree on setting up a Company for its execution Countries involved in the TAPI pipeline project- India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Turkmenistan have agreed to establish a company for execution of the proposed project. They are expected to give it shape to by September 2013. Asian Development Bank (ADB) has been appointed as legal-technical consultant, and it will soon identify a company which will drive the project. The company will be from a neutral country. A protocol has also been inked in which the parties fixed the decision on the need to prepare founding documents and the registration of the TAPI Ltd. India has already approved setting up of a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) to build the TAPI gas pipeline as the multinational firms did not come forward to build the project. 2. Mohamed ElBaradei is the interim PM of Egypt Former Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Mohamed ElBaradei who is also the liberal opposition leader in Egypt has been named as Egypts new Prime Minister to

Weekly Current Affairs (8th July to 14th July, 2013) head a caretaker government. ElBaradei leads an alliance of liberal and left-wing parties, the National Salvation Front. Baradei and the IAEA were jointly honored with the Nobel Peace Prize in 2005. ElBaradei also played a key role in recent politics in Egypt, particularly the 2011 uprising which dethroned President Hosni Mubarak, and in the 2013 revolution that ousted President Mohamed Morsi. 3. UN General Assembly formed UN Forum to Boost Sustainable Development Efforts The United Nations General Assembly on 9 July 2013 established a new High-Level Political Forum (HLPF) to replace the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development (UNCSD). The decision was taken with an aim to boost efforts to tackle global economic, social and environmental challenges. The new resolution was adopted with consensus in the 193-member Assembly with an emphasis towards development of an improved and more effective institutional framework for sustainable development. The assembly also decided that the Forum should provide a dynamic platform for regular dialogue and for stocktaking and agenda-setting to advance that process. The decision of the General Assembly is based on the key recommendation of the Rio+20s outcome document of 2012 UN Conference on Sustainable Development, the Future We Want. The decision on Forum marks a major step forward in implementing 'The Future We Want'. This forum would play a major role in providing the political leadership and action-oriented recommendations that need to be followed based on the Rio Recommendation. This will help in meeting urgent global social, economic and environmental challenges. Tasks Assigned to the High-Level Political Forum he forum will be responsible to provide political leadership, guidance and recommendations for sustainable development Reviewing progress in the implementation of related commitments Enhancing integration of the three dimensions of sustainable development - economic, social and environmental The Forum will replace the Commission on Sustainable Development, which was formed after the 1992 Earth Summit and helped to generate action on a range of issues that led to international agreements or treaties. Rio+20 Conference: the future we want The Rio+20 conference on sustainable development, which took place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in June 2012 was the biggest UN conference ever and a major step forward in achieving a sustainable future the future we want. 4. President of Portugal approved Reshuffled Government

Weekly Current Affairs (8th July to 14th July, 2013) Portuguese President Anibal Cavaco Silva on 10 July 2013 approved a reshuffled ruling coalition Government, ending a 10-day crisis over hated strict policies that nearly overthrown the government. The reshuffle was taken into consideration amid opposition calls for immediate elections. The current Reshuffled government has all the authority to exercise its functions. The crisis hit the roof on 1 July 2013 with shock resignation of then finance minister Vitor Gaspar, who was feeling the pressure of mounting popular opposition. The decision to reshuffle the government is an indication to the survival for now, of Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho's centre-right government, after a political emergency that shook world markets fearing a new wave of instability in the eurozone's debt-laden periphery. Portugal forecasts a 2.3-percent economic contraction in year 2013 and has a record unemployment rate of more than 18 percent. 5. France and Switzerland signed New Inheritance Tax Deal France and Switzerland on 11 July 2013 have signed an agreement on inheritance taxes as per which Paris will help it bringing in more money. As per the agreement, the inheritances will be taxed based on where the recipient resides, but not where the deceased lived, as it is used to be earlier. The agreement is supposed to allow France to ask Switzerland to investigate suspicious bank activity even if it does not have the suspects names. The new agreement will make it tuff for people living in France to escape taxes. It is worth mentioning here that France taxes inheritance progressively up to 45 per cent, compared to Switzerlands maximum of 7 per cent. France is one of a growing number of cash impoverished country which is trying to find tax hiding away in Swiss accounts. Edward Snowden gets asylum offer from Venezuela, Nicaragua Defying the US warnings to countries to not extend asylum to Snowden arguing that he is wanted on charges of espionage and leaking classified information, two Latin American countries Venezuela and Nicaragua offered asylum to Edward Snowden who disclosed the US clandestine electronic surveillance programmed. Snowden, who first fled to Hong Kong, is currently stranded at the Moscow airport transit. The CIA whistleblower Snowden had applied for asylum in more than two dozen countries, including India. The request was denied by India and majority of the countries. But announcements by presidents of Nicaragua and Venezuela offering asylum could be viewed as a big disappointment for the US, which had been asking countries not to grant Snowden an asylum and he be returned to the country. 7. Hazem El-Beblawi named as new Prime Minister of Egypt Hazem El-Beblawi on 9 July 2013 was named as the new Prime Minister of Egypt by the Interim President Adly Mansour. A leading economist, Beblawi will form a caretaker Government that comprises technocrats from different walks of life. The caretaker government would play a major role in steering away Egypt through the transitional period.

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Weekly Current Affairs (8th July to 14th July, 2013) The interim President Adly Mansour also named Mohammad ElBaradei, a Nobel laureate and former IAEA chief as the new Vice-President of the country. The interim President Adly Mansour also named Mohammad ElBaradei, a Nobel laureate and former IAEA chief as the new Vice-President of the country. 8. People's Democratic Party won the National Assembly Elections in Bhutan Bhutans Election Commission on 14 July 2013 formally announced that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) won the National Assembly elections by having secured a majority of thirty two seats. The Druk Phuensum Tshogpa (DPT) won fifteen seats and was elected as the opposition party. Over 66 per cent turnout was recorded in the elections. The foremost election issues were rising fuel prices and credit crunch. The second parliamentary elections saw a keen voter turnout. While nineteen international media personnel from India, Netherlands, South Korea covered the elections while 279 media personnel from Bhutan cover the Second Parliamentary Elections this year. In 2008, the DPT had won the election by a landslide and won the first round of this year's polls with 45 percent of the vote. Bhutan's king had given up the monarchy's centuries-old absolute power in 2008 and allowed the introduction of democracy to the Himalayan kingdom. Latvia to enter eurozone The tiny Baltic state of Latvia received the green light from its European partners on Tuesday to become the 18th member of the eurozone from next year. It had been a long journey for the former Soviet state since it joined the EU in 2004. And despite the eurozones current troubles, membership would bring with it benefits, the Prime Minister said, pointing to lower interest rates, lower currency conversion costs and increased foreign investment. But it also showed that the crisis-ridden single currency area which not long ago had been seen as on the verge of disintegrating was by contrast continuing to enlarge Australia switches on telescope to explore universe origins Australia has taken a major step toward the ambitious Square Kilometre Array (SKA) astronomy project with the switching of a test telescope to explore the origins of the universe. Innovation Minister Kim Carr said the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA), a low-frequency radio telescope operating at the remote Outback site that will host the SKA, began collecting its first data from Southern Hemisphere skies. Australia was jointly awarded the SKA contract with South Africa and New Zealand last year in a surprise multi-site decision. Construction is expected to start in 2016, with preliminary operations to be under way by 2020. The SKA will use a forest of antennae, spread across remote terrain, to pick up signals from cosmic phenomena that cannot be detected by optical telescopes. It will have a discovery potential 10,000 times greater than the most advanced modern instruments and will explore exploding stars, black holes, dark energy and traces of the universes origins some 14 billion years ago. Indian Ocean security pact signed

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Weekly Current Affairs (8th July to 14th July, 2013) India, Sri Lanka and the Maldives will share capacities and information to address threats to maritime security such as piracy, terrorism and gunrunning in the Indian Ocean and to pursue sustainable development of maritime environment. The three countries arrived at an agreement on the issues at the meeting on Trilateral Cooperation on Maritime Security held in Colombo. SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY 1. NASAs Hubble discovered Blue Planet 63 light-years Away Scientists from NASA in July 2013 have discovered a blue planet that possibly rains glass, orbiting a star 63 light-years away. This is the first time an exoplanets true colour has been determined. Astronomers has used NASAs Hubble Space Telescope and made visible light observation spotting the planet HD 189733b which is one of the closest exoplanets that can be seen crossing the face of its star. Scientists detected Mysterious Bursts of Radio Waves Mysterious bursts of radio waves originating from cosmological distances were detected by the scientists on 7 July 2013. These radio waves originated when the universe was just half its current age. Mysterious bursts of radio waves originated from billions of light years away. The international team of scientists is speculating about the origin of radio waves. The burst energetics suggested that they originated from an extreme astrophysical event which involves relativistic objects such as neutron stars or black holes. The scientific findings suggested some extreme events involving large amounts of mass or energy as the source of the radio bursts. The radio bursts last for just a few milliseconds and the furthest one was detected several billion light years away. The scientists reached their findings after observing a tiny fraction of the sky. The team of scientists included researchers from the U.K., Australia, Germany, Italy and the U.S. The team used the CSIRO Parkes 64 metre radio telescope in Australia to obtain their results. The scientists speculated that the origin of these explosive bursts may be from magnetic neutron stars, known as magnetars. They can give off more energy in a millisecond than our Sun does in 300000 years. The scientific finding will help in finding out the properties of space between the Earth and where the bursts occurred. IVF baby born using genetic screening The first IVF baby to have undergone an embryo selection using a procedure that can read every letter of the human genome has been born. Connor Levy was born in the United States on May 18 after a Philadelphia couple had cells from their IVF embryos sent to specialists in Oxford, southern England, who checked them for gene abnormalities. The process helped their U.S. fertility clinic select embryos with the right number of chromosomes, which have a much higher chance of producing a healthy baby. The birth demonstrates how next-generation sequencing (NGS), which was developed to read whole genomes quickly and cheaply, is poised to transform the selection of embryos in IVF clinics.

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Weekly Current Affairs (8th July to 14th July, 2013) PERSONS 1. Vice President Released a Book titled Smritiyan authored by Garima Sanjay The Vice President of India Hamid Ansari on 13 July 2013 released a book entitled Smritiyan authored by Garima Sanjay. Garima Sanjay is a professional author & documentary filmmaker by profession. Smritiyan, the book describes that Life in general throws challenges before, we can fulfill our aspirations. At times we beat those challenges, but sometimes, especially in case of our personal and emotional lives, were unable to face these challenges and we simply give up and compromise with the situation and accept our failure. In such a situation, we blame our luck; or someone, whom we perceive as a villain in our life for our failures. Zubin Mehta to get Tagore Award Zubin Mehta, western classical music conductor of Indian-Parsi origin, will be felicitated with the Tagore Award for Cultural Harmony. A four-member jury led by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and comprising Chief Justice of India Justice Altamas Kabir, Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj and former Governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi unanimously selected Mr. Mehta to be the second recipient of the awards 2013 instalment in recognition of his outstanding contribution to cultural harmony

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SPORTS 1. Andy Murray becomes the first Briton in 77 Years to clinch Wimbledon Mens Single title Andy Murray of Britain created history when he defeated Serbian star player Novak Djokovic at Center Court of London to become the first Briton in 77 years to win the Mens Singles Title at Wimbledon 2013. Earlier he was Fred Perry, who won his last Championship in 1936.