CURRENT AFFAIRS Newspaper Analysis and Summary – 23rd November 2014 NATIONAL ‘More fresh water needed to save Sunderbans ecosystem’- The Hindu The present flow of fresh water in the Sunderbans is insufficient to maintain its unique ecosystem, with additional supply required to save the archipelago from degradation, a study by Jadavpur University’s School of Oceanographic Studies (SOS) and IIT Roorkee have revealed. The study is part of the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s ‘Ecosystem For Life: a Bangladesh-India Initiative’ in which researchers from both the countries have collaborated. “The pilot study indicates that the present level of flow is insufficient to maintain the ecosystems and ecosystem services in Sunderban even at the present level. We need more water in the lean period,” SOS director Sugata Hazra told The Hindu on Saturday. Sunderbans, he added, needs 507 cubic metres per second (cumec) of fresh water and the Hooghly 1200 cumec. Sunderbans, a UNESCO world heritage site with over 300 species of plants 600 species of wildlife, is the home of Royal Bengal tigers. It is spread over West Bengal and Bangladesh and has 8 million inhabitants. The study was carried out in two spots in the archipelago: Swarupganj on the Hooghly and Majdia on the trans-boundary Ichamati river, and studied four indicators: the Gangetic dolphins, Sundari trees, Hilsa migration and navigation. Over the past few years, Sundari trees, from which Sunderbans derives its name, have dwindled in numbers while the number of salinity-tolerant Avicennia sp has gone up; sightings of dolphins too have decreased. Parrikar clears expanded IACCS for Air Force – The Hindu The first Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) meeting, chaired by Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar cleared a proposal for 814 mounted gun systems for the Army. Request for Information (RFI) will be issued to Indian vendors within the next couple of months kicking off the tendering process. Indian private sector majors Bharat Forge, L&T and Tata have already tied up with global Original Equipment Manufacturers and are likely to participate in the tender. Addressing the DAC, Mr. Parrikar reiterated that the priority of the government was fast and transparent acquisitions. The Army’s Field Artillery Rationalisation Plan (FARP) formulated in 1999 envisages inducting around 3,000 guns of various types to equip its 220 artillery regiments. No new gun has been acquired since the 1980s, when 400 Bofors guns were bought from Sweden. Another major deal cleared is for the Air Force to expand the Integrated Air Command & Control System (IACCS) for Rs.7,160 crore. The IACCS presently has 5 nodes and an additional 4 nodes will be set up to connect the Indian mainland with Island regions for seamless communication and connectivity. www.indiancivils.com An Online IAS Academy Page 1 CURRENT AFFAIRS As part of this, new command & control nodes will be set up and integrated with the existing ground & air sensors and air defence systems. NSA flags corporate control over cyberspace– The Hindu National Security Adviser Ajit Doval on Saturday pointed out that India was struggling against corporates in the cyber battlefield. Speaking at the HT Leadership Summit, Mr. Doval said, “One of the problems we have is that technologically we have lost out in certain areas where the root servers are all under the control of countries that are not under our control. A lot of these control systems are with the West, mainly the U.S… They are helpful to us in some areas but not always helpful, particularly in the corporate world. There are corporations which are very powerful and they use it. I don’t want to name them but they are very powerful.” Commenting on Chinese construction activity in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, Mr. Doval said: “We have got to see the consequence, particularly if it is passing through areas which are in PoK which is close to our border and actually is our own territory. I think we have taken it up from time to time with China and Pakistan. And it is a matter on which strategic cognisance needs to be taken, and I think the government should prepare itself for possible consequences.” He said the most critical factor of national security “is the will of the nation … This depends on our values of fairness, justice and equality.” INS Vikrant fades into history-The Hindu Despite last ditch attempts by activists and former navy servicemen to save it, INS Vikrant — the county’s first aircraft carrier — has finally faded away into history. The BJP, whose leaders had promised to keep the vessel alive before elections, shifted the blame on to the previous Congress–NCP government and said had it acted sooner, Vikrant could have been saved. The dismantling of the majestic vessel began here on Friday opposite the Darukhana ship breaking yard. The Bombay High Court had given the go-ahead for Vikrant to be auctioned in January, after it rejected a public interest litigation petition to save the vessel and convert it into a maritime museum. The Centre said it was difficult to maintain the vessel. In March, the Indian Navy sold Vikrant to a Mumbai-based ship breaking company for Rs. 63 crore. However, activists moved the apex court in a bid to save the vessel. The Supreme Court in May ordered maintenance of status quo. Those who had campaigned to save the vessel expressed their regret saying it was a pity that successive governments could not restore a national treasure. Kiran Paingankar, who headed the ‘Save Vikrant Committee’, said it was a “black day” in the “glorious maritime history of country”. “I tried my best to save the vessel,” he told The Hindu . www.indiancivils.com An Online IAS Academy Page 2 CURRENT AFFAIRS End culture of impunity: Hamid Ansari– The Hindu Vice-President M. Hamid Ansari pointed out that people have a “profound disenchantment with the state” due to misuse of laws such as the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act. He was delivering a lecture in memory of eminent jurist and human rights activist V.M. Tarkunde, here on Friday. Mr. Ansari called for, “a fuller accountability into the system of governance at all levels so that the culture of impunity ends, and the state and its functionaries are held accountable for every act of omission or commission.” There must be “continual oversight” to ensure that people are “kept sufficiently awake to the principle of not letting liberty be smothered by material prosperity.” The need, he said, was to find a balance between traditional rights of citizens with environmental imperatives and economic objectives or else social tensions would undermine development. “Innovative legislation pertaining to right to food, education, information and rural employment has been put in place. A critical analysis of the results however show imbalance in implementation and insufficient attention to some other areas.” The Vice President pointed out that violations of the right to life and liberty by the state was acute in areas of internal conflict such as Jammu and Kashmir, the north-east, and the Naxal belt. “Much of this is credible, has been carefully documented, and reflects poorly on the state and its agents,” he said. “Despite the constitutional and legal guarantees, religious minorities continue to be the target of violence and discrimination… Patterns of systematic mobilisation of hate and divisive politics are discernible; in many cases these have been pursued with impunity.” Nehru favoured state control over resources: Irfan Habib– The Hindu Working on the premise that Jawharlal Nehru’s world-view “provides the bedrock upon which alone this nation can sustain itself,” the Safdar Hashmi Memorial Trust on Saturday launched a lecture series that seeks to reconstruct and recover his “idea of India” while critiquing it. Delivering the first lecture in the series christened, “The Indian Modern & Nehru,” eminent historian Irfan Habib flagged the key interventions made by the country’s first Prime Minister during the freedom struggle to lay the foundations of independent India. In particular, Prof. Habib dwelt at length on Nehru’s celebration of reason and advocacy of a welfare state; two interventions that ran contrary to what Gandhi had spelt out in his book Hind Swaraj. “Gandhi spoke of self-help and minimal state but Nehru felt that people wanted a supportive state and advocated public sector control of mineral resources, railways, industry,...’’ Nehru also advocated ‘land to the tiller,’ something which Gandhi was opposed to, Prof. Habib added. Pointing out that Gandhi chose Nehru as his political heir despite these differences, Prof. Habib said 1947 saw their two streams of thought unite like never before. “Both wanted www.indiancivils.com An Online IAS Academy Page 3 CURRENT AFFAIRS communal slaughter to stop. And, they wanted Muslims to remain in India even after Partition as should Hindus and Sikhs in Pakistan. Very few Congress leaders agreed with them.” Challenging allegations that State control over resources was a personal agenda of Nehru, the historian pointed out that public sector control over mineral resources, key infrastructure and industry were mentioned in the Karachi Resolution and was part of the official Congress policy from the early 1930s Now, e-cigarettes can harm your computer– The Hindu E-cigarettes may be better for your health than normal ones, but spare a thought for your poor computer — electronic cigarettes have become the latest vector for malicious software, according to online reports. Many e-cigarettes can be charged over USB, either with a special cable, or by plugging the cigarette itself directly into a USB port. That might be a USB port plugged into a wall socket or the port on a computer. But, if so, that means that a cheap e-cigarette from an untrustworthy supplier gains physical access to a device.