Current Affairs - 10 January 2014

Centre admits, Something went wrong with coal blocks allocation

• The Centre on Thursday admitted before the Supreme Court that something went wrong with the coal blocks allocation and that it could have been done in a more refined manner.
• “Everything could have been done in a more refined and better manner. I accept my lordship’s view,” the A-G further said.
• At the outset of the day’s hearing, the Bench asked the A-G about the Centre’s stand on de-allocation of certain coal blocks. In response, Mr. Vahanvati submitted thegovernment would make its stand clear next week.
• The A-G had in September 2013 submitted that the coal blocks allocation was merely aletter of intent and did not confer any right on the companies over the natural resource, which is decided by the State government.

Death from Fungal infections in India

• Fungal infections kill close to 1.3 million people globally every year, matching the mortality rate of AIDS, cancer, malaria and tuberculosis, and also cause blindness to 300 million people annually.
• The magnitude of the problem is particularly serious in India because of overcrowding in hospitals, malnutrition and unhygienic tropical environs, Professor Arunaloke Chakrabarti from the Department of Microbiology at the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research told reporters here on Wednesday.
• The majority of our clinicians are poorly trained to recognise and manage these infections; most microbiology laboratories across the country lack even basic infrastructure and training to provide diagnostic support or monitor antifungal resistance and most antifungal drugs remain prohibitively expensive.
• From the limited data available in India, among the three major fungal infections in hospitals, the prevalence of candidemia (300-500 cases per year) at any tertiary care institute (with 1,500 beds) is more than what obtains in the whole of Australia.
• Unhygienic handling by healthcare staff causes invasive candidemia and the infection flows right up to the blood stream.
• “With a view to addressing these issues, international experts have come together and launched two initiatives — Leading International Fungal Education (LIFE) and Global Action Fund for Fungal Infections (GAFFI) — to improve fungal infections outcomes in patients through awareness and education and access to appropriate antifungal therapies.

More trouble For Sahara, SC asked to reveal source of 22,285 cr. refund

• The Supreme Court on Thursday warned the Sahara Group to reveal the source of the Rs.22,885 crore with which it claimed it had refunded its investors, or be ready to face inquiry by CBI and Registrar of Companies.
• Sending a clear message that the court is not “helpless” in taking action for flouting its directions, the apex court rapped Sahara chief Subrata Roy and the group for refusing to disclose the source of money.
• The apex court’s order barring Mr. Roy from leaving the country will also continue.
• The Bench expressed its disapproval when it was noted that Sahara had written a letter to SEBI saying the source of the money was “immaterial”.
• “Someone from your company has the audacity to say that source is immaterial.
• If you have refunded the money then you must have the record of the source from where you got the money. We cannot tell you how obnoxious has been the reply.

Nuclear report on the security of deadly nuclear materials

• A report issued on Wednesday on the security of deadly nuclear materials found steady improvement, with seven countries in the last two years giving up most of their uranium and plutonium that can be readily turned into weapons.
• Their actions lowered the number of nations with appreciable fuel for atomic bombs to 25 from 32.
• The 148-page report card came from the Nuclear Threat Initiative, a private advocacy group in Washington that promotes safekeeping of nuclear materials and urges governments to strengthen their defences against atomic terrorism.
• The group worked with the Economist Intelligence Unit, a company in London that analyses risks.
• The report was released as world leaders prepared for their third nuclear security summit meeting, to be held in March in The Hague, Netherlands. President Barack Obama began the summit meeting process as a way to pressure nations into improving their nuclear security, which has been one of his administration’s top foreign policy objectives. Previous meetings were held in Washington in 2010 and Seoul, South Korea, in 2012.
• The first edition of the report, the Nuclear Materials Security Index, came out two years ago, just before the 2012 summit.
• It surveyed the precautions each country had in place and ranked them based on their security practices, something that had never been done publicly.
• The updated rankings, posted online on Wednesday, contained a number of surprises and potential embarrassments. Australia remained in first place and even raised its score two points on a scale of 100, to 92 from 90.

NEW Model of DRDO

• There is hardly any lecture or discussion on the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and the Defence Ministry more broadly in which a call is not given for the setting up of a Defence R&D Commission “on the pattern of” the Atomic Energy Commission and the Space Commission.
• The rationale for such a proposal is that it would enable the DRDO to have steeply increased autonomy and more administrative and financial powers and, thereby, to be more effective.
• However, those who so argue are rarely aware of the detailed organisational structure and managerial practices of the two existing commissions.
• This article is intended to bring out those structures and practices.
• First and foremost, the Cabinet Minister for those commissions is no less than the Prime Minister himself. So, the chairmen of those commissions have direct access to the very head of government.
• There is not even a Minister of State in between. Where such a Minister of State has been brought into the picture, his only role is to lighten the burden of the Prime Minister in answering parliamentary questions and other matters related to Parliament.
• The commission chairmen meet the Prime Minister whenever they want to and also submit files directly to him/her. This gives both chairmen unrivalled power.

Source:http://www.upscportal.com