{Current Affairs} Daily News Notes: 20th Dec, 2013

• ·         The government has said that there is no proposal to relax the upper age limit and the number of attempts for a candidate appearing in the civil service examinations conducted by the Union Public Service Commission, UPSC. In the revised scheme the overall number of papers to be taken by a candidate remains the same. The number of optional subjects has been reduced from two to only one thereby bringing down the number of papers from four to two and the number of papers for general studies has been increased from two to four. As per CSE Rules, 2013, a candidate must have attained the age of 21 years and must not have attained the upper age of 30 years may apply for the civil service examination. However, the upper age limit is relaxable upto a maximum of five years for candidates belonging to Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe categories and upto a maximum of three years for OBC candidates.
• ·         Yet, in another significant achievement, IRCON International Limited, the country’s largest construction, Public Sector Undertaking (PSU) of Ministry of Railways, has been awarded the prestigious India Pride Awards for Excellence in Central PSUs in India Image Enhancement. The Award was instituted by Dainik Bhaskar group in 2009 to honour the PSUs in their areas of excellence.
• ·         The fourth generation light combat aircraft, LCA Tejas received second initial operational clearance in Bangalore today. LCA is integrated with BVR missile, integrated guns and air to air refueling capabilities. It also has helmet mounted display camera that guides the pilot in combat mode. Speaking on the occasion, Defence Minister expressed his appreciation for the initial operational clearance to the multi-role fighter aircraft and hoped that the final operational clearance to LCA will be procured by December 2014. Mr Antony asserted that the government impart's the highest priority to the indigenisation programme in the Defence sector. Further, the Chief of Air-staff N A K Browne informed that the airforce will procure two squadrons of Mark one of LCA aircraft and four squadrons of mark two LCA aircraft. The induction process will start by 2015.
• ·         India and San Marino signed a Tax Information Exchange Agreement (TIEA) at Rome, Italy yesterday. Salient features of the agreement with San Marino are: [1.] The agreement provides for exchange of information that is foreseeably relevant to the administration and enforcement of the domestic tax laws; [2.] The agreement provides for exchange of banking and ownership information; [3.] The agreement provides for the representatives of the competent authority of the requesting Party to enter the territory of the requested Party to interview individuals and examine records.
• ·         United Nations has lowered India's economic growth forecast for 2013 to 4.8 per cent while warning that emerging markets should be prepared to deal with the impact of US Federal Reserve's quantitative easing programme. Similarly, it has lowered the growth projection for 2014 to 5.3 per cent, down 1.2 per cent from earlier forecast. The UN sees India to grow by 5.7 per cent in 2015. In China, growth was expected to maintain a pace of about 7.5 per cent over the next few years.
• ·         The United Nations will mount an operation to evacuate a besieged Indian Army peacekeeping contingent manning a remote base after two of them were killed and another seriously injured in trying to protect civilians from a rival tribe in a South Sudan oil-producing area. Over 200 armed persons from the rival Luo Nuer tribe attacked the post leading to the deaths of the two Indian Army JCOs in crossfire.
• ·         The Cabinet on Thursday approved a free trade agreement (FTA) in trade and services with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean). The Agreement on Trade in Services and Agreement is to be signed under the Comprehensive Economic Cooperation (CECA) between India and the Asean. The CECA between India and Asean was signed in 2003. The Cabinet approved the Agreement on Trade Goods under the CECA with the Asean in July 2009. The agreement the Cabinet approved on Thursday is aimed at boosting the movement of Indian professionals in the 10-nation Asean. Member countries include countries like Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia.
• ·         The US today rejected India's demands of dropping visa fraud charges against senior diplomat Devyani Khobragade and apologising for mistreating her. State Department spokesperson said that Khobragade will have to face the serious allegations and that the immunity sought for her after her transfer to India's Permanent Mission to the UN is not retroactive.
• ·         Although a relative calm has returned to Bangui, the capital of the Central African Republic, almost a thousand persons are estimated to have died in the communal clashes that rocked this vast landlocked nation for two weeks. The fighting has opposed Christian and Muslim militia and there has been blind killing on both sides with the use of machetes and other crude weapons wielded with deadly and terrifying force. It is alleged, however, that Muslim ex-rebels, known as the Seleka group, who retaliated after Christian militiamen went from door to door hacking Muslim men to death, are alleged to have carried out the majority of the attacks. With a terrorised population choosing to remain indoors, commerce has failed to pick up and the truce remains uneasy with organisations like Human Rights Watch warning against a renewed “intensification of sectarian atrocities.” France, the United Nations and the African Union have mustered troops who have managed to restore calm, but NGOs say violence could flare up again anytime. The Central African Republic has a history of corruption and political instability with regular coups d’états carried out by disaffected soldiers. The last elected government led by Francois Bozize was overthrown by a coalition of opposition rebels known as the Seleka. Since then the country has been in a state of continued chaos and anarchy.
• ·         Bangladesh has finalised a deal to buy two submarines from China as part of its plans to develop a three-dimensional navy and to strengthen the navy's ability to protect maritime resources and territorial waters. The submarine deal will be the second major defence agreement this year. Bangladesh earlier finalised a USD 1 billion deal with Russia to procure Mi-17 helicopters, combat trainer aircraft, armoured personnel carriers, anti-tank missiles and pontoon bridges. Analysts have said this deal appeared to be a diplomatic shift as Russia was not a traditional source of weapons. The Bangladeshi military is more familiar with weapons from China and the US.
• ·         Football world governing body’s rankings released Thursday show an unchanged top 10, with Spain leading going into World Cup year ahead of Germany and Argentina. Colombia, Portugal and Uruguay follow, with Italy, Switzerland, Netherlands and World Cup hosts Brazil completing the leading 10. The results of 30 international matches were taken into account for the latest rankings.