Current Affairs 14th July 2017

Current Affairs 14th July 2017 - Important Points

• One of the biggest icebergs break away from Antarctica on - 12th July 2017
• RailCloud Project, NIVARAN-Grievance Portal and CTSE Scheme launched by - Railways Ministry
• Mithali Raj becomes first player to score 6000 runs in - women’s ODI cricket
• Army is empowered to procure weapons systems, military platforms for short intense wars by - Government
• 100m area from edge of Ganga as No-development Zone declared by - NGT
• 8th edition of Theatre Olympics to be hosted by - India
•  India’s first TISC in Punjab to be set up by - DIPP
•  China's Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo passed away on - 13th July 2017
•  Services by Educational Institution to students are exempted from Tax under -GST

Current Affairs 14th July 2017 - Details

One of the biggest icebergs break away from Antarctica on - 12th July 2017

Scientists at the University of Swansea and the British Antarctic Survey on 12th July 2017 said that one of the biggest icebergs ever recorded is broken away from Antarctica.
As per estimates, the giant block covers, which covers an area of roughly 6000 square kilometers has calved away from the Larsen C Ice Shelf of Antarctica between 10th July and 12th July 2017.
US satellite observed the iceberg while passing over a region as the Larsen C Ice Shelf as per reports.
Scientists were expecting it already and thus they have been following the development of a large crack in Larsen’s ice for more than a decade.

The rift's flow had increased after 2014, making it biggest calving even more. The more than 200m-thick tabular berg will not be moving too far, very fast in the short term. But it will be required to be monitored. Currents and winds might eventually push it to north of the Antarctic where it could become a hazard to ship.
An infrared sensor on the American space agency's Aqua satellite spied clear water in the rift between the Berg and the shelf on 12th July 2017. The water is comparatively warmer related to the surrounding air and ice - both of which are sub-zero.

RailCloud Project, NIVARAN-Grievance Portal and CTSE Scheme launched by - Railways Ministry

Railways Minister Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu launched various initiatives namely RailCloud Project, NIVARAN-Grievance Portal and Cashless treatment Scheme in Emergency (CTSE) Scheme on 12th July 2017.

More on RailCloud Project

• The Phase-I of the RailCloud was sanctioned with cost of Rs 53.55 crore.
• It is another step towards the Digitization of Railways with an objective of single digital platform for Indian Railways.
• It is a strategic IT initiative for enterprise wide digital single platform with an aim to improve revenue, customer satisfaction, effective, efficient and safe operations.
• It works on popular Cloud Computing system where faster deployment of Server resources results in reduced cost.
• It will pave the way for swifter deployment of application in just one day only. Also the cloud hardware and environment will be available for rigorous testing of the new applications.
• Its technology will be enabling the maximum usage of the available server and storage resulting in accommodation of bigger data and more applications within same server space.
• The existing resources available with railway will going to be subsumed in RailCloud to ensure that expenditure is minimized to acquire new resources.

Mithali Raj becomes first player to score 6000 runs in - women’s ODI cricket

India captain Mithali Raj scripted history on 12th July 2017 as she became the only female cricketer to surpass the 6000 run mark in One-Day Internationals (ODI).
She overtook Charlotte Edwards who had the highest score of 5992 after scoring her 34th run against Australia in Bristol.
The 34-year-old reached the landmark in her 183rd ODI,where she took 164 innings which are 16 less than Edwards.
More about Mithali Raj

• Born on 3rd December 1982, Mithali Raj is the captain of the Indian Women's cricket team in Test's and ODI.
• She is also the first player to score 7 consecutive 50s in ODIs.
• She plays both Test and ODI cricket for India's women's cricket team.
• She made her ODI debut in 1999 and scored unbeaten 114 runs against Ireland at Milton Keynes.
• She made her Test debut in the 2001-02 season against South Africa at Lucknow, India.
• On 17th August 2002, she broke Karen Rolton's record of world’s highest individual Test score of 209 - Not Out, scoring a new height of 214 against England in the second and final Test at County Ground, Taunton.
• However, Kiran Baluch from Pakistan beat that record by scoring 242 against West Indies in March 2004.
• She led the Indian team to the finals in the Women's Cricket World Cup of 2005 where the team was lost to Australia.
• She was honoured with the Arjuna Award in 2003.

Army is empowered to procure weapons systems, military platforms for short intense wars by - Government

The Union Government empowered the Army to directly procure critical weapons systems and military platforms to maintain combat readiness for short duration intense wars in July 2017.
This decision is made to help the Army to complete the procurement process for such ammunition and equipment in a faster way.

Reports suggested that the Army vice-chief Sarath Chand has been given the full financial powers to procure ammunition. The decision was made after an internal review conducted and found that the optimum holding state was not maintained in a proper way.
As a result, the Army has been allowed to procure 46 types of ammunition and spares for 10 different types of weapons systems.

100m area from edge of Ganga as No-development Zone declared by - NGT

 The National Green Tribunal (NGT) passed a few directions to rejuvenate the Ganga river and declared 100 metres from the edge of the Ganga river between Haridwar and Unnao as “No-Development Zone” on 13th July 2017. NGT bench headed by NGT chairperson Swatanter Kumar passed these directions.

Key Highlights

• It declared ‘No-Development Zone’ along side an area of 100 meters from the edge of the river and directed that this zone must be turned into green belts.
• The environment compensation of Rs 50 thousand will be imposed on anyone who dumps waste in the Ganga river.
• It banned the dumping of waste within 500 meters from the river.
• It directed all the concerned authorities to complete various projects including setting up of a sewage treatment plant and cleaning drains within next two years.
• It directed the Uttar Pradesh government to shift tanneries within six weeks from Jajmau in Kanpur to leather parks in Unnao or any other appropriate place.
• It has urged the Uttarakhand governments and Uttar Pradesh to formulate guidelines for religious activities on the Ganga ghats or its tributaries.
• It has divided the work of cleaning the river in different segments- Gomukh to Haridwar (Phase-I), Haridwar to Unnao (segment B of Phase-I), Unnao to border of Uttar Pradesh, border of Uttar Pradesh to border of Jharkhand and border of Jharkhand to Bay of Bengal in seperate segments.

8th edition of Theatre Olympics to be hosted by - India

India will be hosting the 8th edition of the greatest carnival of theatre in the world, Theatre Olympics, for the first time ever from 17th February to 8th April 2018 simultaneously in 15 cities across the country. Mahesh Sharma, Minister of State (Independent charge) for Culture and Tourism made this announcement on 12 July 2017.
Under the aegis of the Union Ministry of Culture National School of Drama will be organising the theatre olympics.
The inaugural ceremony of the Theatre Olympics will be taking place in New Delhi, with a gala function having performances of hundreds of artistes while the closing ceremony will be taking place in Mumbai. The Theatre Olympics 2018 will be the 8th edition of the event and will be featuring maximum number of Indian and International theatre groups.
More about Theatre Olympics

• The Theatre Olympics was established in Delphi, Greece, as the first international theatre festival in 1993.
• It is the foremost international theatre festival, presenting the finest productions of well-known theatre practitioners all across the world.
• The festival is an initiative to connect the cultural past with the present and future, With the tagline "Crossing Millennia" bringing the richness and diversity of theatre heritage to the experiments and research of contemporary theatre.
• After Greece, Japan was the second country to host the second edition in Shizuoka in 1999, followed by Russia in 2001.

Compulsory Registration of Marriages stated by - Union Ministry of Law and Justice

Union Ministry of Law and Justice received a report on compulsory registration of marriages from the Law Commission of India in early July 2017. For the welfare of women and children this reform was much needed.

Marriage is considered as one of the vital events in one’s life. By recognizing its importance, the United Nations have suggested for civil registration of birth, marriage and death. Civil registration of an event is defined as a compulsory, continuous and universal recording of the occurrence and characteristics of vital events concerning to the population as provided through regulation in accordance with the legal requirements of a nation.

Need for Compuslory Registration of Marriages in India

• Marriages registration compulsorily is of critical importance to handle various issues like -
   - To ensure that only adults are getting married and to prevent child marriage.
  - To prevent marriages without the consent of the parties
  - To keep an eye on social practices such as bigamy and polygamy
  - To help married women to claim their right to live in the matrimonial house and maintenance
  - To enable widows to claim their inheritance rights, other benefits and privileges which they are entitled to after the death of their spouse.
  - To discourage men from deserting women after their marriage
  - To discourage parents and guardians from indulging in women trafficking to any person, including   a foreigner.

 India’s first TISC in Punjab to be set up by - DIPP

Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) will be establishing India’s first Technology and Innovation Support Center (TISC) at Patent Information Center of Punjab.
TISC will be going to be established in Punjab under the World Intellectual Property Organization’s (WIPO) TISC program. In this regard, DIPP signed an Institutional agreement with the Punjab State Council of Science and Technology (PSCST) on 13th July 2017.

TISC Objective:

• TISC is aiming at stimulating a dynamic, vibrant and balanced Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) system in India to foster innovation and creativity.
• It will be helping to promote entrepreneurship, enhancing social, economic and cultural development by establishing a network of TISCs in India.

 China's Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo passed away on - 13th July 2017

China's Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo passed away on 13th July 2017 after battling with cancer while still in custody. He was 61 at the time of death. Liu has became the second Nobel Peace laureate who died in custody after Ossietzky who died in a Nazi concentration camp.

With the death of Liu, the human rights movement in China and across the world has lost a principled champion who devoted his life to defend and promote human rights and he was jailed for standing up for his beliefs.

More on Life of Liu Xiaobo

• He was born on 8th December 1955 in Jilin Province in northeast China.
• Liu started out as an extremely sharp literary critic in Beijing in the 1980s in the beginning.
• He was called a 'dark horse' who bridled at intellectual conformity in the name of reform.
• He was the visiting scholar at Columbia University when students in Beijing did occupy Tiananmen Square to demand democratic changes in 1989.
• Liu was arrested for the first time in 1989 while supporting the Tiananmen Square protests and spent 21 months in detention. The Communist Party labelled him as 'black hand'.
• His later support was for American government policies, including the invasion of Iraq which also brought scorn. But he was unbowed.
• Liu was most recently arrested in 2008, after he helped initiate Charter 08, a bold petition calling for democracy, the rule of law and an end to censorship.
• A court in Beijing tried and convicted Liu on a charge of inciting subversion in 2009. He was sentenced for 11 years in prison.
• Liu was China’s best-known dissident already by the time of trial.
• His fame grew even more when he was awarded with the Nobel Peace Prize in 2010 for his long and non-violent struggle for the fundamental human rights in China.

 Services by Educational Institution to students are exempted from Tax under -GST

Putting an end to the rumors that GST at the rate of 18 percent will be levied on annual  subscription/fees charged for lodging in hostels, the Union Ministry of Finance on 13th July 2017 in a notification said that services being provided by an educational institution to students, faculty and staff are fully exempted from GST.
There is no change in tax liability related to education and services in the GST, except the reduction in tax rate on certain items of education.
Educational Institutions expected to get the exemption are defined as -
(i) Pre-school education and up to higher secondary school or equivalent
(ii) Education as a part of a curriculum to obtain a qualification recognized by any law for the time being in force.
(iii) Education from an approved vocational education course.