Current Affairs 31st May 2017

Current Affairs 31st May 2017 - Important Points

• Bail granted to LK Advani, MM Joshi, Uma Bharti on by CBI Court - Babri Masjid Demolition Case
• Hindi Sevi Samman Awards presented by - President of India
• India's own global positioning system NavIC to be operational from  - 2018
• MoU signed between Amul and ISRO for - Fodder acreage estimation
• Controversial NGO law in Egypt approved by - President Sisi 
• Former Panama dictator Manuel Noriega passed away on - 29th May 2017 
• MoU signed between India and Fiji on - Defense Cooperation

Current Affairs 31st May 2017 - Details

Bail granted to LK Advani, MM Joshi, Uma Bharti on by CBI Court - Babri Masjid Demolition Case

CBI Court of Lucknow granted bail to all accused of Babri Masjid Demolition Case including BJP stalwarts  Murli Manohar Joshi, LK Advani and Union Minister Uma Bharti on personal bond of Rs 50000 each on 30th May 2017. The court was hearing two separate cases relating to the Babri Masjid demolition in 1992.

The court also announced that it will frame charges against all these BJP leaders and other senior leaders - Mahant Nritya Gopal Das, Mahant Ram Vilas Vedanti, Baikunth Lal Sharma alias Prem Ji, Champat Rai Bansal, Mahant Dharma Das and Satish Pradhan. Special CBI judge S K Yadav told that no application for adjournment from personal appearance of these accused will be taken care of in the court.

Detailed information on Dadri case

• In December 1992 - Two FIRs were registered in this case after Babri Masjid's demolition.
•  One was against mosque demolition by karsevaks and second was against 13 BJP leaders including Murli Manohar Joshi, Uma Bharti, LK Advani and Vinay Katiyar for delivering communal speeches before the demolition.
• Special CBI court dropped conspiracy charges against 13 people who were accused of Babri Masjid Demolition Case including Advani, Joshi, Uma Bharti and others in May 2001.
• CBI court ruling was challenged before the Lucknow bench of Allahabad High Court in November 2004.
• Advani and the others were forgiven as Allahabad High Court upheld CBI court order in May 2010.
• Allahabad HC awarded two-thirds of Ayodhya site to Hindu parties and one-third to WAQF Board in September 2010.
• CBI moved SC arguing the demolition bid was a concerted conspiracy in February 2011.
• Supreme Court stayed Allahabad High Court verdict on Ayodhya dispute calling it invalidate and ordered the Special
• CBI court in Lucknow to frame criminal conspiracy charges against the BJP leaders in May 2011.
• The Supreme Court ruled that it won't accept charges dropping against Advani and other leaders and case must be revived in March 2017.
• The Supreme Court restored criminal conspiracy trial against Uma Bharti L K Advani, M M Joshi and other senior BJP leaders in the Babri Masjid demolition case in April 2017. 

Hindi Sevi Samman Awards presented by - President of India

Indian President, Pranab Mukherjee presented the Hindi Sevi Samman Awards to 26 renowned Hindi scholars for the year 2015 on 30th May 2017 at a function held at Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Delhi. Several dignitaries including the Union Minister of Human Resource Development, Prakash Javadekar attended the ceremony. The awards were granted to the scholars under 12 different categories for their contribution in the fields of Literature and Hindi language.

India's own global positioning system NavIC to be operational from  - 2018

India's homegrown Global Positioning System, the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS) also called NavIC, is expected to be operational in early 2018. NavIC is being tested for its accuracy presently. The system testing includes ground verification and calibration of NavIC data so as to calculate its accuracy and many academic institutions across India are involved in this. The Indian system is expected to be more accurate than the GPS powered by American satellites as The American GPS with 24 satellites in a constellation has to cover the entire world while NavIC with seven satellites covers only India and its surroundings.

Key highlights

• NavIC, which means sailor in Sanskrit will be providing terrestrial, aerial and marine navigation including disaster management,vehicle tracking and fleet management, visual and voice navigation.
• NavIC stands for navigation with Indian Constellation.
• The system has a constellation of 3 satellites in Geostationary orbit (GEO), 4 satellites in Geosynchronous orbit (GSO), approximately 36000 kilometers altitude above earth surface and two satellites on the ground as stand-by along with ground stations.
• It was developed with the intention to overcome the situation of access to foreign government-controlled global navigation satellite systems not guaranteed in hostile situations, as happened to the Indian military in 1999 when it was dependent on the American GPS during the Kargil War.
• The system will cover the entire country including Indian Ocean and its surroundings, with a reach till eastern parts of Arabian Peninsula in the west and up to some of China parts in the east. The system’s signals will work till Malaysia in the South.
• It will provide standard positioning service to all the users with a position accuracy of 5 meter.
• NavIC system has dual frequency (S and L bands) allowing use of high and low frequency signals unlike the GPS.
• There will be two levels of service, the standard positioning service will be open for civilian use and a restricted service for authorized users only(like military).

Do you know?

Indian govt. approved the development of this project in May 2006.

MoU signed between Amul and ISRO for - Fodder acreage estimation

Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) for fodder acreage assessment using the satellite observation and space technology on 30th May 2017. It conducts its market operations under the brand name of 'Amul'.

MoU details

• As per the MoU, ISRO will help Amul in food crops classification and fodder crops at village level.
• It also locate suitable areas of current fallows and wastelands which can be cultivated at village level for green fodder cultivation. 
• The milk producer Gujarat farmers will be benefitted with this technology.
• This technology will also help providing season wise remote sensing based estimations  on fodder crop areas and cultivable wastelands for dissemination of information in the dairy sector.
• Amul and Space Applications Centre (SAC) of ISRO had earlier carried out a joint project to establish that remote sensing is possible to assess green fodder availability for dairy livestock at district and village level too. 

Controversial NGO law in Egypt approved by - President Sisi 

Making it harder for charities to operate in Egypt, President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi signed into law a contentious new bill that regulates non-governmental organisations (NGO) on 29th May 2017. The measure limits NGO activity to social and developmental work and introduces jail terms of upto five years in case of non-compliance and fines up to one million Egyptian pounds which is more than USD 55000.

 NGO law Highlights

• Under the new law, foreign non-governmental groups need to pay up to 16500 dollars in order to start working in Egypt and renew their permit on a regular basis.
• It has also a provision of a national authority including army and intelligence representatives to oversee the foreign funding of Egyptian 
• NGOs and the activities of foreign NGOs.
• The new law says that no organisation will be allowed to carry out or publish the results of a study or survey without state permission first.

Former Panama dictator Manuel Noriega passed away on - 29th May 2017 

Former Panama dictator Manuel Noriega passed away on 29th May 2017 due to prolonged illness. He ruled Panama from 1983 to 1989. He spied for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) until the United States invaded and overturned his corrupt government, putting an end to his criminal career that saw him working with drug traffickers like Pablo Escobar. He was serving a murder sentence in Panama at the time of his death.

Interesting highlights of Manuel Noriega

• Born in Panama City on 11th February 1934, Noriega studied at a military academy in Peru. 
• After becoming a de facto ruler of Panama in 1983, he played a key role in Iran-Contra affair during mid-1980s, which involved smuggling of weapons and drugs to help US undercover efforts.
• He was expelled as the ruler of Panama ruler after US invasion later in 1989.
• Noriega surrendered himself to the US to face money-laundering, drug-trafficking and racketeering charges in 1990. 
• He was accused for drug-trafficking charges in a US federal court in 1988 following which he was sentenced a 17 years jail term.

MoU signed between India and Fiji on - Defense Cooperation

India and Fiji signed a Memorandum of Understanding on expanding cooperation in the defense sector on 29th May 2017 in New Delhi. The Minister of Defense and National Security of Fiji, Ratu Inoke Kubuabola and his delegation and the Minister of Defense, Finance and Corporate Affairs of India, Arun Jaitley signed this MoU. Before meeting his Indian counterpart, Fiji’s defense minister laid a wreath at the Amar Jawan Jyoti at India Gate and before his arrival in New Delhi, he had visited the Western Naval Command in Mumbai. Both the Ministers discussed the expanded defense partnership in maritime security between both the countries and identified naval cooperation as an area of promise. The MoU focuses to encourage cooperation between the two nations in several areas including defense industry, military training and humanitarian assistance & disaster management.

Highlights on India-Fiji Relations

• India and Island nation Fiji share a strong cultural link, especially since 38 percent of Fiji's population is from India.
• India has used its influence in international forums such as the Commonwealth of Nations and United Nations on behalf of the ethnic Indians in Fiji, lobbying for sanctions against Fiji in the wake of the 1987 and 2000 coup, both of which removed governments, one dominated and other led by Indo-Fijians.
• At the second summit of the Pacific Islands countries, which was held in August 2015 in Jaipur, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced future plans to open a space
• The station will enable India to track satellites independently.