NEWS FACTS AND ONE LINERS FOR GENERAL STUDIES 2015

India is the fifth biggest producer of e-waste in the world, discarding 1.7 million
tonnes (Mt) of electronic and electrical equipment in 2014, a UN report has
warned that the volume of global e-waste is likely to rise by 21 per cent in next

three years.
Protecting sugar mills from falling prices: govt can create a buffer stock of sugar
by buying from sugar mills. That will improve market sentiments and pick up the
prices. Secondly, giving export subsidy; thirdly, government should do away with
the 12.5 per cent excise duty on ethanol to further incentivise its use. This will

compensate the sugar industries for loss of revenue.

(central govt decided to hike the import duty on sugar to 40 per cent from the
current 25 per cent to check the slide in domestic prices, no decision was
announced on the demand to create a buffer stock of sugar on government
account, also decided to waive off 12.6 per cent excise duty on ethanol blending
for the next sugar season, the government has decided to end duty-free raw sugar
imports, The government has reduced to six months the period for discharging
export obligations under the Advanced Authorisation Scheme for Sugar to prevent
possibility of any leakage of such sugar in the domestic market. India has

produced 3.5 million sugar this year.)

Uttarakhand, the State with the second highest tiger population after Karnataka,
now has a second tiger reserve, besides the Corbett Tiger Reserve.The Rajaji

National Park has now been notified as the Rajaji Tiger Reserve by the Centre.
India has added 15 more species to the Red List of threatened species published
by the IUCN in 2014, but the country has climbed down a spot to the seventh
position. India had 988 threatened species on the list, which lists critically
endangered, endangered and vulnerable species. In 2013, the number was 973. A
recent World Bank mapping of endangered mammals shows India as having the

fourth largest number of threatened species in the world, 31 of them endemic to

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the region.
Micro entrepreneurship, artisanship and agriculture are the three promising areas

where huge number of jobs can be created.

The Calbuco volcano has erupted for the first time in more than 42 years,
billowing a huge ash cloud over a sparsely populated, mountainous area in

southern Chile.
Reserve Bank of Indias (RBI) decided to grant special status to the renewable
energy sector, medium enterprises and social infrastructure under priority sector
lending, is expected to accrue large benefits for the sector. This will boost
investments from the SME sector in renewable space as finance will be available
at a competitive rate.

About 3 cm of the Indian plate movement is accommodated in the Himalayan

collision zone and the remaining is accommodated along the east-west strike-slip
faults in the Tibet region. As a result, earthquakes caused by thrust fault in the
Himalayan region occur along the strike-slip fault in an east-west direction.

A continental-continental plate collision will necessarily produce shallow-focus

earthquakes (less than 70 km) as continental plates are less dense than oceanic

plates. In current nepal earthquake the focus was 10-15 km deep.

judicial activism: it is a solemn duty performed by judges to curb legislative
adventurism and executive excesses. The Supreme Courts interventions in the 2G
spectrum and the coal block allocation scams in this regard. The Supreme Court
took upon itself, in public interest, the duty to make up for the lapses on the part of
the executive. The Supreme Court, by pioneering Public Interest Litigation
petitions (PILs), had made constitutional social rights to housing, education, food,
health and livelihood indivisible from the fundamental rights to life, equality and
religion. it was through judicial activism that the Supreme Court in 2001 ordered
States to provide mid-day meals to schoolchildren. Today about 100 million
children get a cooked meal at school, making this the largest mid-day meal

programme in the world. It paved the way for the landmark National Food
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Security Act, 2013

Ireland is the first country to legalise same-sex marriage through a popular vote.
National Heritage City Development and Augmentation Yojana (HRIDAY) was
launched on 21 January 2015 with the aim of bringing together urban planning,
economic growth and heritage conservation in an inclusive manner to preserve the

heritage character of each Heritage City.

India is home to the highest number of hungry people in the world, at 194 million,
surpassing China, according to the U.N.

India will be a member of a consortium of countries that will implement the

Global Apollo Programme a plan to find ways within the next 10 years to make
green energy clean cheaper to produce than energy drawn from coal, gas or oil.
India has 13 of the top 25 most polluted cities in the world, while China has only
one in the top 50. (WHO determines the polluted cities in World).

Coal washing has proven itself to be uneconomical for thermal power plant
operators around the country, making blending the only viable option. The high
cost of imported coal (that is only set to rise in the future as can be noted from
Indonesias announcement of 1.5 per cent increase in coal export prices) clearly
indicates that the price of thermal power will continue to go up and its supply
constrained by fuel shortages and geo-political occurrences.

Problems facing make in India: To meet the governments Make in India

mandate, public defence manufacturing majors are ready to source more from
small and medium industries but suppliers are falling short on facilities, quality
and time lines