Current Affairs 5th November, 2015

Sports:

Jitu Rai wins silver medal in 13th Asian Shooting Championship

Ace Indian shooter Jitu Rai has won silver medal in 50 metre pistol event category at the 13th Asian Shooting Championship in Kuwait City. With this he became India’s first senior player to win the Asian Shooting Championship. In the final, he lost to South Korea’s Park Daehun who shot record score of 199.2 to clinch the gold medal. Jitu Rai scored 189.5 points to settle at second position. In the junior events of the championships, India has bagged total four silver and two Bronze medals. In the women’s 25 metre pistol event, Gauri Sheoran, Heena Sidhu and Annu Raj Singh were not able to qualify for the finals.

India:

PM Narendra Modi ranks 9th in 2015 Forbes’ World’s Most Powerful Person

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has emerged as World’s ninth Most Powerful Person in the Forbes annual ranking of 73 persons list of 2015.
The list gives the annual ranking of the World’s 72 Most Powerful People on the basis of their financial resources, scope and use of power and the number of people they impact.

Key facts

• For the consecutive 3rd year, Russian President Vladimir Putin has been named the world’s most powerful person in the list.
• German Chancellor Angela Merkel was ranked 2nd overtaking US President Barack Obama. She continues her reign as the most powerful woman on the planet for consecutive 10 years.
• Earlier, in the 2014 Forbes list of world’s powerful people, PM Narendra Modi was placed 14th position.
• Other Indians: Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani was placed at 36th position.
• Among Indian-origin people, steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal ranked 55th, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella is ranked 61st.
• New comers in the list: Dell CEO Michael Dell (59), China’s richest man Wang Jianlin (68), newly elected Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (69), billionaire activist investor Carl Icahn (70) and US Presidential candidate Donald Trump (72).

10 most powerful people in the world

Indian’s in the List

 

About the Forbes list of World’s Most Powerful People

• Started in 2009 by Forbes magazine. Since then annually published.
• The list has one slot for every 100 million people on Earth, it that in 2011 there were 70, and in 2012 there were 71 slots. Similarly 2015 has 71 slots.
• Slots are allocated based on the amount of human and financial resources as well as their influence on world events.

Air pollution:

NGT bans age-old agricultural practice of straw burning in Northern States

National Green Tribunal (NGT) has banned age-old agricultural practice of straw burning in pollution-ravaged New Delhi and 4 northern western states of Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.

Ruling in this regard was given by NGT Bench headed by Chairman Justice Swatanter Kumar by keeping in view the serious issue of burning of agriculture waste (straw) which contributes towards global warming and the environmental pollution.

NGT has directed

• Respective governments of Delhi and four northern to keep check the bi-annual menace of straw burning.
• Imposition of 2,500 to 15,000 rupees fine on farmers indulged in straw burning.
• District magistrates should form a committee to carry out awareness programmes for farmers and villagers in order to educate them about the ill-effects of straw burning.

It has clearly mentioned that if the directions of NGT in this regard are not complied with, the Chief Secretaries concerned states would be held liable. Straw Burning Menace

Straw Burning Menace

• Straw Burning is age-old agricultural practice followed by farmers biannually by setting fire to their fields to clear the land of residue (Straw) of one harvest and sow the next.
• It is mainly carried in Northern western states in the month of November to save time under the rice-wheat crop rotation and to make the land more fertile and kill pests.

Effects

• The menace of straw burning is making the atmosphere in national capital Delhi more blinding and suffocating as smoke from it moves towards the city.
• The open field burning emits Carbon Dioxide (CO2), Carbon monoxide (CO) and Nitrous Oxide (NO) along with particulate matter.

Thus open burning of agriculture remains is considered as a serious issue contributing towards global warming and the environmental pollution. It is also principle cause of haze and air pollution putting life of people and children in danger. Earlier, Union Government had proposed to provide incentives to farmers and promoting efficient farming practices with subsidies to stop this menace. The best remedy to stop this menace is to set up bio-ethanol refineries in order to extract sustainable bio-fuel from agricultural residue with the help of private-public-partnership (PPP) and private model.