All India Radio News Summary: 20 MARCH 2018

All India Radio News Summary: 20 MARCH 2018

1. Supreme Court says, there is no bar in granting anticipatory bail in cases lodged against public servants under SC/ST Act;

• The Supreme Court says there is no absolute bar in granting anticipatory bail in cases lodged against public servants under SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.
• The Court said that safeguards have been introduced to prevent its misuse.  
• It has held that prior sanction of appointing authority is required for prosecuting officers for acts done by them with respect to SC/ST Act in their official capacity.
• The judgment was rendered by SC bench in an appeal against a judgment of the Bombay High Court, which had refused to quash the prosecution of the Director of Technical Education.

2. Maldives government says, it does not intend to extend emergency beyond Thursday evening.

• Maldives government said that it does not intend to extend the emergency beyond Thursday evening, the day on which it expires.
• Emergency was imposed in the country on 5th of last month for initial 15 days and further extended by 30 days.
• Maldivian government seems to have achieved the objectives behind emergency in the country.
• The February 1st judgment of Supreme Court has been reversed by remaining judges while bureaucracy and security forces have been purged of anti-government elements.
• However, emergency did affect tourist arrival in the country and this has prevented any urge of further extension.
• Meanwhile, criminal charges have been pressed against two judges of Supreme Court and were produced in court. They have been charged with bribery and corruption cases while attempting to overthrow the government.  

3. A bill to protect call centre jobs in US introduced in American Congress.

• Legislation has been introduced in US Congress aimed at protecting call centre jobs.
• The bill requires call centre employees overseas to disclose their location and give customers a right to transfer their call to a service agent in the United States.
• The legislation proposes to create a public list of companies that would outsource call centre jobs and give preference in federal contracts to companies that have not outsourced these jobs overseas.
• According to a study, India and the Philippines are the top two destinations for US companies off-shoring call centre jobs. 

4. All 39 Indians missing in Iraq found dead.

External Affairs Minister said the government is making arrangements to bring back the mortal remains of the 39 Indian workers, who were found killed in Mosul in Iraq.

They were missing since 2014.

The bodies of the Indian workers had been identified after matching their DNA.

5. The government today scrapped export duty of raw and refined sugar to boost exports

• A notification issued by the Central Board of Excise and Custom said that it has been decided to reduce export duty on raw sugar, white or refined sugar from 20 per cent to Nil.
• The country is all set to produce record 29.5 million tonnes of the sweetener in the current 2017-18 marketing season.
• Earlier, the government had doubled import duty on sugar to 100 per cent to check imports.
• The sugar output of India is estimated to rise sharply to 5 million tonnes in the 2017-18 marketing year from 20.3 million tonnes in the previous year.

6. The United Nations has called on Turkey to end a state of emergency imposed after a 2016 failed coup attempt

• The United Nations has called on Turkey to end a state of emergency imposed after a 2016 failed coup attempt, saying it has led to profound human rights violations.
• The UN said the state of emergency has paved the way to arbitrary detentions and dismissals, infringements on the rights to freedom of association and expression and torture and ill-treatment.

7. Ministries of Agriculture and Skill Development sign an MoU to expand training capacity in agriculture and allied sectors.

Ministry of Agriculture and Ministry of Skill Development signed an MoU to expand the training capacity in agriculture and allied sectors.

• The MoU intends to encourage employment of skilled and certified workforce, rural youth and women for gainful wage and self-employment.
• Indian Council of Agricultural Research will facilitate setting up of skill centres to run skill development programmes at the 690 Krishi Vigyan Kendras.
• Market relevant skills are imparted to the workforce.
• New value chains, retail companies, supply chain, logistics players are creating a large employment potential.

8. Prime Minister reiterated India’s commitment to a rule-based multilateral trading system, based on principles of inclusiveness and consensus.

• A robust conflict resolution mechanism is one of the key benefits of the World Trade Organization.
• It is important to counter the challenges being posed to the multilateral trading system.
• World Trade Organisation (WTO) members raised concern over US import duty hike on steel and aluminium and discussed food security issues.
• Certain members called for urgent and coordinated actions to promote global trade and strengthen the multilateral body.
• The two day conference had representations from 53 WTO member countries, including the US, China, and the EU.
• The WTO has become even more important considering recent trends being witnessed, where some countries are trying to take unilateral action, which will harm everyone.

9. British Parliamentary committee asks Facebook Chief Mark Zuckerberg to testify in data misuse case.

• A British Parliamentary committee has asked Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg to appear before it to explain in person claims that millions of users’ data was harvested for political campaigns.
• Chairman of the Committee has asked Zuckerberg to share his own account of the issue.
• The request was made as part of the committee’s on-going investigation into fake news, which saw its members last month visit Washington for hearings with officials from Facebook and Twitter.