*SMART LEADERS IAS* Dear Aspirants, (25-03-2014, Tuesday) CURRENT AFFAIRS String-theorist wins G.D. Birla Award Leading string-theorist Professor Rajesh Gopakumar of the Department of Physics, Harish-Chandra Research Institute (HRI), Allahabad, has won the 23rd G.D. Birla Award for Scientific Research for 2013. Instituted in 1991 by the K.K. Birla Foundation to recognise high-calibre scientific research by Indian scientists living and working in India who are under 50. K.K. Birla Foundation noted that Professor Gopakumar has made fundamental contributions to the understanding of string theory, quantum field theory and mathematics. In 2004, he started a programme to understand how open closed string duality is implemented in an arbitrary large N guage theory. He is the recipient of the 2004 B.M. Birla Science Prize; the 2006 ICTP Prize awarded by the Abdus Salam centre for Theoretical Physics, Trieste; the 2006 Swarnajayanthi Fellowship of the Department of Science and Technology; the S.S. Bhatnagar Award in 2009; and the TWAS award in Physical Sciences, 2013. He was elected a member of the Indian Academy of Sciences in 2009 and the Indian National Science Academy in 2010. NGA threw caution to the winds in buying idol: Australian Minister India’s case for getting back the stolen Nataraja idol strengthened further when Australian Minister for Arts George Brandis criticised the national art museum of the country for its slack practices in purchasing the 1000-year-old sculpture, allegedly stolen from Tamil Nadu. Withdraw notifications making Aadhaar mandatory, Supreme Court tells Centre The Supreme Court directed the Centre to immediately withdraw all notifications making Aadhaar cards mandatory for availing benefits under social security schemes. The Bench also stayed a Bombay High Court order, which refused to interfere with an order passed by a lower court in Goa, directing the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) to share with the CBI biometrics and other relevant data of all residents enrolled with Aadhaar in the State to help solve the case of a gang-rape of a seven-year-old girl. The Bench restrained the UIDAI from sharing biometric or any other data of the Aadhaar card holder with any agency without the express consent of the card holder. The Bench also directed the Centre not to deprive any citizen of any benefit because he doesnt possess an Aadhaar card. “60 crore residents have enrolled themselves for Aadhaar card by providing their demographic and biometric information for civilian application only and sharing the data would endanger the fundamental rights of the citizens.” The Bench said “biometric data cannot be shared without the consent of the resident and as per its current data-sharing policy and guidelines. The right to privacy is one of the basic human right of an individual and the UIDAI is committed to protect this aspect.” Most rural population engaged in non-farm work: NCAER survey Employment in agriculture has fallen sharply over the last seven years and a combination of farm-oriented and non-farm work is now the most common form of rural employment, according to the findings of a nationwide representative sample survey conducted by the National Council for Applied Economic Research (NCAER). The NCAER team covered 42,000 households across the country, 83 per cent of which were surveyed for the last round of the IHDS in 2004-05. The IHDS is the largest independent household sample survey in the country. According to the IHDS findings, non-farm work is now a bigger employer for rural men in Punjab, Haryana, Assam, north-eastern States, Kerala and Tamil Nadu. The same is true for rural women as well in the two southern States. While the fall in male participation is primarily explained by rising higher education enrolment, the work participation rate for women have fallen even for those in their 20s and 30s. The IHDS also confirms that wages have grown exponentially over the last decade. The daily agricultural labour wage has nearly tripled for men in the last seven years, while the non-agricultural wage has more than doubled. The wages of women workers, though still much less that male workers, have grown similarly.
Posted on: Tue, 25 Mar 2014 13:05:14 +0000
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