Current Affairs : 25 June 2014

Written By Admin on June 26, 2014 | Thursday, June 26, 2014

1) Gopal Subramaniam seeks withdrawal of candidature as a judge of SC: Senior advocate Gopal Subramaniam on 25 June 2014 asked the Chief Justice of India to withdraw the recommendation about his candidature as the judge of the Supreme Court. Subramaniam's office said that he has written a letter to the Supreme Court collegium headed by Chief Justice R M Lodha requesting him to "withdraw" the recommendation for his elevation as the judge of the apex court. 56-year-old Subramaniam, who served as the solicitor general during the previous UPA regime, has been "let down" by the decision of the NDA government asking the collegium to reconsider his name as the judge of the apex court while clearing the proposal for the candidature of three others, his office said.

2) At least 4 killed as Rajdhani Express derailed in Bihar: Four passengers were killed and several others injured when a dozen bogies of Delhi-Dibrugarh Rajdhani Express derailed close to Golden Ganj railway station near Chapra in Bihar in the early hours of 25 June 2014. Altogether 12 coaches of the train derailed, with five going off the tracks first leading to casualties and seven bogies overturning a little later. Some of the coaches were hurled as far as 700 feet away from the tracks, said Chief Public Relations Officer of East Central Railway Arvind Kumar Rajak. Three passengers were killed on the spot while another succumbed to injuries in hospital, Mr. Rajak added.

3) BlackBerry Z3 smartphone launched in India at Rs 15,990: BlackBerry has launched Z3, its new budget device in India at Rs 15,990. The phone will be available for pre-order starting today via select e-commerce websites and BlackBerry stores. Among the first devices made by Foxconn for the company, BlackBerry Z3 sports a 5-inch qHD (540x960p) display. It is powered by a 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 (MSM8230) dual-core processor and 1.5GB RAM. The phone runs BlackBerry 10 OS version 10.2.1, the latest iteration of the OS. Read more details about this phone from here.

4) Excise duty cut on automobiles, consumer durables & capital goods extended: The government brought some prebudget cheer to automobile, capital goods and consumer durables manufacturers on 25 June 2014. It extended excise duty cuts, otherwise set to expire June-end, by six months to December 31, which means the companies won't need to put prices back up on July 1 and hurt chances of a consumption revival. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said any loss of revenue on this count would be made up by the beneficial impact on the economy. The duty reduction had been announced in February's interim budget for the current fiscal.

5) Asma Jahangir, two others, to assist U.N. rights probe in Sri Lanka: Former President of Finland Martti Ahtisaari, former Governor-General and High Court judge of New Zealand Silvia Cartwright, and former president of Pakistan’s Supreme Court Bar Association Asma Jahangir will advise and support the team set up to conduct a comprehensive investigation of alleged human rights violations in Sri Lanka that was mandated by the Human Rights Council (HRC) in March.

6) Ashwani Kumar resigned as Nagaland Governor: Nagaland Governor Ashwani Kumar became the third person to resign from the post after the NDA government sounded out some governors appointed during the UPA regime to do so. His resignation was on the cards as he had informed the government a few days ago that he will put in his papers soon.

7) Sushma Swaraj Begins Bangladesh Visit: On her first visit as the External affairs minister Sushma Swaraj is set to hold talks with top leadership of Bangladesh. On agenda is the Land Boundary Agreement and proposed Teesta river pact but tougher visa norms will be top priority.

8) Three judges appointed to Supreme Court: President Pranab Mukherjee on 25 June 2014 appointed the Chief Justices of Calcutta and Orissa High Courts, Arun Mishra and Adarsh Kumar Goel respectively, and senior lawyer Rohinton Nariman as Supreme Court judges. The warrant of appointment has been issued and the three judges are to be sworn in soon after the court re-opens on June 30. With their appointment, the strength of judges in the court will go up to 28, as against the sanctioned strength of 31