7th July 2014 - Current Affairs updates

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National Affairs

• A panel headed by former PMEAC Chairman C Rangarajan has dismissed the Tendulkar Committee report on estimating poverty and said that the number of poor in India was much higher in 2011-12 at 29.5 per cent of the population, which means that three out of 10 persons are poor. 
• As per the report submitted by Rangarajan to Planning Minister Rao Inderjit Singh earlier, persons spending below Rs 47 a day in cities would be considered poor, much above the Rs 33-per-day mark suggested by the Suresh Tendulkar Committee.
• Shariat courts have no legal authority and their decisions are not legally binding, the Supreme Court ruled Monday, saying fatwas must not violate rights of individuals guaranteed by law. It also objected to Shariat court passing orders against innocent persons, saying no religion allows punishment of innocents. 
• In an effort to develop ghats along river Ganga as prominent tourist destinations, the Union Culture and Tourism Minister Shripad Yesso Naik on Monday  presented a proposal to renovate the ghats, introduce houseboats and build more dams,  at the 'Ganga Manthan - National Dialogue on Ganga' - a day-long conference organized by the National Mission for Clean Ganga and attended by Indian and foreign delegates at the Vigyan Bhawan.
• The Supreme Court on Monday sought responses of the Centre and states on a PIL which sought a regulatory mechanism for e-rickshaws on the ground that they were running amok on the city's streets.
• The Government will give city gas projects selling CNG to automobiles and piped cooking gas to households top-most priority for receipt of domestically produced gas.
• Minister of Railways D.V. Sadananda Gowda on Monday launched social media platform for the Indian Railways at Delhi.  It includes launching of Twitter and Facebook accounts. 
• Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/RailMinIndia
• Twitter : https://twitter.com/RailMinIndia

International Affairs

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi will attend the sixth summit of BRICS -  a grouping that brings together Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa -- at Fortaleza on the north-eastern coast of Brazil and its capital Brasilia on July 15-16. This will be the first multilateral meet in which our PM Modi will participate.
• Preliminary results are out for the run-off in Afghanistan's presidential elections. And the winner seems to be former World Bank economist Ashraf Ghani. 

New Appointments

• Justices Arun Mishra, Adarsh Kumar Goel and Rohinton F. Nariman on Monday assumed charge as Supreme Court Judges, taking the apex court's strength to 27, including Chief Justice R.M. Lodha.

Deaths

• Real Madrid legend Alfredo di Stefano, one of the greatest Footballers in history, died in a Spanish hospital on Monday aged 88

Science and Technology

• Telecom sector regulator TRAI has notified that the minimum broadband speed has been raised to 512 kilo bytes per second (kbps) from the earlier 256 kbps.

Sports

• F1 driver Lewis Hamilton wins British Grand Prix at Silverstone Race Circuit.

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