18 NOVEMBER 2014: Hand in Hand military exercise to start in Pune

Ø  In a move that could affect thousands of civil service aspirants across the country, the Centre intends to reduce the upper age limit and number of attempts of applicants with effect from 2015. Going by the new norm, the upper age limit will be 29 years for SC/ST candidates, 28 years for OBC and 26 for the unreserved category. There will be an additional two years for physically challenged candidates in each category. According to information published on the website of the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances, the number of attempts allowed for candidates appearing for the Civil Services Examination would also be reduced to six for SC/ST candidates, five for OBC and three for unreserved candidates.

Ø  India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi assured Australia a visa-on-arrival facility for tourists, and announced a two–month deadline for the long–pending merger of OCI and PIO status to woo the Indian diaspora from whom he sought support for his Swachh Bharat Abhiyan.

Ø  The Justice Mukul Mudgal panel has held that Raj Kundra, co-owner of Rajasthan Royals, was guilty of betting and he violated the IPL anti-corruption code.

Ø  The Adani group’s proposed plan to build a $7 billion coal mine was cleared by Australia’s Queensland state, which also announced a major investment in rail infrastructure to support the Indian conglomerate’s mega project. The Adani group welcomed the decision of the Queensland government to clear the project in the Galilee basin that will ensure that one of the mega mines proposed by the company and GVK gets a clearance next year.

Hand in Hand

Ø  With the aim of getting acquainted with each other’s operating procedures in counter-terrorism, Indian and Chinese armies began their fourth joint training exercise, Hand-in-Hand, in Pune. The objective of the training is to enhance the confidence and trust between the two armies, which may be called upon to grapple with anti-terrorism operations even under the U.N. mandate. Conducting joint military exercises is also an important step to uphold the values of peace, prosperity and stability in the region by jointly eradicating terrorism, the Army PRO told the media. The 12-day schedule is focused on training in crossing obstacles, special heliborne operations, firing of weapons, handling and neutralisation of improvised explosive devices and conducting cordon and search operations in the environment facing insurgency and terrorism. The exercise will end on November 25.

Ø  India has a larger proportion of youth population than the rest of the world, and while Africa is younger, northern Europe is substantially older — the United Kingdom’s youth population is 10 percentage point lower than that of India’s according to the United Nations Population Fund’s (UNFPA) State of the World’s Population Report.

Ø  The idea of a crowd-sourced animation movie in Sanskrit has impressed legendary music composer Ilayaraja so much that he has not only agreed to compose the music for the film but has also consented to put out his music scoresheets in public.