27 MAY 2015 CURRENT AFFAIRS

Anti-Corruption Bureau launches criminal investigation against 16 government engineers

  • Mizoram’s Anti-Corruption Bureau has begun criminal investigations against 16 government engineers for allegedly swindling Rs 933 lakhs while building two mini-hydel projects more than one and a half decades ago
  • The FIR filed by the ACB before the Aizawl District Court mentions former PWD Engineer-in-Chief (E-in-C) Liansanga, former P&E E-in-C C L Thangliana, former P&E Chief Engineer B Lalrinliana, current P&E Chief Engineer K Guite and former PWD Chief Engineer and current OSD (GAD) Vanlalduhsaka

      Allegation
  • The FIR says the accused engineers prepared revised estimates of Rs 1,470 lakhs for the two mini hydel projects after the projects had already been completed 
  • Also accused of spending almost Rs 129 lakhs to “repair vehicles”, missed out building more than two dozen culverts, paid ghost employees, “bought” material that never reached the site and ordered unnecessary materials while over-spending for other works

Four Indians among Forbes list of 100 most powerful women

  • Forbes’s 12th annual list of the 100 most influential women feature extraordinary entrepreneurs, visionary CEOs, politicians, celebrity role models, billionaire activists and pioneer philanthropists 
  • Among the 100 four are Indian women. They are 
         1. SBI Chief Arundhati Bhattacharya (36th)
         2. ICICI bank head Chanda Kochhar (35th)
         3. Biocon founder Kiran Mazumdar- Shaw (85th)
         4. HT Media Chair Shobhana Bhartia (93rd)
  • The top 10 include US presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton (2), philanthropist Melinda Gates (3), Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen (3), GM CEO Mary Barra (5), IMF Chief Christine Lagarde (6), Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff (7), Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg (8), YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki (9) and US First Lady Michelle Obama (10)

Orphans don’t need to provide birth certificate for passport

  • The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has exempted orphans/abandoned children from the mandatory requirement of a birth certificate to obtain a passport
  • This will also help orphans who wish to travel abroad for study but struggled to get a passport
  • In recent times, there have been many cases in which children from orphanages were refused passport because they failed to produce a birth certificate from a civic body – a mandatory requirement as per a rule effected in 2006 for Indians born after January 26 1989
  • For others born after January 1989 it remains mandatory to provide a birth certificate issued by the Municipal Authority or the Registrar of Births & Deaths as proof of date of birth along with the passport application form

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