US President recognises Jerusalem as capital of Israel, promises to move US embassy

US President recognises Jerusalem as capital of Israel, promises to move US embassy
The President of United States on 6 December 2017 recognised Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, keeping with his long overdue campaign promise.
Trump has also announced the plan of relocating the US embassy, which is currently based in Tel Aviv, to Jerusalem, a move that is being opposed by many nations across the world including some of America’s closest allies.
Trump made the announcement through a live television address from the White House. Citing a 1995 law, the Jerusalem Embassy Act, compelling the president make the move absent national security risks, Trump said the time had come to recognise what everyone already knows to be true. "Jerusalem is the capital the Jewish people established in ancient times," he said. “Today Jerusalem is the seat of Israel's government,” he added.
He also directed the State Department to immediately begin the process of construction of US embassy in Jerusalem.
The International community including the Arab world and countries such as France, Germany, Britain feel that Trump’s decision may have violent repercussions and that the future of the Israeli-Palestinian issue must be determined through direct negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians themselves.
Trump stated that US too supports such a negotiated settlement and is very much in favour of a two-state solution, provided that it is agreed to by both the sides.
"We want an agreement that is a great deal for the Israelis and a great deal for the Palestinians,"
he explained.
Further, Trump stated his actions do not determine the specific boundaries of Israeli sovereignty in the city and said that those would be subject to final status negotiations between the parties.

Who is saying what? What Israel says – That Jerusalem is its undivided and eternal capital
What Palestinians say – A peace agreement must deliver them a sovereign state with a capital of its own in Jerusalem’s eastern districts. Donald Trump – We are not taking a position on the final status of the issue.
Nikki Haley (US envoy to UN) – The administration would not be “taking sides” on the fate of East Jerusalem.
UN Secretary General – Jerusalem is a final status issue that must be resolved in final status negotiations between the two parties. In this moment of great tension, I want to make it clear there is no alternative to the two-state solution. There is no Plan B.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Trump’s decision on Jerusalem as a 'historic', courageous and just decision.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on the other hand rejected Trump's claim that his move was actually a step towards peace and stated that with this decision, the US had relinquished its historic role of a peace mediator."It's an attempt to change our history, and it will not succeed," he said."It's a Palestinian city– an Arab city, a Christian city and a Muslim city,” Abbas argued.
International Community
France's president, Emmanuel Macron called the decision "regrettable" and said the status of Jerusalem was not for one country to decide, but a matter of international security, of consensus and of law.
Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May characterized the move as ‘unhelpful’ to the prospects for peace in the region. She also stated that the British Embassy to Israel is based in Tel Aviv and they have no plans to move it.
Egypt – The nation refused to recognise the decision and warned of dire consequences.
Turkey – It threatened to cut off ties with Israel and the State Department's office for embassy security warned of planned protests in all of its major cities.

India's reaction to Trump’s decision
The spokesperson of India’s Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement that India's position on Palestine is independent and consistent and it is shaped by our views and interests, and not determined by any third country.

Two –state solution
• The solution involves creation of an independent Palestinian state alongside the state of Israel.
• In 2007 several polls revealed that a majority of Israelis and Palestinians preferred the two-state solution over any other solution as a means of resolving the conflict.
• The two parties engaged in direct negotiation include the Israeli government, currently led by Benjamin Netanyahu and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), currently headed by Mahmoud Abbas.
• The state of Palestine is currently recognised by 136 of the United Nation's member states and it became an observer state at the UN in 2012.
• Israel and a number of other countries however, do not recognise Palestine as a state.
Though Israel declared Jerusalem as its capital, it is not recognised internationally. Hence, the embassies of all the nations in Israel are based either in or close to Tel Aviv.
Trump however, had promised to move the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem during his presidential election campaign. Though the US Congress had passed the Jerusalem Embassy Act in 1995, calling on the US to move its embassy to Jerusalem, officially recognising it is as the capital of Israel, none of the previous US Presidents took the call.
The law has a clause that allows the Presidents to postpone its application for six months. So, former US Presidents, Bill Clinton, George W Bush and Barack Obama kept signing reratifying the clause every six months.Though Trump renewed the waiver in June 2017, he decided to not renew it this time.

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Xat solved papers 2008-2012(GAUTAM PURI)

DOWNLOAD HERE

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Time table for getting 95+% in cat 2018

   

                        

Time	Activity
7-8 A.M	Wake Up
8-9 AM	The Hindu Newspaper Reading and Analysis
9-10	Norman Lewis Vocabulary
10-11	Breakfast
11-1	Quantative Aptitude Practice
1-3	Break
3-5	Logical Reasoning Practice/ DI
5-6	Break
6-9	Verbal Ability Practice
9-10	Fb/extra doubts solving
10 P.M	Sleep

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List of top MBA colleges accepting cat score

List of all top colleges accepting cat score-

• Indian Institute of Management Bangalore
• Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad
• Indian Institute of Management Calcutta
• Department of Management Studies, Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi
• Department of Management Studies, Indian Institute of Technology, Madras
• Indian Institute of Management Lucknow
• Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode
• Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee
• Indian Institute of Management Indore
• Vinod Gupta School of Management, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur
• Faculty of Management Studies, University of Delhi, Delhi
• National Institute of Industrial Engineering, Mumbai
• Shailesh J Mehta School of Management, Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay
• Management Development Institute, Gurgaon
• SPJIMR, Mumbai
• Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur
• Rajiv Gandhi Indian Institute of Management Shillong
• Department of Management Studies, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore
• Indian Institute of Management Rohtak
• Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies, Mumbai
• Indian Institute of Management Raipur
• TA Pai Management Institute, Manipal
• Great Lakes Institute of Management, Chennai
• Institute of Management Technology, Ghaziabad
• Indian Institute of Management Tiruchirappalli
• Indian Institute of Management Ranchi
• Xavier Institute of Management, Xavier University, Bhubaneswar
• Institute for Financial Management and Research, Sri City
• Indian Institute of Management Kashipur
• Indian Institute of Forest Management, Bhopal
• ABV- Indian Institute of Information Technology and Management, Gwalior
• Loyola Institute of Business Administration, Chennai
• Institute of Rural Management, Anand
• Indian Institute of Management Udaipur
• Prin. LN Welingkar Institute of Management Development and Research, Mumbai
• Delhi School of Management, Delhi Technological University, Delhi
• IBS Business School, Hyderabad
• Department of Management Studies, National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirapalli
• KJ Somaiya Institute of Management Studies and Research, Mumbai
• Goa Institute of Management, Goa
• Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology Allahabad
• National Institute of Agricultural Extension Management, Hyderabad
• Indian Institute of Technology, Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad
• Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra
• Xavier Institute of Management and Entrepreneurship, Bangalore
• National Institute of Technology Warangal
• Institute of Finance and International Management, Bangalore
• Lal Bahadur Shastri Institute of Management, Delhi
• Institute of Public Enterprise, Hyderabad
• Institute of Management Studies, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi
• Amrita School of Business, Coimbatore
• Balaji Institute of Modern Management, Pune
• National Institute of Technology Rourkela
• Shri Dharmasthala Manjunatheshwara Institute for Management Development, Mysore
• Shiv Nadar University, Dadri
• School of Petroleum Management, Pandit Deendayal Petroleum University, Gandhinagar
• And many more
  
  

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Good books for preparation of cat 2018

QUANTS-----

Quantitative Aptitude Quantum CAT Common Admission Tests for Admission into IIMs By Sarvesh Verma for Cat 2017-2018

A must have preparatory quants book.It is a very succinctly explained,easily understandable book which provides lot of practice for every concept

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How to prepare for quantitative aptitude-Arun Sharma

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VERBAL------

How to Prepare for Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension for CAT

by Arun Sharma

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Vocabulary-

Word Power Made Easy

One of the best books for building vocabulary. It's a bestseller in it's domain and is a must read for every aspirant.

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Previous years cat papers book

Face To Face CAT Common Admission Test

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Flipkart-VISIT HERE TO BUY

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Is India ready to host Olympics?-GD TOPIC 11

Introduction:

Indian government and Indian Olympic Association (IOA) has jointly decided to submit its bid for hosting olympics 2024. They have started talking on the initial plans and International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Thomas Bach is all set to visit New Delhi for a day on April 27 to meet prime minister Narendra Modi in this regard. This could create controversy in India as not many people favour the decision to spend crores on hosting the world's largest sports event in a country struggling for development and where living conditions of majority is below average. We would definitely not want to repeat the fiasco that happened during 2010 Commonwealth Games. On the other hand, the new government is willing to experiment with all sorts of popularity gaining strategies to show ourselves large in front of western media. But are we ready to light the Olympics torch yet?

No we aren't:

1. In a country fighting poverty, illiteracy, unemployment, corruption, malnutrition, and many more challenges in every sector, it cannot be a wise decision to spend Rs 50,000 crore on hosting Olympics. Modi government should stop doing things to appease the world power and just to show off how well established we have all of a sudden become as a nation. Only after we have achieved enough to ensure that adequate has been done to improvise life of the downtrodden who constitute a larger section of our population, we can think of taking such giant steps to show off to the world. It is to be noted that even the most developed of nations would think twice before bidding to host the Olympics.

2. If India is to host Olympics, we won't be abe to compete with the other nations that have hosted the event earlier in terms of expenditure and arrangements. Compromise in budget will make us stand at the same position where we were during commonwealth games. Instead we should take our time until we are actually ready for this responsibility. The games in Delhi cost the government Rs 11,600 crore while the original budget was of Rs 1,850 crore since the Delhi government had to spend another Rs 16,500 crore on city infrastructure. We surely aren't ready for something much bigger than this kind of financial planning.

3. India's sports facilities accorded to players and athletes is far below average. India first participated in Olympics in 1900 in Paris and our total medal tally since then is a measly 26 according to TOI reports. We first need to prepare ourselves well, provide world class facilities to athletes and get them well trained before we start pouring millions into hosting the event. To boost sports in India, we need to encourage players with good coaches, nutritionists, physiotherapists and everything else that’s needed to get us higher than the six medals, 55th place in London.

4. For our overpopulated cities like New Delhi, accommodating the visitors of the Commonwealth Games was a difficult chore and Olympics attracts far more visitors from around the world. Even if Delhi plans to use the existing infrastructures for the game, it would become difficult to take in so many visitors, their transit facilities and accommodation. Hospitality cannot be compromised and we do not want to make a fool of ourselves in front of the entire world.

5. We don't have as many athletes from our country as politicians and the bunch never fails to get into controversy accusing each other of fraudulence, corruption, etc. We surely don't want these scenes to be accompanying the headlines of Olympics. And of course there is no point in anticipating that large number of viewers from our country will be eager to go watch the event when there will hardly be a few Indian athletes to cheer for.

6. All we Indians know of sports is cricket of all durations. Nothing is done to promote other sporting events. Even those who are really interested in pursuing other sports usually give up when reality hits hard - we don't have much scope for them in our country. We have stories of how national level champions have to sell their medals or work as maids for their living. We need to make their lives better first, provide them basic necessities and help them train well to be able to participate in games of international level.

Yes, we are:

1. "Olympics in India will boost sports", said swimming legend Mark Spitz. And he is undoubtedly rights. We have lesser participants in other sports because we have lesser events in our country. This could be a way to encourage them, promise them of a better future if they pursue their passion with enthusiasm.

2. Yes, we do lack organization and economic resources to fulfil our olympic dreams but that doesn't mean we should always lag behind and wait till things fall into place someday. If we can dare to dream, we surely can achieve it with the right bit of authority intervention. Yes, we do need to realize that hosting olympics is not just about making it look big as our politicians would believe and indulge happily in scams, it is more about the right judgement and proper coordination which we believe Modi government can do. It will be a matter of great pride for India if it gets to host Olympics 2024.

3. India's medal tally has improved in the last few events but the improvisation has been to one medal more in each event. We need a boost for the players and to accord them better facilities and training, hosting Olympics can act as the best ever catalyst. Sports administration in India also lags behind in many ways. India bidding for the Olympics should get the administration up and running in their favourite sneakers.

4. Expenses can pose a problem and to top that up, our greedy ministers will make sure they have their share of whatever comes out from the treasure. If CWG fiasco is not to be repeated, instead of pouring government money into the event, India should encourage private sector to invest in it. We have large scale billionaire private companies that could be made to invest in the event instead of involving government authorities at all.

5. Being a poor nation is not an excuse to stay poor always. There is poor section in almost every country. The IOC has encouraged or rather pushed India to go for the bid. It is clear that the west can accept our diversity, we ourselves can't. Hot climate and Indian food as some points out are also vague excuses we can keep aside and focus on changing the image we have of ourselves and the same image we have shown the world and western media.

Conclusion:

India is a developing nation with considerable growth in medal tally and budding enthusiasm for sports other than cricket. If the government can make better provisions and facilities for aspiring athletes, India can be ready to host Olympics by 2024. Meanwhile India should host national level sports events to encourage more and more participation and to promote the sporting spirit in the country. Cricket is our religious sports and we are yet to appreciate other sports with half the enthusiasm we show towards cricket. Only after proper facilities for the athletes to train better, we can decide if India is actually ready to host Olympics.

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Is Right to Privacy a Fundamental Right?-GD TOPIC 10

Privacy is the fountainhead of all other rights. Freedom of speech doesn’t have a lot of meaning if you can’t have a quiet space. A space within yourself, within your mind, within the community of your friends, within your home, to decide what it is you actually want to say.”

Edward Snowden

A 9-judge bench of the apex court of India, the SC on 25th August 2017, decided the right to privacy is a fundamental right. The Constitution bench headed by Chief Justice JS Khehar held that right to privacy is a fundamental right because it is an intrinsic part of the right to life and personal liberty. Under Article 21 of part III of the Indian constitution, this judgement requires increasing importance in this day and age of Aadhaar and digital connectivity. 

Prior to the pronouncement of the judgement, the CJI said there was a difference of opinion in legal and judicial circles regarding privacy as a fundamental right. So, where does this lead the debate to? Is privacy a fundamental right or not? 

Yes

1. Prevent misuse of data

Misuse of data by foreign firms is the major issue here. If right to privacy is not secured as a fundamental right, then data can be stolen or misused by foreign technology firms and marketing divisions of companies. This can lead to disclosure of client data which was earlier confidential. 

2. Privacy as an all encompassing basic right

Citizens have complete right to control their privacy. Privacy includes the right to be left alone, the right to freedom of thought, freedom to dissent, bodily integrity and informational self determination. It is integral to fundamental existence. 

3. Prevent breach of confidential information

The issues arise from privacy invasions by Aadhaar and digital data are serious. These need to be fully addressed by the courts. Protection of personal information in the public domain is a critical concern, necessitating the need for making privacy a fundamental right. 

4. Right to privacy inalienable

Right to privacy is an inalienable and inherent part of fundamental right to liberty. The right to privacy is a natural preexisting right under the right to liberty which the Constitution guaranteed and acknowledged to the citizens through the historic SC judgement. 

No, it is vague and amorphous

1. Right to privacy subject to reasonable restrictions

The Attorney General has held that right to privacy cannot be an absolute right and the state may have power to impose reasonable restrictions on it. Right to privacy cannot fall under a bracket as a fundamental right as there were many decisions of benches are there that it was a common law. 

2. Privacy a vague and amorphous right

The Centre has termed privacy as a vague and amorphous right that cannot be granted primacy. This is because while some aspects of maintaining privacy are understandable, others are difficult to comprehend. 

3. What about criminals and law enforcement?

Right to privacy can’t be applicable in case of the enemies of the state, such as criminals and terrorists. Interpol and policing agencies would lose their meaning if surveillance is not in place to check wrong doers and information about their private data made public. 

While the SC judgement has paved the way for right to privacy as a fundamental right, many questions remain to be answered. Individuals cannot secure the right to freedom and liberty without privacy but surely the law should be subject to reasonable restrictions to safeguard society? Looking at the right to privacy in black and white terms may obstruct the complexities underlying this law. Making it a fundamental right is tantamount to giving a free pass to wrongdoers who do not deserve to be shielded from the consequences of their criminal actions through a cloak of anonymity.

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