Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 30 October 2017

::NATIONAL::

Army to modernize its infantry

• The Army has finalised one of its biggest procurement plans for infantry modernisation, under which a large number of light machine guns (LMGs), battle carbines and assault rifles are being purchased at a cost of nearly Rs. 40,000 crore to replace its ageing and obsolete weapons.
• The broad process to acquire around 7 lakh rifles, 44,000 LMGs and nearly 44,600 carbines has been finalised, and the Defence Ministry is on the same page with the Army in moving ahead with the procurement.
• The world’s second largest standing Army has been pressing for fast-tracking the procurement of various weapons systems, considering the evolving security threats.
• A fresh RFI (request for information) to procure the LMGs will be issued, months after the Defence Ministry scrapped the tender for the 7.62 calibre guns as there was only one vendor left after a series of field trials. The plan is to initially procure around 10,000 LMGs.
• The Army has also finalised the specifications for a new 7.62 mm assault rifle. The Defence Acquisition Council (DAC), the Ministry’s highest decision-making body on procurement, is expected to give the go-ahead for it.
• The General Service Quality Requirements (GSQR) for the new assault rifle has been finalised. The procurement plan will soon be placed before the DAC for approval.
• The procurement of assault rifles has witnessed significant delays due to a variety of reasons, including the Army’s failure to finalise the specifications for it. The Army needs around 7 lakh 7.62x51 mm assault guns to replace its INSAS rifles.
• Army sources said various specifications for the LMGs and battle carbines were tweaked to ensure that the problem of single vendor does not recur. The combined cost of the LMGs, assault rifles and carbines will be in excess of Rs. 40,000 crore, said an official.

Order to uphold rights of vulnerable witnesses

• Vulnerable witnesses in criminal cases, often minor survivors of rape or victims of sex abuse, should testify without fear or intimidation in a conducive environment, the Supreme Court has said.
• Concerned at the trauma these victims of crime face in conventional courtrooms, the Supreme Court has ordered the setting up of at least two vulnerable witnesses deposition centres in the jurisdiction of every High Court across the country within the next three months.
• The order upholds the right of vulnerable witnesses to be protected while testifying in court and is in consonance with international norms in these matters.
• A Bench of Justices A.K. Goel and U.U. Lalit found that vulnerable witnesses are often treated like any other witness of the State in a criminal trial. Victims often end up being ill-treated by the very system they had approached in the hope of justice. Delay and intimidating questions during trial in a hostile environment lead to fewer convictions.
• Setting aside the acquittal by the high court of a child rapist, the Bench acknowledged the arguments for more vulnerable witness deposition complexes across the country made by its amicus in the case, advocate Shirin Khajuria.
• The Bench said eventually every district should have a special centre, which would provide vulnerable witnesses a friendly atmosphere to testify.
• The Supreme Court referred to the Delhi High Court’s initiative to set up vulnerable witnesses deposition centres and issuance of guidelines.
• The Bench suggested that other high courts should adopt the Delhi HC’s ‘Guidelines for Recording the Evidence of Vulnerable Witnesses in Criminal Matters,’ with required modifications.
• The Delhi HC’s guidelines are filtered from the best practices followed by other countries and the police and precedents of the apex court and high courts.
• The practices include a screen or some arrangement by which the victim does not see the body or face of the accused; reducing cross-examination questions to writing and handing them over to the judge to be put to the victim in a language that is clear and not embarrassing; and sufficient breaks for victims of child abuse or rape while testifying.
• The Bench recommended that the high courts trigger the initiative with at least two centres in the next three months. But they must not stop with that and continue to set up more such centres.

Tribunals should remain independent

• In a strong message to the government that appointments to tribunals and their functioning should remain independent of the executive's influence, the Law Commission of India has recommended that a Committee led by the Chief Justice of India should be in charge of the appointments of Chairman, Vice-Chairman and Judicial Members of the various central tribunals, which form a pillar of the country's justice delivery system.
• The tribunals perform an important and specialised role in justice mechanism. They take a load off the already over-burdened courts. They hear disputes related to the environment, armed forces, tax and administrative issues
• The Commission has suggested a common nodal agency, possibly under the Law Ministry, to both monitor the working of the tribunals and to ensure uniformity in the appointment, tenure and service conditions for the Chairman, Vice-Chairman and members.
• As of now, tribunals function under the very government department which may be a litigant before them, and probably, against which they may have to pass orders.
• Every order emanating from the tribunal or its appellate forum, wherever it exists, attains finality, the Commission recommended.
• In a marked departure from its earlier stand, the Commission recommended the restoration of the High Courts’ power of judicial review over the decisions of the tribunals.
• It said parties should be allowed to challenge a tribunal order before the Division Bench of the high court having territorial jurisdiction over the tribunal or its appellate forum. Presently, parties are deprived of an opportunity to move high courts concerned against the orders of some tribunals and have to move the Supreme Court directly.

Oxford English Dictionary added 70 new Indian words

• From endearing words like ‘Abba’ and ‘Anna’ to Indian delicacies like ‘gulab jamun’ and ‘vada’ can now be found in the Oxford English Dictionary (OED).
• As per the latest list of inclusions, 70 new Indian words from Telugu, Urdu, Tamil, Hindi and Gujarati languages have been added to the dictionary. Several most commonly used words in India like ‘jugaad’, ‘dadagiri’, ‘achcha’, ‘bapu’ and ‘surya namaskar’ are now part of the dictionary, the OED said in a statement.
• Many of the words describe food and relationships, such as ‘anna’ (elder brother), ‘abba’ (father), ‘gulab jamun’, ’mirch masala’, ‘keema’, ‘funda’ and ‘chamcha’.
• Often used terms like ‘timepass’, ‘natak’ and ‘chup’ also have their meanings in the dictionary now.
• The September 2017 update adds to the 900 items already covered by the dictionary and “identified as distinctive to Indian English.”
• “Indian speech etiquette features a complex system of kinship terms and terms of address, in which age, gender, status, and family relationships are marked by a highly specific vocabulary with no direct equivalents in English,” said Danica Salazar, OED World English Editor.
• It is clear that the shared history between Britain and India has left behind a legacy of loanwords and other lexical innovations that have greatly enriched the English word stock, she said.
• The 70 words newly added to the OED reflect not only the history of the country, but also the many and diverse cultural and linguistic influences, which have shaped and changed the English language in India, she said.

::INDIA AND WORLD::

First consignment of wheat to Afghanistan via Chabahar

• Days after hosting U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, India began shipment of wheat to Afghanistan through the Iranian port of Chabahar.
  The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) noted that the consignment would be the first to use the new route via Chabahar to access Afghanistan, even as India plans similar transfers in the coming months.
• The shipment of wheat is a landmark moment as it will pave the way for operationalisation of the Chabahar port as an alternative, reliable and robust connectivity for Afghanistan.
• It will open up new opportunities for trade and transit from and to Afghanistan and enhance trade and commerce between the three countries (India, Iran and Afghanistan) and the wider region.
• The consignment was flagged off by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and her Afghan counterpart Salahuddin Rabbani through a joint video conference.
• The statement noted that transfer was part of India’s commitment to send 1.1 million tonnes of wheat to Afghanistan on grant basis.
• It pledged that Kabul will receive the entire amount in six different instalments over the coming months. The move is significant as it indicates India remains firm in delivering on its regional commitment through partnership with Iran, despite Tehran’s ongoing tension with the United States.
• The use of Chabahar for wheat transhipment indicates the firming up of an alternative route to extend necessary support to Afghanistan, in the absence of overland transit rights by Pakistan.
• The move also indicates that Chabahar, which India has been developing for some years, will soon be fully operational. India had earlier sent goods through the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas in 2003 as Pakistan had not eased land access to Afghanistan.
• The two foreign ministers welcomed the fact that this is the first shipment that would be going to Afghanistan through the Chabahar port after the Trilateral Agreement on Establishment of International Transport and Transit Corridor was signed during the visit of the Prime Minister of India to Iran in May 2016.

India, Russia tri-service exercise concluded

• India and Russia concluded their joint tri-service exercise, Indra, in Vladivostok
• Indra was an 11-day joint training in counter-terrorism operations.
• This is India’s first tri-service exercise with any country.
• In the series of bilateral exercises under combating terrorism, the exercise this year focused on conduct of counter-insurgency/counter-terrorist operations under United Nations mandate in a joint service environment.
• The exercise also provided an opportunity to both the armies for greater cultural understanding, sharing experiences and strengthening mutual trust and cooperation.
• The exercise began on October 19 and saw the participation of over 800 Indian personnel. Indian forces largely used Russian equipment with which they are very familiar.

NSG and bilateral trade top on agenda in India-Italy talks

• A range of multilateral and bilateral subjects are likely to be in focus during the visit of Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni.
• The visit, which comes after both sides managed to contain the diplomatic fallout of the marines crisis, is for a day. Diplomats indicated that India’s global push for the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) membership and bilateral trade are likely to be on top of the agenda.
• Italy’s support for India’s candidature at the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) in 2016 was an important marker in multilateral collaboration and indicated Rome’s long-term commitment to supporting India’s role in the export control regimes.
• India’s bid for membership at the NSG has so far been scuttled by repeated opposition from China.
• However, sources indicated that apart from the NSG, India is also seeking Italian support at the FATF (Financial Action Task Force) meeting that begins in Buenos Aires, where India has been pushing for stringent measures against Pakistan on terror funding issues.
• The visit by an Italian PM comes after a decade. The period from 2012 to 2016 marked a difficult bilateral phase as the marines issue, which included two of Rome’s marines became a national debate in Italy.
• The case is now with the International Court of Justice, where a round of arbitral proceedings is expected to be completed by 2018.
• However, several meetings were held between the two sides as political ties warmed up following the change of government in Delhi in 2014.
• Apart from the expected issues, Italy and India may also discuss the tension between the U.S. and Iran after President Donald Trump decertified the nuclear deal with Iran, where both Italy and India have strong contacts. As one of the signatories in the nuclear deal, Italy’s role is crucial in this matter.

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::SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY::

vaccine that may prevent HIV infection

• Scientists have developed a novel vaccine candidate that may prevent HIV infection by stimulating an immune response against sugars that form a protective shield around the virus.
• An obstacle to creating an effective HIV vaccine is the difficulty of getting the immune system to generate antibodies against the sugar shield of multiple HIV strains.
• Researchers designed a vaccine candidate using an HIV protein fragment linked to a sugar group. When injected into rabbits, the vaccine candidate stimulated antibody responses against the sugar shield in four different HIV strains.
• The protein fragment of the vaccine candidate comes from gp120, a protein that covers HIV like a protective envelope. A sugar shield covers the gp120 envelope, bolstering HIV’s defences. The rare HIV-infected individuals who can keep the virus at bay without medication typically have antibodies that attack gp120.
• Researchers tried to create an HIV vaccine targeting gp120, but had little success as the sugar shield on HIV resembles sugars found in the human body and does not stimulate a strong immune response.
• Over 60 strains of HIV exist and the virus mutates. As a result, antibodies against gp120 from one HIV strain will not protect against other strains.
  small fragment to overcome these challenges, researchers focused on a small fragment of gp120 protein that is common among HIV strains.

::SPORTS::

Srikanth wins French Open Super Series

• India’s K. Srikanth’s dream season continued as he brushed aside the challenge of Japan’s Kenta Nishimoto in straight games to win the French Open Super Series men’s singles title.
• Srikanth, seeded eight in the tournament, took just 34 minutes to get the better of his Japanese opponent 21-14, 21-13 in the summit clash.
• Having already completed a hat-trick of Super Series titles, it was the Indian’s fourth title of the season. He became only fourth men’s singles player to win four or more Super Series titles in a calendar year.

::BUSINESS AND ECONOMY::

High-value notes still being “processed in all earnest”: RBI

• Nearly a year after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the decision to demonetise high-value currency notes, the Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000 bills returned to banks are still being “processed in all earnest” through a sophisticated currency verification system, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has said.
• Replying to an RTI query, the central bank said it had processed about 1,134 crore pieces of Rs. 500 notes and 524.9 crore pieces of Rs. 1,000 junked notes, having a face value of Rs. 5.67 lakh crore and Rs. 5.24 lakh crore respectively, as on September 30. The combined value of the processed notes is Rs. 10.91 lakh crore approximately, the central bank said.
• The RBI said at least 66 Sophisticated Currency Verification and Processing (CVPS) machines were being used for counting the junked notes that were deposited with various banks post-demonetisation.
• The government had on November 8 last year banned the use of old Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000 notes and allowed the holders of these currency bills to deposit them with banks or use them at certain notified utilities.
• The notes deposited or collected are being verified by the central bank at its offices to establish the total number of currency bills returned and to weed out fakes.
• In its annual report for 2016-17, released on August 30, the RBI had said Rs. 15.28 lakh crore, or 99% of the demonetised Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000 notes, have returned to the banking system.
• The report also said In the annual report, which was for the year ended June 30, 2017, the central bank said only Rs. 16,050 crore out of the Rs. 15.44 lakh crore in old high-denomination notes have not returned.
• As on November 8, 2016, there were 1,716.5 crore pieces of Rs. 500 and 685.8 crore pieces of Rs. 1,000 notes in circulation, totalling Rs. 15.44 lakh crore, it had said. “Subject to future corrections based on verification, the estimated value of specified bank notes received as on June 30, 2017, is Rs. 15.28 trillion,” the RBI had said in the report.
• RBI post-demonetisation spent Rs. 7,965 crore on printing new Rs. 500 and Rs. 2,000 bills and notes of other denominations, it said.

India welcomes proposal to establish “World Investment Court(WIC)”

• Embroiled in 22 arbitration proceedings against it in disputes with prominent global investors, including Vodafone and Cairn Energy, India has cautiously welcomed a proposal to establish a ‘World Investment Court’ (WIC).
• The World Court, a plan pushed mainly by the European Union (EU), is to be a “permanent, independent, legitimate, accountable, consistent and effective” global body framework with a mechanism for appeal as well, to resolve the current and future investor-State disputes including the ones that India is/could be involved in.
• The matter is coming up for discussion at the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (Uncitral), of which India is a member along with 59 other nations representing ‘various geographic regions and the principal economic and legal systems of the world’. The Uncitral works on the ‘modernisation and harmonisation’ of international business rules.
• One of the most critical areas in designing a permanent investment court relates to its composition, structure and certainty.
• Currently, such disputes are being dealt with by the Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) regime, but with varying provisions in more than 3,300 International Investment Agreements (IIA) — including Bilateral Investment Treaties (BIT) and Treaties with Investment Provisions (TIPs India had inked 83 BITs, and is a party to 13 TIPs.
• As per the Uncitral, the ISDS regime was created to enhance confidence in the stability of the investment environment. The regime is used to solve investor-State disputes in a neutral and flexible manner.
• One of the drawbacks of the current landscape of BIT arbitrations is the number of inconsistent or even contradictory awards.
• The WIC — alternatively called ‘International Tribunal for Investments’ or ‘Multilateral Investment Court’ — is proposed to “replace or supplement” this ISDS arbitration regime in investment treaties.
• As per the UNCTAD, the United Nations agency on trade, investment and development, as on July 31, globally there were 817 ‘known treaty-based investor-State arbitrations’.
• This includes 26 such matters that India is involved in. In 22 of the 26 cases, India is or was the ‘respondent State’ (with proceedings initiated against it), while in four other matters, India is or was the ‘Home State’ of the investor that sued another country.
• The report of the High Level Committee — ‘to review the institutionalisation of arbitration mechanism in India’ — had said that in the early years, India saw few claims (from investors), and even settled the dispute regarding the Dabhol power project.
• However, it said, the award in the ‘White Industries’ case against India (the tribunal awarded a compensation of $4.1 million to White Industries) not only resulted in many fresh notices against India, but also caused much consternation — as the primary grounds for the award was based on delays of the Indian judiciary.
• In 2015, India released a ‘revised’ Model BIT Text, in the backdrop of many arbitration proceedings against it, where investors cited provisions in its bilateral investment treaties to seek huge compensation for ‘economic harms suffered due to reasons including policy changes’.
• India said the ‘revised’ Text was necessitated as extant treaties were signed with partner nations after negotiations on the basis of the Model BIT Text adopted in 1993 (amended in 2003), that had provisions “susceptible to broad and ambiguous interpretations by arbitral tribunals”.
• The ‘revised’ Text will be used to re-negotiate India’s existing treaties, as well as negotiate future treaties and investment chapters in its ‘Treaties with Investment Provisions’.
• However, India has become wary of ISDS. It is learnt that the recently ‘finalized’ India-Brazil BIT has no ISDS. In the light of the ISDS problems and efforts to harmonise the related norms globally to resolve such issues, the European Commission will next month hold a stakeholder meeting on the proposed World Court by pitching it as a solution.
• On the proposed Court, the earlier-mentioned High Level Committee suggested that, The efficacy of such an investment court may be assessed based on experiences of other countries and a position adopted on the usage of such investment court mechanisms.
• It (the World Court) may not be in India’s interest as many of the shortcomings of the ISDS, including the expansive interpretation of certain investment treaty terms that has been a bone of contention in many cases, are likely to continue in the WIC.
• Besides, many developing nations including India, Indonesia and South Africa are either moving away from BITs or are making fundamental changes to their BITs. In these circumstances, perhaps it is not in India’s interest to support the WIC.

Coal demand increasing

• The idea of coal as a scarce commodity seems somewhat preposterous given it remains one of the most abundant mineral resources on the planet, but the coming years may see a deficit in seaborne markets for the polluting fuel.
• The debate surrounding coal is generally one of how long it will continue to play a role in the world’s energy mix before it is replaced by cleaner alternatives.The reality is that coal, particularly in Asia, will remain a bedrock of energy supply for at least the next decade.
• With the exception of India, most major coal importers in Asia have increased purchases this year, with top buyer China boosting imports by 13.7% in the first nine months of the year, compared to a year earlier.This demand has boosted the Asian benchmark thermal coal price.
• The issue for global coal markets is that despite the rhetoric of countries trying to lower coal consumption, in reality this has been increasing. China’s thermal power generation rose 6.3% in the first nine months of the year, one the reasons that the world’s leading coal importer was boosting its purchases from the seaborne market.
• The further problem is that meeting extra demand has become harder for traditional export powerhouses: Australia, Indonesia and South Africa. “Coal is becoming scarce,” Guillaume Perret, who runs a consultancy bearing his name, told the event.
• What is different about this price cycle is that additional demand hasn’t resulted in more investment in supply. Coal’s reputation as a major contributor of climate change has made it difficult for would-be coal miners to obtain financing.
• Public opposition can make life difficult, especially in more developed countries like Australia. The world’s largest planned coal mine, the 25 million tonne-per-year Carmichael project in Australia, has become a headache for its Indian owners, Adani Enterprises.
• Green activists have been successful in mounting protests against the mine, and while politicians from both the ruling centre-right Liberal Party and the opposition Labor Party continue to voice support for the mine, if opinion polls continue to show a majority of Australia oppose the development, politicians may change their minds.
• Adani’s struggles in Australia are likely to be mirrored for other coal developments in the world, making it all the more likely that supply will be constrained in coming years.

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