(Current Affairs For SSC Exams) Economic |July: 2014

July-2014

Govt clears 19 FDI proposals

The government has cleared 19 foreign investment proposals, including that of Walt Disney Company and Reckitt Benckiser (India), entailing total investment of Rs. 2,326.72 crore.
The FIPB, however, rejected an investment proposal of Multi-Commodity Exchange of India (MCX), the FIPB also rejected foreign investment application of George Institute for Global Health (Hyderabad), BIESSE Manufacturing Company (Bangalore) and three others.
The government gave its nod to the proposal of Walt Disney Company (Southeast Asia) Pte Ltd, Singapore.

Government extends NDA’s senior citizen pension scheme for one more year

Varishtha Pension Bima Yojana, first introduced by the previous NDA government has been revived again for the period of one year.
Govt. also proposed setting up a committee to examine unclaimed amounts lying as deposits in accounts of PPF, Post Office and other saving schemes and recommend how this amount can be used to protect and further financial interests of the senior citizens.

Pay revised wages for MGNREGA, says SC

The Supreme Court on Friday directed all States to pay workers under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Act (MGNREGA) revised wages as per the notification issued by the Centre in February this year.
It further asked the government to find a way out to end the disparity between the wages paid under the MGNREGA and State-mandated rates under the Minimum Wages Act.
As per the February 13, 2014 notification issued by the Ministry of Rural Development, the wages per day to be paid by the States and Union Territories range from Rs. 156 in Uttarakhand to Rs. 236 in Haryana.

TRAI warns against raising call rates

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has warned telecom service providers against increasing call rates and other tariffs beyond the base (maximum) rates in a bid to pay off their debts.
Base rates or headline tariffs are the maximum call or service rates that a telecom operator can charge to its customers but normally companies charge less than these rates.
At present most of the telecom operators have fixed base rate at 2 paise per second. The regulator allows free hand to fix telecom call and service rates as it feels that competition in the market will keep control on tariffs.
Apprehensions over an increase in rates were spiked after TRAI recently released its recommendations on spectrum sharing and lowering of leased line rates that could lead to cost savings for mobile operators.
“I do not expect headline tariff to change. If they change, as and when they change, then the TRAI reserves the right to go back and look at it again if forbearance should be continued or not.” TRAI Chairman Mr. Khullar said.

More steps will be taken to sustain economic recovery

Finance Minister said that there was “no contradiction in being pro-business and being pro-poor.” Only a spike in economic activity could create the resources “to service the poor” through social welfare programmes.
Mr. Jaitley outlined a road map for economic recovery through a stable tax regime, targeted subsidies for the poor and marginalised and using private investment to boost infrastructure and housing, foreign direct investment (FDI) in defence and insurance.
He said that new government has pushed for fiscal discipline than populism and it intended to rationalise subsidies so that they benefitted the poor, not the middle class through subsidies in the oil sector and education.

Contingent liabilities of states a cause for concern, says RBI paper

A working paper of the Reserve Bank of India titled “Debt sustainability at the State level in India’’ sounded a warning that the contingent liabilities, primarily in the form of issuance of guarantees by the state governments, remained an area of concern.
Going forward, there could be downside risks in case the slowdown in growth momentum observed during the last two years persisted.
The debt position of state governments witnessed a significant improvement from 2004-05 onwards. This has been attributed, among others, to the implementation of of Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) Acts/Fiscal Responsibility Legislations (FRLs) at the state level in early 2000s.
Karnataka was the first to enact its FRBM Act in September 2002, followed by Kerala (2003), Tamil Nadu (2003) and Punjab (2003).
This was also supported by the implementation of Debt Swap Scheme (DSS) from 2002-03 to 2004-05 and Debt Consolidation and Relief Facility (DCRF) from 2005-06 to 2009-10. These two debt restructuring schemes provided debt relief through debt consolidation, and reduced the interest burden on the states.
These developments were mirrored in lower debt-GDP ratio at 26.6 per cent in end-March 2008, before declining further to 21.7 per cent in end-March 2013.

Housing for all by 2022 and Rs. 7,060 crore for 100 smart cities

Finance Minister offered a tax sop for homeowners by extending the additional tax incentive on home loans.
A sum of Rs. 4,000 crore has been earmarked for National Housing Bank with a view to increase the flow of cheaper credit for affordable housing to the urban poor.
Slum development has been added to the list of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities.
Government announced 100 smart cities, which will be enabled with the latest technology like wi-fi connectivity and infrastructure and will have concepts such as sustainability, walking spaces and specialised domains.

FDI limit in insurance, defence hiked to 49 %

Government proposed hiking the foreign direct investment limit in insurance and defence sectors to 49 per cent, with full Indian management and control, through the FIPB (Foreign Investment Promotion Board) route.
Government also proposed Rs. 5,000 crore hike in defence allocation over the previous interim budget.
Mr. Jaitley also announced that Rs. 1,000 crore were being earmarked for strategic

SAT dismisses RIL appeal

The Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT),dismissed an appeal filed by Reliance Industries Ltd. (RIL) against capital market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), which rejected RIL’s consent application on an insider trading case.
The case involved trading in shares of RIL’s group company, Reliance Petroleum, in November, 2007.
“Since Section 15T(2) is deleted and Section 15JB (4) is inserted to the SEBI Act with retrospective effect from April 20, 2007, by Ordinance No: 2 of 2014, which bars appeal against any order passed in consent proceedings, we have no option but to dismiss the appeal,” said Justice J. P. Devadhar, Presiding Officer of SAT, in his order.
Science and Technology

Govt. mulls use of radiation tech to preserve vegetables

The government proposes to adopt radiation technology developed by the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) for improving the shelf-life of fruits and vegetables especially onions, potatoes and tomatoes to address the issue of supply side shortage that often results in price rise.
Radioactive technology had been available in the country for some time and already in use in Maharashtra, though on a small scale, Safety concerns should be taken care of as existing norms do not permit radiation above a permissible limit.
Food irradiation is a physical process in which food and farm commodities, in pre-packed form or in bulk, are exposed to controlled radiation energy to prevent sprouting, delay ripening, kill insects, pests, pathogenic and spoilage micro-organisms.

MH17 black boxes handed over to British experts

The British government has confirmed that the two black boxes from Malaysian airlines Flight MH 17 that crashed in eastern Ukraine killing 298 on board have been handed over to British investigators.
Boxes will contain recordings of all cockpit conversations prior to the crash, The AAIB can now analyse hours of conversation and the contents of the flight data recorder for clues on why and how the plane went down.
The boxes were handed over by a joint technical protocol signed by representatives of the Netherlands, Malaysia, Ukraine and the United Nations’ International Civil Aviation Organisation.
The AAIB is responsible for the investigation of civil aircraft accidents and serious incidents within the U.K.

Poor healthcare ups private spending

The ninth edition of the National Health Profile, 2013, reveals that per capita private expenditure on health is three to four times higher than per capita public expenditure.
Funds flow to the health sector is maximum by private funds at 71. 62 per cent as per 2008-09 estimates, while public funds had accounted only for 26.70 per cent.
The report by the Central Bureau of Health Intelligence under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare says the expenditure on health has gone down from 4.3 per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP) in 2000 to 3.7 per cent in 2010.
Madhya Pradesh reported the maximum number of foeticide and infanticide cases, with Uttar Pradesh in the second position followed by Maharashtra.
Morbidity due to non-communicable diseases accounts for a large share of the disease burden in India. The number of cases of coronary heart disease was estimated to be nearly 3.6 crore for the year 2005, which is expected to reach 6.1 crore by 2015.
Medical education infrastructure has shown rapid growth in the last 20 years. There are 381 medical colleges and 19,817 hospitals with 6,28,708 beds in the country.

GEAC clears field trials for GM crops

The Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) has given the green signal for field trials of genetically modified (GM) rice, mustard, cotton, chickpea and brinjal.
While the GEAC has approved the commercial release of Bt brinjal it has been stayed by the Ministry of Environment and Mr. Pande said the government would have to take a decision on this.
The only genetically modified crop approved for release in India is cotton.
Three companies - Bayer Bio Sciences, Monsanto and BASF have been allowed to import the Soyabean oil, which is genetically modified. The last time Central Food Technological Research Institute (CFTRI), gave a clean chit to imported samples.

Seven new dwarf galaxies discovered

Astronomers have used a new type of telescope made by stitching together telephoto lenses to discover seven new dwarf galaxies.
Their Dragonfly Telephoto Array uses eight telephoto lenses with special coatings that suppress internally scattered light, This makes the telescope uniquely adept at detecting the very diffuse, low surface brightness.
The previously unseen galaxies may yield important insights into dark matter and galaxy evolution
These are the same kind of lenses that are used in sporting events like the World Cup.

Mars orbiter spacecraft to reach target in 75 days

Exactly 75 days from Saturday, India’s Mars spacecraft is scheduled for a rendezvous with the red planet, Mars Orbiter Spacecraft has travelled 525 million km on its heliocentric arc.
In the last crucial milestone on June 11, ISRO performed the second Trajectory Correction Manoeuvre (TCM—2) on the orbiter as a mid-course correction to keep the spacecraft on course.
The ambitious Mars mission under a Rs 450 crore project was launched from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh onboard the Pollar Satellite Launch Vehicle on November 5 2013.

INS Kamorta handed over to Navy and Navy gets its largest destroyer

INS Kamorta, the first in series of anti-submarine corvettes indigenously built by Kolkata based Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers Ltd. (GRSE), was handed over to Indian Navy.
It is first Indian Naval warship ever built in the country with almost 90 per cent of indigenous content.
The Indian Navy has got its largest-ever destroyer after the addition of the 163 metre-long vessel Kolkata (D63).
Kolkata (D63) is India’s first domestically built guided missile destroyer to feature a Western-style air search radar and stealth technology.
Kolkata has an all-round capability against enemy submarines, surface warships, anti-ship missiles and fighter aircraft.
It incorporates modern weapons and sensors having advanced information warfare suite, an auxiliary control system with sophisticated power distribution architecture and modular crew quarters.

PSLV C23 successfully put five foreign satellites

India’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle C-23 successfully put five foreign satellites into orbit in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Indian Space Research Organisation’s spaceport in Sriharikota.
In a smooth 20-minute mission, the ISRO launched the 714-kg French earth observation satellite SPOT-7, the 14-kg German AISAT, the two 15-kg Canadian NLS7.1 (CAN-X4) and NLS7.2 (CAN-X5) and the 7-kg Singapore VELOX-1. Following a “perfect” lift-off at 9.52 a.m., the PSLV-C23’s four stages came to life and fell off as programmed — the 4-storey heat shield which protected the satellites from turbulence, split in two and fell into the Bay of Bengal. Soon, all five were in their slots at a height of more than 660 km.
Observing that 40 of the 67 PSLV satellites were put into orbit from 19 foreign countries, Mr. Modi said it was “a global endorsement of India’s capabilities”.

ISRO must develop Saarc satellite- Modi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked India’s space community to take up “the challenge of developing a Saarc satellite” which can be dedicated to “our neighbourhood, as a gift from India”.
He suggested that the Saarc satellite could provide a full range of applications and services to all neighbours of India. He also asked the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) “to enlarge the footprint of our satellite-based navigation system to cover all of South India.”
Mr. Modi, who addressed the ISRO employees from the Mission Control Centre (MCC) at Sriharikota after the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C23) successfully put five foreign satellites into orbit, wanted the ISRO to develop more advanced satellites with higher degree of computation, imaging and transmission. “We must expand our satellite footprint in terms of frequency and quality.”
The Prime Minister praised India’s space scientists for helping the country become a self-reliant space power. India could be proud that its space programme was indigenous and the country