Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 02 May 2016

:: NATIONAL ::

Government increased its efforts to douse forest fires

As Uttarakhand continued to fight the inferno across 2,269 hectares of forests, two IAF helicopters joined the operations, ferrying water through the Garhwal and the Kumaon hills and dumping it in areas inaccessible to forest personnel.
Villages in many districts kept awake at night to try and protect their houses and cattle from the creeping blaze.
Wild animals, including snakes, leopards, monkeys and barking deer, moved closer to human habitations, as they were pushed out of the forests by fire and smoke.
Hoping to cut off the spread of fire, the IAF helicopters stationed near Nainital and Srinagar drew water from the Bhimtal lake and a river in Srinagar using 3,500-litre ‘Bambi Buckets’. However, smoke and fog delayed the air operation.
A third Mi-17 helicopter will reach Nainital on Monday. Two will function in areas near Nainital and one near Srinagar.
The Forest Department’s data show that till Sunday 1,082 incidents of forest fire had covered 2,269 hectares, and preliminary losses were put at Rs. 22 lakh.
However, the blaze showed a declining trend. On April 27, there were 140 incidents, rising to 338 on April 28 and 477 on April 29.
But on Apr 30, they were down to 219 and on May 1st, to 112. Home Minister Rajnath Singh reviewed the situation and held discussions with the Chief Secretary.
Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar said the Centre was taking the forest fires very seriously. The government would study the causes and prepare an action plan.

National consultation on drought shows various challenges

Over 54 crore farmers and rural populations across 13 States are in the grip of drought, and it is a multi-dimensional crisis. This fact was highlighted at a national consultation on drought here on Sunday.
Owing to the drought, people were battling for drinking water, food had become scarce, domestic cattle were dying a nomadic death and farms had turned fallow.
Good rains may end the water crisis, yet food shortage will continue until the new crop comes in; the government needs to ensure food security..
Farmers in a dozen States struggling with severe drought conditions and experts participated in the consultation, which was organised by Swaraj Abhiyan and the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE).
CSE director-general Sunita Narain said: “Drought in the 1990s was essentially the drought of a poor India. The 2016 drought is of richer and more water-guzzling India.
This classless drought makes for a crisis that is more severe and calls for solutions that are more complex.
The severity and intensity of drought is not about lack of rainfall; it is about the lack of planning and foresight, and criminal neglect. Drought is human-made.

PM launched Ujjwala scheme from Ballia

Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana, which aims to provide five crore LPG connections to women in Below Poverty Line (BPL) households over the next three financial years, at a cost of Rs. 8,000 crore.
The scheme, launched at Ballia in Uttar Pradesh, is to be partially funded from the savings accruing to the government from LPG users who gave up their subsidy as part of the Give It Up programme.
Over one crore consumers have given up their subsidy, leading to savings of nearly Rs. 2,000 crore per year. This money would be utilised to provide LPG connections to BPL families.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had, in his Budget speech in February, announced a provision of Rs. 2,000 crore this financial year to provide LPG connections to 1.5 crore women from BPL households.
The new users who receive LPG connections under the scheme will not have to pay the security deposit, while the Rs. 1,600 administrative costs, cost of pressure regulator booklet and safety hose will be borne by the government.
Consumers will have the option to purchase gas stove and refills on EMI.
The Prime Minister said nearly 10,000 new distributorships and infrastructure expansion plans were in the works to cater to the increased demand arising out of the new connections.
The households will be selected using the socio-economic and caste census data.
Currently, India has 16.64 crore active LPG consumers with a requirement of about 21 million tonnes per annum.
Stating that LPG coverage is being increased, he said there are serious health hazards associated with cooking based on fossil fuels.
According to World Health Organisation estimates, about 5 lakh deaths occur in India alone due to unclean cooking fuels. Experts say having an open fire in the kitchen is like burning 400 cigarettes an hour.
Providing LPG connections to BPL households will ensure universal coverage of cooking gas in the country and this will empower women and protect their health, he said.
India’s demand for LPG is expected to see a double-digit growth over the coming years, the government said in a release. Towards this, several steps have been taken to increase infrastructure in order to meet the demand.
Indian Oil is developing new import facilities at Dahej [by 2018-19], Paradip and Cochin [by 2017-18], Bharat Petroleum is developing its import facility at Haldia, apart from which East India Petroleum Private Limited [EIPL] capacity augmentation is also getting completed by December 2016.
Apart from those who voluntarily gave up their LPG connections, those earning Rs. 10 lakh or more a year have been deemed ineligible for the subsidy.
The recently-released income tax data shows that there were 13.3 lakh individuals who declared an income above Rs. 10 lakh a year in assessment year 2012-13.
Using that number, back-of-the-envelope calculations show removing the LPG subsidy from these people would save the government Rs. 173 crore a year.

Rainwater may play an important role in earthquake triggering process

Rainwater may play an important role in the process that triggers earthquakes, says a new study.
Researchers identified the sources and fluxes of the geothermal fluids and mineral veins from the Southern Alps of New Zealand where the Pacific and Australian Plates collide along the Alpine Fault.
Chemical analyses showed that fluids from the mantle, the layer below Earth’s crust, and fluids derived from rainwater, are channelled up the Alpine Fault.
By calculating how much fluid is flowing through the fault zone at depth, the researchers showed for the first time that enough rainwater is present to promote earthquake rupture on this major plate boundary fault.
Deep groundwaters may be important for the initiation of earthquakes as these fluids can weaken the fault zones by increasing pressures.

:: International ::

Islamic state kills more than 30 in Iraq

The Islamic State group carried out rare attacks in Iraq’s deep Shia south, killing at least 33 people with twin suicide car bomb blasts in the city of Samawa.
They said at least 50 people were also wounded in the blasts in Samawa, 230 km south of Baghdad.
IS issued a statement later on social media claiming two suicide attackers detonated their car bombs against members of the security forces.
It named the bombers as Abu Dayyaral-Qurashi and Abu Zubayral-Zaidi, saying that the second blew up his car bomb as security forces rushed to the scene of the first blast.
Samawa is the capital of Muthanna and lies deep in Iraq’s Shia heartland and such attacks there are rare. Muthanna also borders Saudi Arabia and a vast Iraqi desert that connects the troubled province of Anbar with the south.

:: India and World ::

India is keen to step up engagement in the hydrocarbon sector with Iran

India has conveyed to the Iran that it is ready to clear nearly $ 6.5 billion of the dues for oil import from that country at the earliest, provided there is clarity on payment channel.
The message was conveyed even as Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to visit the oil-rich country later this month.
Government sources said there had been a series of discussions at various levels both in Tehran and here and both sides were confident of resolving the issue soon.
Following lifting of sanctions against it in January under a historic nuclear deal, Iran terminated a three-year-old system with India of getting paid for half of the oil dues in rupees and was insisting on being paid in Euros for the oil it sold to Indian refiners.
It also scrapped free delivery of crude oil. Though Western sanctions against Iran were lifted, problems persist in banking channels due to which regular transactions were not possible yet.
Refiners such as Essar Oil and Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd (MPRL) owe nearly $ 6.5 billion in dues to Iran.
During their visit to Iran last month, Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj conveyed to Iranian leaders that India wanted to significantly ramp up engagement in the oil and gas sector.

Commerce minister points out protectionists measures by rich nations

Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman hit out at the protectionist measures of many developed nations.
She referred to protectionist measures of many in the G20 and said if India took any measure the rich nations perceived to be negative, they went on a campaign to brand India protectionist.
Ms. Sitharaman said the “huge trade-distorting” agricultural subsidies of rich nations had not yet been properly discussed at the World Trade Organisation.
She also referred to subsidies “given by China to its industry” and said this was hurting Indian manufacturers in sectors including steel.
In the backdrop of competitive devaluations of currency by several countries including China to boost their exports, she cited the persisting contraction in India’s exports and said she personally felt the Indian currency needs to be devalued a bit.

:: Business and Economy ::

RBI governor says despite the same constraints private and foreign banks are doing better

Asked to explain the “real causes” of ballooning bad loans at public sector banks, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Raghuram Rajan has put the blame on “overall economic downturn,” among other reasons, in his submission.
Congress leader K. V. Thomas-led Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has examined Mr. Rajan’s response but can ask the RBI Governor to appear before it in future once it is reconstituted.
Various public sector banks may also be asked to appear before the panel again to explain their position.
The Parliamentary panel had suomotu decided to examine the non-performing assets of the public sector banks, which touched Rs.3.61 lakh crore at the end of December 2015.
The state-owned companies had first refused to appear before PAC, but agreed later and made their submission.
During the examination of bad loan recovery process of the banks, the PAC found that in a number of cases the same bankers were trying to retrieve the bad loans who had earlier sanctioned the loans.
In its questionnaire for the RBI Governor, the panel observed that private sector banks and foreign banks do not have as much NPAs as the Public Sector Banks.
This was despite the constraints under which the entire banking sector operates being the same, except for the Priority Sector Lending (PSL) requirements.
Noting that Private Sector Banks and Foreign Banks have 2.2 per cent NPA whereas the Public Sector Banks have 5.98 per cent NPAs, the PAC felt “it is hard to believe that the difference is only due to the PSL”.
The PAC Chairman also sought to know the “real causes for the present spurt in NPAs and stressed assets” and whether these are really different from those listed by the Narsimham Committee that went into the NPA issue in 1998.
Mr. Rajan listed six primary reasons for a spurt in stressed assets that have been observed in recent times.
These included domestic and global economic slowdown, delays in statutory and other approvals especially for projects under implementation and aggressive lending practices during upturn as evidenced from high corporate leverage.
Other reasons cited by Mr. Rajan were laxity in credit risk appraisal and loan monitoring in banks and lack of appraising skills for projects that need specialised skills resulting in acceptance of inflated cost and aggressive projections.
Besides, he also listed wilful default, loan frauds and corruption in some cases among the key reasons.
The gross NPAs ratio had steadily declined from 15.7 per cent in 1996-97 to 2.36 per cent in 2010-11.
As on March 25, the gross NPA ratio was 4.62 per cent. As on June 2015, the gross NPA ratio was 4.97 per cent and the ratio of restructured standard assets to gross advance was 6.50 per cent.
Mr. Rajan also informed the panel about seven key methods evolved by way of recent regulatory measures by RBI to tackle the problem of NPA.

SEBI will put mechanism to check misuse of investors money

To check any possible misuse of investors’ money, markets regulator SEBI will soon put in place a mechanism for enhanced supervision of stock brokers and wants stock exchanges to evolve an automated alert-generation system.
Stock exchanges will be required to continuously monitor the client assets lying with the brokers and generate alerts to determine potential misuse of these assets by brokers.
Besides, the stock exchanges will monitor financial strength of stock brokers by continuously reviewing certain financial ratios and indicators of brokers.
The proposed measures, based on recommendations made by a high-level committee, will be soon implemented in consultation with the stock exchanges.
The Committee, consisting of SEBI officials and representatives of stock exchanges, depositories and stock brokers, was set up to suggest measures to further enhance the current regulatory and supervisory mechanisms for protection of clients’ assets with stock brokers.
The Committee deliberated on various issues pertaining to enhanced supervision of stock broker’s including augmented disclosures, periodic reconciliation, continuous information sharing and others.
Among various recommendations, the Committee suggested there should be no netting between client and proprietary obligations — meaning, client obligations and own obligations of the broker shall be settled separately.
This will ensure that brokers’ obligation and payment thereof are separated from the clients’ obligation and payment thereof.
Another proposed measure required prescription of uniform nomenclature for bank and demat accounts, which are maintained by stock brokers in order to ensure maintenance of an audit trail.
SEBI also wants strengthening of the existing internal audit system for stock brokers in line with the requirements for auditors as mentioned in the Companies Act, 2013.

:: Sports ::

Vijender Singh gets his fifth knockout win

Indian boxing star Vijender Singh’s power-packed punches went unchallenged yet again as he notched up his fifth successive knockout win by battering Frenchman MatiouzeRoyer.
Vijender was declared winner little over a minute into the fifth round of the six-round super middleweight contest, which was incidentally his longest bout so far
The 30-year-old was up against his most experienced rival till date in Royer, who came into the bout with an accumulated 250 rounds under his belt.
Vijender spent the first round getting a measure of his overtly cautious rival, who preferred to keep a shell guard and hardly attempted a hit at his taller opponent.
But that could not save him from a couple of telling body blows from Vijender, who was also impressive with his jabs.