Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 02 November 2015

:: National ::

Centre readies blueprint to check IS influence

The National Democratic Alliance government is ready with a blueprint to tackle the influence of the Islamic State (IS) in India, and newly created Telangana.
The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) will circulate among all States a model framework for de-radicalisation and counter-radicalisation.
Of the 19 Indians who had planned to travel to Syria to join the IS in the past one year, 16 were identified and stopped by the Telangana police.
Telangana suggested a ‘surrender and rehabilitation’ policy — similar to the one offered to Maoists — for young men and women prevented from joining extremist groups.
The State also suggested that India follow the U.K. model and set up a separate unit to tackle violent extremism.
The Research Information and Communication Unit (RICU) of the U.K., created after the 2005 London train bombings, draws officials from the Home, Foreign &Commonwealth Office.
It works under the Office for Security and Counter-Terrorism, coordinating government-wide communication activities to counter violent extremism and promote stronger inter-community relations at the grassroots.
Telangana said waging an ideological battle was important and government agencies should have a wide presence on the Internet, both overt and covert.

Govt. forms committee to review drug pricing policy

The government has formed an inter-ministerial committee to review the Drug Price Control Order (DPCO) 2013, following the Supreme Court verdict this year that termed the drug pricing policy as irrational and unreasonable.
The committee will look into the drug pricing mechanism as there have been complaints that the companies are making significant profits which go up to few thousand per cent.
One of the five issues to be considered by the government relates to NGO's plea that MBP (Market Based Pricing) was never used for any price regulatory purposes and under the new policy, simple average ceiling prices were, in many cases, higher than the market leader price.
At present, the government caps prices of essential drugs based on the simple average of all medicines in a particular therapeutic segment with sales of more than 1 per cent. In case of non-scheduled formulations companies are allowed to hike prices of medicines by only up to 10 per cent in a year.

:: Business And Economy ::

5-member panel mooted for deciding on monetary policy

After four months of debate and discussion, the Reserve Bank of India and the Finance Ministry has overcome the stalemate over the most significant reform in the central bank’s 80-year history.
The Ministry’s note for the Cabinet’s approval proposes a five-member Monetary Policy Committee.
The government will nominate two members and the RBI one expert, besides two of its officials: the Deputy Governor and the executive director dealing with monetary policy.
Each of the five members would have one vote and the RBI Governor, chair of the committee, will have a casting vote in the event of a tie in situations such as the absence of a member.
The inflation target for the RBI in each financial year will be determined by the Government in consultation with the RBI itself.
At present, the Governor is advised by a technical committee but can veto decisions, being singularly responsible for monetary policy.
A draft of the Indian Financial Code that the Ministry had posted on its website in July proposed to strip the Governor of veto vote on the monetary policy.
The draft proposed a six-member monetary policy committee, besides powers for the government to appoint four of the six members.
Relations between the Centre and the RBI had already been uneasy over amendments to the RBI Act that Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had announced in his Budget speech, leading to a breakdown of talks between the two sides.

India to emerge as largest cotton producer

With domestic trade estimating cotton production at around 400 lakh bales, India is expected to emerge as the largest cotton producer in the world in 2015-16.
Cotton output in all major producing countries in the year, barring India, has been anticipated to be lower than the previous season. As a result, China has had to vacate its place as the largest producer of cotton to India, according to sources in Southern India Mills' Association (SIMA), the apex body of spinners in the Southern Region.
Though USDA anticipated a marginal reduction in India's production, trade estimates suggested that the production would be around 400 lakh bales of 170 kg each, taking India to the first position, the sources said.
USDA report on India has estimated cotton area in the country in 2015-16 (August to July) at 11.26 million hectares and cotton production at 370 lakh bales.

Pulses buffer stock

The Agriculture Ministry has moved a proposal to create a buffer stock of 3.5 lakh tonnes of lentils during the current 2015-16 crop year through domestic purchase or imports to prevent a further price rise in pulses.
Out of the proposed 3.5 lakh tonnes, about 1.5 lakh tonnes of tur and urad will be procured in the ongoing kharif marketing season and the rest 2 lakh tonnes of chana and masoor will be bought in the rabi marketing season.
These pulses will be purchased locally or through imports using the Rs.500-crore Price Stabilisation Fund and a scheme that supports MSP operations. Pulses will be procured both at the minimum support price as well as market rates.
The State-owned Food Corporation of India (FCI), Small Farmers' Agriculture-Business Consortium (SFAC) and Nafed will be engaged in the pulses procurement.
Pulses production fell to 17.20 million tonnes in 2014-15 crop year due to poor rains, against 19.25 million tonnes in the previous year. The country imported more than 4 million tonnes during the last fiscal and traders expect imports to cross 5 million tonnes this fiscal.
Despite a higher MSP, the pulses cultivation has not scaled up to meet the growing demand because of inadequate supply of pulses seeds in the country. Worse, pulses are more prone to pest at-tacks unlike other crops and are mostly grown in rain-fed areas.

:: India And World ::

Boost for Erdogan as AKP wins critical Turkey vote

Turkey's long dominant Justice and Development Party (AKP) scored a stunning electoral comeback on Sunday, regaining its parliamentary majority in a poll seen as crucial for the future of the troubled country.
The party founded by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan won over 49 per cent of the vote to secure 315 seats in the 550-member parliament with nearly all votes counted, easily enough to form a government on its own.
And underscoring one of the key challenges ahead for a new AKP administration, police fired tear gas and water cannon on protesting Kurdish militants who set fire to tyres and pallets in the main Kurdish city of Diyarbakir.

13 killed in al-Shabaab attack on Somali hotel

Security forces in the Somali capital fought for several hours on Sunday be-fore clearing a hotel of Islamist al-Shabaab gunmen who had stormed the building after two bombs ripped into it, police and witnesses said. At least 13 people were killed.
Al-Shabaab, which has frequently launched attacks in Mogadishu in its bid to topple the Western-backed government, said it was behind the assault on the Sahafi hotel, where government officials and lawmakers stay.
The government is battling to rebuild the Horn of Africa nation after more than two decades of conflict. Al-Shabaab ruled much of Somalia until 2011, when it was driven out of Mogadishu by African and Somali troops. It remains a potent force.

:: Science And Technology ::

IISc: cleaning rivers using a nano-composite

Scientists from the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru have developed a novel ‘reusable' nano-composite material, with Cerium being the crucial compound in it, which can degrade microbes and chemical dyes that are among common effluents in rivers.
It is this notion, that the compound can speed up the degradation of chemical dyes and the bacterium Escherichia coli (which forms a large chunk of organic waste in sewage) led the re-searchers to develop ceria nanoflakes, which com-bines ceria with silver salts.
The superior photo catalytic activity of this nano-composite for the degradation chemical dyes is attributed to its extended absorption in visible region and enhanced stability of the catalyst owing to the firm adherence of silver bromide and phosphate to ceria nanoflakes.
The compound was to re-main stable even after seven cycles of its usage with polluted fluids.

:: Sports ::

Sania-Hingis domination is complete

Swiss veteran Martina Hingis and India's Sania Mir-za crowned a stunning year for their partnership on Sunday by winning their ninth title at the WTA Finals here on Sunday.
The top seeds, who joined forces only in March, beat Spain's eighth seeds Garbine Muguruza and Carla Suarez Navarro 6-0, 6-3 in 66 minutes, much of which looked more like an exhibition match than a season finale.
Hingis, 35, and Sania, 28, have also won Wimbledon, the US Open and Indian Wells on their way to Singapore, where they also swept all their matches. Their only finals loss was in Rome.
The pair had bagged the 2015 WTA year-end top ranking.