Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 07 April 2017

:: National ::

TRAI asked Reliance jio to withdraw summer surprise offer

Reliance Jio decided to withdraw its ‘Jio Summer Surprise’ offer after the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) advised the Mukesh Ambani-led firm to withdraw the three-month ‘complimentary’ offer.
On March 31, Reliance Jio, which was expected to charge for its services from April 1, 2017, extended the deadline for buying Jio’s Rs. 303 plan until April 15, 2017.
Subscribers who bought the Rs. 99 Prime membership till April 15, 2017, with a plan of Rs. 303 or higher, were eligible for the ‘Jio Summer Surprise’ offer and its subscribers were entitled to get free services for three months, starting April 15.
Customers who have subscribed to the offer prior to its discontinuation will remain eligible for the offer.
Jio, through its free offers since September 5, 2016, has notched up more than 100 million subscribers, of which 72 million were willing to pay for Jio services as of March 31, as they become ‘Prime’ customers.
After the extension, existing players such as Bharti Airtel and Idea Cellular moved the telecom tribunal against TRAI for letting Jio continue the free promotional offer beyond the stipulated 90 days.
The arrival of Reliance Jio was followed by a consolidation in the industry, even as it spurred a fall in profits for incumbent operators.
In March, Idea Cellular merged with the Indian unit of Vodafone Plc, making the entity India’s largest mobile telephony and data service provider.
Earlier, in February, Bharti Airtel bought the assets of Telenor ASA’s India unit while in September last year Anil Ambani-led Reliance Communications decided to merge with Aircel.
The Cellular Operators Association of India had said the current tariff war in the market may not be “sustainable for long.”

West Bengal government is not yet on board on sharing of Teesta waters

The West Bengal government is not yet fully on board on sharing of Teesta waters with Bangladesh.
India remained committed to dialogue on Teesta with Bangladesh, but indicated that the high point of the visit of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina from April 7 to 10 is likely to be defence and security agreements.
Sheikh Hasina was likely to hold talks with West Bengal CM during a special reception to be hosted by President Pranab Mukherjee at which the Chief Ministers of other States bordering Bangladesh have also been invited.
The visit, which is expected to see 20 government-level agreements, is likely to be dominated by the bilateral defence pacts, which will address Bangladesh’s needs.
A second agreement for $500 million will also be concluded to assist Bangladesh to source some of its military-grade equipment from India. A special MOU on training of Bangladesh military personnel is also included on the agenda.
India’s support for the Ruppur nuclear power project of Bangladesh and joint efforts to counter radicalism in Bangladesh would be other key areas during the bilateral talks.
India will also conclude a framework agreement on civil nuclear cooperation with Bangladesh.

About 6.4 million deaths worldwide was caused by smoking in 2015

A study has found that smoking caused one in ten deaths worldwide in 2015, half of them in just four countries: China, India, the United States and Russia.
About 6.4 million deaths worldwide was caused by smoking in 2015 and 52.2% of them took place in China, India, U.S. and Russia, according to the latest estimates in the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) report.
China, India, and Indonesia, the three leading countries with male smokers, accounted for 51·4% of the world’s male smokers in 2015. India has 11·2% of the world’s total smokers.
Deaths attributable to smoking increased by 4.7% in 2015 from the figures in 1990 and smoking was rated as a bigger burden on health — moving from the third to the second highest cause of disability, the study said.
The estimates are based on smoking habits in 195 countries and territories between 1990 and 2015.
While Indonesia, Bangladesh and the Philippines did not have significant reductions in the numbers of men smoking daily compared to 1990 figures, the Philippines, Germany, and India had no significant decreases in smoking among women for the same period.
Worldwide, between 1990 and 2015, smoking prevalence decreased by almost a third — from 29.4% to 15.3%. But one in four men worldwide continue to smoke, as do one in 20 women.
Population growth has led to an increase in the overall number of smokers from 870.4 million in 1990 to 933.1 million in 2015, the study said.
The study said Pakistan, Panama and India stand out as three countries that have implemented a large number of tobacco control policies over the past decade and recorded marked declines in the prevalence of daily smoking.
The study said the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), is necessary and vital for creating policy environment for more effective tobacco control worldwide but is not enough to fully address each country’s tobacco-control needs.
The nations will need to both implement FCTC-stipulated measures and supplement such policies and programmes.

Department of Science and Technology initiated Cyber Physical Systems programme

With autonomous vehicles and robot-executed surgeries becoming commonplace around the world, the Department of Science and Technology (DST) has initiated a Cyber Physical Systems (CPS) programme.
Still at a nascent stage, it has been conceived as a Rs. 3,000-crore exercise that would, at first, take root in some of the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), according to officials familiar with the project.
An initial budget of Rs. 100 crore has been earmarked for the project in the current financial year.
CPS is an interdisciplinary field that deals with the deployment of computer-based systems that do things in the physical world, such as, for instance, the self-driven cars produced by Google and Tesla.
However, even smart grids as well as autonomous unmanned vehicles and aircraft navigation systems qualify as ‘cyber physical systems.’
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had referred to cyber physical systems earlier this year at the Indian Science Congress in Tirupati.
Pointing out that it was an “important area that needed to be addressed,” he had noted that it had the “potential to pose unprecedented challenges and stresses to our demographic dividend.”
Though India is only now developing a programme on CPS, the National Science Foundation of the United States had identified it as a key area of inter-disciplinary research back in 2003.

Four Bills essential for the rollout of the Goods and Services Tax paased

The Rajya Sabha passed four Bills essential for the rollout of the Goods and Services Tax, the deadline for which is July 1. The Lok Sabha had passed these Bills on March 29.
One more piece of legislation, the State GST Bill, will have to be passed by the legislative assemblies of States and Union Territories with legislature.
The passage of the Central GST Bill, Integrated GST Bill, GST Compensation Bill, and the Union Territory GST Bills followed a two-day debate in the Rajya Sabha.
Opposition leaders raised several objections to the Bills, many of which were similar to those raised in the Lok Sabha. These included disempowerment of Parliament in setting tax rates and the reason behind several tax rates.
The Finance Minister, however, pointed out the importance of consensus when it comes to the suggestions of the GST Council.
Mr. Jaitley had said that the consequences of not acting on the GST Council’s recommendations would render the implementation of GST very difficult if not impossible.
The Finance Minister, during his speech in the Upper House, also explained the need for multiple rates in the GST structure since luxury items and items of public good and necessities cannot be taxed under the same rate.

Kirti Chakra posthumously conferred on Lance Havildar Prem Bahadur

Kirti Chakra, the second highest peacetime gallantry award, was posthumously conferred on Lance Havildar Prem Bahadur Resmi Magar of Gorkha Rifles by President Pranab Mukherjee at the defence investiture ceremony.
The late Lance Havildar eliminated four terrorists during an operation in Jammu and Kashmir on June 16 last year.
Mr. Mukherjee also presented 13 Shaurya Chakras.

:: International ::

North Korea says it is ready to fight with US

North Korea is ready to deliver the “most ruthless blow” if provoked by the United States, its ambassador to Moscow said, after President Donald Trump pledged to keep building up defences against Pyongyang.
“Our Army has already said that if there will be even the smallest provocation from the United States during exercises, we are ready to deliver the most ruthless blow,” Interfax quoted ambassador Kim Hyong-Jun as saying.
Mr. Trumppledged to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe that the U.S. would “continue to strengthen its ability to deter and defend itself and its allies with the full range of its military capabilities,” a day after Pyongyang fired a ballistic missile into the Sea of Japan.
North Korea’s Foreign Ministry assailed Washington for its tough talk and for an ongoing joint military exercise with South Korea and Japan.

:: Business and Economy ::

RBI kept the key policy rate, the repo rate, unchanged

The Reserve Bank of India kept the key policy rate, the repo rate, unchanged in the first bimonthly policy review of 2017-18 but narrowed the policy corridor by 25 bps by raising the reverse repo rate to 6%, from 5.75%.
All six members of the monetary policy committee (MPC) — which decides interest rates — voted in favour of the decision.
The central bank said the policy decision was consistent with the neutral policy stance with the objective of achieving the medium-term target for retail inflation, which is 4%.
The central bank said the future course of monetary policy would largely depend on incoming data on how macroeconomic conditions are evolving.
While the repo rate action was in line with market expectations, the Governor’s ‘hawkish’ tone disappointed bond traders who were expecting a softer tone.
Yield on the 10-year benchmark bond hardened to 6.77% as compared with its previous close of 6.65%.
RBI said the path to achieving 4% inflation would be challenging.
The central bank has set its inflation projection to an average of 4.5% in the first half of 2017-18 and 5% in the second half, while keeping its GVA growth projection unchanged at 7.4% for FY18 as compared with 6.7% in FY17.
The central bank said surplus liquidity in the banking system had fallen from close to Rs. 8 lakh crore in January to Rs. 4.8 lakh crore in March.
It also said it had proposed a standing deposit facility to the government in November 2015, approval for which was still awaited.
SDF is a mechanism to drain surplus cash at a rate lower than the repo rate without the need for any collateral.
Analysts said there were upside risks to the 4% target and there was a possibility of an increase in the cash reserve ratio, going forward.
Though RBI has not reduced the repo rate, banks still have scope to cut lending rates, the central bank said.
It added that the small savings rates should also be lowered as it noted that these rates are 61-95 bps higher compared with the ‘what-if’ formula.

Centre to secure legislative backing for the Rail Development Authority

The Centre will likely attempt to secure legislative backing for the Rail Development Authority (RDA) next year to give more teeth to the country’s first rail regulator that will initially be set up through an executive order.
The Union Cabinet approved setting up the rail regulator responsible for recommending passenger fares, setting performance standards for rail operations and creating a level playing policy for private sector participation through an executive order.
The Ministry has targeted issuing a gazette notification to set up the Rail Development Authority by April 15.
After being formed, the Authority will work within the parameters of the Railways Act, 1989, an official statement had said on Wednesday.
This means it can only recommend changes to passenger and goods fares to the Railway Ministry which will take a final call on fixing the tariff.
However, a Railway Ministry official said the proposal was dropped later as no appropriate mechanism for compensation could be developed.
All the six regulators in the country have the sanction of Parliament and have been accorded a statutory status. These include the TRAI, AERAI, IRDA, CERC, TAMP and PFRDA.
In fact, the PFRDA became functional in 2003 through an executive order and legislative backing was secured through the PFRDA Act which was passed a decade later in 2013.

Centre survey shows more than 60% faces call drop

The Centre said more than 62% of the 2.2 lakh subscribers that it surveyed complained of call drops.
The survey was conducted using the Integrated Voice Response System (IVRS) that the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) had rolled out last December in Delhi, Mumbai, U.P., Uttarakhand, Maharashtra and Goa.
About 2.21 lakh subscribers participated in the survey, out of which about 1.38 lakh(62.5%) subscribers have reported call drops.
As per feedback received, the problem of call drops “is more severe” indoors, according to the statement. The subscribers receive an IVRS call from short code 1955 and are asked a few questions on the call drop problem.
They can also send a toll-free SMS to the same short code, containing the name of city/town/village, where they face frequent call drops.
The feedback is then shared with the telecom service providers on a weekly basis to take action in a time-bound manner.
The operators have installed about 2.13 lakh additional Base Transceiver Stations across the country between June 2016 and February 2017, the DoT added.
The telcos submit an action-taken report to the DoT Task Force every fortnight. Additionally, the DoT Task Force meets with the TSPs once a month to discuss the issues that come up via the IVRS.
The DoT said for the period February 15-28, 43,403 feedback cases had been taken up for investigation by the operators.
Cumulatively, a total of 9,328 cases have been resolved through the initiative. About 5,529 cases which were not associated with call drops but related to data, roaming and billing were also identified by the TSPs.