Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 08 March 2017

:: National ::

CAG to audit of various aspects of demonetisation

The Comptroller and Auditor General of India will soon begin an audit of various aspects of demonetisation announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on November 8 last year.
Demonetisation per se is a banking and money supply issue and as such, outside the CAG’s audit jurisdiction.
But the CAG is well within its rights to seek audit of fiscal impact of demonetisation, largely its impact on tax revenues. That way the issue gets linked with the public exchequer.
There are other linkages of demonetisation with the public exchequer that will also be covered by the audit. This would be “expenditure on printing of notes, RBI dividend to the Consolidated Fund, etc.” the CAG said.
The huge amount of data generated by banks and the Income-Tax Department in the wake of demonetisation would also be covered, he added.
Audit can look into various risks, such as errors and omissions in identifying the potential tax evaders, failures to pursue the identified suspects, selective and arbitrary pursuance of leads and consequences thereof.
The CAG said he had conveyed to the government his stand on the recent move of the GST Council to delete section 65 of the preliminary draft that authorised CAG to audit GST (Goods and Services Tax).

Indiato procure HIV drug from Global Fund for AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria

After running out of the child-friendly HIV syrup, Lopinavir, India is likely to procure the drug from a rapid supply facility routed through the Global Fund for AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GFATM), a multilateral donor agency.
Meanwhile, the Health Ministry released the first installment of the Rs. 6 crore payment due to Cipla Pharmaceuticals — the sole manufacturer of the drug.
While the immediate crisis triggered by unpaid bills is being sorted, the shortage of the drug itself still looms large over India’s national HIV programme.
India has a cohort of over 600 children who require 36,000 bottles of Lopinavir syrup annually.
Cipla has been supplying anti retrovirals to governments and it has been upfront with our issues of payments over the past several months.
The Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) is likely to give the approvals accelerated attention, given the dire shortage.

India had the highest bribery rate among the 16 Asia-Pacific countries

India had the highest bribery rate among the 16 Asia-Pacific countries surveyed by Transparency International between July 2015 and January 2017, with nearly seven in 10 people who had accessed public services in the country during the period paying a bribe.
As much as 69% of the study group in India said they had paid a bribe, given a gift or done a favour to receive services. Vietnam follows with 65%, Thailand 41% and Pakistan 40%. China reported a much lower 26%.
Japan had the lowest incidence of bribery at 0.2 per cent. South Korea and Australia recorded 3% each, Hong Kong 2% and Taiwan 6%.
While 46% to 60% of Indians said they paid bribes for various public services, including in public schools and hospitals and for getting IDs, voter cards and permits and accessing utilities and the police.
The results from across the region show that it is a key law and order institution — the police — that was thought to suffer most from corruption,” the survey said.
While nearly two in five said the police were mostly or entirely corrupt (39%), many people in the region also perceived political decision-makers at both the national and local level to be highly corrupt, it added.

SC for facilitation of single persons also to embrace parenthood through surrogacy

The draft Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill 2016, which is being examined by the Parliamentary Standing Committee, expressly allows only infertile and legally-wedded Indian couples to have children through surrogacy.
Supreme Court Bench allowed a representation to be made before the parliamentary committee to consider including a “specific provision” in the Bill so as to facilitate single persons also to embrace parenthood through surrogacy.
The representation will be forwarded to the office of the Solicitor-General of India, who will formally hand it over to the legislative panel for consideration.
The Supreme Court is hearing a bunch of petitions on banning commercial surrogacy and the treatment of babies as a “commodity.”
Mr. Naphade submitted how unmarried celebrities in India have been increasingly opting for surrogacy.
He further suggested that there should be a separate register maintained for surrogate children and sensitised staff should conduct inspections on the ground in such cases.
However, the Bench did not seem inclined when another lawyer suggested that the draft Bill should also permit overseas Indians to have surrogacy from India in view of a natural inclination to have children of the same “genetic make.”
The draft Bill does not cover categories other than married Indian couples, like single women or men, gay or lesbian couples, etc. The window for “altruistic surrogacy” is only open for childless Indian married couple.
The Bill also does not allow married couple, who have children, adopted or surrogate or biological, to have children via surrogacy.
The stated objective of the new Bill is to constitute a National Surrogacy Board, State Surrogacy Board and appointment of authorities for regulation of practice and process of surrogacy.
In short, the law is meant to end commercial surrogacy or, as the Supreme Court had once in 2009, termed “fertility tourism” in the country.

:: International ::

UN says South Sudan faces a risk of cleansing based on ethinicity

A United Nations report describes South Sudan as teetering on the edge of genocide and experiencing ethnic cleansing.
The report blames security forces for violations and warns that if no one is held to account, “the viability of South Sudan ... will be stymied.”

Commonwealth is launching an initiative to help tackle domestic violence

The Commonwealth is launching an initiative to help member states tackle domestic violence, which it said remained a “stubborn stain” on communities, disproportionately impacting women.
The “Peace in the home” programme will include toolkits to help governments across the Commonwealth involve multiple agencies — such as schools, doctors and hospitals, as well as government.
Law enforcement agencies to work together effectively, and will help countries highlight and share details of initiatives that had been particularly successful at dealing with domestic violence.
There will also be a mentoring programme for women, and an initiative to address the issue of violence around elections and politics.
The programme, which is being launched on Women’s Day, will continue through to 2018, when there is expected to be an accord on ending domestic violence in the Commonwealth.
The Commonwealth initiative will build a coalition of governments, businesses, human rights institutions, civil society and individual citizens to choral our efforts to address domestic violence.

:: Business and Economy ::

Members of EPF can now opt to move their retirement savings to NPS

More than eight crore members of the Employees’ Provident Fund, can now opt to move their retirement savings to the National Pension System overseen by the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA).
The PFRDA notified the procedure for EPF members to transfer their investments to the National Pension System or NPS.
Terming members of EPF and Employees’ State Insurance Corporation (which provides medical care to organised sector workers) as “hostages, rather than clients.
He had promised to provide employees the option to leave the EPF and opt for the NPS and had also said that employees below a certain level of monthly income could decide if they wanted to stop their own contributions to the EPF.
In all, 24% of an employee’s salary is diverted to the EPF as a mandatory retirement saving scheme.
Subscriber looking to transfer funds from EPF to NPS must have an active NPS Tier-I account, which can be opened either through the employer where NPS is implemented or online through eNPS on the NPS Trust website.
The amount transferred from a recognised Provident Fund or superannuation fund to NPS would not be treated as income of the current year and hence, would not be taxable.
While the return on EPF savings this year is expected to be 8.65%, the NPS offers multiple asset allocation options and fund managers for its members to choose from, with varying rates of returns.
The subscriber, either a government or private sector employee, must approach the concerned PF office where their money resides, through her or his employer and request to transfer their savings to an NPS account.

FM asked ministries to gear up for speedier implementation of different schemes

With Parliament likely to pass Union Budget 2017-18 before the beginning of the new financial year, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley asked ministries to gear up for speedier implementation of different schemes under their watch.
The Finance Minister stressed on the challenges ahead for the government as a whole to ensure that expenditure on schemes and projects starts from the beginning of the financial year to leverage the early passing of the Budget.
The Finance Minister was addressing financial advisers of different central ministries and departments at a conference in the national capital. The GFRs are rules and orders dealing with matters involving public finances.
General Financial Rules were issued for the first time in 1947 bringing together in one place all existing orders and instructions pertaining to financial matters.
These have subsequently been modified and issued as GFRs 1963 and GFRs 2005.

India has conveyed its concerns over the ongoing H-1B visa issue to US

India has conveyed its concerns over the ongoing H-1B visa processing issue to “senior level” officials in the U.S. administration.
“I think our concerns at a very senior level have already been conveyed to the government of USA. I would not like to get into the details except that Indian IT companies are giving good value addition to U.S. companies,” Govt said.