Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 10 November 2016

:: National ::

LPG distributors, railway caterers etc added to accept 500 and 1000 notes

LPG distributors, railway caterers, chemists, and ticket counters at Archaeological Survey of India monuments will be allowed to receive payments in the old Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000 notes, the government announced.
It said those depositing over Rs. 10 lakh of unaccounted income in their accounts would face tax and a penalty of 200 per cent under the Income Tax Act.
Banks, which are scheduled to open on Thursday, will remain open on Saturday and Sunday as well for the convenience of people who need to exchange their high-value currency notes.
“If an amount of above Rs. 10 lakh is deposited in a bank account, not matching with the declared income, the same will be treated as tax evasion,” the Finance Ministry said.
In such a case, the tax amount plus a penalty of 200 per cent of the tax payable would be levied as per Section 270(A) of the Income Tax Act.
The RBI has dispensed Rs. 2,000 denomination currency notes to banks in large boxes and asked them to ration the distribution of those from their branches.
For at least two weeks, notes of such a denomination will be only made available from branches and not from ATMs.
ATMs, which will resume operations on Friday, will dispense notes only in the denomination of Rs. 100 and Rs. 50 for the next few days.
Large lenders like State Bank of India and ICICI Bank have decided to extend branch banking hours. In some locations, ICICI Bank branches will remain open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. on 10th and 11th.
The government has extended the exemption list for payment with old Rs. 500, Rs. 1,000 notes to metro tickets, toll plaza payments, LPG gas cylinders, railway catering, ASI monuments, and chemists.

President Donald Trump could be good news for India

The election of Donald Trump as U.S. President could be positive news for India on a bilateral level, but it is his administration’s China policy that will be key to India’s interests, say foreign policy watchers here.
PM Modi was among the first world leaders to tweet his greetings to the U.S. President-elect shortly after he made his victory speech, and Mr. Trump famously said “I love Hindu,” referring to Indians at a campaign rally last month.
In contrast to India ties, Mr. Trump has made it clear that he sees Pakistan’s “semi-unstable” state, radical Islamists and nuclear weapons as a major problem.
In April this year, at a townhall meeting in Indianapolis, Mr. Trump had said: “The problem with Pakistan, where they have nuclear weapons, is a real problem.”
However, some suggest that India may be more affected by Mr. Trump’s foreign policy shifts on China, Russia and West Asia.

Uttarakhand has highest number of tigers outside reserves

While tiger reserves contain the majority of the country’s tiger population, a study reveals that Uttarakhand forest department’s western circle has 119 tigers.
This is one-third of the total tiger population found outside the 49 tiger reserves across the country.
The study was carried out as ‘Phase IV monitoring’, which, according to the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) guidelines, involves monitoring of tiger and its prey on an annual basis.
The study was undertaken in an area of 2,573.6 sq.km. spread across Uttarakhand’s Shivalik, Bhabar and Terai regions.
The survey found that the State’s western circle has more tigers than states such as Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Arunachal Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, all of which have less than 119 tigers each.
A similar study on tiger population is currently being undertaken in the Corbett Tiger Reserve.

Demonetisation will reduce fake currency as well as terror financing

The government has said one of the reasons to demonetise currency notes of Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000 was to curb the circulation of fake currency notes, but there seems to be no definite account of the amount of such notes in circulation.
As per a study done by the Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata, in 2015, the only concrete work done on the subject, at any given point of time Rs. 400 crore worth of fake currency notes were in circulation in the economy.
This is merely 0.025 per cent of the total budget outlay of Rs. 19.7 lakh crore as announced this fiscal.Different agencies have their own estimates based on the recoveries made by them.
According to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), in 2015, various law enforcement agencies seized 1,78,022 pieces of fake Rs. 1,000 currency notes.
This means Rs. 17 crore fake notes which were in circulation could be calculated as they could be seized.
Similarly, in 2015 as many as 2,99,524 pieces of Rs. 500 fake notes were seized by the agencies.
The Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata study was done on the behalf of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and it also said that Rs. 70 crore fake notes were pumped into the economy every year.
The supplier of raw currency notes, the ink and the silver thread is same for India and Pakistan and we have been asking the the countries like the U.K, the U.S. and Germany, where these are manufactured to stop the sale to Pakistan.”
Demonetisation would impact the terror financing, particularly in Jammu and Kashmir. He said terrorist outfits like Hizbul Mujahideen collect donations in Pakistan and then route the money into the State through hawala operators.
Many of their operators and sleeper cells here have fake currency. It will be a severe blow and for a few years we will get relief from this.

:: International ::

Donald Trump became 45th President of USA

Donald Trump’s jaw-dropping White House win is a slap in the face for Barack Obama, elected eight years ago as the country’s first black President on the promise of a nation united.
At the political level, Hillary Clinton’s defeat is certainly a setback for Mr. Obama, who campaigned hard for his former Secretary of State, travelling across the country and employing the charisma and charm that she sorely lacks.
But, aside from being the loss of a typical battle between the two major American political parties, Mr. Trump’s success is also a stinging personal blow to Mr. Obama.
Indeed, it would seem Mr. Obama has failed to take the pulse of this other America, a world of working class whites who felt they have been left in the lurch amid rapid fire change from globalisation and an increasingly multicultural society.
Mr. Trump has promised to scrap or overhaul many of Mr. Obama’s signature initiatives, such as the health care plan that bears his name, the battle against climate change and the Paris accord of 2015.
Just over five years later, Mr. Obama is getting ready to give up the White House to his former foil.

:: Business and Economy ::

India must cut import tariffs on cars, improve ports and logistics to increase export

India must frame policies to reduce farm subsidies and cut import tariffs on cars and take steps to improve ports and logistics to emerge as an export powerhouse, according to the World Bank.
The Bank released a report titled ‘South Asia’s Turn: Policies to Boost Competitiveness and Create the Next Export Powerhouse’ and suggested a set of policy actions in four sectors — agribusiness, apparel, electronics and automotive.
With the right set of productivity-enhancing policies, South Asia, led by India, could more than triple its share in global markets of electronics and motor vehicles and come close to doubling its already goodmarket share in wearing apparel by 2030.
In the farm sector, passive and non-targeted subsidies have encouraged farmers to continue to produce low value crops using low productivity and unsustainable techniques while restrictions on agricultural markets have constrained productive private investments in higher value food products.
In order to enhance the business environment in the sector, the government needs to bring out reforms including reducing subsidies and promoting competition, according to the World Bank.
The government should also consider gradually reducing tariffs on final cars, as the prevailing high import tariffs on the completely built units are slowing down diffusion of good practices.
The electronics sector, according to the Bank, faced constraints such as underdeveloped clusters and poor trade logistics, while the apparel sector is facing difficulties to import man-made fibre, preventing upgrading and diversification.
India needs to reform the duty drawback scheme to facilitate the import of fabrics for exports.
“The current system imposes delays that are unacceptable to global buyers, cutting Indian exporters from the increasingly important manmade fibre segment,” according to the report.
India remains behind on ‘global value chain’ capabilities including physical capital, human capital, institutions and logistics, it said.

Demonetisation has precedents in other countries as well

India is not the only country to have opted for currency demonetisation. There are similar examples from other countries as well.
On demonetisation of higher denomination banknotes, the RBI said, “Rs.1,000 and Rs.10,000 banknotes, which were then in circulation were demonetised in January 1946.
The higher denomination banknotes in Rs.1,000, Rs.5,000 and Rs.10,000 were reintroduced in the year 1954, and these banknotes were again demonetised in January 1978.”
Zimbabwe is another example, which went through hyper-inflation in 2008 following which its currency lost value. In
June 2015, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe said the country had “adopted the multiple currency system or dollarisation in 2009 and it is therefore necessary to demonetise the Zimbabwe $ unit to replace it with the multiple currency system.”
In Zimbabwe’s case, demonetisation was critical for policy consistency and for enhancing consumer and business confidence, its central bank had said.
In Singapore, though Japanese “Banana” notes had been in circulation during the Japanese occupation, after the Japanese surrendered, the note was demonetised in 1945, the ‘Singapore Mint’ said.
In Fiji, its Reserve Bank said, “demonetisation of the pounds and shillings was necessary as Fiji transitioned to the new decimal currency structure from January 13, 1969.”
It added, “Due to limited quantities remaining in circulation, these notes and coins now have collectors’.”
The central bank of the Philippines, decided to demonetise the New Design Series banknotes issued on 12 June 1985, to “align with the practice of other central banks around the world which change the design of their currency that has been in circulation for over 10 years.”