Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 10 September 2016

:: National ::

M.H. govt facing criticism from the Centre for failing to use funds for smart cities

The Maharashtra government is facing criticism from the Centre for failing to use funds meant to create smart cities under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s flagship Smart Cities Mission (SCM).
The Union Urban Development Department (UDD) has rapped the State government for failing to spend a single rupee three months after the first instalment of Rs. 436 crore was released for the projects at Pune and Solapur.
The UDD has demanded immediate corrective measures and an action taken report (ATR) in the next seven days.
The UDD had shortlisted 20 cities from Maharashtra for the Smart Cities Mission in January. Following this, Pune and Solapur, were the first to prepare a project plan after receiving Rs. 150 crore and Rs. 286 crore each respectively.
The Pune plan also aims to monitor movement of buses with the help of vehicle tracking system, making transport safer by installing panic buttons and CCTV surveillance in buses, and Wi-Fi in 510 buses.
The Solapur draft plan talks mostly of improving infrastructure by installing electronic water meters, recycling of waste, identifying water leakages, and use of renewable resources of energy.
The Centre has proposed to construct smart cities on certain parameters, including water supply, sanitation, and digital connectivity, among others.

SC to look into Gujrat govt. upper caste reservation

Supreme Court gave relief to numerous students who were admitted under the Gujarat government’s 10 per cent reservation policy for underprivileged upper castes.
However, the Bench clarified the State shall not make any attempts to revive the quota law by implementing it in the future.
The Gujarat High Court quashed the Gujarat Unreserved Economically Weaker Sections Ordinance, 2016, meant to quell the powerful Patidar community agitations for quota in the State, after declaring it as “unconstitutional”.
Issuing notice on the appeal filed by the Gujarat government against the HC judgment, the Bench agreed to list the case, which would eventually take a decision on further referring it to a five-judge Constitution Bench.
The Gujarat government has contended that the High Court did not consider that the 10 per cent quota was based on “reasonable classification” and not reservation per se.
The State argued that though the term “reservation” was used in the ordinance, the leeway allowed to the poor among the upper castes should be included as a classification within the 50 per cent ceiling on quotas.

Union govt sought the views of citizens on holding simultaneous elections

The Union government has sought the views of citizens on holding simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha and the State Assemblies, following a debate sparked by statements made by the Prime Minister and the President.
On the MyGov web portal, a discussion was started on Wednesday. It outlines five issues that could be considered for formulating a view on the subject. October 15 is the last date for submissions.
The ‘MyGov Discussion’ invites suggestions on five indicative questions: (1) Is it desirable to hold simultaneous elections? What are the pros and cons?
(2) If simultaneous elections are held, then for the first time what happens to assemblies whose scheduled tenure either ends before or after the proposed date of holding elections?
(3) Should the term of Lok Sabha and assemblies be fixed?
(4) What would happen if by-elections are necessary between terms?
(5) What happens in case the ruling party or coalition loses majority in between term, either in Lok Sabha or in State assemblies?
Simultaneous elections will also avoid repeated enforcement of the Model Code of Conduct (MCC), a set of legally binding dos and don’ts for the Union/State governments, political parties and candidates.
It has been a subject of debate, particularly the merit of its enforcement from the date of announcement rather than the date of notification of the poll schedule, and its adverse impact on effective governance.
The MyGov discussion refers President Mukherjee’s comments on September 5, saying that with some election or the other throughout the year, normal activities of the government come to a standstill because of the MCC.

Ministry of External Affairs assigning Ministry's specific countries to engage with

Taking the Modi government’s commitment to reach out to all countries worldwide, the Ministry of External Affairs has issued letters to various Ministers “assigning” them dozens of specific countries to engage with.
In a letter, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said, “By 2016-end, we will not leave any country where Indian Ministers have not gone.”
The Ministry had identified 68 countries which had not witnessed Ministerial-level visits from India.
In case a Minister has some “personal work” or is interested in visiting certain places in those countries, the same will be included in their schedule.

:: Science and Technology ::

Success of GSLV mission makes ISRO ready for the Chandrayan-2 mission

The space road to Chandrayaan-2 is now clear.
The significance of the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV-F05) mission’s success is that the rocket is now more than qualified to put Chandrayaan-2 into orbit.
The interfaces between GSLV-Mk II and Chandrayaan-2 have already been finalised, according to officials in the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).\
A GSLV-Mk II vehicle will put Chandrayaan-2 with a lander and a rover into orbit in the first quarter of 2018. It will be a totally indigenous mission — the vehicle, the spacecraft, the lander and the rover are all made in India.
The lander will have a throttleable engine for performing a soft landing and four sites have been short-listed for this. After it touches down on a flat surface on the moon, the 25-kg rover — which is a kind of a toy car — will emerge from it.
It will have six wheels, made of aluminium, to move about on the lunar soil. The wheels will interact in such a way that the rover does not sink.
The rover will move at a speed of two cm a second. Its lifetime on the moon is 14 earth days; it will have two payloads for analysing the soil’s chemical properties.

:: Business and Economy ::

Rueters poll says Inflation likely to fall down

Lower food prices likely cooled India's inflation rate in August, a Reuters poll showed, but probably not by enough to give the central bank scope to ease monetary policy again anytime soon.
Official data on the consumer price index is due to be released at on Monday.
The median forecast from the Reuters poll of 27 economists pegs it at 5.50 percent for August, down from 6.07 percent in July.
The lower number is still above the Reserve Bank of India's March 2017 inflation target of 5 percent and, if realised, would be the fifth straight month that annual price rises stayed above that mark.
The Reserve Bank of India has chopped 150 basis points off its benchmark interest rate since January 2015.

Railways financial performance to improve after surge pricing

The Indian Railways' decision to experiment with surge pricing for passengers on its premium Rajdhani, Duronto and Shatabdi trains could have been triggered by its financial performance in the first half of this financial year.
The Railways' revenues were 12.65 per cent lower than its Budget target of Rs.73,713 crore for April-August this year, official documents showed.
The total number of passengers carried by the Indian Railways in this period remained almost stagnant at 343 crore — a 0.34 per cent rise from year ago period.
However, the primary reason behind a fall in gross earnings is attributed to its freight that accounts for almost 65 per cent of Railways’ revenues.
The freight earnings dropped 9.68 per cent from Rs.45,370 crore in April-August 2015 to Rs.40,980 crore over the same period this year.
The Indian Railways runs around 12,000 trains with 22 million passengers and operates 8,000 trains to ferry around 3 million tonnes of freight per day.
The Railways has introduced surge pricing, whereby fares will increase with every 10 per cent of the tickets sold in Rajdhani, Duronto and Shatabdi trains.
It will translate into a 30-40 per cent fare hike in such premium trains and may fetch Indian Railways Rs.1,000 crore every year.

Government cracking down on vendors indulging in cartelisation

The government may be able to prune its massive public procurement expenditure, as a growing number of departments are cracking down on vendors indulging in cartelisation and collusive bidding.
Public procurement expenditure accounts for around 30 per cent of India’s gross domestic product.
In the health sector, 26 per cent of the budget is for procurements. If the government agencies become alert and ensure better competition in the bidding process, they costs could wipe out the fiscal deficit of the Budget.
The cement companies, including ACC, India Cements and J.K. Cements, used the platform provided by CMA and shared details relating to prices, capacity utilisation, production and dispatch and thereby restricted production and supplies in the market.
CCI also found the cement companies to be acting in concert in fixing prices of cement.
The Commission has disposed of over 80 per cent of the 750 anti-trust cases it has been entrusted with in its seven years of existence and is also examining if a mechanism can be devised to halt probes.