Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 11 February 2016

:: National ::

SC hears constitutionality of President rule in Arunachal

The Supreme Court o questioned Governor J.P. Rajkhowa's use of his “constitutional discretion” to advance the sixth session of the Arunachal Pradesh Assembly by over a month.
Advancing the session from its scheduled date of January 14, 2016 to December 16, 2015 in order to remove Speaker NebamRebia triggered the entire political crisis leading to the impositionof President's Rule on January 26
The Bench's questions pertained to the order issued by Mr. Rajkhowa on December 9, 2015 to advance the Assembly session without consulting Chief Minister NabamTuki and his Council of Ministers under Article 174 (1) of the Constitution.
Instead of calling a floor test, the Governor invoked Article 174 (1) of the Constitution and ordered the session to be advanced for “facilitating the House to expeditiously consider resolutions for removal of Speaker.”
Referring to its past judgements, the apex court said a Governor could not assume constitutional discretion un-less such powers were expressly provided in the specific Articles of the Constitution.
Since Article 174 (1) was silent on whether the Governor should consult or not the State Cabinet before advancing dates of the Assembly session, it was presumed that aid and advice of the Chief Minister and Council was required to be taken.

Plan to develop cities around major ports dropped

The Centre hasdropped the plan to develop smart cities around major ports in Mumbai and Kolkata.
Lat year, the government had planned to build one smart city each at 12 major ports at an estimated cost of Rs. 50,000 crore.
The ports — Kandla, Mumbai, the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust, Mormugao, Vi- sakhapatnam, Cochin, Chennai, New Mangalore, Ennore, V.O. Chidambaranar, Paradipand Kolkata — have 264,000 acres of land around them.
These ports handle 61 per cent of the cargo traffic.

Women Qazis get support from Deoband

Islamic seminary Darul-UloomDeoband came to the defence of two Muslim women from Rajasthan — Afroz Begum and Jahan Ara — who became Qazis (judges).
Who, in Islamic legal jurisprudence, has the authority to function as the head of informal arbitration centres to sort out disputes related to personal laws as well as other matters.
Deoband’s support for the two women came days after conservative religious clerics in Rajasthan protested against the two women being awarded the certificate of “Qaziat” by a Islamic training Centre in Mumbai.
Maulana Usmani also said there was no reason for any- one to oppose the two Qazis because there are “several madrasas that train women to become a Qazi or a Mufti.”

Along with monsoon forecast IMD will start giving summer forecast

For the first time in its history, the India Meteorological Department — best known for its monsoon forecasts — will issue a summer forecast for April, May and June.
Those involved say that though such a forecast may not be of much help to farmers — who rely on IMD’s rain forecasts to make sowing decisions and don’t plant their crops in these months.
The information would be useful to power companies, several service-sector industries and state planners who’d like a heads-up on possible water shortages.
In mid-March, the IMD will send out a colour-coded map of India, showing how temperatures in different regions of the country are likely to deviate from what’s normal, during summer months.
These numbers would be updated every five day.
The IMD’s initiative comes even as India bears the brunt of one of the long-est and severest El Ninos ever experienced.
Said to be responsible for two consecutive droughts as well awry winter patterns in North India, the El Nino — a meteorological phenomenon marked by an unusual warming of the surface waters of the Pacific Ocean and associated with droughts — is likely to continue for a couple of months more.
The IMD does give warnings about imminent heatwaves and dry weather but these are no more than five days ahead.
The key factor to forecasting weather a few months ahead is in ensuring that the computerised weather models are consistently able to simulate the weather as it actually plays out.

Women would get child through surrogacy or adoption will also paid maternity leave

In a first, thegovernment is set to mandate four months of paid maternity leave to women having babies through surrogacy and those who adopt a newborn within three months of birth.
Expectant mothers would be entitled to six-and-a-half months of paid leave, compared to just three months now, under the proposed amendments to the Maternity Benefit Act1961 that are expected to be considered by the Cabinet soon.
Under the proposed amendment, offices with 50 or more workers will have to compulsorily provide crèche facility on their premises.
Women’s unions said the government’s move to raise the leave to six months is a good start and the benefit must be extended to those working in the unorganised sector.
Globally, around 98 countries provided maternity benefit of at least 14 weeks till 2013, said a report titled ‘Maternity and Paternity at Work’ prepared by the International Labour Organisation.
Forty-two countries gave 18 weeks of paid maternity leave.
Women working in government offices in India get a six-month maternity leave, according to the Central Civil Service (Leave) Rules 1972.

:: INTERNATIONAL ::

Zika virus reached China

China hasconfirmed its first case of the Zika virus in a man who had recently travelled to South America, the official Xinhua news agency said.
The virus, which is causing international alarm after spreading through much of the Americas, was detected in the eastern province of Jiangxi.
Chinese health authorities downplayed the risk of the mosquito-borne virus spreading because of the winter cold, Xinhua added.
Hong Kong’s Port Health office has stepped up inspections at the airport in response and reinforced training for boundary control inspectors, the statement added.

:: INDIA and WORLD ::

UAE’s national oil company agreed to give oil to India free

In a first of its kind deal, UAE’s national oil company Adnoc has agreed to store crude oil in India’s maiden strategic storage and give two-thirds of the oil to it for free.
India is building underground storages in Visakhapatnam and Mangalore and Padur in Karnataka to store about 5.33 million tonnes of crude oil to guard against global price shocks and supply disruptions.
Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc) is keen on taking half of the 1.5- million-tonne Mangalore facility.
It will stock 0.75 million tonnes or 6 million barrels of oil in one compartment of the Mangalore facility.
Of this, 0.5 million tonnes will belong to India and it can use it in emergencies. Adnoc will use the facility as a warehouse for trading its oil.

:: BUSINESS and ECONOMY ::

RBI directed banks to accelerate provisioning requirement

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has directed commercial banks to accelerate provisioning requirement, from April 1, for the existing stock of restructured loans that are showing signs of stress.
RBI has identified bank specific accounts in which respective lenders have to make higher provisioning from April 1.
These accounts were restructured earlier. Banks have provided only 5 per cent for these restructured loans, but now the central bank has directed them to increase the provisioning by 2.5 per cent every quarter so that by March 31, 2017, provisioning reached the 15 per cent level — in line with sub-standard accounts.
However, banks are not allowed to classify these accounts as non-perform- ing assets.
The central bank has given four quarter to banks, starting April 1, to make full provisioning for the identified accounts, so that a bank is not hit in one go.
The central bank’s move comes in the back drop of RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan’s drive to clean up banks’ balance sheets by March 2017.
In February 2014, the central bank issued a set of guidelines on joint lenders’ forum and laid out a corrective action plan with the objective of revitalising distressed assets in the banking system.
In that circular, RBI had said that banks have to face accelerated provisioning if the borrower’s account continues to show weakness.
The step to increase provisioning is seen in line with the accelerated provisioning requirement.

Govt. plans to set up 2,000 waterports

Government plans to set up 2,000 waterports as well as “Ro—Ro” services at five select places to transport goods and vehicles.
Besides, there is a plan to develop 1,300 islands and 280 light houses as major attractions for tourists.
Not only this we will develop our 1,300 islands as major tourist attraction.
The government will soon start Ro- —Ro (Roll—on Roll—of) service at five places including Haldia, Patna, Varanasi and Sahibganj with the World Bank assistance.
Once they are operational, trucks could be transported till the points leading to huge savings which in turn would boost economy.
He also informed that government is constructing waterways on a 1,620 kilometer stretch on the Ganga between Varanasi and Haldia and 30 water ports would be constructed there.

US ranked India in second last position in Intellectual property Index

India was ranked 37 out of 38 countries, with only Venezuela scoring lower, in the U.S. Chamber of Commerce-International Intellectual Property Index.
The report, comes at a time when the government is close to finalising a National Intellectual Property policy to improve the IP regime, increase IP awareness and strengthen enforcement of rules.
The U.S. was ranked first, followed by the UK, Germany, France and Sweden. India’s peers in the BRICS grouping were all ranked ahead with Russia ranked 20th, China (22nd), South Africa (26th) and Brazil (29th).
The 38 economies benchmarked in the 2016 Index accounts for nearly 85 per cent of the global GDP.
The Index -- produced by the Chamber’s Global Intellectual Property Center(GIPC) -- is based on 30 criteria critical to innovation including patent, copyright and trademark protections, enforcement, and engagement in international treaties etc.
The GIPC report found that among India’s key areas of weakness was the use of compulsory licensing (CL) for commercial and non- emergency situations, and the expanded use of CL being considered by the Indian government.