Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 11 July 2016

:: National ::

Centre is likely to announce Rs 25,000 crore capital infusion for public sector banks

Centre is likely to announce the first tranche of the Rs 25,000 crore capital infusion for public sector banks (PSBs), planned for this financial year (2016-17).
The recapitalisation is aimed at shoring up the PSBs lending capacities that are restricted by poor asset quality and weak capitalisation.
Gross bad loans, as a proportion of the total advances by these banks, rose to 7.6 per cent, a 12-year high in March 2016, according to the Reserve Bank of India’s latest financial stability report released on June 28.
On the rise since 2012, impaired assets in the banking system are negatively affecting credit supply and are a factor dampening India’s growth outlook, global rating agency Moody’s Investors Service recently said.
PSBs account for about 70 per cent of the total banking system assets. The banks requisitioned infusions after the finalisation of their fourth quarter results, in which, cumulatively, they had reported losses of Rs 18,000 crore in 2015-16.
The allocation is in line with the recapitalisation plan outlined in the Centre’s seven-pronged plan, ‘Indradhanush’, launched in August 2015 for reforming PSBs.
The Finance Ministry had estimated that the PSBs would need Rs 1.80 lakh crore by March 2019 to meet Basel III norms.
Of this, it proposes to provide Rs 70,000 crore as equity over four years and expects the banks to raise the rest from the markets or through internal profits.

Kudankulam successfully operationalised the first two reactors

The first unit, after attaining criticality in July 13, 2013 was synchronised with the southern grid in October the same year. It has generated 5,777 million units of power till May 2016.
Tamil Nadu is getting its share of 562.50 MWe from the first unit and neighbouring Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Kerala are getting 50 MWe, 221 MWe and 133 MWe respectively from the first reactor while the Union Territory of Puducherry’s share stands at 33.50 MWe.
Tamil Nadu is expected to get a minimum of 462.50 MWe from the second unit.
Having successfully accomplished the mission by operationalising the first two reactors, the KKNPP will now pay more attention for commencing the work on the construction of the third and fourth reactors, each with a capacity of 1,000 MWe, at an outlay of Rs. 39,500 crore.

Kodaikanal town is facing acute water crisis

Kodaikanal town is facing acute water crisis owing to poor monsoon and rapidly depleting storage level in the dam near Kodaikanal Observatory, the main drinking water source for the town.
Many streams on the upper and lower Kodaikanal hills are dry. At present, residents of the town get water once in eight days and others living in the upper ridge areas get water once in 10-12 days.
The demand for drinking water has increased manyfold in the last few decades owing to rapid increase in population and quantum jump in arrival of tourists to the hill station.
Leaders of various political parties promised implementation of Gundar scheme during every election. But their promises remained only on paper.

Hubble Telescope has imaged the supernova Crab Nebula’s ‘beating heart’

NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has imaged the supernova Crab Nebula’s ‘beating heart’, an inner region that sends out pulses of radiation and tsunamis of charged particles.
Crab Nebula is the most historic and intensively studied remnants of a supernova, an exploding star.k
The neutron star at the very centre of the Crab Nebula has about the same mass as the Sun but compressed into an incredibly dense sphere that is only a few miles across.
Spinning 30 times a second, the neutron star shoots out detectable beams of energy that make it look like it’s pulsating.
Hubble’s sharp view captures the intricate details of glowing gas, shown in red, that forms a swirling medley of cavities and filaments.
Inside this shell is a ghostly blue glow that is radiation given off by electrons spiralling at nearly the speed of light in the powerful magnetic field around the crushed stellar core.
The neutron star is a showcase for extreme physical processes and unimaginable cosmic violence.

:: International ::

Bangladesh bans controversial preachers TV

The government of Bangladesh has banned broadcast of Peace TV, a channel run by controversial Indian preacher Dr. Zakir Naik on allegations that it inspired terrorism.
The announcement came at his meeting with the owners of private television stations, hours after the official decision to ban the channel.
Home Minister had earlier said that intelligence agencies were investigating Dr. Naik as his activities appeared provocative.
Dr. Naik is the founding president of Mumbai-based charity, Islamic Research Foundation (IRF), which owns Peace TV.
Dr. Naik, in a video response after the deadly Dhaka cafe attack, had said that he was not surprised that one of the gunmen knew him since he “inspires millions across the world”.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s coalition on track for a decisive victory

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s ruling coalition was on track for a decisive victory in parliamentary elections, media projections showed.
Mr. Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and the Buddhist-backed Komeito would take at least 63 of the 121 seats in Parliament’s upper house available in the election — half the chamber’s total — up from 59 previously.
The two parties control 77 seats from the other half of the chamber meaning that they are set to increase their majority in the 242-seat body.

:: Business and Economy ::

India to press for a global pact to expedite the services trade flow

India will press for endorsement by more nations for its proposal on a global pact to expedite the services trade flow, during the forthcoming Nairobi meet of the United Nations (UN) body for development issues including on trade.
The proposed pact, among other things, is aimed at making it easier for services professionals and skilled workers to move across borders for ‘short-term’ projects.
It will officially be known as the ‘Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA) for Services’ at the World Trade Organisation (WTO)-level.
Its objectives include streamlining procedures for global services trade, besides ensuring recognition at the WTO-level for services as a tradable item by establishing a framework.
The ‘Ministerial Conference’ is the Geneva-headquartered UNCTAD’s highest decision-making body, and is held every four years ever since UNCTAD was set up in 1964.
UNCTAD has 194 member States and is the UN subsidiary looking at measures to boost trade and investment in developing countries.
The idea of a ‘TFA for Services’ – similar to the WTO’s ‘TFA for Goods’ -- was mooted by India soon after the WTO’s tenth Ministerial Conference in Nairobi in December 2015.
According to UNCTAD, the ‘Global Services Forum’, will discuss various topics including “facilitating trade in services – with a focus on reducing transaction costs and explore if the lessons resulting from the WTO TFA (for Goods) could be applied to trade in services.”

Russia has offered Indian oil companies a stake in the second phase of Yamal LNG

Russia has offered Indian oil companies a stake in the second phase of Yamal LNG, the biggest project to produce liquefied natural gas in the Arctic.
Petronet LNG, India’s biggest natural gas importer, is studying the offer, they said adding other state-owned firms like Indian Oil Corp (IOC) may join in later.
Novatek OJSC, Russia’s second-biggest natural gas producer, had in 2013 offered a 9 per cent stake in the $27 billion Phase-I of Yamal LNG project to a consortium of Petronet, IOC and ONGC Videsh Ltd.
But later, OVL, the overseas arm of state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC), did not find the offer attractive and the Indian consortium backed off.
Now the company is planning a second phase and is offering a stake to Indian firms. OVL was previously interested in getting into the upstream part of the project, i.e gas field development. Petronet was keen to offtake LNG.