Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 12 December 2015

:: NATIONAL ::

With the BJP ready-ing a booklet titled ‘National Herald Family Greed and National Blackmail' to pro-vide its members of Parliament and organisational leaders points to attack the Congress, no breakthrough to the deadlock in the Rajya Sabha is in sight.
Congress members repeatedly disrupted the Upper House again on Friday alleging “political vendetta” in the National Herald case even as informal talks continue on the crucial Goods and Services Tax Bill, the fate of which is linked to whether the House functions.
political positions remain polarised since the National Herald controversy came up.

The foreign secretaries of Pakistan and India will meet next month in Delhi to work out the details of the newly-announced comprehensive bilateral dialogue after the two countries decided to reengage.
Pakistan Prime Minister's Advisor on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz, while making a statement in Parliament, said the secretaries will decide on the modalities and schedule.

Japan's new and aggressive investment plans in India will not be limited to mega infrastructure projects such as bullet trains and will cover almost the full spectrum of prominent government schemes such as “Make in India” and Swachh Bharat.
Expressing his government's desire to invest in key sectors, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Friday said: “Japan has decades of experience of doing business with India. It is this experience which will help us in India.”
Mr. Abe delivered a brief speech at the Japan-India Innovation Seminar.
The bullet train project be-tween Mumbai and Ahmedabad and will be a showpiece of India-Japan collaboration.
Japan has offered to finance 80 per cent of the cost of the project interest rate of less than 1 per cent.

Vice-President Hamid Ansari will join Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani along with his host Turkmenistan President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov on Sunday to press a button that will forge the first pipeline to supply Turkmen gas to Afghanistan, Pakistan and India, (TAPI) with a final length of nearly 1,800 km by the time of its completion in 6-7 years.
The project has potential to extract from it between 15-25% of its natural gas needs of India. India joined TAPI in 2008.
Afghanistan, which will receive about 16% of the gas (India and Pakistan will have a share of 42% each) from the pipeline, would also receive an estimated $200-$250 mil-lion as transit fees from Pakistan.
Similarly, India would pay Pakistan transit fees for the pipeline that will originate in Turkmenistan's south east areas, travel through Herat, Fa-rah and Helmand provinces of Afghanistan, entering Pakistan in Balochistan and then cutting across Pakistan Pun-jab to reach the border area of Fazilka-Abohar in Indian Punjab.
The cost of laying infrastructure to protect the pipe-line from possible attacks will affect the TAPI's viability.

As India and Russia gear up to sign a major deal for manufacture of Russian light utility helicopters in India with significant participation by the private sector, Russia is keen to conclude a mutual investment guarantee pact with India for joint de-fence projects in future.
In the first stage it can be a government-to-government agreement. In the second stage it can be at the business-to-business and central bank level. Payment can be in local currencies which will minimise risks.
India and Russia are expected to conclude the Inter-Governmental agreement for the production of 200 Kamov-226K light utility helicopters in India during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Russia later this month.
A second-level agreement will be signed between Russian Helicopters and the In-dian partner.
An Indian private player is likely to be chosen to work with Hindus-tan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) under the Make in India initiative.

The euphoria created by the Leaders Event nearly two weeks ago of a smooth Paris Climate Agreement emerging by Friday has evaporated, and countries are crunching the most contentious parts of the pact, hop-ing to come up with an agreed outcome by Saturday morning.
Amid demonstrations and campaigns at the CoP21 venue by activists, the multilateral issue that has gone down to the wire is differentiation the part of the agreement that will make obligations heavier for the developed world to both cut emissions and fund the developing countries, and give lighter responsibilities to developing nations.
The voluntary pledges made by 186 countries would make the Paris deal a simple and straight affair has been belied as oil producing countries and their allies are op-posing the 1.5 degrees C tighter temperature target over the 2 degrees C favoured originally by many emerging economies.
Saudi Arabia has also been blocking the 1.5 degrees target. It represents the Arab region which, along with the Middle East and North Africa, is as much vulnerable to cli-mate change as others.
How much money would be raised by the developed world by 2020 with $ 100 billion as the floor and how that is to be earmarked is also hanging fire.
The world's top greenhouse gas emitter, China, remains firm on differentiation.

With 17 of the 22 industry groups in the manufacturing sector showing a posi-tive growth, the industrial output in October recorded a five-year high of 9.8 per cent year-on-year.
The higher growth was on account of a favourable base, as October 2014 registered a negative growth 2.7 per cent, as well as the pre-festive sea-son ramp up in output.
The industrial output in September 2015 was 3.6 per cent. The growth logged be-tween April and October this year over the corresponding period of the previous fiscal was 4.8 per cent.
Mining recorded 4.7 per cent year-on-year growth (versus 3 per cent in September), while manufacturing output was 10.6 per cent for the month (versus 2.6 per cent in September).
Electricity output was seen at 9 per cent in October (versus 11.4 per cent last month).
The cumulative growth in these three sectors during April-October 2015 over the corresponding period of 2014 has been 2 per cent, 5.1 per cent and 5.2 per cent respectively.

Crude oil prices hit fresh seven-year lows as the International Energy Agency (IEA) warned global oversupply could worsen in the new year. Brent slipped below $39 a barrel for the first time since December 2008 as the
IEA, which advises developed nations on energy, warned that demand growth was starting to slow.
Brent crude futures were down 60 cents at $39.13 a bar-rel at 1058 GMT, bouncing slightly from a session low of $38.90.

India on imposed anti-dumping duty of up to 57.39 per cent on import of certain stainless steel products from China, Korea, the U.S. and EU for five years to save the domestic industry from cheap shipments.
The anti-dumping duty imposed under this notification shall be levied for a period of five years.
The duty in the range of 5.39 per cent to 57.39 per cent of the landed value of ‘Cold-rolled Flat' products of stain-less steel has imposed on the recommendation of Directorate General of Anti-dumping and Allied Duties (DGAD) in October.
The anti-dumping duty will be 57.39 per cent on the imports from China, 5.39 to 13.44 per cent from South Korea, 15.93 per cent from Chinese Taipei, 9.47 per cent from the U.S., 29.41 to 52.56 per cent from the European Union, 4.58-5.39 per cent from Thailand and 12.34 to 36.91 per cent from South Africa.