Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 13 January 2017

:: National ::

Tata sons picked N. Chandrasekaran as chairman

Less than three months after it ousted Cyrus Mistry as Chairman, the board of Tata Sons has picked N. Chandrasekaran, CEO of the group’s most- profitable company, Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. (TCS), as his successor.
The Board of Directors of Tata Sons, in a swift move, appointed Mr. Chandrasekaran as Executive Chairman at a meeting held at the Tata Group headquarters Bombay House.
The 53-year-old TCS veteran will become only the third non-Tata Chairman of the $103 billion salt-to-software conglomerate’s holding company and will take the helm of the group from Feb 21.
Mr. Chandrasekaran has been at the helm of TCS since 2009 and has been spearheading its growth across geographies. He joined TCS in 1987 as a soft- ware programmer.
A trusted lieutenant of Tata Sons interim Chairman Ratan Tata, Mr. Chandrasekaran is expected to carry forward the Tata legacy as he has the Tata DNA, analysts said.

Central police forces in LWE areas don't get the special allowance

For over a decade now, the central police forces deployed in areas affected by Left Wing Extremism have been demanding a special allowance, considering the high-risk duties they perform in these areas.
The demand is yet to be fulfilled despite announcements made by Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh.
The government, however, convened a meeting on the various allowances for the jawans, after two videos on conditions of para-military personnel went viral on social media in short succession.
Since the NDA government came to power, Mr. Singh has on multiple occasions announced that a “risk allowance” would be granted to Central Armed Police Force personnel in LWE-affected areas in Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Bihar, Odisha, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh.
That will be on a par with forces posted in Jammu and Kashmir or the insurgency-hit areas of the northeast.

NITI Aayog called for review of provisions of RTE act

The Niti Aayog has called for a review of the provisions of the Right To Education Act that stipulate that children who don’t perform well cannot be held back up to class VIII.
It said the good intention behind the norm is detrimental to the learning process.
It has also suggested a system where direct benefit transfers offer the poor a choice between subsidised purchases or equivalent cash to buy their requirements from private suppliers.
The Right To Education (RTE) Act, which aims to provide primary education to all children aged 6-14 years, stipulates that no child can be held back in a grade, regardless of his performance, all the way up to the eight grade.
This means that a child is entitled to an eighth grade diploma even if he cannot recognise a single letter or a number if he has spent eight years in school.
The Aayog pointed out that the purpose behind this provision is to minimise the drop-out rate, since demoralisation resulting from failing a class leads to children withdrawing from school altogether.
The Aayog pointed out that the Public Distribution System suffers from substantial leakages and there is an urgent need to look into avenues to eliminate them.
Aadhaar platform is one such avenue. It can eliminate multiple ration cards held by the same household and also weed out ghost ration cards.
Such an approach will give the beneficiaries the option to buy their grain from private shops, thereby putting competitive pressure on public distribution shops.
“A key element in the success of this approach, however, is to ensure access to banking. Beneficiaries receiving cash transfers into their bank accounts have to be able to withdraw that cash to effectively use it,” it said.

:: Science and Technology ::

US army may use biodegradable bullets

The U.S. Army is planning to use biodegradable bullets loaded with special seeds that sprout into plants, which can eliminate ammunition debris and contaminants, reducing soil pollution in training grounds.
Spent shells litter U.S. Army training facilities around the world as there is no efficient way to clean them up.
The shells, which contain metal and other chemicals, can rust and pollute soils and groundwater.
Proposals are being solicited until February 8, after which the chosen contractors will produce the biodegradable bullets as part of a three-phase process.
In phase one, the contractor will focus on making 40 mm to 120 mm training rounds. Phase II includes developing a prototype and the means to manufacture it and phase III has the biodegradable round transitioning to use at the Army training facilities.
The plants that grow from the seeds could also help remove soil contaminants or feed local wildlife.

:: Business and Economy ::

Industrial output grows fast

Industrial output expanded by 5.7% , the fastest pace in more than four years, largely on account of a low base effect, government data showed.
The sharp increase in the Index of Industrial Production in November 2016, which analysts have called a 'false positive', comes on the back of a contraction of 3.37% in the same month of the previous year.
“The index of industrial production (IIP) grew by 5.7% on-year in November, on account of a weak base,” Crisil Research said in a report.
“The trend was similar across manufacturing and electricity, which displayed high growth of 5.5% and 8.9% respectively in November on a weak base.”
The last time the IIP witnessed a higher growth rate was in October 2012, when it grew 8.4%. The index contracted 1.9% in November 2016.
The base effect had a significant impact in November 2016 because many sectors had witnessed a significant contraction in November 2015.
The manufacturing sector, for example, contracted 4.5% in November 2015, while the capital goods sector contracted 24.4% that month.
This led the capital goods sector to show growth for the first time in a year in November 2016, with the sector growing 15%. Consumer goods production grew 5.6% in November, with consumer durables growing 9.8% .
Overall, the current number is more likely to be an outlier given the uncertainty on account of demonetisation and the industrial growth momentum is likely to have slowed down in the near term.
In fact the IIP in November 2016 (175.8) is lower than October 2016 (178.1) indicating that factory output has actually declined sequentially.

Retail inflation eased for fifth straight month

Retail inflation eased for the fifth straight month in December to a more than two-year low, with price gains based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI) slowing to 3.4% compared with the same month of the previous year.
Inflation as measured by the CPI was slower than this only in November 2014, when it was at 3.27%.
The main contributor to slower inflation was the softening in food prices, with inflation in the ‘food and beverages’ category of the CPI falling below the 2% mark (1.98%) for the first time since January 2012.
Retail inflation at 3.41% in December 2016 is on expected lines reflecting the combined effect of demonetisation and seasonality on food particularly fruits and vegetables.
However, prices of food items such as sugar which is in double digit and cereals whose prices are showing upward escalation are cause for worry.
Fuel inflation is trending upwards, with the ‘fuel and light’ segment seeing inflation accelerate to 3.77% in December compared with 2.8% in November.

Airtel payment bank became first bank to start operations in India

Airtel Payments Bank, the first to commence operations in the country, said it would charge a fee of 0.65% on all cash withdrawals from savings accounts.
It is also promising an interest rate of 7.25 per cent on deposits in the savings accounts.
The bank — a joint venture between Bharti Airtel (80.1%) and Kotak Mahindra Bank (19.9%) — will invest Rs. 3,000 crore to build a pan-India banking network enabling customers to mainly operate accounts from their phone.
The bank will allow transfer of money to any bank account in India at a cost, but money transfers from an Airtel number to another Airtel number within the Payments Bank will be free.
Airtel’s payments bank will look to tap its more than 250 million telecom subscriber base.All customers’ mobile numbers will double up as their bank account number.
In a bid to woo customers, Airtel is offering one minute of telecom talk time for every rupee deposited at the time of opening an account as well as free personal accident insurance of Rs. 1 lakh with every savings account.
There are about 1.5 million individual stores that people go to for getting their prepaid recharges.
For feature phones used by a majority in rural areas, the bank has rolled out USSD shortcodes for account holders to carry out transactions.