Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 13 November 2015

:: National ::

India not intolerant: Modi

India and the U.K. announced an enhanced defence and strategic partnership as well as a civil nuclear agreement as Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his British counterpart David Cameron met here on Thursday, and said trade deals worth £ 9 billion would be signed during Mr. Modi's three-day visit.
“India is the land of Gand-hi and Buddha, we are not an intolerant society,” Mr. Modi said in answer to a point-ed question, adding, “every incident taking place in any corner of the nation is a serious incident, law takes its course and strict action is taken.”
The Prime Minister made the statement, even as more than 1,000 protesters raised slogans against him outside 10 Downing Street. The pro-testers comprising Kashmiri, Sikh, Nepali, Tamil and Dalit groups were joined by British human rights activists, and even saw an appearance by controversial politician George Galloway, who had once backed Saddam Hussein.

On Diwali night, India gasped for breath

Twenty of 26 air quality monitoring stations across the country recorded “severe” air quality at mid-night on Wednesday night, a level of pollution that India of-ficially rates as its worst possible, and describes as one that “affects even healthy people, and seriously impacts those with existing diseases.”
In Delhi, particulate matter levels surpassed the worst that Beijing has experienced, The Hindu's analysis of air quality data shows.
On Wednesday night, which was Diwali night, air quality deteriorated across the eight States for which data is available through the Central Pollution Control Board's National Air Quality Index monitoring portal. Looking at PM2.5 lev-els--the hourly concentration of very fine particles up to 2.5 micrograms in diameter which can severely affect respiratory functioning alone.
In Chennai, the air quality reached “severe” or “very poor” levels on Tuesday night, when Diwali is celebrated in that city, and improved on Wednesday night. In most of the rest of the country, PM2.5 levels were at “severe” levels on Wednesday night. In Dwarka (Delhi), the PM2.5 levels were “very poor”, while at the BWSSB-Kadabesanahalli monitoring station in Bengaluru, the index was at “poor.”

Clarity sought on Centre's ban on surrogacy for foreigners

A recent notice (dated October 10) from the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) to leading In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF) clinics in Hyderabad has be-come a source of anguish for the Chowdhary couple. The cause for worry is the ICMR directive to clinics that said ‘surrogacy will be limited to Indian married couples only and not to foreigners'.
The couple from New Zealand had come to Hyderabad and underwent IVF treatment in the hope of having a child. And when IVF failed, surrogacy was the only option left. The re-cent decision of the Union government to ban surrogacy for foreigners has put the couple and the IVF clinic in a fix, prompting the clinic management to write a letter to the ICMR seeking clarification on the classification of foreigners.
The decision to ban surrogacy among foreigners has raised some prickly questions among IVF clinics in Telangana because there is no clarity whether surrogacy facilities can be extended to Indians married to foreigners, NRIs and persons of Indian origin.
Then, there are also the questions of commercialisation, involvement of third party (known as agents) and exploitation of the gullible people that have been largely left unanswered.
There is no clarity of rules on surrogacy. Moreover, there is a thin line that divides altruistic and commercial surrogacy. Many couples prefer to bring their close relatives as surrogates who can bear children for them. However, not all are lucky. Such persons do try to opt the commercial way of surrogacy.

Centre offloads seized pulses to hold Priceline

With pulses prices still ruling high in the open market, the government has oloaded over 4,660 tonnes of hoarded pulses seized in five states to augment availability and stabilise prices.
A shortfall in production last year has impacted availability of arhar and urad dals as a result of which prices of these lentils, continue to hover between Rs. 180 and Rs. 190 per kg in retail markets. “Till now, 4,660.68 tonnes pulses seized under de-hoarding operations have been auctioned or disposed through other options in mar-kets to increase availability. This will help to moderate the prices further,'' official sources said.
Since imposition of the stockholding g limits on pulses, over 35,761.16 tonnes were seized in Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Karnataka, Odisha and Madhya Pradesh. Of this 4,660 tonnes have been released in various markets. Dal prices have risen this year sharply as owing to drought in parts of the country.

:: India And World ::

On Day 1, concern over Sikh radicalism

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, now on a visit to the United Kingdom, is learnt to have told his British counterpart David Cameron that Indian intelligence agencies had information that two gurdwaras, one in Birmingham and the other in Glasgow, were being used to espouse radical views among the Sikh youth.
Mr. Modi is learnt to have told Mr. Cameron that radical groups were being trained there with the help of live demonstrations to make improvised explosive devices. These classes were held in December 2014 and January 2015.
Babbar Khalsa International, which was banned in India, had started an Internet radio which was accessible through its parent site www.khalsa-fauj.net. The website allegedly glorified slain Khalistani militants.
Mr. Modi is believed to have told Mr. Cameron that funds were collected by organisations such as the BKI, International Sikh Youth Federation, Khalistan Commando Force, Khalistan Zindabad Force and sent to intermediaries based in Punjab and Pakistan.

Cameron offers to fund Modi's vision

After his parleys at 10 Downing Street, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was accompanied by his counterpart David Cameron through the entire day on Thursday, paid homage at the recently installed statue of Mahatma Gandhi in London as British jets streaked the sky with the tricolor.
Later in the evening, after the Prime Ministers attended a meeting of British MPs for a speech by Mr. Modi, they stood on the banks of the Thames river where the iconic London Eye ferris wheel was also lit up in the colours of the flag.
On the economic front, India announced the first government-backed rupee denominated bond for the Indian Railways, which Mr. Cameron called a part of the U.K.'s desire to become “the number one partner to finance the immense economic vision of Prime Minister Modi and make London the centre for of-shore rupee trading.” British and Indian companies are expected to sign deals worth 9 billion pounds ($13.6 billion), Mr. Cameron disclosed.
New mechanism Echoing the need to drive relations through the economic partnership, Mr. Modi announced that the government will launch a new fast track mechanism to channel British investments in India. Addressing British MPs, Mr. Modi spoke of the bilateral talks on climate change and clean energy cooperation. “In Britain, you are more likely to use an umbrella against the rain than the sun,” Mr. Modi said to much laughter from the audience.

:: International ::

EU-Africa refugee action plan

EU to provide initial 1.8 billion euros ($1.9 billion) to a new Emergency Trust Fund to support projects aimed at reducing refugee flows from Africa to Europe and displacement of people within Africa.
Future development cooperation to focus on projects which will reduce migratory pressures: includes fostering jobs and economic growth in areas refugee come from or transit through, a scheme to reduce the development impact of remittances by cutting transfer costs and joint research on the causes of migration.
Opportunities for legal migration to be "promoted". Only concrete step agreed was an increase in the number of EU-funded scholarships for African students and academics.
New programmes to be set up by end-2016 to increase protection and economic opportunities of displaced people in the Horn of Africa and North Africa.
Increased cooperation on combatting illegal immigration and people trafficking, including creation of joint investigative team as a pilot project in key transit country Niger.
Repatriation of failed asylum seekers to be accelerated. At least 10 African countries agreed to help European states identify illegal immigrants without official documents (making them difficult to deport).

:: Business And Economy ::

Key indicators register fall

Growth in industrial production, as measured by the Index of Industri-al Production, slowed down in September to 3.6 per cent from the break-neck 6.3 per cent achieved in August. Retail inflation for October, also released on Thursday, accelerated to 5 per cent from 4.4 per cent in September, marking the fourth consecutive month of consumer price inflation quickening.
“The General Index (of Industrial Production) for the month of September 2015 stands at 178.0, which is 3.6 per cent higher as com-pared to the level in the month of September 2014. The cumulative growth for the period April-September 2015-16 over the corresponding period of the previous year stands at 4 per cent,” the government said in a release.
The 3.6 per cent growth rate in industrial production seems more the norm than the high 6.3 achieved the previous month. In fact, the growth rate achieved in September is exactly the median growth rate over the period January-September. August seems to have been an aberration, registering a growth rate 2.6 percentage points higher than the median.
That said, some elements of the index certainly have fallen more drastically than others. Growth in the manufacturing sector, for ex-ample, plummeted to 2.6 per cent in September from a heady 6.6 per cent the previous month. However, this 2.6 per cent is low even com-pared to more ‘normal' months, falling well below the 3.9 per cent median growth rate since January.
An exception The electricity sector, on the other hand, grew very strongly in September, coming in at 11.4 per cent, up from 5.6 per cent in Au-gust. This is the fastest growth the sector has seen since August 2014. Notably, by usage, the capital goods sector slowed down considerably, coming in at 10.5 per cent in September compared to 21.4 per cent in August.
However, this could be more of a correction since the sector grew at 10.6 per cent in July. Consumer goods, a measure of demand in the economy, also slowed to 0.6 per cent in September compared to 6 per cent in Au-gust. Growth in the Consumer Price Index, at 5 per cent in October, was the highest it has been since June, when it was 5.4 per cent. The greatest increase can be seen in the food and beverages segment, which accelerated from 4.3 per cent in September to 5.3 per cent in October. Here, urban Indians felt the pinch more than rural Indians, although the rate of inflation quicken considerably for the latter as well. Food inflation in urban India went from 3.8 per cent in September to 5.4 per cent in October.
The same numbers are 4.5 per cent and 5.4 per cent for rural India. Significantly, growth in the fuel and light segment of the CPI slowed for the third consecutive month to 5.3 per cent from 5.8 per cent two months ago. Inflation in clothing and footwear, at 5.6 per cent was at a multi-year low, lower than it has been for at least three and a half years.
Although CPI inflation has been accelerating lately, it is still within the Reserve Bank of India's com-fort zone of 6 per cent that it want-ed to achieve by January 2016.

Subir Gokarn appointed ED at IMF

Former Reserve Bank of India Deputy Governor Subir Gokarn was on Thursday appointed as an Executive Director on the board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
“The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved the proposal for appointment of Mr. Subir Gokaran, Economist as Executive Director representing the Indian Constituency (India, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Sri Lanka) at the International Monetary Fund vice Mr. Rakesh Mohan,” the government said in a release.
Mr. Gokarn's name was cleared by Appointments Committee of Cabinet headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, as per an order issued by the Department of Personnel and Training. He replaces Mr. Rakesh Mohan at the IMF.

:: Sports ::

India tastes victory, finally

India overcame great odds to emerge a 1-0 winner against Guam in Bengaluru, its first victory in six 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifiers (AFC second round). Not only were the Indians up against a higher-ranked team, they also had to compete for near-ly 45 minutes with only 10 men.
The home team, which claimed its first points in the competition, continued to stay at the bottom of Group D. Guam (seven points) was placed a rung higher. In a stunning opening sequence, India took the lead through Robin Singh in the 11th minute.
Goalkeeper Gurpreet Singh launched a long goal-kick and found skipper Sunil Chetri open on the flank. Chetri cut into the box before relaying the ball to Robin. The striker received the pass with his back to the goal, and spun around his marker to create some space. Though he shot of his weaker right-foot, the near-perfect curler nestled into the far top-corner.
Just before half-time, the Indians were dealt a big blow when defender Sehnaj Singh was sent of. A high tackle and a collision brought an instant red card from the referee, forcing coach Stephen Constantine to change his approach. The players fell back in open play, and apart from the lone forward upfront, the rest were called up to hold fort.