Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 14 February 2016

:: NATIONAL ::

India summoned U.S. Ambassador to the External Affairs ministry for F-16 sale

Angeredby a U.S. decision to sell eight more F-16 fighter jets to Pakistan, India summoned U.S. Ambassador Richard Varma to the External Affairs Ministry to express “displeasure” with the deal.
At the nearly 45-minute meeting, Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar told Mr. Varma that India was not only disappointed but also upset that its protests over the past year on the issue had gone unheeded.
The Pentagon conveyed to the U.S. Congress the decision to sell the planes in a $699.04-million deal, and the U.S. government announced the sale.
Rejecting the State Department’s contention that the sale was in the U.S.’s “vital national security interests” as it helped Pakistan fight terror groups, the Ministry said, “We disagree with their rationale that such arms transfers help combat terrorism. The record of the last many years in this regard speaks for itself.”
India believes the sale will only strengthen Pakistan’s ability to threaten India.
The U.S. move is a setback to India’s hopes that given the mounting evidence of Pakistani agencies’ continuing support to anti-India groups, the U.S. would rethink its arms sales to that country.
In the past week, many in the government had hoped the details of the deposition in aMumbai court by the 26/11 planner David Headley would remind the U.S. of the links of Pakistan’s ISI with these groups.
The U.S. announcement has come at an inconvenient time, when India is hoping to extract action from Pakistan on the Pathankot terror attacks.

Make in India week started in Mumbai

Showcasing India as a land of immense opportunities, Prime Minister Narendra Modi told representatives from 68 countries participating in the Make in India Week that India was blessed with Democracy, Demography, and Demand.
His government had added Deregulation making it a four-dimensional India waiting for foreign investment and manufacturing companies.
Spelling out the potential of the market before foreign investors, Mr. Modi said, “50 of our cities are ready for setting up metro rail systems.
We have to build 50 million houses. The requirement of road, rail, waterways is enormous. There is no time for incremental changes. We want a quantum jump.”
The Prime Minister said helaid great emphasis on zero defect and zero effect manufacturing.
India place high emphasis on energy efficiency, water re- cycling, waste to energy, clean India and river cleaning.
These initiatives are directed at improving quality of life in cities and villages. These initiatives provide youadditional avenues for investment in technologies, services and human resources.

Government to initiate a nation-wide consultation process for S&T policy

President Pranab Mukherjee said that the government would soon initiate a nationwide consultation process for framing India’s first ‘publicly accessible’ Science and Technology policy and emphasised the need for consistent encouragement for youth to pursue research and innovations in their chosen fields.
The new science and technology policy, called Vision S&T 2020, would articulate the country’s future towards technological independence and self-reliance in the 21st Century.
The President said, indicating that it would supercede the Science, Technology and Innovation Policy initiated by the government in 2013.
Committing to continue investment in basic sciences, Mr. Mukherjee said science must be used to transform our society, citing the example of technological advancements that could help reach banking.
Stressing that science and technology was a priority for India from the early days of Independence.

:: INTERNATIONAL ::

Pope Francis first pontiff to meet Russian Orthodox Church

Pope Francis became the first pontiff to ever meet a patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church, as the two Christian leaders set aside centuries of division in a historic encounter.
The meeting was richly symbolic: Pope Francis, lead- er of the world’s 1.2 billion Ro- man Catholics, stood with Patriarch Kirill, leader of the largest church in the Eastern Orthodox world, with an estimated 150 million followers.
But it was also about geopolitics, rivalries among Orthodox leaders and, analysts say, the manoeuvrings of President Vladimir Putin of Russia — who is closely aligned with the conservative Russian church.
For Pope Francis, the meeting was an ecumenical and diplomatic coup that eluded his predecessors but that also opened him to criticism that his embrace of the Russian patriarch would indirectly give a boost to Mr. Putin as hewages a war in Syria and continues to meddle in Ukraine.

Violence in eastern Ukraine may start new Cold War

Violence in eastern Ukraine is intensifying and Russian-backed rebels have moved heavy weaponry back to the front line, international monitors warned as Moscow responded by accusing Kiev of violating a peace deal.
In the latest sign that peace efforts have made scant progress almost two years since Moscow annexed Crimea, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev described East- West relations as having “fall- en into a new Cold War” and said NATO was “hostile and closed” towards Russia.
Implementation of a deal agreed in Minsk a year ago, which would allow for the lifting of sanctions on Russia, and a lull in violence late last year raised hopes that the conflict that has killed more than 9,000 people could be resolved quickly.

:: BUSINESS and ECONOMY ::

RBI to still guard the inflation

Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan may have raised a quiet toast with his colleagues on Friday evening after retail inflation data showed the central bank had met its January 2016 target of slowing the price gains to under 6 per cent.
The satisfaction would be understandable given that the RBI had less than a year ago — at the end of February 2015 — entered into a historic agreement with the government on an inflation targeting monetary framework with clear and specified goals and timelines.
The first target of limiting retail inflation to 6 per cent or below by January 2016 has now been met, with the government reporting CPI data that showed the headline number at 5.59 per cent.
While the reading is a 17- month high, it has slowed considerably from the 11.15per cent recorded in November 2013.
It’s the journey ahead to the next milestone of 5 per cent by March 2017 which is likely to challenge monetary policy makers.
The target agreed by the government and the central bank is for inflation of 4 per cent, with a band of plus or minus 2 per cent. There are several factorsthat could contribute to roiling the RBI's inflation targeting plans.

Public and private banks will face serious competition from mew entrants

Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan told public and private sector banks to prepare for serious competition from new entrants and small banks as he assured them that the turbulence in the domestic financial market would end sooner than, later offering tremendous growth opportunities.
Competition was needed for new solutions to emerge and to cut cost of transactions.
However, new products and technology should be used initially in a measured manner, he said, reiterating that he would cross the river feeling the stones, one stone at a time.
The Reserve Bank was in the process of strengthening the public sector banks. Oneof the measures was to strengthen the boards governing the banks. New board members would be brought in through a transparent process.
Universal banking licences would be reopened soon, he said, but pointed out that small banks would connect better with those requiring smaller loans where “character banking” would merge with new technological tools to aggregate information and make decisions on that basis.
The RBI has also initiated three major steps to improve transactions.
These include aunified payment interface which would be facilitated by an e-mail-like identity of the persons involved; trade receivables exchanges, which would bridge the gap between payment by a company to a manufacturer.

:: Sports ::

India beats Pakistan in Kabaddi

India edged Pakistan by a solitary point in the concluding round-robin match of men’s kabaddi here at the R.G. Barua Sports Complex.
The slender win helped India top the league standings for a place in the semifinals, where it will take on Bangladesh.
The Indian men had earlier dominated Bangladesh beating them by 30-17 margin.
The other semifinal will feature Pakistan against Sri Lanka.