Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 14 February 2017

:: National ::

Justice Karnan remain defaint to SC orders

After briefly toying with options like issuing a bailable warrant, SC decided to wait another three weeks for sitting Calcutta High Court judge, C.S. Karnan, to explain his defiance of a judicial direction to be present in court.
A seven-judge Bench led by Chief Justice of India J.S. Khehar said Justice Karnan had not indicated any reason for his non-appearance in a letter he wrote to the Registrar General of the Supreme Court on February 10.
Attorney-General Mukul Rohatgi advised the Bench to formally frame criminal contempt charge against Justice Karnan.
Referring to Justice Karnan’s February 10 letter, which made disparaging remarks about the judiciary, Mr. Rohatgi said show cause notice should now be issued on charge that it was “calculated to lower the dignity of the judicial institution.”
But Chief Justice Khehar sought to tread with caution. “For the time being, we will defer the proceedings. Consequences are great. We will ask him some questions and let him respond to these questions. Then we will proceed.”

Manipur blockade to continue for some more time

The economic blockade in Manipur, which has led to a shortage of essential commodities in the State, is likely to continue indefinitely as the tripartite talks among the Centre, the Naga groups and the Manipur government failed.
On February 3, the Centre claimed a breakthrough in ending the blockade, which has cut off the State from the rest of India following the indefinite strike called by the United Naga Council (UNC) and the blockade of national highways.
On February 3, the first rounds of the tripartite talks were held in Delhi and the Centre said then that “substantial progress” was made.
The UNC was represented by its president, Gaidon Kamei, who were brought from an Imphal jail to Delhi to attend the talks at North Block. Both Mr. Kamei and Mr. Stephen were arrested last November last year.
The economic blockade imposed by the UNC, a conglomerate of Naga bodies against the State government’s decision to carve out seven new districts, has been on for over four months now.
The UNC operates under the patronage of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (Isak-Muivah), with which the Government of India signed a framework agreement in 2015 to find a solution to the decades-old Naga issue.
Manipur goes to the polls on March 4 and 8 and due to the ongoing blockade, it has been kept in the most sensitive category.

Karnataka passed the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Bill, 2017

Paving the way for the conduct of kambala, traditional buffalo race, the Karnataka Legislative Assembly passed the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Karnataka Amendment) Bill, 2017.
The Bill seeks to exempt kambala and bullock-cart racing from the ambit of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (PCA) Act, 1960. Kambala is currently stayed by the High Court following a petition by the PETA.
Thousands in the coastal districts of Dakshina Kannada and Udupi, where kambala is widely held, had protested the ban. They argued that the annual kambala races in paddy fields were part of their tradition.
The sport did not torture animals, they said. The movement gathered momentum after the jallikattu agitation in the neighbouring Tamil Nadu.
PETA said the inspection reports contained a scientific assessment of the welfare of buffaloes that were forced to participate in such events, including evidence of different forms of cruelty inflicted on the animals.

The Jammu and Kashmir government launched the e-Prison project

The Jammu and Kashmir government launched the e-Prison project to enumerate jail inmates in the State, where numbers of detainees keep swelling during unrest.
The information about jail inmates is currently being maintained manually. To avoid delays in processing the information and manage all the jails efficiently, the automation of prison department has been started.
The government has already digitised records of 500 inmates. The project will digitise 25 district jails, two Central jails and one sub-jail in the State.
The second phase of the project will focus on videoconferencing between jails and prison headquarters, e-court, tele-medication in jails.

:: International ::

UN condemned North Korea’s latest ballistic missile test

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres condemned North Korea’s latest ballistic missile test and called for a united international response to the “further troubling violation” of UN resolutions.
His statement came ahead of an urgent UN Security Council meeting called to discuss missile test — nuclear-armed North Korea’s first since U.S. President Donald Trump assumed office.
The North’s leader Kim Jong-Un “expressed great satisfaction over the possession of another powerful nuclear attack means which adds to the tremendous might of the country”.
Permanent UN Security Council members China and Russia joined a chorus of international criticism of the launch near the western city of Kusong.
China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said it opposes North Korean missile launches that violate UN resolutions.

Human Rights Watch says chemical gases used in Aleppo

Syrian government forces carried out at least eight chemical attacks during the final weeks of the battle for Aleppo, killing nine people, among them four children, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said.
The rights group said it interviewed witnesses, collected photos and reviewed video footage indicating that chlorine bombs were dropped from government helicopters during the offensive from November 17 to December 13.
Around 200 people were injured by the toxic gases used on opposition-controlled areas of the northern city, according to HRW.
The actual number of chemical attacks could be higher, said the group, adding that journalists, medical personnel and other credible sources had reported at least 12 attacks in that period.
The use of chlorine gas as a weapon is banned under the Chemical Weapons Convention, which Syria joined in 2013 under pressure from Russia.

:: Business and Economy ::

Centre puts the ball in states court for factories act amendment

With labour law reforms back on the Centre’s agenda, fresh discussions begin with trade unions to push through a long-pending overhaul of the Factories Act of 1948.
However, the Labour Ministry has tweaked its draft amendments to put the ball on contentious issues in the domain of State governments.
Instead of increasing the threshold limit set for the number of workers in an industrial unit to be statutorily covered by the factories law.
Centre is now proposing an enabling provision that lets State governments decide the threshold over which a unit will be considered a factory for the purpose of the law.
Earlier, the Centre had proposed that the Factories Law be applicable to all factories that employ at least 40 workers – a move that was strongly opposed by the central trade unions.
The present Factories Act 1948 applies to establishments with 10 or more workers, if the premise is using power and to establishments with 20 or more workers, without electricity connection.
Factories with less than 40 workers were to be covered under a new law for small factories. However, the fate of the proposed Small Factories Bill, 2015 is unclear as the Labour Ministry note has no mention about the proposed law.

Retail inflation eased in January

Retail inflation eased in January to 3.17% on the back of a sharp slowdown in food price inflation.
Growth in the consumer price index (CPI) slowed from the 3.4% seen in December 2016, extending the streak of easing retail inflation to six months.
The food and beverages category registered an inflation rate of 1.3% in January, down from the 2% witnessed in December 2016. Food price gains have also been easing for six consecutive months.
Inflation in the fuel and light segment slowed to 3.4% in January from 3.7%, while the housing segment saw inflation quicken marginally to 5.02% from 4.98% over the same period.
The curious part of this inflation rate is that the non-food components have shown higher price increases such as pan, intoxicants (6.4%), clothing and footwear (4.7%), housing (5.0%), fuel and light (3.4%).
“Higher global commodity prices will get ingrained in these components while food items will be unaffected.” “Also, as the economy is remonetised, some pent-up demand will have returned,” Crisil Research said.
The stickiness in core inflation despite continued decline in other parts of the index is a worry since wage-price negotiations based on a sticky core can potentially lift overall inflation.
According to Care Ratings, CPI inflation is expected to accelerate 3.5-3.6% in the next couple of months.

PSUs might sell power on exchanges without States’ nod’

Power Minister called for the “immediate” implementation of a policy allowing public sector power generators like NTPC to sell surplus power on exchanges without waiting for permission from the State governments.
“Can we have the policy implemented immediately, that if the State does not say ‘no’, then even NTPC should be allowed to sell surplus power on the exchange,” Mr. Goyal asked officials of his Ministry.
The Power Minister said that he doesn’t expect States to object to the policy because it would only benefit them by reducing the costs and losses to the States.
Mr. Goyal said that the decision to implement such a policy was made during the monsoon of last year.
Mr. Goyal also said that NTPC should not incur any more expenditure on the renovation of power plants older than 25 years. He said that he had already asked NTPC to replace 11,000 MW worth of plant capacity that is older than 25 years.
Mr. Goyal added that companies will incur only a nominal increase in their capital expenditure if they replace old plants with new ones with modern technology.