Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 15 August 2016

:: National ::

India and Pakistan exchanged salvos instead of the usual Independence Day greetings, with Pakistan High Commissioner Abdul Basit calling for Kashmir’s freedom and India terming Islamabad’s policies on Kashmir “illegal” and “absurd”.
The government responded sharply. Minister of State in the PMO Jitendra Singh said Pakistan should end its “illegal occupation” of PoK.
“Our stand is very clear in the context of the J&K issue. If at all there is any outstanding issue with Pakistan, it is how to liberate the part of J&K which remains under the illegal occupation of Islamabad,” he said.
His response came soon after the Ministry of External Affairs termed Pakistan’s offer to send relief material to Kashmir as “absurd”.

At a time when India and Pakistan are engaged in a ‘war of words’, President Pranab Mukherjee asserted that there would no stepping back on New Delhi’s “neighbourhood first policy”.
In his televised address to the nation, on the eve of the sixty-ninth anniversary of Independence, Mr. Mukherjee also spoke about the attacks on “weaker sections which is against Indian ethos’’, and said that they should be dealt with firmly.
While maintaining that during his four years in office he had seen with some disquiet forces of divisiveness and intolerance trying to raise their ugly head.
Mr. Mukherjee said close bonds of history, culture, civilisation and geography provide the people of South Asia with an extraordinary opportunity to carve out a common destiny and to march together towards prosperity.
“This opportunity must be seized without delay. India’s focus in foreign policy will remain on peaceful co-existence and harnessing technology and resources for its economic development.”

HavildarHangpan Dada, who died after killing three terrorists, has been awarded Ashok Chakra, while Lt. Col. Niranjan Ek who died during Pathankot operations, was awarded Shaurya Chakraby President Pranab Mukherjee.
In all, 82 Gallantry Awards have been awarded this year to armed forces personnel and members of paramilitary forces.
They include one Ashok Chakra, 14 Shaurya Chakras, 63 Sena Medals (Gallantry), two Nao Sena Medals (Gallantry) and two Vayu Sena Medals (Gallantry).
On May 26, 2016 as four heavily armed terrorists sneaked in across the Line of Control, Hav. Dada along with his team was tasked to chase and trap the fleeing terrorists.
Lt. Col. Niranjan Ek from the Corps of Engineers was with the NSG during the terrorist attack on the Pathankot airbase in January.
An improvised explosive device (IED) attached to the body of one of the slain terrorists accidentally went off killing him and injuring four others.
The President has also awarded 28 ‘Mention-in-Despatches’ to Army personnel for significant contributions in different military operations which include five for ‘Operation Meghdoot’, 22 for ‘Operation Rakshak’ and one for ‘Operation Rhino’.
The Coast Guard was awarded one President’s Tatrakshak Medal and five Tatrakshak Medals for displaying gallantry, distinguished and meritorious service.
These awards are being given to the personnel of the Coast Guard on Republic Day and Independence Day every year, since January 26, 1990, the Coast Guard said.

The Centre owes the States over Rs. 80,000 crore from its net proceeds of the period between 1996 and 2015, according to a Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report tabled in Parliament.
The revelation has the potential to significantly impact the finances of most States, because most of them could end up getting a few thousand crores each.
The report says that according to Article 279 of the Constitution, the CAG is “required to ascertain and certify the ‘net proceeds’ (any tax or duty the proceeds thereof reduced by the cost of collection), whose certification shall be final.”
The CAG report points out that in July 2000, the Finance Ministry requested for CAG certification of net proceeds of taxes afresh ante-dated from 1996-97 because of the 80{+t}{+h}constitutional amendment.
The amendment resulted from the recommendations of the 10{+t}{+h}Finance Commission for an alternative way of sharing proceeds of union taxes and duties between Centre and States.

China is set to launch the world’s first quantum communication satellite which boasts of hack-proof ultra high security features to prevent wiretapping and intercepts.
If the satellite works well, it will pave the way to a hack-proof communication system, state-run Xinhua news agency reported. It will launch the satellite in a matter of days.
In July 2015, a quantum-computing lab jointly established by Chinese Academy of Science and Chinese Internet giant Alibaba opened in Shanghai.

China will use the stricter enforcement of environmental standards as well as tougher credit controls to help fight against overcapacity in key industrial sectors, the government said.
The world's second-largest economy has identified overcapacity as one of its key challenges and it has already pledged mass closures in the steel and coal sectors, but it has so far fallen behind on its targets.
Govt would “normalize the stricter implementation and enforcement of mandatory standards” to tackle overcapacity in sectors such as steel.
Firms that fail to comply with new energy efficiency targets would be given six months to rectify and would be closed if they fail to make progress.

An IMF paper has raised question marks over the ability of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to target inflation through monetary measures.
It said the size of the formal financial sector is small in India and may undermine the effectiveness of interest rate changes on aggregate demand.
The IMF working paper assumes significance as the RBI has recently implemented an inflation-targeting regime that requires it to hit publicly announced targets for retail inflation, based on Consumer Price Index (CPI).
Under the new dispensation, RBI will be required to meet retail inflation target of 4 per cent, plus or minus two per cent over the next five years.
The interest rate from the next policy, due on October 4, will be decided by a six-member monetary policy committee (MPC) instead of the central bank governor.
It said that careful studies of the effectiveness of monetary transmission in low-income countries have often found monetary policy effects that are counterintuitive, weak or unreliable.

The Indian hopes of a tennis medal were dashed by the Czech Republic’s Radek Stepanek and Lucie Hradecka, even as Sania Mirza and Rohan Bopannatried their best to make a fight.
The bronze was a welcome medal Hradecka, who missed out in the women’s doubles this time after having won silver in the last edition with Andrea Hlavackova.
Sania and Bopanna were unable to lift their game at the crunch though they were superb in patches.
After the Indian pair had slid to 0-5, Bopanna managed a hold to avert a first-set bagel.
Sania served two double-faults in the 11th game and was broken after saving two breakpoints, leaving it to Hradecka to serve the match out.
The Czechs had one ace and four double-faults, to the two aces and six double-faults that India served up.
Stepanek and Hradecka converted five of 10 breakpoints while the Indian pair capitalised on two of four.