Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 15 December 2015

:: National ::

Very less chance that GST will go through in this session

Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Monday said the winter session of Parliament, which had started with much promise of a détente between the Government and the Opposition, was “threatened with a washout.”
He also said “The last session of Parliament did not function. The current session is also threatened with a washout. The reasons for the washout of the current session keep changing by the hour,”.
The Congress, which had appeared to be thawing on the GST issue at the beginning of the session, continued its aggressive stance against the government, from the day a Delhi court refused to exempt Congress president Sonia Gandhi and vice-president Rahul Gandhi from personal appearance in the National Herald case.

General B.K. Loshali sacked

Coast Guard Deputy Inspector General B.K. Loshali, who was facing an inquiry for publicly contradicting the government over the sinking of a Pakistani ship off the Gujarat coast on New Year’s Eve, has been dismissed.
He was dismissed after the Board of Inquiry found him guilty of all charges on Saturday. The inquiry was conducted by a panel of senior Deputy Inspector General (DIG) rank officers for over three months.

Uttar Pradesh still tense after comments from leaders

A fresh wave of tension has swept over western Uttar Pradesh following a series of mass protests by Muslims against alleged comments by Hindu Mahasabha leader Kamlesh Tiwari.
The spectacle of over a lakh of protesters demanding the hanging of the Hindutva activist for his objectionable statement against the Prophet, has provoked widespread anger and heightened tensions in the communally sensitive region.
Prominent farmers and political leaders of western U.P. who are seen as close to the BJP, have taken exception to the large protests.
Tiwari was arrested by the State police over a week back after his statement. He had made an “objectionable” statement in response to the SP leader Azam Khan calling RSS workers “homosexual”.

:: International ::

Silk Road Economic Belt will be the focus of SCO

The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) meeting is set to showcase growing alignment between China and Russia, through closer integration of the Beijing-marshalled Silk Road Economic Belt (SREB) with Moscow driven Eurasian Economic Union (EEAU), steered by a 10-year developmental plan.
Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang hosted a banquet for the heads of government from the SCO countries on Monday, setting the stage for a daylong session.
The meeting, in which Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Afghanistan’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Abdullah Abdullah are to participate, is expected to focus on top developmental goals for the grouping.
The SCO has so far been known for its sharp focus on security concerns. Kazakhstan, is also expected to attract considerable attention during the deliberations. India is being represented by Minister of State for External Affairs V.K. Singh.
Analysts point out that SCO is part of the emerging Eurasia-centred Silk Road geopolitical architecture pillared by China and Russia, along with the Central Asian Republics.
But the grouping is expanding rapidly towards South Asia, with the inclusion of India and Pakistan as full members remaining only a procedural formality.
Nepal has become an observer state, and Iran’s elevation to full membership is also under active consideration.

Natural disasters comes heavy on elderly

In India, the safety net, insurance against disaster is parivar — the Hindi word for family but means something more visceral. It encompasses everything from heirlooms to ancestors to actual living relatives who can/will help with emergency response.
In Chennai, however, the idea of parivar is transcontinental — it depends on Skype. And many other such fickle things, like electricity, telephone networks, internet connections, battery — all of which failed that day when Lt. Col. Venkatesan was drowning.
In India’s mega cities natural disasters are a near certain death warrant for the elderly. For the poor, across age groups this is true. But for the upper middle class families — the Chennai floods were a rude awakening. At last count, the total number of deaths stood at 540 as per police estimates.
With the State government yet to release the death toll, break-up of children and senior citizens the floods claimed, it is necessary to quibble with this number. Experts say the senior citizens are likely to constitute a significant chunk of the total deaths.
The floods exposed a fatal flaw in the administration: the complete lack of ward-level data on vulnerable populations, says Meenakshi Balasubramanian of Equals, Centre for Promotion of Social Justice.
According the National Health Profile, released by the Health Ministry last year, the elderly in India i.e. the population above 60 years comprise 8.6% of the population (103.8 million) and they are also a vulnerable section. Those above 75 years (20.52 million) are most vulnerable and almost 8% of the elderly population is bed-ridden or homebound.
According to census 2011, 10 per cent of Tamil Nadu’s population is above the age of 60 years — 4,64,122 people to be specific. By conservative estimates, as many as 5% of older individuals are living alone.

:: India and World ::

US supports good relationship between India and Pak

Revival of bilateral talks between India and Pakistan will not only benefit the two countries but also help establish security and stability in Afghanistan and across the region, says the United States of America.
India has very important role to play in security and stability in Afghanistan and across the region. Good relations between India and Pakistan will not only benefit the two countries but also the entire region.
Indians have suffered greatly at hands of terrorists. Many lives have been lost in terrorist attacks in Pakistan. We have seen increasing realisation and action by the Pakistan government to act against terrorist groups.
US continue to urge Pakistan to act against all terrorist networks that target Pakistani establishments or U.S. government or Indian government and its interests.

:: Business and Economy ::

India want a permanent solution on public stockholding

India wanted an agreement on a Special Safeguard Mechanism (SSM) and on a permanent solution on public stockholding for food security purposes.
SSM is a trade remedy which is important for developing countries as it will allow them to temporarily hike duties to counter sudden import surges and price falls of farm products due to the heavily subsidised agricultural imports from developed countries, it said.
India asked the G33 countries to stand united, and collectively send out a message that the Nairobi Ministerial Declaration should be balanced and cover all the elements of the Doha Development Agenda.

China urged G-20 member countries to pursue structural reforms

China, the host for the 2016 G20 meet and holder of the rotating presidency, urged member countries to pursue structural reforms to spur global economic growth even as the Asian giant’s economy slows. Macro-economic expansionary policies such as monetary easing remain a ‘temporary response’ to the global financial crisis of 2008.
G20 leaders had met at Antalya last month and resolved to persist with collective action to lift actual and potential growth of their economies and boost job creation.
The G20 summit mechanism for economic co-operation had evolved in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis.
Due to growing divergence in economic performance and policy priorities among major economies, we are seeing increasing difficulties in macro-economic policy co-ordination. The world economy calls for a new impetus.
China has questioned the significant rise in protectionist measures adopted by countries in trade and investment and the lack of movement on the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) Doha Development round of talks. G20 nations account for 80 per cent of global trade volumes.
China has proposed a new assessment system that focuses on aggregate impacts of the structural reform measures undertaken by G20 countries instead of focusing on the progress of implementation. This, it has argued, would provide a more objective and effective evaluation of reforms.

Rupee slips past 67 a dollar

Heightened uncertainties over an impending Fed rate hike dragged the Indian rupee past the 67-mark, a 27-month low against the greenback amid strong overseas sentiment.
The domestic unit resumed sharply lower at 67.09 a dollar from weekend’s close of 66.88 at the Interbank Foreign Exchange market on the back of frantic dollar demand and weakened further to 67.12 in mid-afternoon trade before ending at 67.09, revealing a fall of 21 paise, or 0.31 per cent.

Asset quality situation of banks assessed

The country’s top bankers met Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor, Raghuram Rajan, to appraise the RBI about their asset quality situation in the view of the deadline set by the central bank to clean up the lenders’ balance sheets.
During the monetary policy meeting, Mr Rajan said by March 2017 the banks’ balance sheet will be cleaned up. This means banks will have to make provisioning for bad loans.
Whenever they fall short RBI inspectors will rigorously comb the bank books to unearth hidden stress that were yet to be provided. Banks need to set aside capital for provisioning towards stressed assets.
Stressed assets as a percentage of gross advances moved up to 11.1 per cent as on March 2015.

:: Sports ::

Lahiri wins Asian Tour Order of Merit title

Anirban Lahiri on Monday become the fourth Indian to win the Asian Tour Order of Merit title.
He was declared the new Asia No. 1 for 2015, as his lead on the money list has swollen to over $600,000 with one event remaining in the season.

Sports Illustrated sportsperson

Serena Williams, who owned the tennis world this year even as she battled illness and injury, was named sportsperson of 2015 by Sports Illustrated on Monday.
The magazine said it was honouring the 34-year-old icon both for her positively stunning numbers and her pluck in achieving what it called one of the greatest late-career runs in the history of any sport.
Serena won three Majors, and was ranked No. 1 for every week of the season for the second straight year.
And for six weeks this season, she had twice as many ranking points as the world No. 2. The magazine said this was a first in the 40-year history of the WTA rankings.