Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 15 December 2016

:: National ::

Upper house passed disabilities bill

The Rajya Sabha passed the Disabilities Bill with the list of ‘disabilities' expanded from seven to 21 and the quantum of reservation in-creased for people suffering from disabilities from three per cent to four per cent in government jobs.
In higher education institutions, the quota has been increased from three per cent to five percent.
The Rights of Persons with Disabilities Bill, 2014, also gives effect to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and related matters.
It provides for imprisonment ranging from six months to two years,along with a fine ranging from Rs. 10,000 to Rs. 5 lakh, for discriminating against differently abled persons.
If the Bill becomes a law, it will benefit millions. It recognises that persons with psychosocial and intellectual disabilities like autism and Down's Syndrome also have a right to education and employment.
In the Bill, disability has been defined based on an evolving and dynamic concept and the types of disabilities have been increased.
The disabilities in the expanded list include mental illness, autism spectrum disorder, cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy, and chronic neurological conditions.
The Bill strengthens the office of chief commissioner and state commissioners for persons with disabilities. They will act as regulatory bodies.

Apex court gave deadline to govt for combating child drug abuse

The Supreme Court gave the Centre a four-month deadline to formulate and adopt a comprehensive national plan to combat the rising menace of drug and alcohol abuse among children.
Bench of Chief Justice of India T.S. Thakur and Justices A.M. Khanwilkar and D.Y. Chandrachud ordered the Centre to complete within six months a national survey and generate a national data-base on substance abuse.
The judgment, authored by Justice Chandrachud, said the harmful effects of drugs, alcohol and tobacco abuse among children should bemade a specific content in the school curriculum under the aegis of the New Education Policy.
The verdict quotes from the Census 2011 that 24 crore children, constituting 24 per cent of the population of the country, are adolescent.
judgment came on a petition filed by NGO Bach-pan BachaoAndolanthat the funda-mental rights of children, especially those suffering from and involved in substance use and abuse, were violated due to non-compliance with the government's action planfor reduction in drug demand and supply.
The judgment quotes the sample study of the National Commission on Protection of Child Rights in August 2013 to show that the mean age of onset was lowest for tobacco at 12.3 years.
It is followed by onset of inhalants at 12.4, cannabis at 13.4 years, alcohol at 13.6, proceeding then to use of harder sub-stances like opium, heroin at 14.3-14.9 years and then finally substances through injecting route at 15.1 years.

Income tax raids conducted throughout the country

Enforcement agencies seized Rs. 9 crore in cash — over Rs. 2.5 crore of it in new notes — from business-men and touts in various parts of the country.
In a joint operation, the Delhi Police and the Income Tax Department seized Rs. 3.25 crore in demonetised currency from five persons staying at a Karol Bagh hotel.
The accused had placed spiral telephone and Inter-net connecting cables over the neatly packed wads of notes to evade detection by X-ray machines at railway stations and airports.
In another case, the Enforcement Directorate seized about Rs.2.2 crore from the premises of a cloth merchant, Inderpal Mahajan, in Chandigarh.
Of the total amount, Rs. 1.5 crore was in demonetised notes and over Rs. 69 lakh in new and older legal notes. While the local police have registered a case, the law enforcement agency has arrested the accused under
Income-Tax officials seized Rs. 2.89 crore from a north Bengaluru flat occupied by an elderly woman. The money is said to belong to one Manjunath, a business-man.
The Central Bureau of Investigation has also launched an investigation. In Goa, the department seized Rs. 67.98 lakh in new Rs. 2,000 notes from various persons.
The Karnataka and Goa wing of the Income- Tax Department has so far seized about Rs. 30 crore, including Rs. 20.22 crore in new notes, 41.6 kg of bullion and 14 kg of jewellery.
The Central Industrial Security Force, which guards major airports, has so far seized more than Rs. 70 crore in cash in both demonetised and new notes and over 245 kg of gold.
Close on the heels of a seizure of Rs. 1.04 crore in new denomination notes in Thane, the Pune police re-covered Rs. 67 lakh from a car in the city's Wakad area.

:: International ::

PepsiCo CEO becomes part of Donald Trump’s strategic and policy forum

Indian-American PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi has joined Donald Trump's Strategic and Policy Forum, a team that aims to assist him in implementing his economic agenda, the presidential transition team said.
Ms. Nooyi (61) is the only Indian-origin executive in the 19-member ‘Strategic and Policy Forum', which was first announced early this week.
Three new members were also announced in addition to the current 16. The other corporate bigwigs to join the forum are Uber CEO Travis Kalanick, and SpaceXand Tesla chairman Elon Musk.
The forum, composed of some of America's most highly respected and successful business leaders, will meet with the President frequently to share their specific experience and knowledge as he implements his economic agenda.
According to the presidential transition team, members of the forum will be charged with providing theirindividual views to Mr. Trump on how government policy impacts economic growth, job creation and productivity.
During the general election, Ms. Nooyi was a known supporter of Mr. Trump's Democratic rival Hillary Clinton. After Mr. Trump's victory, she had said that there was “serious concern” among many, including her daughters, about their safety in the U.S.

:: Business and Economy ::

After CPI now WPI also shows decline

Wholesale inflation slowed in November helped by subdued food prices. Inflation measured by the Wholesale Price Index (WPI) was 3.15 per cent, the slowest pace of price gains since June.
WPI inflation, which came in at 3.4 per cent in October, has now slowed for the third consecutive month. The slowdown in wholesale price gains coincides with a cooling of in retail inflation.
Also the rabi crop will be critical in driving future prices as the present cash crunch has slowed down the rabi sowing especially for wheat.
Inflation in the primary articles category of the WPI slowed to 1.25 per cent in November from 3.3 per cent in October. Within this, food articles inflation slowed to 1.4 per cent in November from 4.3 per cent in the previous month.
Non-food articles witnessed a contraction of 0.14 per cent in November from a growth of 1.13 per cent in October. Fuel and power segment, however, witnessed an acceleration in inflation in November to 7.1 per cent from 6.2 per cent in October.

Major ports to get full autonomy in decision making

The Union Cabinet approved the draft Major Port Authorities Bill, 2016 to replace the exist-ing Major Port Trusts Act, 1963 in a bid to empower 12 major ports to perform with greater efficiency on account of full autonomy in decision-making.
Under the proposed Bill, all PPP operators will be free to fix tariffs based on market conditions.
The Bill proposes to reduce the size of the board of the Port Authority from 17-19 to 11 members. The Ministry said a compact board with professional independent members will strengthen decision-making and strategicplanning.
The Board will include representatives of respective state governments, Railways Ministry, Defence Ministry and Department of Revenue along with a member representing employees of the Major Ports Authority.
The Board of the Port Authority has been allowed to fix the scale of rates for other port services and assets including land, the Ministry said.
The number of sections in the new Bill stand reduced to 65 from 134 in the Major Trusts Act of 1963.
An independent review Board has been proposed to carry out the “residual function of the erstwhile TAMP for major ports, to look into disputes between ports and PPP concessionaires, to re-view stressed PPP projects and suggest measures” to re-vive such projects.

S&P says demonetisation and GST would increase the tax base

Leading global rating agency S&P said that demonetisation and the GST could result in a wider tax base and greater participation in the formal economy, although disruption by demonetisation could spill over into FY2018.
This should benefit India's business climate and financial system in the long run.
However, it said, the shock of demonetisation would not be absorbed within the next few months and theeconomic disruption will spill over into fiscal 2018, and potentially coincide with the introduction of the GST.
The GST is expected to be implemented by September 2017.
India's corporates and banks are likely to face short-term downside risk as a de-monetisation-related cash crunch curbs the country's GDP growth, according to an article by S&P titled, ‘India's demonetisation and the GST: Short term pain for long term gain'.
S&P recently revised down its estimated economic growth rate for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2017, by one full percentage point, to 6.9 per cent, to reflect the disruption caused by demonetisation.