Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 16 August 2017

::National::

PM outlines his idea for a New India

• In his shortest Independence Day address yet, Prime Minister sketched out the broad contours of his idea of a “New India” as one that was free of communalism, casteism, terrorism, corruption and nepotism, and also one that would require the citizens to do their bit to create it.
• Making special mention of the fact that those born in the new millennium, in the year 2000, will be turning 18 next year.
• He underlined the fact that just as the period between 1942-47 was a decisive one for India’s struggle for independence and demonstration of a firm collective will for change, so too should the period of 2017-22 be for creating a “New India” with the same collective will.
• The Prime Minister said communalism had no space in this conception of New India. “Violence in the name of faith is not something to be happy about, it will not be accepted in India.
• The sentiment in India should be Bharat jodo ,” he said, adding that the status quoist “ chaltahai ” attitude should be shunned.
• Early on in his speech, he spoke about the death of over 30 children at a government hospital in Gorakhpur, reportedly due to a shortage of oxygen cylinders.
• Corruption and the steps taken by his government to deal with it were highlighted by Mr. Modi. He returned to the theme three times in his 56-minute speech.

Home Ministry to give power to Assam and Manipur to decide on AFSPA

• The Union Home Ministry is set to give up its power to impose the ‘disturbed areas’ tag on Assam and Manipur, both ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party.
• The move effectively means that it will be the States’ decision to either continue the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA) or revoke it.
• As per Section 3 of the AFSPA, it can be invoked in places where “the use of armed forces in aid of the civil power is necessary.”
• It would be the first time since 1990 — when the AFSPA was first invoked in Assam — that the Centre would give up its power to continue or discontinue it.
• The AFSPA empowers the Army and Central forces deployed in “disturbed areas” to kill anyone breaking the law and arrest and search any premises without warrantand shield the forces from prosecution.

PM Modi and US President reviewed the progress of initiatives

• President Donald Trump and Prime Minister reviewed the progress of a series of bilateral initiatives kicked off during the latter’s visit to the U.S. capital in the last week of June.
• The appraisal came during a call from Mr. Trump on the occasion of India’s 70th independence.
• Crude and natural gas shipments to India from the U.S. are a new thrust area of bilateral cooperation, and the first shipment of American crude for India will leave from Texas this week.
• The Trump administration has been ratcheting up pressure on China to weigh down more heavily on North Korea to stop its nuclear plans.
• The administration has also announced this week a review of Chinese practices that are harmful to American high-tech industries.
• The White House said Mr. Trump called Mr. Modi to “congratulate the 1.2 billion citizens of India, who will celebrate 70 years of freedom and independence on August 15”.
• The Summit is taking place in Hyderabad. “President Trump further welcomed the first ever shipment of American crude oil to India, which will occur from Texas this month, pledging that the U.S. would continue to be a reliable, long-term supplier of energy,” the statement said.

::India and World::

India to host review meeting of TAPI gas pipeline

• India will host the next steering committee meeting of the proposed 1,814 kilometre-long Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline, senior officials on both sides confirmed.
• The decision was came during the sixth joint Inter-Governmental Committee (IGC) meeting on trade, economic, scientific and technological cooperation.
• The meeting was followed by a meeting between visiting Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Turkmenistan Rashid Meredov and Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan.
• Mr. Pradhan said India’s commitment to TAPI — first proposed in 1995 — “remains strong”, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi had made the proposal to hold the TAPI steering committee meet in Delhi, which he has now accepted.
• India’s effort is to tap Turkmenistan’s Galkynyshgasfields, which are the fourth largest in the world.

::International::

British government wants to remain part of the European Union customs union

• The British government wants to remain part of the European Union customs union for a number of years, as part of transition arrangements, while still being able to negotiate trade deals with countries such as India.
• A government paper published on Tuesday set out its ambitions around future relations with the customs union — the EU’s tariff-free trading area — one of the trickiest issues in negotiations over Britain’s exit from the EU.
• The report also outlines Britain’s ambitions for an interim arrangement: a time-limited customs based on shared external tariffs and without customs processes and duties between Britain and the EU.
• It will also push for Britain to be able to begin negotiations with new trade partners, something that members of the customs union are not able to do.The proposals were welcomed by business, albeit with caution.
• The European Commission also made clear that its focus remained on settling outstanding issues on Brexit, before it could begin to discuss future relations.

::Business and Economy::

eBiz portal project is still struggling to become fully operational

• The ambitious eBiz portal project unveiled by the Centre in 2013 to serve as an online, single-window entry point for investors looking to set up a business anywhere in the country, is still struggling to become fully operational.
• Even services that were available on the portal, such as registrations with the Corporate Affairs Ministry and the Employees’ Provident Fund, have been ‘impacted’ due to technical issues.
• While State governments have not come on board for critical components of the eBiz project, technical glitches have arisen in the plan to integrate all clearances onto a single system owing to government departments opting for different technology platforms.
• Such changes, the DIPP has pointed out, require additional efforts to resolve technology migration issues and the ‘limited availability of technical resources’ at individual departments causes delays in integration with the National eGovernance Service Delivery Gateway.
• Testing the integration of individual services with the eBiz portal also added to delays, the DIPP told the parliamentary standing committee on commerce, citing ‘dependency on multiple stakeholders’ such as NSDG, banks and state treasuries.
• The DIPP said it had ‘taken up the matter at appropriate levels in partner departments to take necessary measures in speeding up integration with the portal.’
• The Parliamentary panel had questioned how ‘pilot’ States such as Haryana, Maharashtra, T.N., Punjab, Rajasthan and U.P. had not given approvals to the CAF initiative.

Transactions through point-of-sale terminals have risen post Demonetisation

• Six months after the demonetisation exercise got over, cash withdrawals from automated teller machines have been steadily rising, latest data released by Reserve Bank of India shows.
• At the same time, transactions through point-of-sale terminals have also risen, the data revealed.
• According to the data, cash withdrawals from ATMs were more than Rs. 2.22 lakh crore in June 2017, as compared to Rs. 2.54 lakh crore recorded in October 2016 — the month before the high-value notes were withdrawn.
• The demonetisation exercise began in November and ended in December, when the deposit window was closed.Cash withdrawals from ATMs halved in November 2016 as compared with October, coming down further in December.
• Cash withdrawals are going up as more than 82% of the currency has been remonetised. RBI Deputy Governor Viral Acharya had recently said “the currency in circulation is showing early signs of normalisation.”
• While cash withdrawals from ATMs have gone up, so have debit card transactions at the point of sale (PoS) terminals. RBI data showed that in June, debit card transactions in PoS terminals stood at Rs. 37,524 crore as compared with Rs. 21,941 crore in October.
• The number of debit cards in the system has also gone up in the period — from 739.28 million in October to 793.28 million in June.
• Though PoS transactions have shown a somewhat steady rise recently, they are lower than the Rs. 58,031 crore attained in December.
• Mobile banking transactions also received a boost following demonetisation, rising from Rs. 1.14 lakh crore in October to Rs. 2.13 lakh crore in May before coming down to Rs. 1.81 lakh crore in June.
• Similarly, mobile wallet transactions increased from Rs. 3,385 crore to Rs. 5,350 crore between October and June, RBI data showed.

Public sector banks have reported a 20% jump in the outstanding loans

• Public sector banks have reported a 20% jump in the outstanding loans by almost 9,000 wilful defaulters who collectively owed to lenders more than Rs. 92,000 crore at the end of March this year.
• The outstanding loans by wilful defaulters rose to Rs. 92,376 crore at the end of financial year 2016-17, as against Rs. 76,685 crore at the end of March 2016, registering a jump of 20.4%.
• At the same time, there has been close to 10% increase in number of wilful defaulters on annual basis.
• The number of wilful defaulters increased to 8,915 at the end of March, from 8,167 in the previous fiscal, according to data collated by the Finance Ministry.
• Out of 8,915 cases of wilful defaults, banks have filed FIR in 1,914 cases with outstanding loans of Rs. 32,484 crore.
• During 2016-17, 27 public sector banks, including SBI and its five associates had written off Rs. 81,683 crore, the highest in the last five fiscals. The amount was 41% higher than that in the previous fiscal.
• SBI and its erstwhile associates alone had written off Rs. 27,574 crore non-performing assets (NPAs) in 2016-17, according to the RBI data on “write offs” done by public sector banks.
• Gross NPAs of public sector banks rose to Rs. 6.41 lakh crore at the end of March 2017, from Rs. 5.02 lakh crore.

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