Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 16 February 2016

:: NATIONAL ::

After HC Judge stays his transfer, Supreme Court freezes his functions

The judicial hierarchy turned turtle when Justice C. S. Karnan of the Madras High Court ‘stayed’ the Chief Justice of India’s proposal to transfer him to the Calcutta High Court.
It forced the Supreme Court to authorise a freeze on his functions as a judge.
In an unprecedented development which threatened institutional esteem, a Bench of Justice J.S. Khehar and Justice R. Banumathi was informed by the Madras High Court that its sitting judge, Justice Karnan, has passed a “suomotu judicial order” ‘staying’ the Chief Justice ofIndia’s recommendation to transfer him.
The High Court judge stayed any move to transfer him to Kolkata, asking the CJI not to “interfere in my jurisdiction, as I am in the process of finalising an order on merits.”
He even suggests to Chief Justice Thakur to look up the Second Judges case law of 1993 delivered by a nine-judge Constitution Bench.
The 1993 case law had said that judges should be transferred “only in ‘public interest’ i.e. for promoting better administration of justice throughout the country.”

Supreme Court wants Parliament to decide the legality of passive euthanasia

The Supreme Court said Parliament or the “people's court” should be the final judge to decide the legality of passive euthanasia and “Living Will”.
The Centre agreed with the apex court and illustrated the complexity of medically taking a person's life by pointing at how Formula One legend Michael Schumacher is “being kept alive for years on the hope he will wake up from his coma oneday”.
A Constitution Bench, said it will wait till July 20 with the “unwritten hope” that the government or Parliament will finalise a law on passive euthanasia.
The act of withdrawing medical treatment with deliberate intention of causing the death of a terminally-ill patient.
On legalising the ‘Living Will’ — an advance directive to physicians for end-of-life medical care — the Bench asked whether the concept was fundamentally against aperson's instinctive urge to live.
It asked whether such a person should be given every minute chance to recover without alien intervention.

Mysuru gets top position in Swachh Bharat Ranking

Mysuru city in Karnataka retained the top position in Swachh Bharat Rankings for 2015 that were released by the Ministry of Urban Development.
Compared to the 2014 rankings, Chandigarh has replaced Tiruchirapalli of Tamil Nadu in the second rank while Dhanbad of Jharkhand is reeling at the 73rd slot, the lowest rank.
Urban development minister said that the survey was “more participatory and evidence based” as all the featured cities were informed two months in advance about the methodology.
In a year-long survey, the researchers studied 476 first-tier cities with two parameters: one, how ‘minimal’ opendefecation was in the city; two, how robust the municipalities were with the solid waste management system.
Launched in October 2014 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Swachh Bharat Mission is the flagship sanitation programme of the National Democratic Alliance government, which aims to bridge the gap between sewerage and solid waste management and construct several million toilets in the urban centres.
With a Central funding of Rs.14,623 crore, the government aims to build 1.4 crore household toilets, 2.5 lakh community toilets and 2.6 lakh public toilets by 2019.

The oldest operational aircraft carrier INS Viraat to be decommissioned

In what is probably her last port of call, INS Viraat, the oldest operational aircraft carrier in the world, dropped anchor in Chennai.
Commissioned as HMS Hermes as part of the Royal Navy, she was in the thick of action during the Falklands campaign in 1982.
After serving the United Kingdom for almost 28 years since 1959, the carrier was inducted into the Indian Navyas INS Viraat in 1987.

Supreme Court dismisses plea for bringing pending cases under RTI

Fifteen years after its verdict that the confidence of litigants would be shaken if judgments were kept pending for years, the Supreme Court dismissed a plea to maintain the data on its pending judgments and make the information public under the Right to Information (RTI) Act.
The court’s refusal to be made accountable under the RTI Act is despite the decision of the Central Information Commission (CIC) to disclose the number of pend- ing or “reserved” judgments.
The Commission’s decision was upheld by a single judge of the Delhi High Court in a case in which the Supreme Court itself was an opposing party.
The CIC had directed the Supreme Court to maintain its record in such a manner that RTI applicants could beinformed of the number of its “reserved judgments”.
“We are of the view that the total number of such cases in which orders are reserved should be duly intimated to the public.” Said CIC.
“Now that the benefit of computerisation is available, placing such data in the public domain should not be particularly difficult,” the CIC had said.

:: INTERNATIONAL ::

Indian Ocean is core to Maritime Silk Road project

A military base in Djibouti along with major port development projects in Myanmar and Sri Lanka are defining the contours of China’s Maritime Silk Road—an oceanic connectivity project, of which, the Indian Ocean is the core.
Reuters is quoting Ismail Omar Guelleh, Djibouti’s President, as saying that Chi- na will soon commence work on the naval base.
The Horn of Africa nation is strategically located on the junction of the Indian Ocean and he Red Sea—a gateway to the Suez Canal via the Strait of BabAl-Mandab.
Djibouti would become an ideal location for securing sea lanes, in the vicinity, which radiate from this area towards Africa’s Indian Ocean coastline and the Arabian Sea.
China has also quietly signed a deal to develop an Industrial Park and a deep water port in Kyaukphyu in Myanmar.
The facility in the Bay of Bengal amplifies Beijing’s pitch to deepen its stakes in Myanmar in order to lower its dependence on the Straits of Malacca—a strategic commercial channel, dominated by the U.S. sixth fleet.
Xinhua has reported that a consortium led by the China International Trust and In- vestment Corporation (CITIC), a construction company, has won the bid towards the end of last year to develop the two projects.
The deep sea enterprise includes development of 10 berths at the Maday Island Terminal and the Yanbye Island Terminal.
It will be completed in four phases spanning a period of 20 years.
Maday Island has already emerged as a major pillar of China’s energy security. Last year, a pipeline from the island transited oil sourced mainly from West Asia and Africa to China’s Yunnan province, thus avoiding the “Malacca trap”.

Nepal PM on maiden visit to India

Nepal Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli said his maiden visit to India this week is aimed at bringing bilateral ties back on track by clearing “misunderstandings” even as he defended the new Constitution, opposed by Madhesis, as “inclusive and democratic”.
Mr. Oli’s much-anticipated visit to India at the invitation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi comes days after agitating Madhesis, largely of Indian-origin, ended their crippling protests and blockade that had soured the bilateral ties.
The year 2015 remained a landmark in our history as we were able to promulgate the new Constitution despite the hardship facing the people due to the five-month-long blockade in the country’s southern border, even after suffering from the devastating earthquake that hit the country 10 months ago.
The new Constitution promulgated on September 20, 2015 was inclusive and democratic as it has all the features of a democratic Constitution including guarantee of human rights, independent judiciary, social justice and equality.

:: BUSINESS and ECONOMY ::

RBI governor says there is no need for currency devaluation

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the government don’t favour undervaluation of the exchange rate as a means to spur economic growth
“There are those who argue that in countries such as China, Japan and Korea business enterprises grew via an undervalued exchange rate.
However there are a lot of problems with undervaluing the exchange rate and some of these problems are reflected in the economic condition that these countries find themselves in today.
sustained undervaluation over a long period of time is not a feasible or desirable strategy. Which is why the RBI’s philosophy of not focusing on the level of exchange rate and trying to manipulate it up or manipulate it down but trying instead to minimise situations of extreme volatility and intervening in situations when the exchange rate becomes extremely volatile in either direction is the right one.
The Indian rupee is one of Asia’s worst performing currencies against the U.S. dollar this yearamid renewed concern about the health of the world economy and dwindling investor confidence
The advantage to Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) should come from their capabilities, cost-effectiveness and innovative ideas rather than from undervaluation.
MSMEs can act as a means of social empowerment where disadvantageous sections of society can be empowered with money and wealth
Lack of infrastructure and logistics, lack of access to marketing, difficulty and the expense in acquiring land and financing are some of the impediments faced by MSMEs.
Kerala, with its literacy rate and educational achievements, is quite capable of triggering a revolution on the MSME front

National capital goods policy introduced

The government introduced a National Capital Goods Policy to spur capital goods sector and the Make in India initiative.
Heavy Industry and Public Enterprisewas part of the government’s commitment to turn the country into a world class hub for capital goods.
The objective of the policy was to increase production of capital goods from Rs. 2.30 lakh crore in 2014-15 to Rs. 7.50 lakh crore in 2025 and raising direct and indirect employment from the current 8.4 million to 30 million
The policy envisages making India a net exporter of capital goods and aims at facilitating improvement in technology across sub-sectors, increasing skill availability, ensuring mandatory standards and promoting growth and capacity building of MSMEs.
Some of the key issues addressed include availability offinance, raw material, innovation and technology, productivity, quality and environment-friendly manufacturing practices, promoting exports and creating domestic demand.
The key policy recommendations include strengthen- ing the existing scheme of the DHI (Department of Heavy Industry) on enhancement of competitiveness of capital goods sector by increasing budgetary allocation and increasing its scope to further boost global competitiveness in various sub sectors and enhancing export of Indian made capital goods through a ‘Heavy Industry Export and Market Development Assistance Scheme (HIEMDA)’.
It has also made provision for introducing a Technology Development Fund, upgrading existing and setting up a new testing and certification facility, making standards mandatory in order to reduce sub-standard machine imports and at the same time providing opportunity to local manufacturing units by utilising their installed capacity and unveiling scheme for skill development for capital goods sector.

Exports shrink for 14th straight month in January

Merchandise exports fell for the 14th consecutive month with shipments in January, 2016 contracting 13.6 per cent year-on-year to $21 billion due to weak overseas demand as well as fall in major export items such as engineering goods and petroleum products.
Imports also fell during the month by 11 per cent to $28.7 billion, resulting in the trade deficit narrowing to an 11- month low of $7.6 billion.
The trade deficit would have been lower had the gold imports not recorded an 85.16 per cent increase in January to $2.91 billion.
The growth in exports have fallen for U.S.A. (-10.51%), European Union (-9.48%) and China (-7.01%) for November 2015 over the corresponding period previous year as per WTO statistics
Seventeen of the 30 export sectors recorded a negativegrowth in January. These included major sectors such as engineering goods (-27.6 per cent to $4.98 billion), ready- made garments (-6.1 per cent to $1.4 billion) and petroleum products (-35.1 per cent to $1.9 billion). Non-petroleum ex- ports in January 2016 fell 10.55 per cent to $19.1 billion
Reflecting the fall in global oil prices, oil imports in January 2016 were 39 per cent low- er year-on-year at $5 billion. However, non-oil imports during January, 2016 were only 1.4 per cent lower at $23.7 billion.
The net export of services for April-December, 2015-16 was estimated at $54.8 billion, lower than $56.5 billion during April-December 2014-15.

:: SPORTS ::

India going firm in South Asian Games

The Indian victories in both the categories came in contrasting fashion as the men had to put their best foot forward against Pakistan, before winning the close encounter at 9-7, while the women’s team hardly had to break sweat en route to an easy 36-11 victory over Bangladesh.
India, made a clean sweep in the men’s boxing event bagging all the seven gold medalson offer
Nepal made a fine comeback in the second half to beat host India 2-1 in the final of the men’s football at the Indira Gandhi Stadium. The win saw Nepal reclaiming the South Asian Games gold after 23 years.
Kamala found her touch in the crucial match by scoring a brace as India scripted a convincing 4-0 win over Nepal in the women’s football final.