Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 17 December 2016

:: National ::

NITI Aayog says by Jan 2017 cash situation will come back to normal

The cash crunch being faced by people due to the demonetisation of high-value currency notes could be resolved by the middle or end of January 2017, with about Rs. 12 lakh crore in cash returning to the system by then, NITI Aayog CEO.
Mr. Kant also mooted an eventual move by the govt to a transaction ecosystem where there is no cost associated with digital transactions and cash holdings could attract a cess.
Digital payments by debit or credit cards, for instance, attract a Merchant Discount Rate of 0.75 per cent to 1 per cent that has been waived as a temporary reprieve for cash-starved citizens.
Around Rs. 3.5 trillion of the Rs. 17 trillion in circulation before demonetisation was pure black money and the increase in digital trans-actions will reduce the needfor cash by about Rs. 2 trillion.
So the economy needs Rs. 11-12 trillion in cash to finance normal transactions. This will be back in the system by mid-January or maybe the end of January.
Separately, the government is working towards linking more and more bank accounts to Aadhaar as it looks to push UID-based payment systems.

Centre reduced its role in environmental clearances

Buildings and real estate projects, between 20,000 and 300,000 sq. metres, will no longer need to be assessed for their environmental impact, by the Centre.
From now on, States can integrate the clearance process of such projects into their building by-laws to streamline environmental clearance to a significant chunk of building projects.
While areas less than 20,000 sq metres only need a self-declaration, those between 5,000 to 20,000 sq. metres need to follow environmental norms during construction and maintenance phase.
A new category of consultants, called Qualified Building Environment Auditorsand empanelled by the Union environment ministry, would assess and certify building projects.
Local authorities would now have to compulsorily constitute an Environmental Cell to support appraisal, compliance and monitoring of building projects.
Projects would be evaluated on their energy use, especially renewable energy sources, waste water management, waste segregation and tree plantation and maintenance.

Both Houses passed disabilities bill

The Lok Sabha, passed the Disabilities Bill stipulating a jail term of up to two years and a maximum fine of Rs. 5 lakh for discriminating against differently-abled persons.
Despite the logjam in the Parliament, the bill was passed within two hours after a brief debate on the last day of the winter session.
A scheme of ' a universal identity card for the dis-abled' is on the anvil and an agency has already been finalised to issue them. The proposed card would also be linked to the Aadhar card to help the disabled all over the country in a seamless fashion.
The government has joined hands with German and British firms for making available state-of-the-art limbs for the disabled wherever possible.
Members from both sides supported the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Bill, 2016 but suggested certain changes to improve the measure.
The bill, which aims at se-curing and enhancing the rights and entitlements of disabled persons, also gives effect to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and related matters.
It provides for imprisonment of at least six months up to two years, along with a fine ranging between Rs. 10,000 and Rs. 5 lakh for discriminating against differently-abled persons.
The bill has in-creased the number of categories of disabled persons to 21. In the bill, disability has been defined based on an evolving and dynamic concept and the types of dis-abilities have been increased from existing seven to 21.
The Centre will have the power to add more types of disabilities to the list. The types of disabilities now include mental illness, autism spectrum disorder, cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy, chronic neurological conditions.

Aadhaar enabled payment system to be promoted by Govt

Govt said 99 per cent of the adult population had Aadhaar numbers at present, and moves were afoot to connect the rest of the bank ac-counts with the Aadhaar numbers.
The Minister said AEPS was required becausearound 30 crore people still did not have mobile/smart-phones and could not do on-line transactions or use mobile wallets or e-wallets at any point in time.
India had the digitisation infrastructure required to leverage the Jan Dhan-Aadhaar-Mobile (JAM) trinity, NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant said.
He stressed that if the country was to aspire to grow to a $10 trillion economy, it would have to be prepared for disruption.
In the next 6-7 months, every smartphone user will be able to make Aadhaar-based payments and even will allow each phone to act as an ATM using a device that can attach to the phone and scan finger-prints.

:: International ::

Chinese warship seized underwater US drone

A Chinese warship has seized an underwater drone deployed by a U.S. oceanographic vessel in the South China Sea, triggering a formal diplomatic protest and a demand for its return.
The incident, the first of its kind in recent memory, took place on December 15 about 50 nautical miles northwest of Subic Bay of the Philip-pines just as the USNS Bowditch, an oceanographic survey ship, was about to retrieve the unmanned, under water vehicle (UUV).
The Pentagon later con-firmed the incident at a news briefing. It said the drone used commercially available technology and sold for about $1,50,000. Still, the Pentagon viewed China's seizure seriously since it had effectively takenU.S. military property.
A U.S. think tank this week said new satellite imagery indicated China has installed weapons, including anti-air-craft and anti-missile systems, on all seven artificial islands it has built in the South China Sea.
The drone was part of an unclassified program to collect oceanographic data including salinity, temperature and clarity of the water.

Trump hopes to improve relations with India

The incoming administration of Donald Trump hopes to break new ground in selling advanced weapons systems to India, news that would likely be “music to the ears” of the government in Delhi.
Along with a sharp focus on increasing the quantity and quality of weapons procurement from the U.S. by India, Washington would also hope to lift bilateral trade from a little over $100 billion to at least $300 billion during Mr. Trump's first term and even up to $1 trillion by the end of his second term.
Mr. Kumar added: “ As soon as we could manage to get [new] legislation through Congress, which is controlled by Republicans, it should be no problem at all. We should have that legislation in a pretty short time.”

:: India and World ::

China raises objections over Dalai Lama invite

China has slammed India for inviting the Dalai Lama for a function in the Rashtrapati Bhavan, and urged New Delhi to respect China's “core interest” in order to avoid “any disturbance” in ties between the two nations.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman said: “Recently in disregard of China's solemn representation and strong opposition, the Indian side insisted on arranging for the 14th Dalai Lama's visit to the Indian presidential palace.
The spokesman asserted that Beijing was “strongly dissatisfied with and firmly opposed to that.
The Dalai Lama was present in the opening session of the “Laureates and Leaders for Children Summit”, organised by Nobel Laureate Kailash Satyarthi’s Children's Foundation on December 10.
“We urge the Indian side to see through the anti-China separatist nature of the Dalai Lama clique, fully respect China's core interest and major concerns, take effective means to remove the negative impact caused by the incident so as to avoid any disturbance to China-India relationship,” he said.
The Government of India sought to play down the comments, saying the event the Dalai Lama had attended was not a “political” one.
India has always resisted Chinese criticism of the Dalai Lama's movements, and maintains that he does not undertake any political activity in India. This is the fifth time that China has expressed its annoyance in the past fewmonths.
Earlier, Chinese government spokespersons objected to the Dalai Lama's visits to Arunachal Pradesh, Mongolia and the U.S., as well as the government's permission to the Karmapa Lama to travel to Arunachal as well.
China's strong objections towards the perceived promotion of Tibetan separatism coincide with remarks by U.S. President-elect Donald Trump questioning Washington’s unqualified endorsement of Beijing's sovereignty over Taiwan.
Mongolia's crisis followed its reception of the Dalai Lama last month, apparently triggering a slew of economic measures by Beijing against Ulan Bator.

:: Business and Economy ::

Centre came up with new amnesty scheme

The Pradhan MantriGarib Kalyan Yojana (PMGKY), a last-resort tax amnesty scheme that comes into effect from December 17, will allow assesses to dis-close previously unaccounted and undeclared income under its ambit till March 31, 2017.
The PMGKY permits voluntary declarations of previously undisclosed income with an effective tax rate of 50 per cent and requires assesses to deposit a further 25 per cent of such wealth into a four-year interest-free deposit.
The Bill aims at plugging the loopholes in the Act. Those availing the PMGKYwill be immune from prosecution and penalty and the de-tails of such accounts will be kept secret.
Govt has carried outsearch and seizure in 291 cases and have given 3,000 notices. Govt has also seized undisclosed income of about Rs.2,600 crore (admitted by the taxpayers).
About Rs.316 crore of this is in cash, of which there were new notes worth Rs.80 crore. Jewellery worth Rs.76 crore has been seized.”
Mr. Adhia clarified that deposits of old Rs.500 and Rs.1,000 banknotes in bank accounts of political parties would not be taxed.

Central bank asks banks to remove IMPS, UPI charges

The RBI has asked banks and prepaid instruments issuers to waive all customer charges for transactions up to Rs.1,000 settled on the Immediate Payment Service (IMPS), USSD (unstructured supplementary service data) and Unified Payment Interface (UPI) systems.
The measures, effective from January 1, will be applicable till March 31, RBI said. It also lowered the cap on merchant discount rate (MDR) for debit cards from January 1 to March 31.
For transactions up to Rs.1,000, MDR is capped at 0.25% of the transaction value. and for transactions above Rs.1,000 and up to Rs.2000, MDR is capped at 0.5%