Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 18 February 2017

:: National ::

Proposal to build a wall along J&K dropped

The Centre has given up its proposal to build a wall along the Pakistan border in Jammu, originally envisaged as a barrier to cross-border terror.
The raised embankment, initiated by the UPA government in 2013 after the twin attacks in the Hiranagar/Samba sector, was to come up along 179 km of the International Border in Jammu.
The wall proposal was opposed by Pakistan, which shot off letters to the United Nations Security Council in 2015 accusing India of converting what it called a “working boundary” into a “quasi international boundary.”
Plan for raising an embankment was not materialising and that the government would instead depend on ‘technological solutions’ such as a ‘smart fence’, a seamless virtual fence with sensors to identify any infiltration.
The Army too opposed the embankment, saying it would pose hurdles for their forward movement during military operations.
Since 2014, when the NDA government came to power, there have been more than 900 ceasefire violations along the Pakistan border in Jammu.
At the LoC, which is under the operational control of the Army, 541 violations were reported during the same period. In these violations, 57 locals and 26 security personnel were killed.
The proposed embankment would have been about 135 feet (41 metres) wide and 10 metres high, and would have accommodated bunkers and border outposts.
After the UPA government’s decision in 2013, officials, following the Israel model, wanted to seal the border. About 20 % of the land has been acquired for the project.
The Home Ministry is now working on a Comprehensive Integrated Border Management System (CIBMS) for 24X7 surveillance.

Sureme court says there is no National song

Orally noting that “there is no concept of National Song”, SC refused to direct the government to frame a national policy to promote and propagate the ‘National Song’, along with the National Anthem and the National Flag.
A Bench of Justices Dipak Misra, R. Banumathi and Mohan M. Shantanagoudar, in a short order, said it should be clearly noted that Article 51A (a), citing the citizens’ fundamental duties, does not refer to ‘National Song.’
Article 51A(a) mandates that citizens should abide by the Constitution and respect its ideals and institutions, the National Flag and the National Anthem.
The petition also sought the court to “ascertain the feasibility of singing/playing the National Anthem and National Song in the Parliament/Assembly, public offices, courts and schools on every working day.”
The court “kept alive” the portion of the prayer regarding schools, but dismissed it as far as other institutions are concerned. However, the court added that this “does not mean that we have expressed any opinion on the same.”

Manufacturing Kamov-226T helicopters in India to start

The joint venture (JV) of HAL and Rosoboronexport and Russian Helicopters of Russia for manufacturing Kamov-226T light utility helicopters in India will be registered very soon and the final contract is likely to be signed this year.
Papers are being approved by the Russian government. By end of this month, we will have the Russian government approval and the JV will be officially registered.
The final technological specifications of the helicopter have been sorted.
The HAL is setting up a new helicopter manufacturing facility at Tumakuru outside Bengaluru where the Kamov’s would be built in addition to other helicopters in its portfolio.
Russia expects the helicopter to function the same way as the JV for Brahmos cruise missile. The Kamov-226T helicopters are meant to replace the aging and obsolete Cheetah and Chetak fleets of the Indian Armed Forces.
The number if expected to go beyond 200 given the requirement from the services. India and Russia intend to export the Kamov-226T to third countries after meeting domestic requirement.

Governor has discreation to call anyone even against popular will

In the ordinary course, the support of the elected representatives of the party commanding a majority in the Legislature reflect the “will of the people”, and the Governor would defer to it.
However, a 2001 Supreme Court precedent holds that a State Governor should not always be swayed by “popular will” or the “brute" support a chief minister aspirant enjoys from her party MLAs.
It said the Constitution empowers the Governor, while appointing a chief minister, to use his discretion to ensure a stable government.
Governor Ch. Vidyasagar Rao had kept Sasikala's appointment to the constitutional post in abeyance while the disproportionate assets case involving Jayalalithaa, Sasikala and others, was due in a week.
As one of the accused in the 20-year-old case, if convicted — as she is now — Sasikala faced disqualification from contesting elections for a decade.
The Constitution does not give elected members of a majority party unfettered right to elect an incompetent or disqualified person as chief minister, Supreme Court had held in the B.R. Kapur versus State of Tamil Nadu in 2001.
Another judge on the Constitution Bench, Justice Brijesh Kumar, held that “the contention that in all eventualities whatsoever the Governor is bound by the decision of the majority party is not a correct proposition.
The Governor cannot be totally deprived of element of discretion in performance of duties of his office, if ever any such exigency may so demand its exercise”.
In appointing Sasikala as CM, the State would have courted another round of political crisis following the Supreme Court judgment upholding her conviction for corruption and criminal conspiracy, leading to her resignation and surrender.

:: Science and Technology ::

Google a step closer to rolling out a network of balloons to provide Internet

Researchers at Google have moved a step closer to rolling out a network of huge balloons to provide Internet connectivity to billions of people around the world, particularly those in difficult-to-reach rural areas.
The Project Loon team, part of the company’s X research lab, said it can now use machine learning to predict weather systems.
The advance means Google has much more control over where its balloons reach, making it possible to focus on a specific region, rather than circumnavigating the globe.
“Real users” will be able to make use of the system in the “coming months”, however, the company did not specify where the initial roll-out would take place.
The company has experimented with beaming down connectivity from a network of huge, tennis-court sized balloons rather than undertaking huge construction projects to replicate connectivity networks in the developed world.
The balloons float in the stratosphere around 18 kilometres high. By raising or lowering altitude, the balloons can be caught in different weather streams, changing direction.
By using machine-learning algorithms, Google thinks it has found a way to predict weather with enough accuracy to make it possible to hover balloons over a relatively small area for a long period of time.
The firm was last year able to keep a cluster of balloons over Peru for three months.

:: Business and Economy ::

TRAI issued a consultation paper for review of tariff assessment process

Amid an ongoing war between incumbent telcos and new entrant Reliance Jio over its predatory pricing and promotional offers, TRAI issued a consultation paper to undertake a review of the tariff assessment process.
The paper, sought views on which offers should qualify as promotional offers, what should be the features of a promotional offer, and whether there is a need to restrict the number of promotional offers.
The consultation paper comes after the three incumbent operators – Airtel, Idea and Vodafone, moved TDSAT against TRAI alleging that the regulator failed to prohibit Reliance Jio from violating the tariff regulations.
In response to complaints, TRAI had said that Reliance Jio’s promotional tariff plans comply with existing regulations and tariff orders, allowing promotional offer that provides free unlimited data and calling to users till March 31.

Finance minister says remonetisation was very difficult

Finance Minister said it may be easy to criticise the Centre’s demonetisation and remonetisation drive, but tough to implement, and it has been largely incident-free mainly due to the round-the-clock functioning of printing presses.
“It was among the biggest exercises of demonetisation and remonetisation in the world,” Mr. Jaitley said.
“Many people said it would take around seven months to one year to bring back normalcy and to ensure that there is no shortage of currency notes, but they were done in a few weeks and that too without any major incidents.”
The currency printing presses include those of the Government-owned SPMCIL, and of the Bharatiya Reserve Bank Note Mudran Pvt Ltd and the Mysuru facility of the Bank Note Paper Mill India Private Limited.
Terming the employees of these presses as the “unsung and unknown heroes” who silently and tirelessly worked 24x7 without a break and by maintaining secrecy in order to ensure normalcy quickly.
Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das said SPMCIL needed to leverage its debt-free status to modernise its operations and increase its productivity by using most modern equipments.
SPMCIL currency presses had airlifted 60 million numbers of Rs. 500 notes amounting to Rs. 21,500 crore to different parts of the country to expedite remonetisation efforts.

RBI Governor says economy will take V-shape recovery

Unfazed by criticism of the way the note ban was handled, RBI Governor Urjit Patel said the central bank has grown a thick skin fast doing its job and stressed that the economy will make a “sharp V” recovery after a short drop.
Dr. Patel, who took over the reins of the RBI just two months before the note ban, said the remonetisation has been done at a “very quick” pace and the central bank has managed to bring the situation to normal.
He said everyone agrees that not just the RBI, but the wider banking system has done a “Herculean job” over the last few months when there were many challenges.
On the impact of demonetisation on the economy, Dr. Patel said: “Almost everyone agrees that the impact is going to be a sharp ‘V’, that we would have a downgrade of growth for a short period of time.”
RBI last week lowered its economic growth forecast for the current fiscal to 6.9% from the previously projected 7.1%, but saw it bouncing back in a big way to 7.4% in 2017-18.
Dr. Patel said the benefits of junking 86% of currency in circulation, will take time to fully play out and needs more work to ensure they are lasting.
Higher growth rate is possible if very fundamental reforms, especially in factors of production like land and labour, are undertaken, the Governor said. So, 7.5% growth rate is not something to be disappointed [about],” he said.
The 6-member monetary policy committee (MPC) headed by Dr. Patel had last week kept interest rates unchanged at 6.25% for the second straight meeting and took its policy stance to ‘neutral’ from ‘accommodative’.
The change in stance, he said, gives more flexibility to cut, raise or hold rates as compared with an accommodative one on inflation outlook.
The RBI Governor also expressed concern over the U.S. moving towards protectionism under U.S. President Donald Trump.
On protectionism under the Trump administration, he felt that India has sustained opening up of its economy since the 1990s.