Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 21 August 2017

::National::

FM says demonetization has hit Maoist badly

• Union Minister Arun Jaitley said security forces, with their resolute action, had established dominance over terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir, and the Centre was firm that armed militancy must end there.
• He added that demonetisation left Maoists and separatists in Jammu and Kashmir “fund starved”, and it has greatly reduced the number of protesters taking part in stone-pelting in the border State.
• “Stone-pelters used to gather in thousands on the streets of Kashmir before demonetisation was announced, but now not even 25 come together for such agitations.
• After demonetisation, separatists in Jammu and Kashmir and also Maoists in States like Chhattisgarh have become fund-starved,” said Mr. Jaitley.
• Mr. Jaitley said the Kashmir issue had become complicated because of cross-border and local support to terrorists.

Repairs of the track when the train arrived likely cause of derailment

• Likely reason for the derailment of Utkal Express here was the repairs taken up on the track when the train arrived, employees of different railway wings in the Khatauli-Muzaffarnagar area have started a blame game.
• Employees of the Railway Engineering Department in Khatauli maintain that they had informed the station officials about the repairs.
• Station master, however, insisted that nothing was on record to prove that the station officials were informed of the repairs.
• Jagat Colony, the exact place where 14 coaches of the train jumped off the track, is about 400 metres from the Khatauli station. By railway rules, no train can pass a station without its stationmaster giving the green signal.
• Additional Director-General, Government Railway Police, Vijay Maurya, who was on the accident site for rescue work and clearing of tracks, told The Hindu that initial investigations suggested the repairs had led to the accident.

Solar eclipse to be visible across whole U.S.

• A solar eclipse is set to take place, which will be visible across all of continental United States. It will begin at the Oregon coast (at 9.36 p.m. IST on Sunday) and end at the South Carolina coast.
• About 16% of the U.S. territory will witness a total eclipse, which will last longest at Carbondale, Illinois, for 2 minutes and 41.6 seconds.
• Since this eclipse has the special feature of lasting for so long over the mainland, scientists across the world are trying to use it to verify their theories on the Sun.
• This can help them model “space weather” and predict solar storms that can affect the operation of satellites and even electric power grids on Earth.
• The “great American solar eclipse” is keeping scientists at the Centre for Excellence in Space Sciences India (CESSI) in the Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research (IISER), Kolkata, busy even before begins.
• Using computer simulations, they have predicted the shape that the outer layer of the Sun — its corona — will take during the total eclipse.
• If their prediction is correct, their model of the Sun will be validated and they can then fine-tune it to make predictions of space weather, for one, which is CESSI’s eventual mandate.
• Space weather impacts modern day technologies such as satellite operations, telecommunications, GPS navigational networks and electric power grids.
• So, astronomical events such as an eclipse, which offers a chance of diagnosing the coronal magnetic field, are an opportunity for solar physicists to test their theoretical ideas and models to be able to refine them.

Personal liberty cannot be compromised says SC

• Personal liberty cannot be compromised at the altar of what the state may perceive as justice, the Supreme Court has said while granting bail to former Assam Public Service Commission (APSC) chairman Rakesh Kumar Paul in a case of alleged corruption.
• A three-judge Bench headed by Justice Madan B. Lokur, in a majority ruling of 2:1, said Mr. Paul was entitled to ‘default bail’ and the trial judge should release him on such terms as may be reasonable.
• In the majority verdict, concurred by Justices Lokur and Deepak Gupta, the court said that “in matters of personal liberty, we cannot and should not be too technical and must lean in favour of personal liberty”.
• The apex court was hearing the plea filed by Mr. Paul after his bail pleas were rejected by the Gauhati High Court twice.
• He was arrested in November last year after an FIR was lodged against him under the Prevention of Corruption Act and a charge sheet was filed this January.
• In his dissenting verdict, Justice P.C. Pant held that the allegations did not disclose merely an economic offence but it showed a transgression of the constitutional rights of the victims of the crime.

Defence Ministry has delegated administrative and financial powers to BRO

• As part of efforts to improve the functioning of the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) and speed up works, the Defence Ministry has delegated administrative and financial powers right up to the level of Chief Engineer and task force commander.
• Earlier, a Chief Engineer in the BRO could give administrative approval of works up to Rs. 10 crore and ADG up to Rs. 20 crore for departmental works.
• For contractual works, all administrative approvals were given by the DGBR, who had powers only up to Rs. 50 crore.
• The BRO, engaged in road construction to provide connectivity to difficult and inaccessible regions, was brought under the control of the Defence Ministry in 2015.
• Completion of strategic border roads has been delayed as was highlighted on various occasions by the Comptroller and Auditor-General and the Parliamentary Standing Committee.

::International::

Assad says there will be no agreement with rebels

• Countries that want to reopen embassies in Damascus or resume ties with the Syrian government must end their support for Syria’s rebels, President Bashar al-Assad said.
• “We are not isolated like they think, it’s their arrogance that pushes them to think in this manner,” Mr. Assad said in a speech to members of Syria’s diplomatic corps broadcast on state television.
• “There will be neither security cooperation, nor the opening of embassies, nor a role for certain states that say they want to find a way out [of Syria’s war], unless they explicitly cut their ties with terrorism.”
• Syria’s government refers to all those who oppose it as “terrorists”. The United States and most European countries had shut their embassies in Damascus after the government’s bloody crackdown on protests that erupted in the year of 2011.

::Business and Economy::

Sikka’s resignation brought focus on corporate governance again

• The exit of Vishal Sikka as the chief of multinational IT giant Infosys brings forth the issue of corporate governance yet again.
• Market participants said the capital markets regulator, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), needed to intervene in such matters to protect the interest of investors, especially the retail segment.
• “The supervisory board, comprising eminent personalities, will monitor performance as well as the value system for the company and this alone will create wealth for the company and keep it on the tracks,” he added.
• SEBI had constituted a committee on corporate governance under the chairmanship of Uday Kotak in June this year.
• The committee is expected to submit its report within four months. Market participants said that the Infosys issue too should be considered in detail by the committee.
• “Unfortunately, this had degenerated into an ugly battle played out with the media and as a result we are seeing whatever has happened,” said Mr. Bhat.
• Another view is that differences between stakeholders on the vision for the company caused the turmoil.
• “This is a fight between modern, free-market capitalism on the one side and the forces of ‘compassionate capitalism’ on the other,” he said.
• The governing board or a supervisory board, he said, would be an important top layer setting the direction for such companies.

India-U.S. Trade Policy Forum to focus on Visa curbs

• The Centre will, during the India-U.S. Trade Policy Forum (TPF) meeting likely in October, raise Indian industry’s concerns over the U.S. visa ‘curbs’ and the ‘delay’ in inking a bilateral social security pact (or totalisation agreement).
• In the TPF meeting, the premier forum to resolve bilateral trade and investment issues, the U.S. is expected to table its worries over India’s ‘restrictions’ on e-commerce as well as the ‘challenges’ faced by American innovative industries due to India’s ‘weak’ Intellectual Property Rights regime.
• In addition, New Delhi would take up the ‘non-tariff barriers’ by the U.S. that are hurting Indian agriculture, pharmaceuticals and other industrial exports, while Washington is likely to raise its concerns over India’s ‘excessively high tariffs’ on imports.
• Deputy Assistant USTR for South and Central Asia, and Brendan Lynch, Director for India at the USTR Office, will participate in a round-table discussion on August 23 being organised by the advocacy body U.S.-India Business Council to take inputs for the TPF meeting and the comprehensive review of bilateral trade ties.
• There were doubts about the future of the TPF, especially following a U.S. government statement on August 15 mentioning that U.S. President and PM Modi had decided to ‘establish a new 2-by-2 ministerial dialogue that will elevate their strategic consultations.’
• However this meant that the ‘commercial’ track will be taken out of the India-US ‘Strategic and Commercial Dialogue’ (S&CD), and from now on take place independently.

Public sector banks have most of the debts

• The country’s largest lender State Bank of India accounts for over 27% of the total amount owed to public sector banks by wilful defaulters.
• As many as 1,762 wilful defaulters owed Rs. 25,104 crore to SBI as on March 31, putting pressure on its balance sheet.
• Punjab National Bank (PNB) is next on the list with 1,120 wilful defaulters having outstanding non-performing assets of Rs. 12,278 crore. Together these two banks account for Rs. 37,382 crore or 40% of the total outstanding loans.
• Total outstanding loans due to PSU banks by wilful defaulters amounted to Rs. 92,376 crore, according to the Finance Ministry data.
• The total outstanding loans by wilful defaulters rose to Rs. 92,376 crore at the end of financial year 2016-17, from Rs. 76,685 crore at the end of last fiscal 2015-16, up 20.4%.

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