Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 22 September 2016

:: National ::

Single Budget from next year

With the ambition of putting an end to the populism, the Union Cabinet has decided to bring the curtains down on the 92-year-old tradition of presenting a separate Rail Budget.
It has been decided to merge the Rail Budget and the General Budget. Railway Minister will not present budget for the year 2017-18. Instead, Finance Minister will present a “unified” budget.
The decision, taken on the recommendation of a NITI Aayog committee headed by its member Bibek Debroy, reflects the decrease over time in the relative size of the Rail Budget compared to some of the other components in the General Budget, such as defence and roads & highways.
Reform was intended to “deglamorise” the Railways portfolio and discourage the leveraging of the Rail Budget for handing out largesse to vote banks.
Decisions like that are commercially crucial but politically challenging, especially fare hikes would now become routine ones taken any time during the course of a year without as much public glare, said an official.

Govt made significant changes to the National Mission for Clean Ganga

The Union Cabinet has approved changes allowing the National Mission for Clean Ganga to fine those responsible for polluting the river. Earlier this power was vested solely with the Central Pollution Control Board.
The Rs. 20,000-crore National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) is among the flagship initiatives of the government and though at least 230 projects have been sanctioned this year there is very little progress on the ground.
The bulk of the river cleaning projects involve setting up of sewage treatment plants, installing trash skimmers and beautifying the ghats.
The NMCG has been a registered society since 2012 and its role is largely to fund projects to implementing organisations. It didn’t have legal powers to “tackle various threats” or issue directions to polluters.
The NMCG, which now has the status of an Authority, will have a two-tier management structure with a governing council to be chaired by a Director General. There will also be State-level committees.

:: International ::

The landmark Paris agreement on climate change moved closer to reality

The landmark Paris agreement on climate change moved closer to reality after 31 countries joined during the United Nations General Assembly.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon voiced confidence that the accord, through which countries commit to take action to stem the planet’s rising temperatures, would come into force by the end of the year.
The accord requires all countries to devise plans to achieve the goal of keeping the rise of temperatures within two degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels.
The countries that joined the accord included Latin American powerhouses Argentina, Brazil and Mexico as well as major fossil fuel powers Brunei and the United Arab Emirates.
To come into force, the Paris agreement needs ratification from 55 countries that account for at least 55 per cent of the planet’s greenhouse gas emissions.
A total of 60 countries have joined the Paris accord, meeting the threshold. But they account for just less than 48 per cent of emissions, according to UN figures.

:: India and World ::

India reminds Pakistan about its 2004 promise

India asked Pakistan to end the “persistent and growing violation” of its 2004 undertaking not to let its territory be used by terrorists, even the government is serious about punishing perpetrators of attack on the Uri Army camp.
“The attack in Uri only underlines the fact that the infrastructure of terrorism in Pakistan remains active. We demand that Pakistan lives up to its public commitment to refrain from supporting and sponsoring terrorism against India,” the Ministry of External Affairs said.
“If the Government of Pakistan wishes to investigate these cross-border attacks, India is ready to provide finger prints and DNA samples of terrorists killed in the Uri and Poonch incidents,” the MEA spokesperson said.

:: Science and Technology ::

PSLV satellite launcher will place its passengers in two different orbits

On September 26, the PSLV satellite launcher will for the first time place its multiple passengers in two different orbits. The flight is also significant as it will last two hours and 15 minutes, making it the PSLV’s longest ever.
Three Indian and five foreign commercial spacecraft will ride in it together. Only the main passenger, ISRO’s 370-kg Scatsat-1 ocean and weather tracker, will get off first at a slightly higher orbit at around 700 km.
The remaining smaller satellites, weighing between 5 kg and 110 kg, will be ejected at around 600 km — but after about two hours.
ISRO had tested this new techique during a PSLV flight in June this year. It then said the added versatility of reaching satellites to different orbits will enlarge its customer base: sometimes, different launch customers need to reach their satellites to different orbits or distances from Earth.
The PSLV has so far launched 39 remote-sensing satellites of ISRO, including the Chandrayaan-1 of 2008 and the Mars mission of 2013-14.
It has also orbited 74 foreign commercial and university satellites in a global trend where the demand for its category of launch services is increasing.

:: Business and Economy ::

The Centre has notified the scrapping of toll tax collections on small road

The Centre has notified the scrapping of toll tax collections on small road stretches and bridges developed at a cost of less than Rs.100 crore.
The initiative is based on the recommendations of a committee constituted by the Centre to examine and recommend the minimum eligibility criteria for charging toll fees.
At present, the Central government has the power to exempt any section of a national highway, permanent bridge, bypass or tunnel from toll tax, according to the National Old Highways Fee (Determination of Rates and Collection) Rules 2008.
All road projects, standalone structures and road stretches in which the project construction cost is less than Rs.100 crore and old bridges for which residual recoverable project cost is less than Rs.100 crore will be exempted from toll tax collection.
However, the project cost will not include cost of pre-construction activity, utility shifting and land acquisition, the ministry added in the notification
The move follows policies adopted by governments in BJP-ruled states to exempt toll taxes on some state highways. Recently, Gujarat exempted car, jeep and van category vehicles and state transport buses from tolls on state highways beginning August 15.
As a result, nine public private partnership (PPP) projects were impacted and the government had vowed to compensate private developers for the revenue loss through monthly reimbursements.
Last year, Maharashtra had scrapped 12 toll plazas across the State and exempted small vehicles and State transport buses from having to pay at 53 other toll points.

India’s CAD narrowed in the first quarter

India’s current account deficit (CAD) narrowed in the first quarter of the financial year to $300 million as compared with $6.1 billion in the year-earlier period. The deficit sharank to 0.1 per cent of GDP in the period, as compared with 1.2 per cent.
On the basis of balance of payments, merchandise imports declined sharply — by 11.5 per cent — as compared with merchandise exports, which fell 2.1 per cent, leading to a lower trade deficit in Q1 of 2016-17.
Net services receipts declined on a year-on-year basis, largely due to a fall in net earnings on account of travel, financial services and other business services.
Net foreign direct investment also moderated to $4.1 billion in Q1 of 2016-17 from $10 billion a year earlier and $8.8 billion in the preceding three-month period.
Higher repayments under external commercial borrowings led to a net outflow under loans to India in Q1 as against net borrowings in the same period last year.
Portfolio investments recorded a net inflow of $2.1 billion in Q1 of 2016-17 as against a marginal outflow in the corresponding period of last year.
Portfolio investment recorded an outflow of $1.5 billion in the preceding quarter, primarily reflecting net inflow in the equity component.
Accretion to non-resident Indian (NRI) deposits, which were $1.4 billion, moderated from both a year earlier as well as the previous quarter.
The balance of payments posted a surplus of $7 billion for the April-June quarter, a decline from the $11.4 billion surplus recorded a year earlier.