Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 23 October 2016

:: National ::

PM says sustained fight on corruption and Black money has been made

Using the analogy of surgical strikes, PM Modi wondered what would have happened if the government had adopted similar strategy in the recent campaign against black money, which saw declaration worth Rs. 65,000 crore.
“Now think, Rs. 36,000 crore that was leaking has been stopped [by direct benefit transfer], and Rs. 65,000 crore of black money is unearthed, together it is Rs one lakh crore.
“And this Rs 1 lakh crore has been brought back without launching surgical strikes. If we do surgical strikes [in this area], you can imagine what all will come out,” the Prime Minister said.
Mr. Modi said he had put up a sustained fight against corruption since he took charge.
Mr. Modi, speaking at a camp to distribute ‘assistive devices’ to over 8,000 ‘Divyangs’ (differently-abled persons) here, also criticised past governments for not doing enough for the disabled.
PM said, “Knowingly or unknowingly, this country has remained insensitive towards the Divyangs. The government buildings only had facility for healthy persons.”
Since 1992 till 2014, only 56 such camps for distributing assistive devices for Divyangs were organised. After this government came, 4,500 such programmes were held,” Mr. Modi said.
“In the Central government, I came to know that 16,500 posts for Divyangs were vacant. I told my Ministers to fill up these vacant posts. I can say with satisfaction that 14,500 such posts have been filled up,” Mr. Modi said.

Govt formed a committee to keep a close watch on the bird flu

The Central Government has formed a three-member committee to keep a close watch on the bird flu situation with 24 deaths being reported due to the virus.
The move comes even as the Delhi government maintained that there was no threat to human beings from the bird flu scare.
Delhi Animal Husbandry Minister Gopal Rai said H5N8 virus was found in the samples of three of eight birds which had died recently at the Delhi Zoo and not the H5N1 virus, which is more dangerous.
The Union Environment Ministry noted that a constant vigil was being kept around the national zoological parks.
The Central Government’s Department of Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries added that a new bird flu virus subtype, H5N8, had been confirmed in samples from the Gandhi Zoological Park in Gwalior.
Previously, the Delhi government shut down the Hauz Khas Deer Park amid bird flu scare, and cancelled leaves of all officials of the Delhi Animal Husbandry Department.
He added that the Delhi government had started a helpline number (011-2389 0318) where citizens could report cases of bird flu and seek help.

Rajasthan has promulgated an ordinance for constituting a new OBC Commission

Rajasthan has promulgated an ordinance for constituting a new Other Backward Classes (OBC) Commission, two days after the High Court ordered the dissolution of the previous one because it was not backed by legislation.
But the ordinance, which was promulgated after Governor Kalyan Singh gave his approval, has nominated the chairperson, member-secretary and members of the previous commission to the new body.
High Court directed the government to constitute a new commission, backed by legislation, by January 15, 2017, and stopped the payment of salary and allowances to the commission members.
The prompt decision to give statutory backing to the commission will help to continue the survey to assess the condition of Jats in Bharatpur and Dholpur districts so as to give them the OBC status.

Sandesh for Soldiers started by PM

Foregrounding the tensions on the border, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched a campaign for jawans in the Army and the paramilitary forces, called “Sandesh (message) for Soldiers”, in the run-up to Deepavali.
In a video on the NaMo app, Mr. Modi, appearing for the first time in a video promoting a cause, urged Indians to write to MyGov.in and NaMo app as a measure of solidarity with soldiers.

:: International ::

Pakistan to appoint a new Army chief in few days

The Pakistan government will appoint a new Army chief within a week or 10 days to replace incumbent General Raheel Sharif who is poised to retire by end of November.
Gen. Sharif had announced several months ago that he will not seek a second term unlike his predecessor General Ashfaq Pervaiz Kayani.
The government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has been under pressure to rename the successor of Gen. Sharif to end uncertainty.
Under the law, it is prerogative of the Prime Minister to appoint the new Army chief.

:: Business and Economy ::

The Centre is working with State governments to introduce a One India concept

The Centre is working with State governments to introduce a ‘One India’ concept, the most ambitious ‘ease of doing business’ initiative so far.
Under the ‘one-form-one-portal’ model, aimed at attracting huge investments, the processes will be simplified to an extent where investors will need to fill only a single e-form for investing and doing business anywhere in India.
Currently, firms are mandated to complete multiple forms at the Central and State-levels, and it gets more complicated as each State has different requirements and regulations.
The reform plan is among steps aimed at helping raise India’s global ranking on the World Bank Group’s ‘Doing Business’ index — from 130 in 2016 — to the top 50 among the 189 economies featured on the list.
The proposed concept will also make it easy for investors to even change plans midway and shift projects to different locations in India where it is easier to do business.
As an initial measure, a draft ‘Common Application Form’ is being circulated among states for their feedback, the sources said, adding that a few states have already accepted the concept.
However, discussions will be held on possible exceptions, including for environment and security-related clearances.
The Centre is already developing an eBiz project that is basically a government-to-business portal. The services offered under the portal are on starting, running and closing down a business.
Introduced in January 2014, the portal has an integrated payment gateway and currently offers 17 pan-India services (at the Central government-level).
The focus now is on revamping this portal by identifying and removing glitches. The thrust will be on quality by reducing the cost, time and processes involved, and ensuring greater transparency.
The portal will also be soon shifted to an ‘open source multi-platform’ system/browser. Also in the pipeline is a permanent account number (PAN)-based Business Identification Number (BIN) for firms.
This unique business ID will integrate about 18 identification numbers including the existing Company Identification Number.

India is not looking at full capital account convertibility

India is not looking at full capital account convertibility for the next few years, previous RBI governor, had said that the central bank was looking at bringing in capital account convertibility in a few years.
Even the International Monetary Fund (IMF), that has advocated such convertibility for decades, has become more cautious about its benefits for developing economies in the recent past.
Along with steps taken by the government in the past two years to ease access to foreign capital, new instruments have also been made available for foreign investors such as rupee-denominated offshore bonds (also known as masala bonds) and alternate investment funds.
Capital controls are used by the state to protect the economy from potential shocks caused by unpredictable capital flows.
Capital account convertibility means the freedom to convert a currency for capital transactions and the rupee is not fully convertible on that front yet, though capital flows have been liberalised in recent years.
Despite the currency risk, the Indian market offers attractive returns to foreign investors.

NIIF CEO says India needs $150 billion to $300 billion over the next five years

India needs $150 billion to $300 billion of equity over the next five years to drive infrastructure investments, National Investment and Infrastructure Fund CEO said.
The NIIF, which will start operations with a first-phase corpus of $6 billion, would focus on equity and quasi-equity investments at a scale never seen before in India as it will be six times larger than the biggest infrastructure fund currently.
As the private or public sectors can’t meet this investment demand on their own, the NIIF will work on creating smart public private partnerships (PPPs) to fund projects of unprecedented scale.
While there were several issues, one of the aspects was that capital was invested on a fragmented basis by companies that had relatively little access to equity.

:: Sports ::

India won Kabaddi World Cup

Ajay Thakur masterminded a memorable triumph against a spirited Iran with a terrific exhibition of raiding in the 2016 Kabaddi World Cup final at the Arena.
Once Thakur won a hand-touch point against Sheykh, India look the lead for the second time in the match and then proceeded to dominate and win 38-29.
Pardeep Narwal, who was India’s second most successful raider in the league stage, was off colour, but substitute Nitin Tomar rose to the occasion, winning super raid points that sent out Sheykh and Fazel Atrachali at a critical juncture.
It was a third clash between India and Iran in a World Cup final — the previous two were held in 2004 and 2007 in Mumbai, and on both occasions, India triumphed.
With the third World Cup being staged after four editions of the ProKabaddi League, there was a lot of hype and hoopla around the event and there was immense pressure on Anup Kumar’s team to win the title a third time.
India took the field with Anup Kumar, Manjit Chillar, Thakur, Pardeep Narwal, Sandeep Narwal, Surjeet and Surender Nada. After two empty raids from either side, Sandeep Narwal won the home side the first point with a hand touch.
India showed its wherewithal in a sport it has dominated since the 1990 Asian Games.