Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 24 July 2017

::National::

President says institutions are for debate, discussion and not for disruptions

• Bidding farewell to Parliament at a function to mark the end of his tenure, President Pranab Mukherjee said that the institution was for “debate, discussion and dissent.”

• Disruptions, he said, hurt the Opposition as it took away from it the opportunity to raise people’s concerns.

• He had a word of advice for the government too: Ordinances should be resorted to only in “compelling circumstances.”

• On Ordinances — issued on pressing issues when Parliament is not in session — Mr. Mukherjee said it should not be resorted to in matters being considered for discussion (in Parliament).

• The President’s remark is significant as the Modi government, after repeatedly failing to amend the Enemy Property Act, 1968 in the last three years, had promulgated five ordinances.

• The Bill was passed by Parliament in March. Senior Union Ministers were reportedly deputed to convince the President to sign the fourth and fifth Enemy Property ordinances as he was against their promulgation.

• The passage of the GST Bill, he said, was a sign of Parliament’s maturity. Its launch on July 1 was a shining example of cooperative federalism.

• He said values like fraternity, dignity and unity had become the lodestar for the country since Independence.

Civil society organisations concerned over secrecy around RCEP

• Civil society organisations and trade experts on Sunday raised concern over the secrecy surrounding the negotiations regarding a proposed mega-regional FTA involving 16 Asia Pacific nations including India and China.

• Technical level talks of the proposed FTA, officially known as Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), are being held from July 18 to 28 at the Hyderabad International Convention Centre.

• The RCEP, among other things, aims to liberalise investment norms as well as boost trade by eliminating/drastically reducing import duties on goods and bringing down ‘barriers’ in the services sector.

• The 16 nations account for a combined GDP of close to $50 trillion (or about 40% of the world’s GDP) and are home to around 3.5 billion people.

• ‘People’s Resistance Forum against FTAs and RCEP’ said in a statement that the RCEP would have wide-ranging impact on agriculture, services, access to medicines, investment and e-commerce.

• Therefore, the government should place the details of the negotiations before the public and hold extensive and meaningful consultations with all stakeholders including the states, it said. Or else, India should immediately withdraw from RCEP negotiations, it added.

• RCEP had the potential to eliminate the policy space of the government to address developmental concerns, and that the decisions could adversely impact future generations.

• According to the People’s Resistance Forum against FTAs and RCEP, among the apprehensions regarding the RCEP is the one that it might include patents on seeds paving the way for control of the seed sector by multinational companies.

Molecule found that could be used as a drug to fight the effects of a Zika virus

• Researchers from a southeastern Spanish university announced the discovery of a molecule that could be used as a potential drug to fight the effects of a Zika virus infection.

• Scientists belonging to Bioinformatics and High-Performance Computing research group had found that a compound previously used as an antibiotic countered the symptoms of the mosquito-borne disease, Efe news reported.

• It’s a drug that had been withdrawn from the market because it had lost its potency as an antibiotic, but we know it can be administered to humans.

• The molecular structure of the proteins involved in the Zika virus’ replication process was first described only a year ago.

Ultra-thin device that can power your smartphone

• Scientists, including one of Indian origin, have developed an ultra-thin device that can power your smartphone, fitness tracker and other gadgets using human movements such as walking and waving.

• Based on battery technology and made from layers of black phosphorus that are only a few atoms thick, the energy harvesting system generates small amounts of electricity when it is bent or pressed even at the low frequencies characteristic of human motion.

• “In the future, I expect that we will all become charging depots for our personal devices by pulling energy directly from our motions and the environment,” said Cary Pint.

• Compared to the other approaches designed to harvest energy from human motion, the new method has two fundamental advantages.

::International::

Arab League accused Israel of “playing with fire”

• The Arab League accused Israel of “playing with fire” with new security measures at a highly sensitive Jerusalem holy site.

• “Jerusalem is a red line,” its chief Ahmed Abul Gheit said in a statement, adding that “no Arab or Muslim will accept violations” against the city’s holy sites.

• Abul Gheit accused Israel’s government of “adventurism” and said its moves could trigger a “crisis with the Arab and Muslim world”.

• Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan too condemned the Israeli security precautions, saying the Islamic world would not remain silent.

• He had called on Israel to remove the detectors in a phone conversation with his counterpart Reuven Rivlin.

• Pope Francis also expressed concern and said that he was alarmed by the recent violence. He called for dialogue and moderation to help restore peace.

::Business and Economy::

MPC members need to observe a “silent period” 7 days before and after decision

• The government appointees on the powerful Monetary Policy Committee will be paid Rs. 1.5 lakh per meeting along with air travel and other reimbursements, but will need to observe a “silent period” seven days before and after the rate decision for “utmost confidentiality”.

• The silent period and confidentiality requirements will also apply to the three RBI members, including the Governor, on the panel that has been deciding on policy rates since October last year, the central bank has said.

• The members of the RBI Governor-chaired panel, which has to hold meetings at least four times in a year, are also required to be mindful of any conflict between their personal and public interest.

• The six-member MPC, constituted in September 2016, has three persons appointed by the central government while the rest, including the Governor, are from the RBI.

• The panel is required to meet at least four times in a year and the RBI has been convening a bi-monthly meeting of this committee.

• Their appointment is for a period of four years or until further orders, whichever is earlier. Apart from RBI Governor Urjit Patel, Deputy Governor Viral V Acharya and Executive Director M.D. Patra are also part of the committee.

• MPC members should also take adequate precaution to ensure utmost confidentiality of its policy decision before that is made public and preserve confidentiality about the decision making process,

All about the Payment banks in India

• There are two kinds of banking licences that are granted by the Reserve Bank of India - universal bank licence and differentiated bank licence.

• Payments bank comes under a differentiated bank licence since it cannot offer all the services that a commercial bank offers. In particular, a payments bank cannot lend.

• It can take deposits upto Rs. 1 lakh per account and it can issue debit cards but not credit cards. Commercial banks in India like State Bank of India or ICICI Bank, do not have any such restrictions.

• The main objective is to further financial inclusion by providing small savings accounts and payments/remittance services to migrant labour workforce, low income households, small businesses and other unorganised sector entities.

• A payments bank can work as a business correspondent (BC) of another bank. They can also distribute simple financial products like mutual fund units and insurance products.

• Out of the 11 entities that received in-principle licence for opening payments bank, 7 entities received the final licence. Four payments banks have started operations — Airtel Payments Bank, India Post Payments Bank, Paytm Payments Bank and Fino Payments Bank.

• RBI has mandated the minimum paid-up equity capital for payments bank at Rs. 100 crore.

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