Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 24 May 2017

:: National ::

Africa has been the NDA government’s top priority in foreign as well as economic policy matters and although Indian sportsmen can’t compete with their African peers in long-distance running.
The country will stand ‘shoulder to shoulder’ with the continent in its race towards a brighter future, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said.
“India’s partnership with Africa is based on a model of cooperation, which is responsive to the needs of African countries. It is demand-driven and free of conditions,” the PM said.
“India’s commodity trade with Africa in 2015-16 was higher than our commodity trade with the United States of America,” the PM said.
India’s private sector is also providing an impetus to stronger India-Africa ties with Africa accounting for nearly one-fifth of Indian overseas direct investments between 1996 and 2016, the PM pointed out.
Mr. Modi said he was encouraged by the response of African countries to the International Solar Alliance initiative, which was launched at the UN Climate Change Conference in Paris in November 2015.
Nauru ratified the framework and shared it with India, while five other African countries signed the pact on Monday.

The two most crucial factors for the Union government’s performance over the past three years have been banking reforms and Aadhaar, which has already yielded savings of $4 billion in cooking gas subsidies, PM said.
Mr. Modi expressed satisfaction over the improvement in “all macro-economic indicators” under his watch, but said he remained focussed on the many challenges that lay ahead to fulfil his aim of making India a global growth engine.
The Jan Dhan Yojana helped India achieve universal banking and banks “normally associated with helping businesses and the rich” have been enlisted for helping the development of the poor, the Prime Minister said.
“The fiscal deficit, balance of payments deficit, and inflation are down. The GDP growth rate, foreign exchange reserves and public capital investment are up. At the same time, we have made big strides in development,” Mr. Modi said.
While laying out the common challenges faced by both India and Africa, Mr. Modi indicated that his government’s priorities were “uplifting our farmers and the poor, empowering women, ensuring our rural communities have access to finance, and building infrastructure”.

Shared concerns over China’s Belt and Road initiative should push India and the European Union closer to resume stalled talks over a Free Trade Agreement.
The issue of the FTA will be high on the agenda when Prime Minister Narendra Modi meets with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin.
Germany and other European countries had joined the Belt and Road Forum, they had refused to sign a trade document at the summit due to a lack of transparency in the negotiations.
Mr. Modi will travel to Germany for the fourth round of the annual Inter-Governmental Commission on May 29-30, and is expected to announce a number of agreements after his meeting with Ms. Merkel.
Mr. Modi’s visit to the European Commission in April 2016 failed to bring about any agreement to even resume the talks that essentially broke down over high taxes, market access and India’s concerns over visas for skilled workers.
In the meanwhile, the India-Germany Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT), one of 23 BITs with EU countries, lapsed in March this year.

The world’s largest aircraft has successfully completed a test flight, bringing the massive helium-filled airship one step closer to commercial use.
The hybrid aircraft dubbed the Airlander 10 combines technology from airplanes, helicopters and airships. It is designed to fly at altitudes of 6,100 metres for up to five days when manned.
With a length of 92 metres, it is the largest aircraft currently flying.

In tandem with its policy to utilise the country’s waterways, the Centre is planning to embark on a programme to refurbish the ship-repairing facilities in various ports across the country.
The locations include Mumbai, Goa, Pandu (Assam) , Kandla (Gujarat), Farakka (West Bengal), Kolkata and Dorigunj (Bihar). Most ports had ship-repair facilities since olden days but they needed to be developed.
Cruise-shipping as another thrust area saying the terminals at the ports, where cruise vessels plied, needed to be modernised to ensure pleasant experience for travellers.

India, which is in talks for the proposed mega-regional FTA along with 16 other Asia Pacific nations, has expressed disappointment over the inadequate progress in talks on services trade liberalisation.
Following economic slowdown and the consequent job losses, most countries in the grouping have turned protectionist when it comes talks on norms to ease temporary movement of skilled workers, adding that India fears that the issue is getting mixed up with immigration.
The negotiations for the FTA, officially known as the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), started in November 2012.
It includes the 10 ASEAN member States and six nations that have existing FTAs with ASEAN — India, China, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and South Korea.
These nations have a combined GDP of about $24 trillion and a population of around 3.6 billion.

The Centre aims to grow India’s digital economy to $1 trillion by 2022, Electronics and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said.
Mr. Prasad said the Centre had roped in consulting firm McKinsey to help draw a roadmap to achieve this target.
“How will it become a trillion dollar economy, that roadmap will talk about what the government needs to do, what the industry needs to do…. Different sectors such as healthcare and education, what they need to do,” he said.
Currently the digital economy in India, which includes sectors such as fintech, communications, e-commerce, cybersecurity and electronics, is estimated at about $270 billion.