Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 25 November 2017

::National::

SC rejects PIL for fresh election based upon NOTA

• “Holding elections in our country costs money,” CJI said, while rejecting a public interest litigation petition suggesting fresh elections whenever the public chose overwhelmingly the “None of the Above” (NOTA) option.

• Supreme Court advocate Ashiwni Upadhyay said that if NOTA got the highest number of votes, it would amount to an expression of public dissatisfaction with the candidates in the fray.

• If this happened, the result should have to be nullified by the Election Commission. In response, a three-judge Bench, led by the Chief Justice, gave Mr. Upadhyay an illustration.

• “Let us say the highest percentage of votes polled by a candidate is 40 and the rest goes to NOTA. Does this mean we subject this candidate to another election,” Chief Justice Misra asked.

• “So, this means there should be an election each time a candidate gets less than 51% of the votes polled ... We cannot say such things. We will not be doing our duty and will be crossing a constitutional barricade,” the Chief Justice said.

• The court said a voter had the right to express his dissent by staying at home. Mr. Upadhyay has decided to withdraw his petition from the court. He may now approach the Election Commission.

• His petition had even sought a ban on the parties and their candidates who failed to NOTA in the first election from contesting the fresh polls.

Expediting decisions on joint projects between India and Sri Lanka

• Expediting decisions on joint projects and “solving the problems that have emerged” was at the top of the agenda as Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe met Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

• Among the projects discussed in particular were the plans for India to develop the Trincomalee harbour, including the Oil Tank farms project, as well as the Indian bid to lease and manage the Mattala airport in Hambantota.

• “Our focus was on implementation of all the decisions taken so far,” Sri Lankan High Commissioner Chithranganie Wagishwara told The Hindu at the end of Mr. Wickremesinghe’s visit.

• “Both Prime Ministers and the delegations spent much of their discussions on reviewing what has been done, what needs to be done and what needs to be speeded up,” she added.

• In a similar statement, the External Affairs Ministry said that Mr. Modi and Mr. Wickremesinghe had discussed the partnership.

• “I can only share with you that all bilateral issues were discussed. India is an important partner of Sri Lanka. We have a lot of development projects which are going on in Sri Lanka,” MEA spokesperson Raveesh Kumar told.

• The emphasis on speeding up joint ventures comes after months where there has been no movement on many of the pending decisions on joint ventures.

Gunmen attacked a packed Sufi mosque in Egypt

• Gunmen attacked a packed Sufi mosque in Egypt’s restive North Sinai province and set off a bomb, killing at least 235 people in one of the country’s deadliest attacks in recent memory, state media reported.

• A bomb ripped through the Rawda mosque, roughly 40 km west of the North Sinai capital of El-Arish, before gunmen opened fire on the worshippers gathered for the weekly Friday prayers.

• The Islamic State has targeted followers of the mystical Sufi branch of Sunni Islam as well as Christians.

• Witnesses said the assailants had surrounded the mosque with all-terrain vehicles and then planted a bomb outside.

• The gunmen then mowed down the panicked worshippers as they attempted to flee and used the congregants’ vehicles they had set alight to block routes to the mosque.

• State television reported at least 235 people were killed and over 100 wounded in the attack, which is unprecedented in a four-year insurgency by Islamist extremist groups.

• Egypt’s presidency declared three days of mourning, as President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi met his security Ministers to follow developments.

India focuses on growing significance of cyber issues

• The Union Minister for External Affairs stressed that it is imperative states engage with each other diplomatically in response to increasing instances of cyberattacks to “diffuse tensions arising in the wake of challenges of attribution”.

• “The growing significance of cyber issues..is reflected in the growing conversations across the world at all high-level summits, interactions and conferences,” the Minister said.

• She pointed out that the issues of sovereignty among the states, data access, data jurisdiction, the growing threat of militarisation of cyberspace, cyber espionage, cyber weapons, and the applicability of international law in cyberspace, are some of the issues that require concerted diplomatic attention.

• “The lack of borders in cyberspace and the anonymity of the actors has ensured that the traditional concepts of sovereignty, jurisdiction and privacy are challenged,” Ms. Swaraj said.

Click Here for Study Material for SSC CGL Exam

Click Here to Join Online Course for SSC CGL Exam

::Business and Economy::

Standard & Poor’s (S&P) retained its BBB- rating for India’s sovereign

• Standard & Poor’s (S&P) retained its BBB- rating for India’s sovereign with a ‘stable’ outlook, belying expectations that it may take a cue from rival Moody’s, which last week upgraded the country’s credit rating for the first time in 13 years.

• S&P cited India’s low per capita income, the sizeable fiscal deficit and high general government debt as factors that continue to weigh down the country’s credit profile and reiterated its stable outlook — indicating that the rating is unlikely to see a change in the near future.

• A BBB- rating denotes the lowest investment grade rating for India’s sovereign debt.

• Despite one-off factors like demonetisation and the introduction of the Goods and Services Tax denting growth for two quarters, S&P expects India’s economy to grow robustly over the two-year period from 2018-20 with foreign exchange reserves rising further.

• “Ratings are constrained by India’s low wealth levels, measured by GDP per capita, which we estimate at close to $2,000 in 2017, the lowest of all investment-grade sovereigns that we rate,” S&P Global Ratings said in a statement, explaining its rationale for the rating.

• “That said, India’s GDP growth rate is among the fastest of all investment-grade sovereigns, and we expect real GDP to average 7.6% over 2017-2020.”

• By contrast, Moody’s had raised India’s sovereign rating by one notch, citing the country’s high growth potential compared with similarly rated peers and economic and institutional reforms that had been undertaken or were in the pipeline.

• S&P said the government’s reform agenda could be bolstered by electoral gains for the ruling coaliton.

• Taking note of the reforms that have been pushed through in recent years to address ‘long-standing impediments to the country’s growth’ such as GST, the Bankruptcy Code and a framework for resolving bad loans while recapitalising state-owned banks.

Lending to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) is projected to grow

• Lending to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) is projected to grow at 11% over the next two fiscal years, said rating agency Crisil.

• However, though opportunities abounded, continuous tracking of sectors was critical to managing risks, the rating agency said.

• Crisil forecast 11% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) in lending to micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) in India, over the next two fiscals. This is faster than the estimate for 7% growth in bank credit to India Inc.

• The growth estimate for lending to SMEs compares with a 13% CAGR seen in the past five fiscals ended March 2017, with NBFCs recording a fourfold increase in their credit book.

• Consequently, cumulative market share of non-banks in MSME financing rose to about 18% in fiscal 2017, from 8% five years ago. Currently, the MSME lending market size is estimated at about Rs. 14 lakh crore.

• While competition has intensified and asset quality has weakened, the overall opportunity remains compelling, given the huge under-penetration of formal finance in the segment, the credit rating agency said.

There would be fewer GST rate slabs going forward

• Chief Economic Adviser Arvind Subramanian said going forward, there would be fewer GST rate slabs and petroleum products are to be brought under the Goods and Services Tax with the cooperation of the States.

• “It will happen in the next few months and years … and done cooperatively,” he replied to a query on when petrol and diesel would come in the ambit of GST and whether States would agree to such a move.

• The Petroleum Ministry had earlier written to the GST Council asking for petrol and diesel to be brought under the GST, something that may not go down well with the State governments as the VAT they levy on the fuel is a major revenue earner.

• Besides, the other significant levy on petrol and diesel is the excise duty component. Bringing fuel under the GST is expected to reduce the pump price.

• Mr. Subramanian, said it was difficult to have one GST rate in a country like India, given that it would translate into taxing essential commodities and luxury items at the same level.

• To another query on the proposal to change the financial year from April-March to January-December, he said no decision had been taken yet.

• On the use of cryptocurrencies, he said bitcoins were banned and the government alone had the prerogative to issue currency.

Govt is planning bids for a total of 20,000 MW of solar energy plants

• The government is planning bids for a total of 20,000 MW of solar energy plants projects in this financial year, of which 3,600 MW have already been completed, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy said.

• The Ministry is planning bids for 30,000 MW of solar projects in 2018-19 and 2019-20, each. In wind energy, the Centre on Friday announced the third wind power auction of 2,000 MW, the largest of its kind in India so far.

• Power and New and Renewable Energy Minister R.K. Singh also said that the government would soon invite expressions of interest for the setting up of end-to-end solar component manufacturing in India of 20 GW capacity.

• As per the Ministry’s plan, Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) will invite two separate bids for 3,000 MW of solar projects in December 2017 and January 2018 each.

• NTPC is to invite a bid for 5,000 MW of solar projects in February 2018, and another 6,000 MW will be bid out in March 2018 by SECI and other Central PSUs.

• In wind energy, the Ministry said it had already received bids for 32 GW of projects, which is more than 50% of the 60 GW target set for 2022.

• The government is expecting bids for a total of 8-9 GW this year, and 10 GW each in 2018-19 and 2019-20.

::Science and Tech::

Natural bacterial immune system converted into the world’s smallest data recorder

• Researchers have converted a natural bacterial immune system into the world’s smallest data recorder, laying the groundwork for a new class of technologies that use bacterial cells for everything from disease diagnosis to environmental monitoring.

• The researchers have modified an ordinary laboratory strain of the ubiquitous human gut microbe Escherichia coli , enabling the bacteria to not only record their interactions with the environment but also time-stamp the events.

• Other applications could include environmental sensing and basic studies in ecology and microbiology, where bacteria could monitor otherwise invisible changes without disrupting their surroundings, according to the study published in the journal Science .

• Mr. Wang and his team created the microscopic data recorder by taking advantage of CRISPR-Cas, an immune system in many species of bacteria.

• CRISPR-Cas copies snippets of DNA from invading viruses so that subsequent generations of bacteria can repel these pathogens more effectively.

• As a result, the CRISPR locus of the bacterial genome accumulates a chronological record of the bacterial viruses that it and its ancestors have survived.

Click Here for Daily Current Affairs Archive

Click Here for Study Material for SSC CGL Exam

Click Here to Join Online Course for SSC CGL Exam