::NATIONAL::

Supreme court directs political parties to cleanse themselves

•  The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed political parties to publish online the pending criminal cases of their candidates and urged Parliament to bring a “strong law” to cleanse political parties of leaders facing trial for serious crimes.

•  Rapid criminalisation of politics cannot be arrested by merely disqualifying tainted legislators but should begin by “cleansing” political parties, a five-judge Constitution Bench, led by Chief Justice of India DipakMisra, observed.

•  The court said Parliament should frame a law that makes it obligatory for political parties to remove leaders charged with “heinous and grievous” crimes, such as rape, murder and kidnapping, to name only a few, and refuse ticket to offenders in both parliamentary and Assembly polls.

•  The Bench, also comprising Justices A.M. Khanwilkar, RohintonNariman, D.Y. Chandrachud and InduMalhotra, however, made it clear that the court cannot legislate for Parliament by introducing disqualification to ban candidates facing trial for heinous crimes from contesting elections.

Report claim rise in unemployment among educated youth

•  With higher growth rates not having translated into more jobs and increases in productivity failing to spur a commensurate rise in wages, the government ought to formulate a National Employment Policy that takes these trends into account, the State of Working India 2018, a new study released by AzimPremji University’s Centre for Sustainable Employment, recommends.

•  Confirming the spectre of jobless growth, the study contends that this divergence between growth and jobs had increased over time. “If you look back at the 1970s and 80s, when GDP growth was around 3-4%, employment growth was about 2%,” lead author AmitBasole wrote in the study, released on Tuesday. “Currently, the ratio of GDP growth to employment growth is less than 0.1.” That means that a 10% increase in GDP results in a less than 1% increase in employment.

•  In the organised manufacturing sector, though the number of jobs has grown, there has also been an increase in the share of contract work, which offers lower wages and less job security, according to the study.

•  Also, of concern is the divergence of productivity and wages in the organised manufacturing sector. Labour productivity in the sector is six times higher than it was 30 years ago; however, managerial and supervisory salaries have only tripled in the same period, while production workers’ wages have grown a measly 1.5 times.

::ECONOMY::

Finance minister launches Jandhandarshak application

•  Department of Financial Services (DFS), Ministry of Finance and National Informatics Centre (NIC) has jointly developed a mobile app called Jan DhanDarshak as a part of financial inclusion (FI) initiative . As the name suggests, this app will act as a guide for the common people in locating a financial service touch point at a given location in the country.

•  While locator apps are a common feature for many individual banks and financial service providers, in this era of inter-operable banking services, Jan DhanDarshak app will be in a unique position to provide a citizen centric platform for locating financial service touch points across all providers such as banks, post office, CSC, etc. These services could be availed as per the needs and convenience of the common people.

•  While over 5 lakh FI touch points (Bank branches, ATMs, Post Offices) have been mapped on this App, approx. 1.35 lakh Bank Mitras would be on-boarded by 01.12.2018.

NBFC stocks affected by liquidity crunch

•  The recent sell-off in the shares of non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) and housing finance companies (HFCs) has been so severe that some of the sector constituents are currently trading at a discount of over 50% when compared to their 52-week highs.

•  While companies such as Reliance Home Finance, Dewan Housing Finance Corporation, Can Fin Homes and GIC Housing Finance have seen their share price halve compared to their highs, many such as Manapurram Finance, LIC Housing Finance, Indiabulls Housing Finance, IIFL Holdings, Edelweiss Financial Services and Shriram City Union Finance have suffered 30% to 40% erosion.

•  The recent past has seen concerns related to liquidity primarily at IL&FS, which has led to investors turn wary of the whole sector. The market has been abuzz with talks of defaults at some other listed NBFCs as well. However, some have clarified that they have not defaulted on any payment obligations.

Click Here for Study Material for SSC CGL Exam

SSC CGL (Tier-1) Exam Crash Course

::INTERNATIONAL::

Commerce & Industry minister praises Bangladesh model

•  The UnionMinister of Commerce &Industry and Civil Aviation, Suresh Prabhu, said that the economic growth of Bangladesh is a model that could be emulated by other Least Developed Countries in the region. He congratulated the Government of Bangladesh led by Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina, for the rapid strides made in the areas of economic growth, poverty eradication, and social and human development.

•  He noted that after Bangladesh graduates from the Least Developed Country Status it would no longer have duty-free and quota-free access to the Indian market under SAFTA. In view of this, he proposed that India and Bangladesh may consider signing a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) which would trade in goods and services and investments.

•  Underlining the potential of jute as a natural and environment friendly fiber, he suggested that a Joint Business Group could examine the issues related to this sector.

•  Suresh Prabhu thanked the Commerce Minister of Bangladesh, Mr.Tofail Ahmed, for playing an important role in resolving issues and strengthening multilateralism in the global trading system. He called for continued cooperation of India and Bangladesh to make World Trade Organization a stronger body and support global trade.

Sweden brings in no confidence motion to oust PM

•  Sweden’s centre-right Opposition and the far right ousted Prime Minister Stefan Löfven in a vote of no-confidence on Tuesday, as the left and right blocs wrangle over who can form a new government after neither won a majority in September 9 elections.

•  Mr.Löfven’s departure was widely anticipated. The head of the Opposition four-party Alliance, Ulf Kristersson, has since election night, insisted that he intends to try to form a government.

•  With neither bloc able to build a majority, the far-right, anti-immigration Sweden Democrats, who won almost 18% of votes in the election and is the country’s third-biggest party, has demanded that it be given influence over Swedish politics in exchange for its support in Parliament. But neither the left nor right has been willing to negotiate with the Sweden Democrats.

::SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY::

India scores low in human capital score

•  India ranks 158th in the world for its investments in education and health care, according to the first-ever scientific study ranking countries for their levels of investment in human capital. The nation is placed behind Sudan (ranked 157th) and ahead of Namibia (ranked 159th) in the list. The U.S. is ranked 27th, while China is at 44th and Pakistan at 164th.

•  South Asian countries ranking below India in this report include Pakistan (164), Bangladesh (161) and Afghanistan (188). Countries in the region that have fared better than India in terms of human capital include Sri Lanka (102), Nepal (156), Bhutan (133) and Maldives (116).

•  The study, conducted by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the request of the World Bank, is the first of its kind to measure and compare the strength of countries’ “human capital”. The study underscores that when a country’s human capital score increases, its economy grows.

•  “Learning is based on average student scores on internationally comparable tests. Components measured in the functional health score include stunting, wasting, anaemia, cognitive impairments, hearing and vision loss, and infectious diseases such as HIV/AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis,” the study said.

::SPORTS::

FIFA player of the year awards announced

•  Luka Modric ended Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi’s decade-long domination of football’s individual awards by being crowned FIFA’s Player-of-the-Year on Monday.

•  The Real Madrid and Croatia midfielder starred for both club and country as Madrid won a third straight Champions League, and he inspired Croatia to reach the World Cup final for the first time.
   

Click Here for Study Material for SSC CGL Exam

SSC CGL (Tier-1) Exam Crash Course

Click Here for Daily Current Affairs Archive