Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 28 August 2016

:: National ::

A meeting of chief ministers of BJP-ruled states, called by party president Amit Shah, has set up a committee to devise an agenda for poverty alleviation that could be replicated in all States ruled by the party.
The committee would comprise Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan, Jharkhand chief minister Raghubar Das, Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis and BJP vice president Vinay Sahasrabuddhe.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in the meeting that in BJP-ruled states at least, the Centre’s schemes for poverty alleviation and other schemes related to social security should be implemented in an ‘ideal way’ .
There are some schemes that are only applicable to one State, others that are replicable. This committee will go through all that and come up with a Poverty Alleviation Agenda, that will be implemented in BJP-ruled states.

It is extremely important that the BRICS nations develop an arbitration mechanism among themselves at a time when certain centres in the world have monopolised the bulk of the cases, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said.
“It is extremely important that we develop a [dispute resolution] mechanism as far as the BRICS nations are concerned,” Mr. Jaitley said while speaking at a conference on international arbitration in BRICS.
The experience over the years, Mr. Jaitley said, was that some centres did monopolise the bulk of the international arbitrations, and that many countries fear.
Theyhave periodically voiced concerns about — the fact that a lot of the awards emerging from these arbitration centres are loaded against the emerging economies.
Speaking about the role of BRICS in the world, Mr. Jaitley highlighted how, in a troubled global economy, the five BRICS nations have shouldered the global burden of growth.

President Pranab Mukherjee said universities must be bastions of free speech and expression where there should be no room for intolerance and hatred.
Addressing the first convocation ceremony of Nalanda University, Mr. Mukherjee said a university “must be the arena where diverse and conflicting schools of thought contend.
There should be no room for intolerance, prejudice and hatred within the spaces of this institution.”
Mr. Mukherjee said Nalanda University “is a symbol of Asian resurgence” that “stands not merely for quality education but also for global cooperation.”
At a time when the world is facing complex challenges and the destinies of the people across continents are interlinked, institutions of knowledge such as Nalanda University are of critical importance,” he said.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar recalled how the concept of Nalanda University came into being.
Mr. Kumar hoped that all ancient universities of the country would be “revived” like Nalanda University and, “India once again will become the seat of learning and intellectuals.”

Thalassaemia is an inherited genetic blood disorder where patients cannot produce adequate healthy haemoglobin, thereby needing continual blood transfusion.
The transfused blood, which saves their lives, creates an iron overload in the system.
The excess iron must be chelated out of their system and the drug Desferal 500 mg is used to treat the iron overload.
There are over 1 lakh thalassaemia major patients in India, according to WHO.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent comments on Balochistan that sought to bring international attention to human rights violations in the Pakistani province were praised by Baloch nationalists in exile
Mr. Mustikhan thanked Mr. Modi and “mother India” for the support to Baloch people.
Switzerland-based Nawab Brahumdagh Bugti, leader of the Baloch Republican Party, said: “It is for the first time that an Indian Prime Minister has spoken about the human rights situation and Pakistani atrocities in Balochistan.
We believe India should have taken this stand long time ago. We see it as a very positive development and hope India would soon announce its policy to raise Balochistan human rights violations internationally and support the Baloch cause.”

Many back-end accounting issues need to be addressed for early rollout of Goods and Services Tax Regime, according to senior government officials and private sector experts.
While the Constitutional Amendment Bill to enable GST finally secured Parliament’s nod this month, several more steps remain to be taken on the political and legislative side to complete the transition from the current indirect tax regime.
To start with, at least 15 states have to ratify the Constitutional changes in their legislative assemblies, followed by the President’s approval of the amendments.
A GST Council has to be formed to determine the actual tax rates and modalities and then the Cabinet has to approve the state, central and integrated GST laws.
Following this, the CGST and IGST laws have to be passed in Parliament. Each state has to pass the SGST law followed by the notification of the GST Rules.
There is still no clarity in the GST Bill about who the tax collection authority will be for GST, whether it will be the banks or some other body authorised by the government.

The international arbitration system is ad hoc and unpredictable, Minister for Law and Justice and Information Technology Ravi Shankar Prasad said, adding that India is keen to become a global hub for international arbitration.
Mr. Prasad said that only a small fraction of them was represented internationally.
Cairn Energy has initiated international arbitration seeking $5.6 billion in compensation from the Indian government against a retrospective tax demand of Rs.29,047 crore made by tax authorities.
In May, Vodafone said the International Court of Justice was set to name a presiding judge for an arbitration panel to resolve a dispute with the Indian government over a retrospective tax demand.
“The international arbitration system is ad hoc and quite frequently unpredictable,” he said.
“That concern is indeed very important. If BRICS countries have 42 per cent of the world’s population and 30 per cent of the land area and are contributing so much for the economic ecosystem of the world.
Mr. Prasad also referred to the system of bilateral investment treaties and how the current system seemed problematic.