Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 28 February 2019

::NATIONAL::

A five-judge Constitution Bench, led by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi, has proposed a court-monitored mediation process between the Hindu and Muslim parties litigating the Ayodhya dispute, asserting that both sides ought to give it a try even if there was only a “1% chance of success.”
Adopting a two-pronged approach, the Bench on Tuesday pitched the healing touch that an out-of-court settlement could provide, even as it went ahead with the preparations to finally hear the Ayodhya title suit appeals that have been pending in the court for almost nine years.
The eight-week period is also the time given to the Muslim parties to examine the accuracy and relevance of the Uttar Pradesh government’s official translation of thousands of pages of oral depositions and exhibits in the appeals.
The CJI also expressed the hope that mediation may help give a peaceful end to the volatile dispute between two faiths over the land where the Babri Masjid had once stood before it was demolished by karsevaks on December 6, 1992.
However, the U.P. government and senior advocate C.S. Vaidyanathan, who represents the deity Ram Lalla, both disagreed with the court’s suggestion on mediation. Interestingly, the NirmohiAkhara, one of the Hindu organisations, said they were agreeable.

Three more banks Allahabad Bank and Corporation Bank, from the public sector, and Dhanlaxmi Bank from the private sector are now out of the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) prompt and corrective action (PCA) framework.
Earlier, such restrictions were taken off Bank of India, Oriental Bank of Commerce and Bank of Maharashtra.There are another six banks that are still under PCA framework.
While lifting the restrictions on the State-run lenders, RBI said the Board for Financial Supervision (BFS) reviewed the performance of the banks under PCA and noted that these two banks had received capital infusion from the government.
“The two banks have also made the necessary disclosures to the stock exchange that post infusion of capital, the CRAR, CET1, Net NPA and leverage ratios are no longer in breach of the PCA thresholds,” RBI said.
According to norms, PCA framework gets triggered when a bank breaches one of the three risk thresholds. Crossing 6% net NPA is one of them.
RBI also decided to take Dhanlaxmi Bank out of PCA , as the bank was found not to be breaching any of the risk thresholds of the framework.“RBI will continuously monitor the performance of these banks under various parameters,” the banking regulator added.

In the wake of criticism that Indian credit rating agencies (CRAs) are liberal in assigning AAA ratings, rating agency Crisil Ltd. said global and Indian AAA ratings were not comparable.
“Comparing the 276 AAA ratings that Indian CRAs have assigned with nine by S&P Global Ratings or 53 by Moody’s is erroneous. It tantamount to equating differing scales such as Celsius and Fahrenheit,” Crisil said.
“By construct, credit ratings can have and do have different scales. That’s because they are relative assessments of credit risk. And the relative benchmarking can be national, global or regional,” it added.
If the 32,500 rated Indian firms were to be assessed on the global scale, their ratings will be boxed into a far more narrow-bound between BBB and D on the global scale, because India’s sovereign rating (in the BBB category) will usually serve as a ceiling.
A national rating scale affords granular benchmarking of domestic issuers on a 20-point scale (AAA to D) and the sovereign, which has the flexibility to print local currency, is pegged at AAA on this scale.

India on Tuesday received support for its air strikes from several countries, including Australia and France.
“France recognises India’s legitimacy to ensure its security against cross-border terrorism and asks Pakistan to put an end to operations of terrorist groups established on its territory,” the spokesperson of the French Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs said in a statement.
The British government called on India and Pakistan to pursue diplomatic solutions. U.K. Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt held telephone conversations with External Affairs Minister SushmaSwaraj and Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah MehmoodQureshi.
However, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation condemned “the Indian incursion and aerial violation.” The criticism comes four days ahead of Ms.Swaraj’s speech at the OIC inaugural address in the UAE, which will be India’s first appearance at the 57-nation grouping.
Meanwhile ,China on Tuesday has responded cautiously to Indian air strikes across the Line of Control (LoC), criticising New Delhi for taking unilateral action but urging both India and Pakistan to improve ties.
China has repeatedly placed a “technical hold” on designating MasoodAzhar, head of the Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) a UN designated terror group based in Pakistan as an international terrorist by the 1267 committee of the UN Security Council, as demanded by India and other Permanent members of the Council.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and U.S. President Donald Trump arrived in Hanoi on Tuesday, ahead of a second summit closely watched for concrete steps to dismantle Pyongyang’s nuclear programme.
Mr. Trump made no comment to reporters on his aircraft but had previously tweeted his hopes for a “very productive” meeting, reiterating that North Korea could enjoy economic riches if it gave up its nuclear weapons.
“With complete Denuclearisation, North Korea will rapidly become an Economic Powerhouse,” tweeted Mr. Trump. “Without it, just more of the same.” “Chairman Kim will make a wise decision!”
Relations between the two mercurial leaders have undergone a dramatic turnaround, from flinging personal insults and threats of destruction to Mr. Trump declaring he had fallen “in love” with Mr. Kim through an exchange of letters.
Mr. Trump appeared to lower U.S. demands for Pyongyang in the run-up to the summit, repeatedly saying there was no rush to rid the North of its arsenal as long as missile and nuclear tests stopped.

As part of the ongoing India Bangladesh defence cooperation, a joint military exercise Sampriti-2019 will be conducted at Tangail, Bangladesh from 02 March to 15 March 2019.
Exercise Sampriti-2019 is an important bilateral defence cooperation endeavour between India and Bangladesh and this will be the eighth edition of the exercise which is hosted alternately by both countries.
The exercise is aimed to strengthen and broaden the aspects of interoperability and cooperation between the Indian and Bangladesh Armies. The exercise will involve tactical level operations in a counter insurgency and counter terrorism environment under the UN mandate.
In addition to understanding each other in tactical level operations, emphasis will also be laid for greater cultural understanding to strengthen military trust and cooperation between the two nations.