Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 30 January 2016

:: NATIONAL ::

Centre gave response to Arunachal Pradesh President’s rule

Recurrent insurgency, Chinese claims over Indian territory, a communal Chief Minister and a document signed by a “majority” 34 MLAs urging for President’s rule in Arunachal Pradesh are factors listed by the Centre to justify the proclamation of emergency in the sensitive border State on Republic Day.
These are the highlights of a 316-page counter-affidavit filed by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) in the Supreme Court.
The Centre said President’s rule was proclaimed in Arunachal Pradesh in the interest of the country.
It said political stability is imperative in Arunachal Pradesh as it is a strategically located State.
The Chief Minister and the Speaker pitted one particular community against the other tribes and “incited, provoked and fund- ed” communal politics against the Governor, referring to his “Assamese roots”.
The Centre highlighted how the Speaker had locked out the legislators, preventing them from entering the Assembly Hall between December 15 and 18, in order to conduct a floor test of the Tuki government’s majority.
This was done on the basis of a “source information” received by the Speaker that anti-social elements would try to burn down the Assembly building.

Special Technical group formed to monitor the spread of the Zika virus

On the heels of the World Health Organization's warning on Zika virus, the government said it hasconstituted a special, technical group to monitor the spread of the virus in other countries.
Aedes mosquito which transmits dengue also transmits Zika virus. The government note emphasised an increased focus on prevention to control the spread of the Aedes mosquito that breeds in clean water.
The Zika virus has been associated with inexplicable spike in Brazil, of babies being born with unusually-small heads.
The virus has been detected in some people in the U.S. and the U.K. who have said they had travelled to South America.
There have been no reports of outbreaks of Zika in India though there is concern that given the ubiquity of air- travel, carriers of the virus may arrive in India.

NSSO data shows massive inequality in Urban India

The average asset holding of the bottom 10 per cent of urban Indian house- holds is around Rs. 291, new data from the National Sample Survey office (NSSO) show.
Most households reported owning some kind of physical or financial assets, the survey, conducted in 2012-13, shows.
On an average, rural and urban households own assets worth Rs.10 lakh and Rs.23 lakh respectively. However, the average hides a wide variation in the distribution of assets.
The bottom 10 percent (in terms of total assets) of rural households had assets worth Rs.25,071 on an average, largely as a result of the value of land, while the figure for their urban counterparts was just Rs.291, implying that the urban poor hardly own any assets.
On the other hand, the top 10 per cent of the rural and urban population had average assets worth Rs.57 lakh and Rs.1.5 crore respectively.
Haryana and Punjab had the highest average assets per household in rural areas, while Maharashtra and Kerala were on top in urban areas.
Odisha lay at the bottom in both rural and urban India.
Land and buildings held the dominant share in asset holdings, as was the case in the previous decade, comprising more than 90% of all assets in both urban and rural areas.
Financial assets that include shares in companies and cooperative societies, national saving certificates, and deposits in companies andbanks, were just two per cent of total assets in rural areas, compared with five per cent in urban areas.
The share of land as a proportion of total assets has increased with time, possibly due to the escalation of land prices, says the NSSO report.
The data also show that 31 per cent of the rural households and 22 per cent of the urban households were under debt.

:: INTERNATIONAL ::

Olympics in danger due to spread of Zika virus

With about 5,00,000 people expected to visit Brazil for the Olympics here this year, researchers are scrambling to figure how much of a risk the Games might pose in spreading the Zika virus around the world.
Infectious disease specialists are particularly focused on the potential for Zika to spread to the United States.
As many as 2,00,000 Americans are expected to travel to Rio de Janeiro for the Olympics in August.
When they return to the Northern Hemisphere and its summer heat, far more mosquitoes will be around to potentially transmit the virus in the U.S.
Brazilian researchers say they believe that Zika, which has been linked to severe birth defects, came to their country during another major sports event — the 2014 World Cup — when hundreds of thousands of visitorsflowed into Brazil.
Virus trackers here say that the strain raging in Brazil probably came from Polynesia, where an outbreak was rattling small islands around the Pacific.
As many as 1.5 million people are believed to have contracted the virus in Brazil since then, and the authorities are now investigating thousands of reported casesof babies being born recently with brain damage and ab- normally small heads.

Universal health coverage in WHO agenda

The World Health Organization (WHO) announced setting up of a dedicated unit that will focus on achieving universal health coverage (UHC), which is target 3.8 of sustainable development goals (SDGs).
The goals within SDGs emphasise the need to achieve UHC by ensuring financial risk protection and improving access to essential health care services for those marginalised.
So far, the quality of services has been neglected within the UHC dialogue. We at the WHO believe that there has been a lack of centre of gravity for quality.
It is with this in mind that a unit is being formed to address UHC & quality.
This special unit will focuson three key aspects: alignment of country engagements and global framework, health service resilience, and quality and lastly establishing partnerships to reach these goals.
This year, the prestigious award (in medicine) was conferred upon Professor Morton Mower from the UnitedStates for invention of the Automatic Implantable Cardio-verter Defibrillator, a device that helps monitor heart rate and rhythm, and deliver electrical current when abnormality is detected.

:: BUSINESS and ECONOMY ::

State run banks to get Govt. support

The government reiterated its commitment to support public sector banks’ capital needs at a time when bad loans are eroding their capital and putting pressure on profits.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is forcing banks to clean up their balance sheet by asking the lenders to make adequate provisions for bad loans, which were unidentified hitherto.
The banking regulator has prepared a list of borrower accounts, whichhas to be classified as non- performing and provided for in third and fourth quarter of the current financial year.
The government said it would provide Rs.25,000 crore in this fiscal year and an additional Rs.25,000 crore next fiscal year.
There is a transformation process under way for IDBI Bank. The finance minister said IDBI will be transformed in a manner similar to the way Axis Bank was transformed. Government holding in IDBI Bank is 76.5 per cent.
When Axis Bank commenced business it was owned by UTI and a clutch of pub- lic sector insurance companies. Ownership was one hundred per cent in the public sector, and yet it was awarded a private sector bank license.
In February 2003, the UTI shareholding was transferred to the Special Undertaking of the Unit Trust of India (SUUTI).
Since then, the Government-as-Investor stance has characterised the control of the Bank, with SUUTI acting as a special purpose vehicle holding the investment on behalf of the Government.

Govt. has managed fiscal deficit within limits

The fiscal deficit for the first nine months (April-December) of this financial year stood at 88 per cent of the annual target comparable with 100.2 per cent of the target it managed during the same period in the previous financial year.
The April-December fiscal deficit — the difference between government revenue and expenditure — stood at Rs.4.88 lakh crore, which is 88 per cent of the Rs.5.55 lakh crore target for the full year set in the Budget.
It amounts to 3.9 per cent of the GDP, a target that many industry leaders want to be pushed back in favour of increased public expenditure.
They said it will boost domestic demand.
Several economists argue that it is important to stick to the fiscal deficit target since government accounts already fail to show the correct picture.
The other argument is that the government must simultaneously increase public spending and still keep a tight grip on the fiscal deficit target since it is availing the benefit from falling oil and mineral prices.

:: SPORTS ::

Santina win Australian Open

In a perfect climax to their stupendous run, Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis were crowned the Australian Open women’s doubles champions after they tamed the spirited Czech duo of Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka 7-6(1), 6-3 for their 36th win in a row.
It was the third consecutive Grand Slam title for Sania and Hingis, having won the Wimbledon and US Open in the 2015 season.
In an incredible feat, Sania and Martina have now extended their unbeaten run to 36 matches, winning eight titles in a row.