Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 31 August 2017

::National::

99% of demonetised notes returned, says RBI report

• The Reserve Bank of India’s annual report has finally revealed that as much as Rs. 15.28 lakh crore of the high-value currency that was demonetised in November 2016 returned to the central bank.
• “Subject to future corrections, based on the verification process when completed, the estimated value of SBNs [specified bank notes] received as on June 30, 2017, is Rs. 15.28 trillion,” the RBI said in its report.
• The central bank was under intense scrutiny since January — after the window for depositing the withdrawn Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000 banknotes had closed — for details on the extent of currency that was returned to the banking system in the wake of the government’s decision to withdraw high-value banknotes as a means to combat counterfeiting, black money and the financing of terrorist activities.
• The latest RBI data showed that 98.96% of the withdrawn currency — at the time of demonetisation the value of old Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000 notes in circulation was Rs. 15.44 lakh crore — was deposited with the banks.
• Separately, the data showed that the share of newly introduced Rs. 2,000 banknotes in the total value of currency in circulation was 50.2% at end-March 2017.
• The final deposit figures could still rise since on June 20, 2017, the government allowed District Central Cooperative Banks to deposit the withdrawn notes that had been accepted by them from customers between November 10-14.
• The central bank also said it was in discussion with the government whether to accept the demonetised notes held by citizens and financial institutions in Nepal.
• Data in the annual report showed that only 89 million pieces of Rs. 1,000 were not deposited.
• As of March 2016, there were 6,326 million pieces of Rs. 1,000 banknotes in circulation. In 2016-2017, another 925 million pieces of Rs. 1,000 notes were supplied into the system by the currency printing presses.
• Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said that the confiscation of money was never the objective of the demonetisation exercise.

Technology reaches Ganesh idols

• Hyderabad police are using technology for better monitoring of the festivities
• As the widely celebrated Ganesh Chaturthi is on, idols of the elephant-headed god in different forms have sprung up in every nook and corner of Hyderabad.
• This is the trend every year but this time, most of the Vigneshwara idols have one thing in common — the Quick Response (QR) code. And they were also geo-tagged.
• Usage of technology is not new to Hyderabad police but they are using the QR code and geo-tag for better monitoring of the festivities.
• With every Ganesh idol getting a QR code, it has become much easier for the police officials to find out the exact number of idols installed. Specific location of the idols and verification by policemen of the local police station concerned are being effectively monitored by the superior officers.
• They are feeding details of the pandal organisers, their contact numbers and other details and linking them to the QR code. For even closer supervision, police patrolling parties like Blue Colts were asked to to visit each pandal and geo-tag the idol.
• These details are being fed into their mobile phones and the entire data is made available to the top officials for better management. Geo-tagging details of idols are superimposed on the geo-spatial maps. “This helps in identifying clusters of idols in specific localities, deploying additional forces and keeping tabs on their movement,” the DCP explained.

Till Dec. 31 Aadhar can be linked to schemes

• The notifications issued by various Ministries under Section 7 of the Aadhaar Act require beneficiaries to link their numbers. On hearing Mr. Venugopal’s submission, a Bench, led by the Chief Justice of India, posted the petitions for the first week of November.
• Mr. Divan drew the court’s attention to the concluding paragraph in Justice Rohinton Nariman’s separate judgment on the nine-judge Bench which had, last week, declared privacy a fundamental right. This paragraph directed the Aadhaar petitions to be posted for hearing before the “original” three-judge Bench.
• The “original” Bench led by Justice J. Chelameswar had referred the petitions before a five-judge Bench, which found it necessary to decide whether privacy was a fundamental right or not.
• It referred the legal question to the nine-judge Bench, which came out with the historic judgment in favour of the common man’s fundamental right to privacy against state intrusions.
• The privacy verdict has a crucial bearing on the Aadhaar petitions, which have argued that use of biometric details such as fingerprints and iris scans violate bodily and informational privacy.
• The petitioners argue that mandatory requirement of Aadhaar for these schemes “constrict rights and freedoms which a citizen has long been enjoying unless and until they part with their personal biometric information to the government”.
• The petitions have termed the Aadhaar Act unconstitutional and contrary to the concept of limited and accountable government.

New consumer law to make consumer king

• The famous 1992 McDonald’s Coffee Case, where the fast food chain had to cough up $640,000 as compensation to 79-year-old Stella Liebeck for “unreasonably dangerous” and “defectively manufactured” coffee, could soon repeat itself in India.
• The new Consumer Protection Bill 2016 that seeks to replace a 31-year-old archaic law, has provisions to sue a manufacturer for not “giving adequate instructions of correct usage to prevent any harm or any warning regarding improper or incorrect usage.”
• “So if a fast food chain does not serve coffee with adequate warning, then a lawsuit can be filed against them,” a senior official at the Department of Consumer Affairs said.
• The Bill, which has been languishing for the last two years will soon come up for Cabinet approval.
• The Bill replaces the Consumer Protection Act, 1986. The new law has provisions for Product Liability, which was unheard in India. The Bill was first introduced on August 10, 2015 and referred to the standing committee on August 26.
• The panel submitted its report in August 2016, suggesting 80 amendments. This sent the government back to the drawing board, to rewrite the law.
• Under the new draft, even the service providers like airlines can face liability action. “A flyer can sue an airline seeking not just reimbursement for a missed flight but also compensation for any important event or meeting he or she missed because the flight was cancelled at last minute,” the senior official added.
• The consumer can lodge a complaint from anywhere unlike the existing law under which a consumer had to register the complaint at the same place from where she purchased the product.
• Further, unlike the 1986 law, the complainant need not be accompanied by a lawyer. At any point, if the manufacturer and the complainant arrive at compromise through mediation process, the latter can withdraw the complaint.
• The Bill proposes an investigative body, the Central Consumer Protection Authority, on the lines of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission.

Sants call for action against ‘fake babas’

• Reacting to the recent conviction of Dera Sacha Sauda head Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh on rape charges, the Akhil BharatiyaAkhara Parishad (ABAP), the apex governing body of 13 major akharas (organisations of Hindu sants) in the country, has decided to seek government action against ‘fake’ gurus and self-styled ‘godmen’ who dupe the gullible.
• “Ram Rahim Singh is not a real mahatma or mahant. There are too many fake mahatmas and babas roaming about fooling the people. They don’t belong to any akhara or tradition,” said Mahant Narendra Giri, head of the ABAP.
• The ABAP will pass a resolution on the matter on September 10 in Allahabad. It will then hand over a memorandum to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, seeking action against a list of ‘fake babas’.
• It is also likely to pressure the government to not allocate land to unrecognised, self-styled babas at the next ArdhKumbh Mela (held every six years) in Allahabad.
• To keep ‘fake babas’ from occupying spiritual posts in the akharas, the ABAP plans to make the process of selecting the mahamandaleshwars (spiritual heads) of akharas tougher. Mahamandaleshwars will be selected after a proper interview and a background check of their financial history and criminal antecedents, if any.
• The ABAP will also demand a probe into the property and belongings of all the babas not affiliated to any akhara or tradition. Mr Giri said he had no problem with the sadhus anointed by the akharas or bodies affiliated to them.

NITI Aayog’s Ease of Doing Business Report

• Despite the government claiming to have provided business-friendly environment to investors and attracting huge investments in past decade-and-a-half, Odisha has been categorised as a low-growth State in the country in the latest NITI Aayog survey.
• The NITI Aayog’s ‘Ease of Doing Business Report: An Enterprise Survey of Indian States’, released, points at more hurdles in setting up new businesses in Odisha compared to other States. The 15-high growth States include Bihar, Uttarakhand, Tripura, Sikkim and Meghalaya.
• The NITI Aayog and IDFC Institute, its knowledge partner, have classified States on the basis of their average annual real growth rate using State Gross Domestic Product from 2004-05 to 2013-14.
• We calculated the median average annual growth rate, which turns out to be 8.14%. The States that experienced annual average growth rate equal to or above the median were classified as high-growth States and those with annual growth rate below the median were categorised as low-growth States.
• At a growth rate of 6.59%, Odisha falls in low-growth category.
• According to the study, enterprises in high-growth States reported fewer regulatory hurdles. This establishes an empirical link between superior regulatory environment and better economic performances.
• On average, enterprises reported taking 52 days, 61 days, and 76 days for getting electricity, water, and sewerage connections respectively.
• The World Bank 2017 Doing Business report ranks India at number 25 for getting electricity connection and it is estimated that getting the connection takes about 46 days. It takes an average of 31 days to get electricity connection in Karnataka, 32 days in Gujarat and around 95 days in Odisha says the report.
• Odisha is listed among States with lowest proportion of enterprises having knowledge of their environment category. Only 22% of enterprises in Odisha are aware of their category.
• Similarly, the age distribution of high-growth and low-growth enterprises shows that in general, the share of young enterprises is higher in the high-growth States than in the low-growth States.
• Around 20% of enterprises in Odisha are young whereas percentage of young enterprises in Bihar is above 70%.

Indian Navy is looking to add to its fleet dedicated helicopters

• With expanding profile in the Indian Ocean Region, the Indian Navy is looking to add to its fleet dedicated helicopters for ‘Special Operations’. Some of the Naval Multi-Role Helicopters (NMRH) for which the tender was issued will be in this configuration.
• Of the 123 NMRH to be procured, 33 will be dedicated variants for Special Operations.
• The Navy had issued the Request for Information (RFI) to global Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM) for the procurement of 123 NMRH and 111 Naval Utility Helicopters (NUH). The procurement would be under the recently approved Strategic Partnership (SP) model of the Defence Procurement Procedure (DPP).
• Some of the 33 helicopters would be used for training Marine Commandos (MARCOS) and the rest would be based on shore as well as on frontline warships.
• The helicopters would be twin-engine and weigh at least 12.5 tonnes. According to the RFI, the requirements include the ability to carry 12 fully equipped troops along with 400 Kg of equipment or eight fully equipped troops and one auto inflatable craft in a stowed configuration.
• In addition to special operations and commando role, the helicopters will also perform other roles like ferrying troops, maritime interdiction including anti-piracy operations, combat search and rescue operation, external cargo carriage, limited casualty evacuation (CASEVAC) and Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR).
• The Navy currently has a few variants of Sea King helicopters in service. But they are of 1970s vintage and technologically obsolete. Several attempts to replace them have failed in the past.

Frontline to see more soldiers

• The number of soldiers available for active combat with the Army is set to dramatically go up by over 57,000 in the wake of the Union cabinet accepting a slew of military reforms.
• The recommendations were made by a committee headed by Lieutenant General (Retd.) D.B. Shekatkar for enhancing combat capability and rebalancing defence expenditure of the Armed Forces to increase the teeth-to-tail ratio.
• “This committee had submitted around 99 recommendations. The Government, in consultation with the Indian Army, has been going through them, and the first batch of 65 recommendations were accepted. All these have to be operationalised by the end of 2019,” Defence Minister Arun Jaitley said.
• Defence sources said that all these recommendations are related to the Army and the remaining 34 recommendations pertaining to the Navy, Air Force and Integrated Defence Staff (IDS) are likely to be taken up soon.
• The first phase of the reforms involves redeployment and restructuring of approximately 57,000 posts of officers/Junior Commissioned Officers (JCO)/ Other Ranks (OR) and civilians.
• The various areas of reform include optimisation of signal establishments, restructuring of repair echelons including base workshops, redeployment of ordnance depots, better utilisation of supply and transport echelons and animal transport units, closure of military farms and Army postal establishments in peace locations, and improving efficiency of the National Cadet Corps (NCC).
• Of these, the order for the closure of 39 military farms was issued in the beginning of August and would be completed in three months.

B.R.D. Hospital saw 296 deaths in August

• As many as 296 children died this month at the Baba Raghav Das (B.R.D.) Medical College Hospital here, its Principal P.K. Singh said.
• Of them, 213 died in the neo-natal ICU and 83 in the encephalitis ward, Dr. Singh said. There were 1,256 deaths since January this year at the State-run hospital, especially in the encephalitis, infant and children wards.
• Earlier, giving a break-up of the causalities at the hospital, Dr. Singh said 37 children died on August 27 and 28, of whom 26 died in the neo-natal ICU (NICU) and 11 in the encephalitis wards. The toll was 152 in January, 122 in February, 159 in March, 123 in April, 139 in May, 137 in June and 128 in July.
• Forty-two children died in the last 48 hours at the hospital, of which seven deaths were due to encephalitis, Dr. Singh said.
• “Of the many children coming to us in an extremely critical condition, some survive for barely half an hour to an hour,” Dr. Singh said. The total number of in-ward patients at the hospital varied from 342 to 350 a day.
• Earlier, in August, over 70 children had died in the hospital due to lack of oxygen supply. On August 23, an FIR was registered against nine persons, including the suspended Principal Rajiv Mishra and two officials from the oxygen supplying agency, Pushpa Sales Private Limited.

::INTERNATIONAL::

U.S. conducts missile test off Hawaii

• The U.S. military shot down a medium-range ballistic missile target off the coast of Hawaii, in a successful test of a missile interception system Japan is seeking to bolster its defence.
• The test was performed by the U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) and the U.S. Navy from the USS John Paul Jones, a guided-missile destroyer.
• Using Standard Missile-6 guided missiles, the test intercepted a medium-range ballistic missile launched from the Pacific Missile Range Facility on Kauai, Hawaii by using the USS John Paul Jones’s onboard AN/SPY-1 radar. This marks the second time that an SM-6 has successfully intercepted a medium-range ballistic missile target.

Rohingya crises

• The International Organisation of Migration (IOM) said that about 18,500 Rohingya Muslims have crossed into Bangladesh since fighting erupted in the Rakhine State six days ago, while thousands more are stuck at the Bangladesh border or scrambling to reach it.
• Meanwhile, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina urged the U.S. to put pressure on Myanmar to stop the exodus of their nationals.
• “We have given shelter to a huge number of Rohingya refugees on humanitarian grounds and it’s a big problem for us... So I call upon you to mount pressure on Myanmar in this regard,” state news agency BSS quoted Ms. Hasina
• About five lakh Rohingyas have already taken shelter in Bangladesh over the last two decades.
• Meanwhile, the two major parties have taken different positions on the Rohingya issue. While the ruling Awami League has urged Myanmar to take back the refugees, Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) leader Khaleda Zia has called upon the government to open the border for the refugees.
• At least 109 people have been killed in the clashes with insurgents, Myanmar says, most of them militants but also members of the security forces and civilians.
• Further, at least 4,000 people are stranded in no man’s land between the two countries, with temporary shelters stretching for several hundred metres on a narrow strip between the Naf river and Myanmar’s border fence.
• Meanwhile, Rohingya refugees in Malaysia protested against the violence in northwest Myanmar.
• Some 1,200 mostly Rohingya Muslims — holding placards that read ‘Stop killing Rohingya’ — took to the streets of Malaysia’s capital to appeal for an end to the violence.
• About 155 demonstrators were arrested as Malaysian police stopped the protest. Police said one man tried to set himself on fire with petrol.
• Muslim-majority Malaysia is home to nearly 60,000 refugees and asylum-seekers of the Rohingya minority, who suffer persecution in mostly Buddhist Myanmar.

::ECONOMY::

Luxury cars and SUVs may become more expensive

• Luxury cars and SUVs may become more expensive with the Union Cabinet approving an ordinance to raise the maximum compensation cess that can be levied over and above the 28% GST on such cars, from 15 % to 25%.
• However, these changes will not come into effect immediately. The final decision of whether the cess should be raised, and by how much, will be taken by the GST Council, whose next meeting is on September 9.
• Mr. Jaitley reasoned, “The object of any taxation policy can’t be that its impact is [that] luxury becomes cheaper and an essential item becomes more expensive. If at all relief has to be given, it is to be given to a common man’s item rather than a luxury item. A person who can afford Rs. 1 crore for a car can also afford Rs. 1 crore, 2 lakh.”
• The “enabling ordinance” will now be sent to the President for promulgation. Mr. Jaitley was non-committal if the issue would be taken up in the next GST Council meeting.
• Post the introduction of the new indirect tax regime, several carmakers, including makers of luxury cars and SUV who were one of the biggest beneficiaries of GST, had slashed rates to pass the benefits to the consumer.
• If the GST Council decides to increase the cess, luxury car prices may to go up by 8-10%, according to industry analysts. While Mercedes cars will be costlier by a minimum of Rs. 3 lakh, an Audi Q7 will see a price increase of Rs. 7 lakh, while an Audi A6 will be costlier by Rs. 5 lakh.
• Earlier, those luxury cars where excise duties were levied at 27% or 30%..., the same categorisation is being followed. There is no intention of raising the tax rate on any car, other than those which were put in the luxury category and had high excise and VAT rates.
• According to industry consultants, luxury cars, SUVs and ambulances will be impacted.
• This will increase the post-GST price of many vehicle categories from pre-GST levels, it warned.
• “This is contradictory position of the Government that while on the one hand it has identified the automotive industry as a sunrise sector of Indian economy, [while] on the other hand it is being treated as a demerit product,” it said, adding that all the vehicles that were attracting 24% or 27% excise duty in the pre-GST regime may potentially attract higher tax under GST because of this decision.
• Echoing similar sentiments, Audi India Head Rahil Ansari said the increase in cess will force the firm “to hike our prices to levels higher than in the pre-GST period,” while also make them “redraw our plans for the Indian market based on future projections in this scenario.”
• He said this was bound to adversely impact sales by possibly a double-digit reduction and “will consequently reduce revenues for the company, dealers and perhaps also tax revenues for the Government.”
• While small in volume, the luxury car segment contributed about 10% to the Indian automobile market.

Deposit of black money, evidence of success: FM

• Finance Minister Arun Jaitley asserted that any attempt to measure the success of the government’s demonetisation exercise on the basis of the amount of money that stayed out of the system was flawed since the confiscation of money had not been the objective.
• Reacting to RBI data showing that Rs. 15.28 lakh crore, or almost 99%, of the demonetised Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000 banknotes worth Rs. 15.44 lakh crore had returned to banks, Mr. Jaitley said the government had met its principal objectives of reducing the reliance on cash in the economy, expanding the tax base and pushing digitisation.
• “That people have been compelled to deposit even black money into banks is itself a good evidence of its [success],” the Finance Minister said, pointing out that the high growth in income tax returns and the robust GST inflows indicate that more and more people now prefer to undertake ‘white money’ transactions.
• “We have more taxpayers both on direct and indirect tax, as reflected in the 27% rise in personal income tax returns filed and the GST collections in its first month — a larger tax base, more digitisation, lesser cash, integration of the informal economy with the formal economy, which was also the principal objective of demonetisation,” he said.
• While the volume of cash in the economy that was ‘predominantly cash-based before demonetisation’ had declined by 17%, Mr. Jaitley said the impact on terror activity was clearly visible in strife-torn States such as Chhattisgarh and Jammu and Kashmir.

Nasscom, to set up two centres of excellence

• The National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom), in conjunction with State governments, plans to set up two centres of excellence in data sciences and another one for cybersecurity soon, K.S. Vishwanathan, vice president, Industry Initiatives.
• “Along with the government of Karnataka and government of Telangana, we will be announcing two centres of excellence in data sciences,” Mr. Vishwanathan said.
• “The process of executing these centres is going on in both the states. Both are supported by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.”
• The Center of Excellence for IoT (Internet of Things) will be expanded to three other centres. The location will be decided by the Government. Another Center of Excellence will get established in Karnataka on cybersecurity.
• The Center of Excellence is an initiative started in 2013 to build up an ecosystem in India to connect various entities such as start-ups, enterprises, venture capitalists, Government and academia. It is supported by the federal and State governments.
• The main objective of the centre is to help Indian start-ups leverage latest technology to build market-ready products.
• U.S. is the largest with about 60,000 start-ups. Within a span of four years,India has emerged among the top three. India is close to number two with U.K. This year should possibly overtake U.K.
• According to Nasscom, 27% of the start-ups are based in Bangalore and about 24% each in Northern region (NCR) and Western region (Mumbai, Pune). The balance is scattered.
• In the initial phase, 60% of the start-ups were in the business-to-consumer and 40% in business-to-business category. In B2C, a bulk of them were in the e-commerce segment, mobility commerce, and Internet commerce, according to Nasscom.
• Now the equation has changed. Sixty percent is in B2B and 40% in B2C. B2B is also supported by technologies like IoT, AI, enterprise ready start-ups and blockchain.
• India has about 6,000 start-ups and close to 140 accelerators and incubators. Both corporate, private and government accelerators put together have registered a 35% year-on-year growth last year and Nasscom expects the growth rate to be maintained this fiscal year too.
• “We believe we have a unique position. If India’s own problems can be solved by apps or start-up solutions, say, in water-related or garbage-related or education-related areas, that solution can be used for every part of sub-Saharan Africa, where people cannot afford technology which Western countries can. The opportunity is huge,” according to Mr. Vishwanathan.

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