Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 31 October 2015

:: National ::

Aviation policy to connect remote cities better exceeding s 5

Joy of flying becomes a reality for the middle and lower middle classes. The Civil Aviation Ministry on Friday introduced a new policy ensuring flying at a cost as low as Rs 2,500 between two cities for a distance span not extending one hour of travel.
Dedicating the proposed draft policy to the common man, Minister of State for Civil AviationMahesh Sharma told Mail Today "Air travel is no more a rich man's domain.
It was long overdue and a policy ensuring air travel for common man was something a top priority on the development agenda of PM Narendra Modi.
He (Modi) has been talking about how to open doors of aeroplanes for the middle class in the country. The draft policy ensures to cut down the monetary barriers in peak rush season.''
Sharma said the draft policy will allow every common man, especially living in small cities, to fly at least once a year.
On the other hand, a big infrastructure upgrade involving smaller airports and allied services sector development fuelling economic growth is on the cards, he added.
According to the new policy, the government has proposed to charge Rs 2,500 cap for one hour of journey.
Also, the Ministry of Civil aviation (MoCA) has proposed a Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS) that will come into effect from April 1, 2016 and boost connectivity within states and regions.
The government has also proposed revival of air strips, depending on demand, as No-Frills Airports will be constructed at a cost not exceeding Rs 50 crore, mostly through the AAI to increase the connectivity.

:: Miscellaneous ::

Worldwide TB death rate nearly halved since 1990, says new WHO report

“The fight against tuberculosis is paying off, with this year’s death rate nearly half of what it was in 1990.
Nevertheless, 1.5 million people died from TB in 2014. Most of these deaths could have been prevented,” according to WHO’s Global tuberculosis report 2015 issued from Washington.
To reduce TB’s overall burden, detection and treatment gaps need to be closed, funding shortfalls filled and new diagnostics, drugs and vaccines developed, according to the report.
Most of the improvement has come since 2000, the year the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were established. In all, effective diagnosis and treatment saved 43 million lives between 2000 and 2015, according to the report, the 20th in a series of annual evaluations produced by WHO
“The report shows that TB control has had a tremendous impact in terms of lives saved and patients cured,” said WHO Director-General Margaret Chan.
“These advances are heartening, but if the world is to end this epidemic, it needs to scale up services and, critically, invest in research.
” Those advances include the achievement of the MDG that called for halting and reversing TB incidence by 2015.
The goal was reached globally and in 16 of the 22 high-burden countries that collectively account for 80% of cases. Worldwide, TB incidence has fallen 1.5% per year since 2000, for a total reduction of 18%. “Despite the gains, the progress made against TB is far from sufficient,” according to Dr Mario Raviglione, Director of WHO’s Global TB Programme. “We are still facing a burden of 4400 people dying every day, which is unacceptable in an era when you can diagnose and cure nearly every person with TB.”
In 2014, TB killed 890,000 men, 480,000 women and 140 000 children.
The disease ranks alongside HIV as a leading killer worldwide. Of the 1.5 million people killed by TB in 2014, 400,000 were HIV-positive. HIV’s total death toll in 2014 was estimated at 1.2 million, which included the 400 000 TB deaths among HIV-positive people.
This year’s report describes higher global totals for new TB cases (9.6. million) than in previous years.
However, these figures reflect increased and improved national data and in-depth studies rather than any increase in the spread of the disease.
More than half of the world’s TB cases (54%) occurred in China, India, Indonesia, Nigeria and Pakistan. Among new cases, an estimated 3.3% have multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB), a level that has remained unchanged in recent years.

Climate commitments will cause global temperature increase

Researchers claimed that global temperatures will rise by about 3 degrees Celsius even though there are efforts to decrease emissions. European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) conducted an assessment that shows climate commitments made by 155 nations of The 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP21, would raise the global temperature by 3 degrees Celsius.
The 155 countries have submitted their Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) on climate policy to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). These countries represent nearly 90 percent of the global emissions, and their climate negotiations will be held in Paris in December 2015.
The European Commission Joint Research Centre stated if the policy is fully implemented, then unconditional INDCs could set global emissions growth at 17 percent above the rate in 2010 in the next 15 years, and that assumes that this goal doesn’t require financial assistance from international climate organizations or assistance from international cooperation mechanisms.
According to the European Union’s scenario, it is ideal to limit global temperature rise to below 2 degrees Celsius, and emissions would rise in 2020, then decline to 10 percent below 2010 rates by the year 2030.
JRC found that global emissions could rise 10 percent about 2010 levels right before 2030 with the conditional and unconditional INDCs.

:: Business ::

10 things about Sovereign Gold Bonds

In a bid to bring down the import of gold and to give an alternative to buy physical gold, the Finance Ministry has announced the Sovereign Gold Bondscheme. This is the first tranche of the gold bond scheme and subsequent tranches would be notified later, it added.
The borrowing through gold bonds will form a part of the market borrowing programme of the government. The bonds will be issued by the Reserve Bank.
Here are ten things you need to know about investing in sovereign gold bonds

1) The gold bond scheme has been announced to give an alternative to consumers in place of physical gold.

2) The minimum permissible bond should be worth 2 grams of gold, and the maximum can be 500 grams.

3) The Sovereign Gold Bonds will be open for public subscription from November 5 to 20th. The bonds will be eventually issued on November 26. The Sovereign Gold Bonds will offer an interest rate of 2.75%. The interest will be payable semi-annually on the initial value of investment. There would also be a commission of 1% on the subscription amount for distribution of bonds.

4) The bonds will be sold through banks and designated post offices as may be notified by the Finance Ministry.

5) The tenor of the bond will be for a period of eight years with exit option from 5th year to be exercised on the interest payment dates.

6) The price of the bond will be fixed in rupee terms, on the basis of the previous week's (Monday - Friday) simple average of closing price of gold of 999 purity published by the India Bullion and Jewellers Association Ltd. The same procedure would be followed for calculating the redemption price for the bonds.

7) The interest earned on gold bonds would be taxable, and capital gains tax shall be levied as in case of physical gold, the statement said.

8) The bonds can be used as collateral for loans and the loan-to-value (LTV) ratio will be set equal to ordinary gold loan mandated by the Reserve Bank from time to time.

9) The bonds will be tradable on exchanges and will be eligible for Statutory Liquidity Ratio.

10) The bonds will be restricted for sale to resident Indian entities including individuals, HUFs, trusts, universities and charitable institutions.