Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 5 August 2017

::National::

India to Continue to engage the Chinese side through diplomatic channels

• Maintaining its silence on claims by the Chinese government the government said it would not comment on “operational details”, but continued to affirm that “war is not an option” despite rising tensions.

• “As far as questions on deployments are concerned, these are operational matters on our side or the other side and would not like to specifically go into them,” said MEA spokesperson.

• “We would continue to engage the Chinese side through diplomatic channels on the basis of the Astana consensus between our leaders,” he added.

• The remarks by the Ministry followed External Affairs Minister’s statement in Parliament in reply to questions from the Opposition over the government’s handling of foreign policy in general and the Doklam standoff with China in particular.

• Chinese Deputy Chief of Mission Liu Jinsong had warned that India would face “serious consequences” if it doesn’t withdraw all its troops from the area.

ISRO to launch replacement navigation satellite fitted with corrected atomic clocks

• Indian Space Research Organisation will soon launch a replacement navigation satellite fitted with corrected atomic clocks to make up for the crippled satellite, IRNSS-1A.

• The upcoming IRNSS-1H will be sent up towards the end of August and a date is yet to be fixed, ISRO Chairman said.

• Its launch became imperative after all three rubidium atomic clocks on IRNSS-1A failed in mid-2016, Mr. Kumar told . Three more clocks failed later across the fleet of seven satellites, which together had 21 atomic clocks.

• The malfunctions struck the orbiting satellites even as ISRO completed putting the seventh and last regional navigation spacecraft, 1G, in orbit in April last year. The first one was put in orbit in July 2013.

• The Rs. 1,420-crore fleet, now called NAViC or Navigation Indian Constellation, is India’s own GPS-like system to give accurate information about location and time of persons or objects — in the same way as the older U.S. Global Positioning System or Russia's GLONASS.

• Positional details are vital for civil and military aviation, defence needs, ATMs and individual users, besides transport on land, sea or air.

• The clocks for ISRO’s NavIC and the European Space Agency's first 18 Galileo satellites came from the same Swiss company and developed similar problems around the same time.

• Clarifying that ISRO continues to use all seven satellites, he said the troubled 1A can still send low-powered messages and weather data that are useful to fishermen.

• Without the clocks, IRNSS-1A gives a coarse value that cannot be used for functions that need precise data.

Bill to amend RTE to enable States to do away with the no-detention policy

• Ministry of Human Resource Development is looking to introduce a Bill to amend the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009, to enable States to do away with the no-detention policy if they wish.

• The Cabinet has cleared the introduction of the Bill and the Ministry wants it introduced in this session itself and passed in the next session.

• Twenty-five States had recently agreed with the idea of doing away with or tweaking the no-detention policy — wherein a child is not detained till Class 8 — to give a boost to levels of learning.

• Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Maharashtra did not ask for a rollback of the policy, however.

• The Centre has thus decided to allow States to take the call and to tweak the RTE Act to enable them to do so. The Bill is expected to permit States to introduce exams in Classes 5 and 8.

• Students who fail in the exams — to be held in March — will be given remedial training and offered another chance to pass in May. Those who still fail will be detained in the same class.

• There were complaints that the no-detention policy — aimed at retaining students in school and giving a fillip to education — led to learning levels taking a dip. The planned modification in the RTE Act is expected to arrest this trend.

• Dropout rates till Class 8 are just 4%, but they rise to above 20% after that. This is because of the no-detention policy.

::International::

Al-Shabab extremist group commander killed in Somalia

• The U.S. military confirmed it killed a high-level commander of the al-Shabab extremist group with an air strike in Somalia over the weekend, targeting a man blamed for planning deadly attacks in the capital of the Horn of Africa nation.

• A U.S. Africa Command statement said the strike on July 30 killed Ali Mohamed Hussein, also known as Ali Jabal. He is the highest-level al-Shabab commander killed this year.

::Business and Economy::

Bharat 22, a new exchange traded fund

• Finance Minister announced the introduction of Bharat 22, a new exchange traded fund (ETF) comprising 22 stocks including Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs), public sector banks (PSBs), and Specified Undertakings of the Unit Trust of India (SUUTI).

• The earlier ETF, the CPSE ETF, had many energy companies. Bharat 22 is a well-diversified ETF spanning six sectors — basic materials, energy, finance, FMCG, industrials, and utilities.

• “While selecting the constituent, we tried to ensure that the Bharat 22 Index would be better performing than the previous indices,” Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) Secretary. The CPSE ETF had raised Rs. 8,500 crore last year.

• ICICI Prudential would be the ETF Manager and Asia Index Private Ltd. would be the Index Provider.

• In 2016-17, the revised disinvestment target was Rs. 45,500 crore and the government realised Rs. 46,247 crore.

• This comprised CPSE, strategic disinvestment, and income from SUUTI. This year, the target was set at Rs. 72,500 crore and we have realised Rs. 9,300 so far.

• The weightage in the Bharat 22 Index given to basic materials is 4.4%, energy 17.5%, finance 20.3%, FMCG 15.2%, industrials 22.6%, and utilities 20%.

• The banking segment includes stocks from State Bank of India, Axis Bank, Bank of Baroda, Indian Bank, Rural Electrification Corporation, and Power Finance Corporation.

• The energy segment includes Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, Indian Oil Corporation, Bharat Petroleum, and Coal India.

• Investors often sought to know the government’s stake in the bank, he said. “When we go to raise equity in the market, it is always a concern for many investors as to how much the government is holding in the bank.

• The market always wants the government holding to come down in public sector banks. Our financial parameters are improving and if the government holding comes down, investors will get more attracted.

SEBI made it mandatory to disclose default on the payment of interest in a day

• The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has made it mandatory for companies to disclose default on the payment of interest or repayment of principal to banks or financial institutions within a day.

• SEBI said while current regulations require listed firms to disclose delay or default in payment of interest/principal on debt securities, there is no such requirement when loans are taken from banks or financial institutions.

• Many banks are presently under considerable stress on account of large loans to the corporate sector turning into stressed assets/NPAs. Some companies have also been taken up for initiation of insolvency and bankruptcy proceedings.

• The new norms will take effect from October 1.

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