Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 5 September 2017

::National::

BRICS SUMMIT

a) Declares Lashkar, Jaish as global terror groups

• The Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa (BRICS) grouping unequivocally named Pakistan-based groups Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) — as terror organisations, removing a key irritant in ties between New Delhi and Beijing and stepping up the fight against global extremism.

• A joint communiqué released at the BRICS summit expressed concern about the regional security situation and listed the Taliban, IS/Daesh, Al-Qaeda and its affiliates, including the Eastern Turkistan Islamic Movement, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, the Haqqani network, Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammad, TTP and Hizb-ut-Tahrir as sources of violence.

• Stressing that the formulation adopted at the ninth BRICS summit would strengthen the fight for banning terrorists and terror groups at the UN.

• The BRICS leaders called for greater efficiency in designation of terrorists and terror groups by the United Nations Committee on terrorism.

• Analysts say the BRICS declaration underscores a shift in China’s position on hyphenating its ties with India with its relationship with Pakistan. In the past, Beijing has repeatedly asked for a “technical hold” in designating the head of the Pakistan-based JeM as an international terrorist in the United Nations Security Council 1267 committee — a move that seemed to reflect its special ties with Islamabad.

• The joint statement, without exception, also deplored “all terrorist attacks worldwide,” including attacks in BRICS countries.

b) India presses for a credit rating agency

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi strongly pitched for the setting up of a BRICS credit rating agency to counter western rating institutions and cater to the financial needs of sovereign and corporate entities of developing nations.

• In an address at the plenary session of the BRICS Summit, Mr. Modi said a separate rating agency would help the economies of the member countries and other developing nations.

• “Our Central Banks must further strengthen their capabilities and promote cooperation between the Contingent Reserve Arrangement and the IMF [International Monetary Fund],” the Prime Minister said, urging early creation of the BRICS rating agency.

• Three western agencies hold over 90% of the sovereign ratings market.

c) JeM, LeT to be named as terror groups

• BRICS condemned “terrorism in all its forms and manifestations wherever committed and by whomsoever and stressed that there can be no justification whatsoever for any act of terrorism.”

• The uncomplicated formulation seemed to endorse New Delhi’s stand that there can be no distinction between terror groups, which was highlighted when it said in the context of Taliban that that there can be no “good terrorists and bad terrorists”.

• Stepping up the combat against global terrorism further at the international level, India is now planning to hold a global conference on countering radicalisation, Ms. Saran said.

• “On countering radicalisation, India in the context of the Association of South East Asian Nations (Asean) and the BRICS offered to organise a global conference on countering radicalisation.

• Countries with a positive experience on this will be able to share their experience (at this conference).

d) Naming JeM, LeT not new; action must shift to UN

• Officials hope Beijing will lift block on sanctioning Masood Azhar; they want Xi and Modi to make a bilateral commitment to end activities of terror groups

• The BRICS declaration at Xiamen, which included a paragraph on terror, has been hailed as a major shift of China’s policy of protecting Pakistan-based groups. However, experts say the reference to Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) is not a first for Beijing and must be reinforced by a bilateral commitment on terrorism during the meeting between President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

• BRICS statement will translate into China removing its block on designating JeM chief Masood Azhar as a U.N. Security Council-sanctioned terrorist when its current hold on the process at the Security Council expires on November 1.

• It is obvious that China’s new role in the region, including the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) leadership, has given it new responsibilities, and it is significant that this shift also comes post-Doklam. It is to be hoped that they will go further than the statements, however

• With regard to the violence in Afghanistan that the BRICS countries “express concern on the security situation in the region and violence caused by the Taliban, ISIL/DAISH, Al-Qaida and its affiliates including Eastern

• Turkistan Islamic Movement, Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, the Haqqani network, Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammad, TTP and Hizbut-Tahrir.”

• Last year’s BRICS conference in Goa had seen a major tussle over including the names of Pakistan-based terror groups and the term “cross-border terrorism” in the wake of the Uri attacks.

• Admitting that they had not been successful in having the specific names of groups added to the statement apart from that of the Islamic State, officials at the time had said they were “satisfied” with the final consensus.

• However, two months later, at the Heart of Asia conference in Amritsar, India had attempted a different line during negotiations on the joint text, which was signed by 14 countries including China and Pakistan, naming groups that attack security forces in Russia, China, India, Pakistan and others.

• Officials involved in India’s counter-terrorism efforts say they hope the BRICS statement will be seen as a progression in China’s stand, but add it has been 16 years since China and other UNSC countries designated JeM and more than a decade since LeT was similarly designated.

Tamil Nadu motorists would have to necessarily carry Original driving licence

• Motorists in Tamil Nadu would have to necessarily carry their original driving licences as the First Bench of the Madras High Court refused to pass any interim order restraining the traffic police from demanding production of original licences.

• The Bench comprising Chief Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice M. Sundar refused to even extend an interim order passed by a single judge.

• The single judge had passed the order after recording an undertaking given by Advocate General Vijay Narayan that the police shall not insist on original licences until Tuesday.

• Pointing out that Section 130 of the Motor Vehicles Act of 1988 requires motorists to carry only their original driving licences, the Chief Justice said: “Why should we allow vehicles to be driven without driving licences? All my life, until I was appointed a judge, I always carried my original driving licence with me.”

• When the counsel for a couple of litigants stated that there were certain practical difficulties, the Chief Justice said: “Individual carelessness cannot be cited as a reason to act against public interest.”

• Earlier, the Advocate-General told the court that the Motor Vehicles Act defined ‘driving licence’ to mean a “a licence issued by a competent authority and not one issued by a photocopying shop.”

Rohingya issue

• The Centre refused, in the Supreme Court, to give 40,000 Rohingya Muslim immigrants an assurance that it will not move for their deportation back to Myanmar.

• Additional Solicitor-General Tushar Mehta, for the Centre, remained non-committal when the two Rohingyas who moved the court tried to draw an assurance that the government would not move against their community or take “coercive steps.”

• Listing the case for hearing on September 11, a Bench led by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra asked advocate Prashant Bhushan, who appears for Mohammad Salimullah and Mohammad Shaqir, the two Rohingyas, to first serve the copy of their petition on the Centre. The court then asked Mr. Mehta to take instructions from the Centre.

SC poser to online giants on offensive content

• The Supreme Court asked Google, Microsoft, Facebook and WhatsApp to provide the number of complaints received from India of any objectionable material posted online on their sites between the period of January 1, 2016 and August 31, 2017.

• A Bench of Justices Madan B. Lokur and U.U. Lalit said the court wanted to know whether the online giants had taken any action on the complaints received from India on materials like videos or pictures of child pornography, rape and gangrape, uploaded on their sites.

• The Bench further asked the Ministry of Home Affairs to respond to whether any prosecutions were initiated under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act of 2012. The court wanted to know the number of prosecutions initiated under Sections 19 and 21 of the Act between January 1, 2016 to August 31, 2017.

• “We would like the participating companies Google, Google India, Yahoo, Microsoft, Facebook and WhatsApp to place affidavits regarding the number of complaints they have received from India about the objectionable contents concerning child pornography, rape and gangrape for the year and till August 31 and the action that has been taken on it,” the Bench observed.

• The court was hearing a letter sent to then Chief Justice of India H.L. Dattu by Hyderabad-based NGO Prajwala, along with two rape videos in a pen drive.

• The Supreme Court had on its own taken cognisance of the letter about posting of these videos on WhatsApp and had asked the CBI to launch a detailed probe to apprehend the culprits.

Daily revision of fuel price system to continue

• Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said that the daily revision of fuel prices had benefited consumers. He said the recent increase in prices was “mainly” driven by rising global prices.

• Mr. Pradhan, who has been elevated to the Cabinet rank and given additional charge of the Skill Development Ministry, said he would seek to meet the Prime Minister’s expectations from the Skill India Mission of creating “dignified job opportunity” for the youth.

• “Daily revision in prices is good. When we started daily revisions on June 16, rates dropped in the first fortnight,” he said, ruling out any change in the system.

::India and World::

Modi-Xi meet will seek to erase Doklam tensions

• Ahead of the proposed one-on-one meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping, India has signalled that it wants to open a new chapter in ties with China, going past the Doklam crisis as a reference point in the New Delhi-Beijing equation.

• “We want to bury the ghost of the D-word (Doklam) in our engagement in the future,” an official source who did not wish to be named said.

• It is as yet unclear whether the BRICS summit will be a turning point in China-India ties in the post-Doklam phase.

• But ahead of the summit, the Chinese had also pointed out that the two countries must find a long-term solution to prevent incidents such as the face-off on the Doklam plateau.

• In a briefing on the eve of the summit, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi hoped the two countries “will join hands and work together for the rejuvenation of, for the development of our region and contribute our share to the greater development”.

• Chinese President Xi Jinping had also highlighted the urgency of avoiding “confrontation” as the security template for the five emerging economies. He underscored that the BRICS grouping must uphold the value of diplomacy to resolve “hotspot issues”.

• In tune with the start of the BRICS summit, a commentary in the state-run Xinhua news agency stressed that the Xiamen gathering “offers a new chance for the leaders of the five member nations to bridge the governance deficit as the world order is in urgent need of an overhaul.”

• It underscored that with the rise of protectionism in major markets like the U.S. and parts of Europe, “BRICS must step into this vacuum and give some clear direction about what they see as the future of globalisation, and play their part in building the next phase of globalisation.”

::INTERNATIONAL::

Beijing upset over trade that by US

• China criticised President U.S. Donald Trump’s threat to cut off U.S. trade with countries that deal with North Korea and rejected pressure to do more to halt the North’s nuclear development.

• The threat was seen as a warning to China, North Korea’s main trading partner and only major ally.

• A Foreign Ministry spokesman, GengShuang, criticised Mr. Trump’s stance as unfair to Beijing.

• “What is definitely unacceptable to us is that on the one hand we work so hard to peacefully resolve this issue and on the other hand our interests are subject to sanctions and jeopardised,” he said at a regular news briefing.

• “This is unfair.” Such an approach would be drastic if applied to China, from which the United States imports goods worth about $40 billion a month. Mr. Trump had said that it was under consideration “in addition to other options.”

• Mr. Geng also expressed frustration at Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s comment that Beijing had a responsibility to influence North Korea due to its status as the North’s main trading partner.

Trump is set to scrap amnesty scheme

• U.S. President Donald Trump is set to scrap a programme that grants work permits to immigrants who arrived in the country illegally as children, a move likely to impact more than 7,000 Indian-Americans.

• The programme Deferred Action for Children Arrivals (DACA) was a key immigration reform of the former Barack Obama.

• White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders had told reporters that Mr. Trump would take a decision on the issue this week.

• However, Politico, in an exclusive story report said that Mr. Trump has already decided to rescind this programme and senior administration officials are now discussing the roll-out of his decision which could come later this week.

• Such a decision by the U.S. President, one of his poll promises, is expected to draw widespread criticism including from his own Republican party. The move is likely to impact some 7,50,000 undocumented workers, including more than 7,000 Indian-Americans.

• India ranks 11th among countries of origin for DACA students, according to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services statistics available till March 31, 2017.

Rohingya issue- Suu Kyi criticised

• Nobel peace laureate Malala Yousafzai and Muslim countries in Asia led a growing chorus of criticism aimed at Myanmar and its civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi over the plight of its Rohingya Muslim minority.

• Ms. Suu Kyi, a former political prisoner of Myanmar's junta, has come under increasing fire over her perceived unwillingness to speak out against the treatment of the Rohingya or chastise the military. She has made no public comment since the latest fighting broke out.

• The growing crisis threatens Myanmar’s diplomatic relations, particularly with Muslim-majority countries in Southeast Asia.

• The Maldives announced that it was severing all trade ties with the country until the government of Myanmar takes measures to prevent the atrocities being committed against Rohingya Muslims

• Indonesia’s Foreign Minister RetnoMarsudi met Ms. Suu Kyi as well as Myanmar’s Army chief General Min Aung Hlaing in Naypyidaw in a bid to pressure the government to do more to alleviate the crisis.

• Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry said it was “deeply concerned over reports of growing number of deaths and forced displacement of Rohingya Muslims” and urged Myanmar to investigate reports of atrocities against the community.

• Iranian Foreign Minister JavadZarif added in a recent tweet: “Global silence on continuing violence against #Rohingya Muslims. Int’l action crucial to prevent further ethnic cleansing - UN must rally.“

::ECONOMY::

RBI has no data on black money

• The RBI has told a parliamentary panel that it has “no information” on how much black money has been extinguished as a result of demonetisation of Rs. 500/1,000 notes or about unaccounted cash legitimised through exchange of currency post note ban.

• Stating that an estimated Rs. 15,280 crore in junked notes has come back “subject to future corrections based on verification process,” the Reserve Bank also said it has “no information” whether demonetisation is being planned to be implemented at regular intervals.

• The RBI has been facing flak for demonetisation and delay in disclosing figures on the junked note.

RBI gives nod to DBS bank for India subsidiary

• Singapore-based DBS Bank received in-principle approval from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to convert its India operations into a locally incorporated, wholly-owned subsidiary (WOS).

• Through WOS, DBS will leverage its overall strengths and resources, along with its experience in India, to build a scalable business through a multi-channel strategy

• DBS was the first foreign lender to seek RBI approval for local incorporation in 2014 after the central bank revised the guidelines for foreign banks.

• Piyush Gupta, chief executive, DBS Bank, said though the bank can get the final approval in 12 months, it was confident of securing it in 6-9 months.

• The approval enables DBS to accelerate growth plans, significantly expand operations and build a wider footprint.

• As a WOS, DBS India will be able to better serve its customers, particularly SMEs, in support of the government’s Make-in-India initiative

Raghuram Rajan on note ban in his book

• Former governor of RBI Raghuram Rajan had cautioned the government against cost of demonetisation and suggested that there were better alternatives to achieve the main goals of note ban.

• In his book, titledI Do What I Do: On Reforms Rhetoric and Resolve, Mr. Rajan, who was the RBI governor between 2013 and 2016, had also warned of what would happen if the preparations for demonetisation were inadequate.

• “I was asked by the government in February 2016 for my views on demonetisation, which I gave orally. Although there might be long-term benefits, I felt the likely short-term economic costs would outweigh them and there were potentially better alternatives to achieve the main goals. I made these views known in no uncertain terms,” Mr. Rajan wrote.

• He added that he had handed over a note to the government outlining the potential cost and benefits of demonetisation as well as alternatives available.

HDFC Bank in the ‘too big to fail’ list

• The Reserve Bank of India has added HDFC Bank the second largest private sector lender of the country in the list of Domestic Systemically Important Banks (D-SIBs). State Bank of India and ICICI Bank continue to be in that category.

• Following the global financial crisis of 2008, it was observed that problems faced by certain large and highly interconnected financial institutions hampered the orderly functioning of the financial system, which in turn, negatively impacted the real economy. It was decided to identify such institutions and prescribe them higher capital requirements.

• The RBI has adopted a system by which banks are plotted into four buckets based on a lender’s systemic importance scores in ascending order. The banking regulator prescribes higher capital requirements in terms of additional Common Equity Tier 1 (CET 1) capital for such entities.

• The additional Common Equity Tier 1 (CET1) requirement for D-SIBs has already been phased-in from April 1, 2016 and will become fully effective from April 1, 2019… D-SIB surcharge for HDFC Bank will be applicable from April 1, 2018.

• RBI had started listing D-SIBs from August 2015. SBI and ICICI Bank were identified as D-SIB both in 2015 and 2016.

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