Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 06 November 2015

:: National ::

SC throws open collegium system to public scrutiny

Braving uncharted territories to fulfil its promise of transparency in judicial appointments, the Supreme Court on Thursday threw open the collegium system to public scrutiny and invited the common man from every part of the country to give his opinion on what kind of per-sons should be appointed as judges of the highest courts.
Judicial appointments to the Supreme Court and the High Courts were based entirely on the Memoranda of Procedure framed after a nine-judge Bench of the Supreme Court established the collegium system.
The public had never been consulted in these matters.
The public can post their suggestions on the Ministry website till 5 p.m. November 13.
Meanwhile in a report to improve the collegium prepared by senior advocate Arvind Dattar and Additional Solicitor-General Pinky Anand, lot of suggestions have come.
Improve transparency, formulate eligibility criteria, establish a Secretariat for the collegium and frame a mechanism to deal with complaints against judicial candidates. Some of the suggestions to ensure transparency within the collegium include subjecting the minutes of its meetings to Right to information Act.
The report records a proposal to have candidates dis-close whether they are related to any sitting judge.
While the OBC Advocates Association made an oral representation to include 50 per cent quota in judicial appointments to highest courts, the report has incorporated a “special suggestion” for representations for minority, backward classes, and SCs/STs.

India wants China to share counter-terror plan

At the first counter terrorism dialogue with China under the NDA government, India reportedly asked one of its most powerful neighbours to share its strategy for dealing with ‘jihadi activities' in Xinjiang province.
Uighur militants, affiliated to al-Qaeda operating in Xinjiang province, want to establish an independent state called East Turkestan.
The official said India also discussed the probable involvement of certain Chinese individuals in supply-ing of arms and ammunition to the North-east-based terrorist outfits.
The dialogue has been an annual affair since 2002 and the last meeting took place in 2013 when the UPA was in power.
According to a report by central intelligence agencies, China has become a transit hub for circulation of fake In-dian currency notes.
India is said to have raised the issue with China and re-quested it to share the details of recovery of fake currency notes and the persons involved in its circulation in the past couple of years.

Microsoft picks Varanasi for experimental Internet pilot

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella's plans for the ambitious Digital India pro-gramme include an experimental technology pilot in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's constituency of Varanasi.
The software giant has chosen the pilgrim town in Uttar Pradesh as the venue for a project to fund local entrepreneurs aiming to build devices that can overcome India's bandwidth crunch, according to Mr. Nadella.
Varanasi is among Microsoft's two pilot projects in India to provide low-cost Inter-net to villages, the first being a government school in Srikakulam district of Andhra Pradesh.
Microsoft is not the only global technology major to venture into building a low-cost Internet infrastructure. Google received permission from the Indian government earlier this month to provide Internet using large balloons that float 20 km above the earth's surface. Facebook announced in October that it would launch a satellite next year in collaboration with the French company Eutelsat to provide low-cost Internet to 14 sub-Saharan African countries.
Earlier in the day, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis announced that his government was working with Microsoft to build “smart villages” in the State. “We plan to start work on building 50 smart villages by the end of 2016,” he said. “ Arinsal will be the first smart village. It was infamously known as the State's malnutrition capital. We are changing that.”

:: India And World ::

In India, Li will ink pacts on river and culture

Li Yuanchao, the Vice-President of China will conclude his India visit by sealing agreements marking cooperation on better river water management and cultural exchanges.
Mr. Li who visited Aurangabad and Kolkata before landing in Delhi, will preside over the renewal of the 2013 memorandum of under-standing on joint water management which helps India and China share data on multiple Himalayan rivers for better water management.
The second agreement tobe signed during Mr. Li's visit will be on the cultural exhibition on the Gupta period in the Indian history to be held in 2016 in China.
However, the focus of Mr. Li's visit is expected to be onthe renewal of the MoU on smooth sharing of hydrological data related to the com-mon Himalayan rivers.
While a prominent part of the 2013 agreement focused on joint study of Sutlej which originates in the western Ti-bet region, the other and more important aspect of that agreement was on the hydrological study of the Brahmaputra.
Water scarcity is a big is-sue in China whereas the north-eastern States of India have abundant river water. So hydrological exchanges be-tween India and China are mainly aimed at emergency planning to help India.

Maldives impeaches Vice-President Adeeb

The Maldives Parliament on Thursday approved a state of Emergency imposed by President Abdulla Yameen and used extraordinary powers to sack his estranged deputy despite mounting international concern.
Lawmakers loyal to President Yameen voted to remove Ahmed Adeeb, who was arrested last month in connection with a September blast aboard the Presidential speedboat that the government says was an assassination attempt.
The impeachment was rushed through in line with the state of Emergency, which suspended several rights en-shrined in the Constitution, including freedom of assembly and freedom of movement. U.S. and U.K. have expressed concern over the imposition of the Emergency.

:: Economy And Business ::

PM unveils 3 gold schemes

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday unveiled three gold-re-lated schemes, namely the Gold Monetisation Scheme, Sovereign Gold Bond Scheme and Gold Coin and Bullion Scheme.
“India has no reason to be de-scribed as a poor country, as it has 20,000 tonnes of gold. The gold available with the country should be put to productive use, and these schemes show us the way to achieve this goal,” the Prime Minister said while introducing the schemes.
The Gold Monetisation Scheme (GMS) will replace the existing Gold Deposit Scheme, 1999. However, the government has made clear that deposits outstanding under the Gold Deposit Scheme will be allowed to run till maturity unless the depositors pre-maturely withdraw them.
Under the GMS, resident Indians (classified as individuals, Hindu Undivided Families, Trusts including Seri-registered Mutual Funds and Exchange Traded Funds) can deposit gold at collection and purity testing centres certified by the Bureau of Indian Standards.
The deposit certificates will be issued by banks in equivalence of 995 fineness of gold and the principal and interest of the deposit under the scheme will be denominated in gold. The terms of deposit range from short-term deposits (1-3 years), medium-term deposits (5-7 years) and long-term deposits (12-15 years).
Depositors will be allowed to prematurely withdraw their deposits subject to a minimum lock-in period and a penalty that is to be determined by each authorised bank. “The minimum deposit atany one time shall be raw gold (bars, coins, jewellery excluding stones and other metals) equivalent to 30 grams of gold of 995 fine-ness. There is no maximum limit for deposit under the scheme,” the government said in a notification.
Under the Sovereign Gold Bond Scheme, the Reserve Bank of India will issue Gold Bonds on behalf of the Government of India. The applications for the bonds will be accepted between November 5-20 and the bonds will be issued on November 26.
The Bonds will be sold through banks and designated post offices as may be notified. As with the GMS, the Gold Bonds will be sold only to “Indian entities including individuals, HUFs, trusts, Universities, charitable institutions”. They will be de-nominated in multiples of gram(s) of gold with a basic unit of one gram.
The Bonds will be for a tenor of eight years, with an exit option from the 5th year. Those buying the bonds will not be allowed to purchase less than two grams-worth of bonds and not more than 500grams-worth per person per financial year.
Under the Gold Coin and Bullion Scheme, the government will issue gold coins, the first ever national gold coins, which will have the Ashok Chakra engraved on them. Initially, coins of five grams and 10 grams will be available, soon to be followed by a 20 gram bar.
The government will make avail-able 15,000 coins of five grams, 20,000 coins of 10 grams and 3,750 gold bars. “The Indian Gold coin is unique in many aspects and will carry advanced anti-counterfeit features and tamper proof packaging that will aid easy re-cycling,” the government said.
These schemes are aimed at bringing the gold lying with citizens into the economy, and at reducing India's dependence on gold imports.
India imported Rs.2.1 lakh crore worth of gold in the financial year 2014-15, according to CMIE, not counting jewellery. So far, Rs.1.12 lakh crore worth of gold has been imported between April-September 2016.

Cabinet clears financial ‘reform' package for discoms

The Union Cabinet on Thursday approved a ‘re-form' package for loss-making electricity utilities, allowing for the transfer of 75 per cent of the about Rs 4.3 lakh crore outstanding debt incurred by stressed discoms to States' debt.
The scheme, named Ujwal Discom Assurance Yojana(UDAY), will be optional for States. The electricity distribution firms in the states of Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Ta-mil Nadu and Haryana are among the most stressed and have run up the maximum losses. Announcing the Cabinet decision, Union Power Minster Piyush Goyal told re-porters that the Centre aims to help states in wiping out the discoms' losses by 2019.
“States shall take over 75 per cent of discom debt as on September 30, 2015 over two years — 50 per cent of discom debt shall be taken over in 2015-16 and 25 per cent in 2016-17,” an official release said. The decision is also expected to help the banks inmanaging their bad loans.
The future losses of Dis-coms States will take over in a graded manner all the way up to 2020-21. The balance discom debt outstanding with banks not taken over by States will be converted into loans or bonds. The bonds will carry interest rate of not more than the bank's base rate plus 0.1 per cent.
States accepting UDAY and performing as per operational milestones will be given additional / priority funding through Deendayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana, Integrated Power Development Scheme, Power Sector Development Fund (PSDF) or other such schemes of Ministry of Power and Ministry of New and Renewable Energy.
States not meeting the operational milestones will be liable to forfeit their claim on IPDS and DDUGJY grants.
States which want to take up the rescue package will sign agreements with the power ministry.

::Sports ::

Indian juniors strike it rich

India finished with a rich haul at the World youth chess championship in Halkidiki, Greece, on Thursday. It won 11 medals — five gold, three silver and three bronze.
It was indeed quite an impressive show by the Indians who won five out of the 12 gold medals on ofer.
India was by far the best-per-forming country. The other top teams, Russia and the United States, won just four medals each but neither of them could win a gold.