Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 11 December 2015

:: National ::

Restriction in Haryana panchayat elections upheld by SC

In what may be a precedent preventing illiterate persons from participating in grass roots democracy, the Supreme Court upheld a Haryana State law mandating that only those having “minimum” educational qualifications will be eligible to contest panchayat elections in the State.
The other grounds for disqualification from contesting polls under the Haryana Panchayati Raj (Amendment) Act, 2015 are failure to pay arrears to any primary agriculture co-operative society or agriculture co-operative banks, failure to pay electricity bill arrears and not having a functional toilet at home.
The “minimum” education required for eligibility to contest in a panchayat election is completion of matriculation in case of general candidates; completion of Class 8 for a woman candidate or a candidate belonging to Scheduled
Caste; and completion of Class 5 pass for a Scheduled Caste woman candidate con- testing for the post of ‘Panch’.
The law leaves 68 per cent of the Scheduled Caste women and 41 per cent of the Scheduled Caste men in Haryana ineligible to contest panchayat elections.
The judgment may become a rallying point for other States also to amend their laws in the same fashion.

Kerala became the first digital state

Kerala is expected to be declared the first digital State in the country shortly, on the strength of its digital infrastructure and e-governance initiatives.
State had succeeded in leveraging ICT for economic growth and making government services affordable and accessible for the masses.
several initiatives were taken by the state under the Digital Kerala programme.
The high mobile and Internet penetration and the increasing use of smart phones had hastened the evolution of Kerala as a digital society.

Study shows that Wetland loss as reason for Chennai devastation

Chennai’s resilience to the recent deluge has taken a severe beating as nearly a quarter of its wetlands, open space and flood plains have given way to con- crete structures.
Months before the series of depressions and “freak” weather developments hit the city, Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru, tabulated the “worrisome” growth patterns of the coastal city.
In cities like Chennai and Kolkata, marshes and flood plains play a very important role in draining out overflowing rivers.
This doesn’t seem to have been understood by urban planners. One can’t encroach the buffer around rivers without consequences.
through the modelling of current growth along with planned and unplanned expansion of the city, looks grim.
Built-up area of asphalt, concrete and metal is set to nearly double in size over the next decade, while open spaces will decline by a third.

Malnutrition refusing to come down in India

The latest data show that 39 per cent of children under five in India are short for their age (stunted).
The two States that had the worst stunting rates in 2005-06 — Uttar Pradesh and Bihar — have made the least progress over the 2005-2014 period, noted the Global Nutrition Report, the first of its kind to be released. The global rate is 24 per cent.
The India Health Report (IHR), 2015, offers a critical analysis of nutrition at the national and State levels. The IHR compared nutrition levels among children in 28 States and Delhi.
We focussed on the topic of child stunting and malnutrition, given its magnitude and persistence in our country.
Even with recent impressive improvements, India’s stunting problem represents the largest loss of human potential in any country in human history.
The GNR notes an increase in the number of countries on track to meet global nutrition targets, and encourages countries to establish specific and time-bound targets for malnutrition reduction that are consistent with the new Sustainable Development Goals.
National targets should help accelerate progress and promote accountability.
While the GNR points to India’s improved performance in reducing its high burden of malnutrition, both re- ports conclude that this improvement should be much more rapid.

:: International ::

Developed and Developing countries coming closer to climate change agreement

The bilateral discussions on the Paris Agreement produced “many converging points”, notably on India’s demand that developing countries be differentiated explicitly from the developed world in the text of the pact, as provided for in the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change.
The major points covered by the discussions were differentiation, the nature of the agreement, finance and technology transfer, and harmony between the agreement text and the ‘decision’ that will be made by CoP21.
Transparency measures in implementation, which will be laid down for all countries to follow in a prescribed manner, also figured in the talks.
India wants the sanctity of voluntary national pledges to reduce carbon emissions, called INDCs, to be maintained in the agreement.
It was unacceptable that when 186 countries had submitted their INDCs, representing a huge movement forward, there was only one optional mention of such pledges in the outcome draft released.
If Europe and America adopt ideas which are in sync with the Like-Minded Developing Countries (LMDC) and the Brazil, South Africa, India, China (BASIC) group, the Paris Agreement can successfully move ahead.
India’s IPR import bill highlights the importance of technology transfer to fight climate change without rigid Intellectual Property Rights restrictions.
In a six-year period, $21 billion has been spent, representing total Indian expenditure on all kinds of technology, not climate change.

:: India and world::

Bullet train project to be unveiled by Japanese PM

Bullet trains will be a reality soon in India. The contract to build the bullet train link between Mumbai and Ahmedabad is expected to be declared in favour of Japanese bullet train major Shinkansen at the weekend summit meeting between Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Mr. Abe’s December 11-13 vis- it, will have a new set of guidelines that Japan has reportedly extended a Rs. 98,000-crore loan for the ultra modern high-speed train project.
The new guidelines are meant to scuttle plans by rivals like China n the Indian infrastructure market.
Another key initiative to be unveiled during the visit will cover transfer of technology in defence.

:: Economy ::

Centre to promote cashless transactions

Income tax rebate is one of the incentives being considered by the government to encourage people to move away from cash transactions and curb black money flows, a senior official said on condition of anonymity. The move may eventually use cashless transaction records to build a credit history for the poor and help them access loans.
While the usage of cards and mobile payment solutions such as PayTM and Eze-ap is expanding rapidly in ur-ban India, the government is looking at ways to take this to the hinterland.
Following the expansion of bank accounts coverage under Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana, the government wants to scale up the infrastructure for making digital payments so that the same convenience and acceptability as cash can be attained. The National Payments Corporation of India is building a part of that infrastructure.
one of the ideas being examined is that if an income tax rebate could be offered to those who make a substantial part of their annual payments in the cashless mode. Since bank statements are already submitted at the time of filing tax returns, it would easy to gauge the quantum of cash withdrawals made from their accounts.
Of the many solutions to tame black money, cashless transaction is one of the very important solutions, PrimeMinister, Narendra Modi, said, stressing that people should make cashless transactions a habit.. “This is a very big opportunity and we should promote this.

India rejects ‘artificial deadlines’ for WTO deal

India has said it will neither agree to ‘artificial deadlines’ to conclude theWorld Trade Organisation’s(WTO) Doha Round negotiations aimed at liberalising global trade, nor concur with rich nations’ attempts to expand the ambit of the talks by introducing “new” issues without completely fulfilling the Round’s ‘development’ dimension.
The Doha Round talks had begun in 2001 and has since missed several deadlines for concluding it, due to persist-ing differences between the developed and developing world on a host of issues related to trade liberalisation and granting market opening commitments.
Significantly, on the attempts of the developed countries to introduce ‘new’ issues citing the sluggish progress of the negotiations on the one hand and the increasing relevance of these so-called 21st Century issues,it was important to first agree on issues of importance to the developing and the poor world.
These include the reduction of ‘huge and trade distort-ing’ agribusiness subsidies in developed countries, an effective Special Safeguard Mechanism (a trade remedy allow-ing developing countries to temporarily hike duties on farm products to counter sudden import surges and price falls, thereby protecting the interests of poor farmers),and a permanent solution to the issue of public food stock-holding in developing countries for the purpose of food security

:: Sports ::

59th National shooting championship

Gurpreet Singh won the men’s 25-metre standard pistol gold with a score of 573 in the 59th National shooting championship
The 27-year-old Gurpreet, a rapid fire specialist who has won the Olympic quota place in air pistol, had 195 in the 150-second series and 189 each in the20-second and 10-second series.