Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 21 April 2016

:: National ::

PM to give awards on civil services day

Two days after Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal warned civil servants to shape up or ship out, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be giving out awards to bureaucrats for implementing government programmes.
Awards will be given out to a dozen or so district magistrates from across the country on Civil Services Day.
Some unlikely places find mention in the list of award-winning districts drawn up by the PMO for implementing the NDA government’s flagship programmes.
Anantnag in Jammu and Kashmir which has seen 100% implementation of the Swachch Vidyalaya scheme and Mulayam Singh Yadav’s constituency, Azamgarh, registered maximum enrolment in the Jan Dhan Yojana figure in the awards list.
Out of a huge list of around 70 districts, a dozen or so have been selected for the awards.
Anantpur in Andhra Pradesh, again for Swachch Vidyalaya, Churu in Rajasthan for SwachchGrameen (clean village) campaign are also part of this list.
The theme for the celebrations will be the cumulative changes of the last year that have resulted in some transformation in various parts of the country.

Union government amended bill for fund management related to forest

The Union Cabinet has amended a Bill to ensure a greater role for States in deciding how they will use funds to replenish forests affected by construction and other development projects.
The Bill is part of modifications proposed to expedite the creation of a central body, the Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA), which will manage a corpus of nearly Rs. 40,000 crore.
This is the money so far collected by States from organisations and companies which have used forest land or land in protected areas for their projects.

2016 is the hottest year to date

This year is off to a record-breaking start for global temperatures.
It has been the hottest year to date, with January, February and March each passing marks set in 2015.
March was also the 11th consecutive month to set a record high for temperatures, which agencies started tracking in the 1800s.
With the release Tuesday of its global climate report, NOAA is the third independent agency — along with NASA and the Japan Meteorological Association — to reach similar findings, each using slightly different methods.
The reports add a sense of urgency at the United Nations, where world diplomats are gathered this week to sign the climate accord reached late last year in Paris, when 195 nations committed to lower greenhouse gas emissions and to stave off the worst effects of climate change.
Since the initial agreement was reached, other global anomalies have been reported that punctuate the threat of climate change, including troubling trends on Arctic sea ice, floods, drought and carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere.
Some of these — warm temperatures and heavy rains in particular — can be explained in part by this year’s El Niño phenomenon.

As a sign of accelerated contact between India and China, President to visit China next

In a sign of suddenly accelerated contact between India and China, President Pranab Mukherjee will travel to Beijing at the end of May.
The President, who will also travel to Singapore on the same visit is expected to be in China in May last week, and will travel to Beijing and the South Eastern Chinese business hub of Guangzhou.
The trip, billed as a “return bilateral visit” for President Xi Jinping’s visit in September 2014, will come close on the heels of visits by Defence Minister Parrikar, NSA Ajit Doval, and the meeting between External Affairs Minister’s in Moscow.
However, it is also expected to indicate India and China’s desire to put some of the tensions of the past few months behind them.
The tensions, which have been spurred mainly by China’s relations with Pakistan, the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor and its support at the U.N. on the issue of Masood Azhar’s designation as a terrorist, had meant a strain in ties.

:: INTERNATIONAL ::

After New York win Hillary Clinton and Donald trump fortified their positions

Emphatically winning their party primaries in the state of New York, Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump fortified their frontrunner positions after a string of setbacks over recent weeks.
On the Democratic side, outcome could also mark the beginning of the end of Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders’s campaign for presidency.
Among the Republican candidates, Mr. Trump left his rivals — Ted Cruz and John Kasich — miles behind as he won almost all of the delegates in New York.

US President began two-day visit to Saudi Arabia

President Barack Obama held talks with Saudi Arabia’s King Salman as he began a two-day visit hoping to ease tensions with the historic U.S. ally.
Riyadh and its Sunni Arab Gulf allies have bristled at what they see as Washington’s tilt towards regional rival Iran after Tehran’s landmark nuclear deal with world powers.
Mr. Obama is to attend a summit of Gulf leaders focused on intensifying the fight against the Islamic State (IS) group and resolving the wars in Syria in Yemen.
Mr. Obama held bilateral talks with King Salman at the Erga Palace.
Tensions between Riyadh and Washington have increased sharply due to what Saudi Arabia sees as Mr. Obama’s disengagement from traditional U.S. allies in the region and opening towards Iran.

:: Business and Economy ::

Vinod Rai says cacophony of uninformed should not impact decision making process

Former Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) Vinod Rai said not all defaulters are wilful and the ‘cacophony of uninformed voices should not impact decision making process of bank executives.’
“Not all loan defaults are wilful and not all lending activity, even if it is to salvage such stressed accounts, can be branded as corrupt practice or criminal misconduct,” Mr. Rai said.
He said borrowers comprise a small minority and cannot become the barometer of decision-making. Unfortunately, the legal system does not permit easy and rapid resolution of stressed assets issue of banks.
Mr. Rai, now the chairman of Banks Board Bureau, also said uninformed voices should not affect the decision making capability of bank executives.
The former CAG also said the fear psychosis among public sector bank executives of being hounded by vigilance agencies when they decide to advance loans or settle stressed loans was being unfairly projected.
“An adequate reward structure around ESOPS, performance-linked incentives and other benefits can surely be designed to attract the best talent to the public sector,” he said.
He also said the Banks Board Bureau will work on providing incentives to ensure a level-playing field for top executives in public sector banks.

India’s renewable energy sector increased 6.9 GW capacity in the previous year

India’s renewable energy sector may add 8.8 GW of new capacity in 2016-17 on the back of a record capacity increase of 6.9 GW in the previous year.
The new renewable capacities in 2015-16 were chiefly driven by significant increases in solar and wind capacity, which grew by 3 GW and 3.3 GW respectively.
“Overall, ICRA estimates the capacity addition in the RE (renewable energy) sector to increase to 8.8 GW in 2016-2017 as against the 6.9 GW seen during 2015-2016, primarily led by the higher capacity addition in the solar segment,” report said.
However, it predicted that there could be a decline in new capacity addition in the wind sector due to a substantial reduction in preferential tariff for new wind energy projects to be commissioned in Madhya Pradesh.

Union Govt targeting to add 16 km more highways per day

The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government has set an ambitious target of constructing 41 km of national highways every day in 2016-17, up from more than 16 km per day of highways it built in 2015-16.
The Road Transport and Highways Ministry will award contracts for 25,000 km national highway projects, two-and-a-half times more than the projects it had sanctioned in the previous year.
It has set a target of constructing 15,000 km of national highways in 2016-17 as against 6,000 km built last year, a statement issued by the Ministry, headed by Mr. Nitin Gadkari, said on Wednesday.
It also said that the construction of roads quickened by 36 per cent in 2015-16, due to several policy interventions.
Some of the measures included more project approvals, enhanced inter-ministerial coordination, exit policy for developers, promoting the Hybrid Annuity Model, among others.
The government had met bankers and road contractors in January this year in a bid to move forward over stalled highway projects worth Rs 40,000 crore.
Mr. Gadkari had said that the number of stalled projects had come down from 384 to 74.
To resolve disputes over such projects, the minister had recently proposed to the Finance Ministry that a four-member panel led by a former High Court judge be formed.