Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 25 April 2016

:: NATIONAL ::

MEA revoked the passport of Vijay Mallya

The Ministry of External Affairs announced that it had revoked the passport of Vijay Mallya, owner of the now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines, starting the process of bringing him back to India.
The MEA revoked the passport of Shri Vijay Mallya onthe facts brought by the Enforcement Directorate and Non-Bailable Warrant under the PMLA Act, 2002, issued by Special Judge, Mumbai.
The move comes days after the MEA said it had started consultations to bring Mr. Mallya to justice.
The ED had begun coordinating with the MEA to bring Mr. Mallya back , especially because of his reluctance to disclose overseas assets.
Within hours of the announcement, news agencies reported that Mr. Mallya’s name featured in the electoral rolls in the United Kingdom. The rolls mention his address as Hertfordshire, where he has been staying since last month.

CJI broke down at the Chief Ministers and Chief Justices conference

Chief Justice of India Tirath Singh Thakur Broke down several times in his half-hour speech addressed directly to Prime Minister who was present at the Annual Chief Ministers and Chief Justices Conference.
He also launched a scathing attack on government inaction, blaming the Centre for stalling appointment of judges to the High Courts and doing nothing to increase the number of courts and judges.
The Chief Justice asked what was the point of ‘Make in India’ and inviting foreign direct investments when investors would worry about timely delivery of justice in case of litigation.
“Therefore, not only in the name of the litigant… the poor litigant languishing in jail but also in the name of the country and progress, I beseech you to realise that it is not enough to criticise the judiciary,” he said
He said there were 434 judicial vacancies in the High Courts as of date, “thanks to” the fact that judicial appointments remained in limbo because of the prolonged litigation over the NJAC.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi delivered an unscheduled speech, immediately after the Chief Justice of India Tirath Singh Thakur’s emotional speech.
Taking on the CJI, the Prime Minister said judges and the government should sit together and work for a more efficient tomorrow rather than dwell on the past and what was said in 1987.
He said the ordinary citizen had full faith in the judiciary and the government would not let his faith in the judges falter.
He blamed the flood of archaic laws that filled up the statute books, faulty or vague drafting of laws and their multiple interpretations by various courts for prolonged litigations.

Water conservation became the focus of PM’s Mann Ki Baat

Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave a call for water conservation in villages at a time when parts of the country are reeling under an unprecedented drought.
He said that monsoon would be 106-110 per cent of the normal this year is heartening.
“To fight the drought and ensure water security, the governments will do its work.
But I have also seen people making their own efforts. In several villages, there is awareness about the value of water and in such places there is sensitivity and a will to do something to conserve it,” Mr. Modi said in his address.
“Rain water should be preserved. The water of a village should remain in the village. If we take a resolve to do that, it is possible through a mass campaign.”
The Prime Minister gave his address a feel-good ring when he hailed the one crore families that had voluntarily given up LPG connections so that the poor can get cooking gas.
Faith in people was important, he asserted. At the same time, he wondered whether a train journey could take place without a ticket-checker, on the basis of faith in the people.
Mr. Modi asked people to visit a website ‘Transforming India.’ They would get news about positive achievements there.
Former President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam had said that “positive news” alone should be on Page 1. There was a move towards “positive news,” which was the “greatest reason for inspiration to do good work.”
Later addressing a rally in Jharkhand to mark Panchayat Day, the Prime Minister stressed the need to strengthen the panchayats as the development of the country was linked to the development of villages.

:: INTERNATIONAL ::

TTIP and Syria remain the focus of Obama’s visit to Germany

U.S. President Barack Obama arrived on a valedictory visit to Germany to see his “friend” Chancellor Angela Merkel, but their show of unity looked unlikely to silence opposition to their push for a transatlantic trade pact.
Mr. Obama jetted into the northern city of Hanover, where he warned that it would be a “mistake” to send Western troops into Syria and cautioned Britain on reduced global influence should it quit the EU.
While his fifth and final official trip to Europe’s biggest economy is expected to cover global crises, one of the headline goals is to advance negotiations on what could become the world’s biggest free trade agreement.
Both sides say they aim to see the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) finalised, at least in its broad outlines, before Mr. Obama leaves office in January.
However Ms. Merkel’s Economy Minister warned that the deal “will fail” if the United States refuses to make concessions in the protracted talks.
His comments came a day after tens of thousands of people marched against the U.S.-EU free trade deal through the streets of Hanover, where Mr. Obama and Ms. Merkel were to open the world’s largest industrial technology fair.
Before he left for Germany, Mr. Obama told the BBC the United States would continue efforts to broker a transition deal between the Syrian regime and its moderate opponents to end the bloody civil war.
He called for “international pressure” on “all the parties, including Russia and Iran, who, essentially, are propping up Assad”.
In the same interview, Mr. Obama reiterated his warnings about a so-called Brexit, saying Britain would have “less influence globally” if it voted to leave the European Union in June.
Mr. Obama’s visit will wrap up Monday with a keynote speech in which he is expected to frame his vision of transatlantic relations.

Jamaat-e-Islami activist arrested in connection with the professor murder

Police arrested reportedly an activist of Jamaat-e-Islami, in connection with the murder of A.F.M. Rezaul Karim Siddiquee in northern Rajshahi, but rejected the claim of the involvement of the Islamic State (IS) in the killing.
A senior police officer admitted that murder bore similarity to the previous killings of bloggers.
However, he claimed that those behind the murders were local Islamists and purported messages from IS and al-Qaeda were only aimed at confusing the investigators.
Siddiquee, a professor at the English department of Rajshahi University, was hacked to death by two unidentified gunmen on Saturday morning near his home in Rajshahi when he was waiting for a university bus to go to the campus.
The murder case has been handed over to the Detective Branch of Police, to be investigated on “top priority”.
Though monitoring group SITE reports that the IS has claimed responsibility for the murder for the professor’s alleged views on religion, the murdered professor had reportedly never written or spoken anything against religion.
Attacks on teachers with a liberal bent of mind at Rajshahi University, believed to be a den of radical Islamist groups, is nothing new. Prof. A.K.M. Shafiul Haque was killed in 2014, a murder for which al-Qaeda claimed responsibility.
Geology teacher Prof. S. Taher Ahmed was found dead in a septic tank of his house in 2006. His colleague and a Jamaat-backed teacher were among the three were sentenced to death for the murder.
Earlier this month, NazimuddinSamad, an activist, was killed in Dhaka. Earlier, in 2015, four bloggers were murdered, all for their writing and views against religious bigotry.

NPC says they demand federalism not separatism

The Northern Provincial Council (NPC), which has reiterated the position of Tamil parties for a merger of the North and the East, is not for special powers to be provided to the proposed State, according to its chairperson C.V.K. Sivagnanam.
On the significance of the resolution adopted, Mr. Sivagnanam said that “our demand for federalism should not be misconstrued as something in favour of separatism.
Let the Central government share power with all the States or Provinces uniformly.. We expect other Provinces to fall in line with us so that we all can have greater powers.
The Council’s proposals on constitutional reforms were essentially based on the constitutional models of two countries — India and Switzerland.
As in the case of India, there should be States demarcated on the basis of languages.
This was one of the reasons for the proposed merger of the Northern and Eastern provinces as “Muslims in the East are all Tamil speaking people,” Mr. Sivagnanam pointed out.
Taking into account aspirations of hill-country Tamils, the NPC suggested another autonomous body.The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) has 30 members in the 38-member body.

:: Business and Economy ::

Labour ministry wants central bank to look for the possibility of workers bank

The Labour Ministry has asked the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to form a panel headed by a former Deputy Governor of the central bank to look into a proposal of creating a Workers' Bank using Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF).
The proposal was mooted by the trade unions about a decade ago and has been discussed by Labour Ministry and Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) for several years now.
In 2004, the Congress-affiliated Indian National Trade Union Congress (Intuc) had first submitted a theme paper to the government on setting up ‘Workers’ Capital Trust’ to improve the earnings of Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) by investing its corpus in various instruments.
The idea was modelled on similar experiences in countries like Canada, Netherland, Switzerland and South Africa where a collective pension fund system invests worker’s savings in equities of domestic and global markets.
As on 31 March 2015, EPFO’s total corpus stood at Rs.6.34 lakh crore.
Various committees set up to review the proposal had suggested that EPFO should concentrate on its core activities and were not in favour of the Workers’ Bank.
However, the idea was revived after the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government took charge in May 2014.

World awaits the fed policy decision

U.S. Federal Reserve policymakers are expected to hold interest rates steady but they might tweak description of the economic outlook to reflect more benign conditions.
Fed raised its policy rates in last decision for the first time in a decade when market volatility finally subsided in the wake of Chinese economy scare.
Similarly early this year markets wobbled on worries about a slowdown in global economic growth and weak U.S. corporate earnings, leading to expectations for further Fed rates rises to be revised down.
Many Fed officials remain spooked by the steep stock market drop earlier this year and by weak first-quarter U.S. economic data.
Concrete signs of higher inflation and growth may be needed before the FOMC, the Fed's policy committee, continues with the projected gradual path toward more normal levels of interest rates.
Though the U.S. economy is generating jobs and consumer prices have risen, providing support for a Fed interest rate rise, weakness in retail sales and international trade, as well as concern about China's economy, are reasons to worry.