Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 03 May 2016

:: National ::

NamamiGange gets Rs 3000 crore

The Expenditure Finance Committee approved projects worth nearly Rs. 3,000 crore for the government’s flagship programme, NamamiGange.
This is the biggest-ever approval for projects meant to clean up the Ganga — till now a total of Rs. 4,000 crore has been spent on cleaning the river through many governments since 1985.
A decision has been taken to fast-track the integrated Ganga conservation programme, a year after the Union Cabinet approved it in May 2015.
Mr. Modi, who launched environment friendly e-boats at the Assi Ghat of the Ganga in Varanasi, is expected to review the progress after the end of the current session of Parliament.
A meeting of the general body of the National Mission for Clean Ganga has also been called.This will be the first meeting of the body since it was set up in 2010. The post of its Mission Director that had been lying vacant for months was filled last week.
Rajat Bhargava, a Joint Secretary in the Water Resources Ministry, has been appointed the new Mission Director.

IUCN report says western ghats threatened by industrial activities

Many natural and mixed World Heritage Sites, including the Western Ghats, are threatened by harmful industrial activities such as mining, says a report.
The harmful industrial activities include oil and gas exploration and extraction, mining, illegal logging and large-scale constructions, according to the report, ‘Protecting people through nature’.
This is prepared by the World Wildlife Fund and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
Three of the seven such Indian sites — Manas Wildlife Sanctuary, Sundarbans, and the serial sites of Western Ghats — have been listed as being under threat.
The report highlights that the Western Ghats support “the single largest population of endangered Asian elephants and vulnerable Indian bison.”
The report concludes that “nearly half of all natural World Heritage Sites, including the Grand Canyon and the Great Barrier Reef, are threatened by industrial activities.”
On Western Ghats, the report says the sites are facing “extractive threats” in the form of “oil and gas concessions” and “mines and mining concessions.”
The Manas Wildlife Sanctuary faces unsustainable water use whereas Sundarbans has issues related to water management.
The survey estimates that 11 million people directly depend on the World Heritage Sites for food, water, shelter, and medicine.
The harmful industrial development poses a threat to these ‘ecosystem services and the communities that depend on them.

SC formed three-member committee to oversee functioning of MCI

Supreme Court Endorsed a Parliamentary Standing Committee report of March 2016 that medical education and profession in the country is at its “lowest ebb” and suffering from “total system failure” due to corruption and decay.
The Supreme Courtused its powers under the Constitution to set up a three-member committee, headed by former Chief Justice of India R.M. Lodha, to oversee the functioning of the Medical Council of India (MCI) for at least a year.
A Constitution Bench said that SC was constrained to exercise its extraordinary powers under Article 142 of the Constitution as the government had not acted on the report of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health and Family Welfare.
The judgment referred to the parliamentary panel report, which described the MCI as an “ossified and opaque body” unable to cope with the “humongous” task of managing medical education in over 400 colleges across the country.
“Quality of medical education is at its lowest ebb, the right type of health professionals were not able to meet the basic health needs of the country.
Products coming out of medical colleges are ill-prepared to serve in poor resource settings like Primary Health Centres.
Graduates lacked competence in performing basic health care tasks. Unethical practices continued to grow.

After criticism Mallya resigned from Upper house

Industrialist and independent Rajya Sabha member Vijay Mallya has resigned his membership of the Upper House.
The Ethics Committee of the House seemed set to recommend his expulsion.
In his resignation letter, he is believed to have said he did not want his reputation further sullied.
Mr. Mallya left India early in March apparently for the U.K. after having “defaulted” on more than Rs. 9,000 crore of bank loans.
Last week, the Centre sought his deportation from the U.K.

:: International ::

China invited Asian countries in framing policy against U.S. rebalance to Asia

China has invited Asian countries to join Beijing in framing a security governance model with “Asian features” to counter the U.S. ‘rebalance’ to the region.
China’s formal invite to neighbours to pursue a regional security doctrine that is led by Beijing, and not by the U.S., came during foreign ministerial Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) in the Chinese capital.
President Xi Jiniping urged participants “to build consensus and step up dialogue” to foster “a security governance model with Asian features”.
Details about what could emerge as China-centric collective security architecture in the Asia-Pacific are still a work-in-progress.
The write-up grounded the rationale for its new initiative on the failure of the ‘Pivot to Asia’ or ‘rebalance’ doctrine of the Obama administration.
It asserted that “the launch of the Asia-Pacific rebalance strategy by the U.S. in recent years did not bring Asia peace, but only uncertainty”.
Tensions between the U.S. and China have spiked after the Chinese responded to the ‘pivot’ with fresh activism in the South China Sea, including construction of artificial islands within waters claimed and controlled by Beijing.
Washington has dubbed the growing Chinese assertion as a danger to “freedom of navigation” which could hamper the $5.3 trillion trade that passes through the South China Sea— a charge that Beijing denies.
In the run up to the espousal of its new doctrine, the Chinese have launched a regional diplomatic offensive to reinforce that an Asian home-grown solution was the best way to resolve maritime disputes confronting the region.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi embarked on a whirlwind visit to Cambodia, Laos and Brunei, to cull out what the Chinese Foreign Ministry described as “an important consensus” on the South China Sea issue.

Permanent court of Arbitration gave verdict on Italian Marine case

The lone Italian marine, Salvatore Girone, facing a murder charge in India could return home soon in the wake of a decision of an international tribunal at The Hague.
The verdict is the first big pronouncement of the PCA (Permanent Court of Arbitration, The Hague), after Italy approached it in June 2015.
Two Italian marines — MassimilianoLatorre and Mr. Girone are facing the charge of murdering two Indian fishermen in 2012 off the Kerala coast.
The fishermen were killed when the marines on duty aboard MV Enrica Lexie, an Italian-flagged oil tanker, fired at them.
Mr. Latorre is back in Italy after a stroke in 2014 while Mr. Girone is staying at the Italian embassy.
However, differences have cropped up between the two countries over the details of the verdict which will govern the marine’s return.
While India has claimed that the verdict upholds the Supreme Court’s authority, Italian officials have said it is a vindication of their position that India has no jurisdiction.
“The Tribunal left it to the Supreme Court of India to fix the precise conditions of Sergeant Girone’s bail.”
“This could include him reporting to an authority in Italy designated by our Supreme Court, surrendering his passport to Italian authorities and not leaving Italy without the permission of our Supreme Court,” said a statement from MEA.

:: Science and Technology ::

International team of scientists discovered trio of Earth-like planets

An international team of scientists said that they had discovered a trio of Earth-like planets that are the best bet so far for finding life outside our solar system.
The three orbit a dwarf star a mere 39 light-years away, and are likely comparable in size and temperature to Earth and Venus, they reported in a study, published in Nature .
This is the first opportunity to find chemical traces of life outside our solar system.
The planets had the “winning combination” of being similar in size to Earth, “potentially habitable” and close enough so their atmospheres can be analysed with current technology.
Scientists calibrated a 60-centimetre telescope in Chile, known as TRAPPIST, to track several dozen dwarf stars neither big nor hot enough to be visible with optical telescopes.
They zeroed in on a particularly promising one — now known as TRAPPIST-1 — about one eighth the size of the Sun, and significantly cooler.
The astronomers noticed that its infrared signal faded slightly at regular intervals, evidence of objects in orbit. Analysis confirmed they were exoplanets — planets revolving around stars outside our solar system.
The innermost two circle their dwarf star every 1.5 and 2.4 days. The more distant orbit of the third planet takes between four and 73 days.

:: Business and Economy ::

Indian factories are becoming more and more efficient

Factories in India are becoming increasingly efficient, with the net value added per factory increasing by 24 per cent in the five years from 2009-10 till 2013-14, the latest period for which the government released data.
The net value added per factory in operation increased from Rs.3.88 crore in 2009-10 to Rs.4.82 crore in 2013-14, according to the Annual Survey of Industries2013-14.
Similarly, the net value added per person engaged also increased from Rs. 5.02 lakh to Rs. 6.6 lakh over the same period.
Output per unit of capital employed has been increasing. Also, companies are become more capital intensive, which may imply that labour-saving technology is being used.
The survey data shows the value of fixed capital per factor in operation increased from Rs. 1,212 lakh in 2012-13 to Rs. 1,278 lakh in 2013-14, which is much higher than the Rs. 886 lakh it was at in 2009-10.
Coupled with this, the number of people engaged per factory has come down, albeit marginally, from 77 in 2009-10 to 72 in 2012-13 and 73 in 2013-14.
This is symptomatic of jobless growth, which is when factories are trying to automate and increase technology usage to improve productivity while keeping employment constant.
This push for automation and decreased labour costs has resulted in the overall output per person engaged also seeing a steady increase, growing from Rs. 31.6 lakh in 2009-10 to Rs. 48.4 lakh in 2012-13.
The overall view is that, with the global economy still being subdued, companies are looking to use their existing capacity more efficiently rather than investing in capacity expansion.
And, with capacity utilisation still relatively low, this suggests that there is still more room to improve efficiencies.

India’s infrastructure sectors clocked highest growth in more than one year

India's infrastructure sectors clocked their highest growth in 16 months in March 2016, with the index for core industries climbing 6.4 per cent, buoyed by a sharp uptick in the output of cement, electricity, fertilisers and refinery products.
The advance in the index in March followed a growth of 5.7 per cent in February, leading economists to cautiously consider it a sign of likely recovery in the economy.
This is clearly a sign of recovery setting in the economy. The reforms that took place in both coal and power sectors will start to bear fruit now.
The fertiliser sector grew at 23 per cent in March 2016, up from 16.3 per cent in February. The cement sector saw a growth of 11.9 per cent in March 2016, slower than the 13.5 per cent it saw in February.
The electricity sector grew at 11.3 per cent in March 2016, significantly faster than the 9.2 per cent seen in February.
This shows that the government’s support for developing infrastructure is finally kicking in.”
However PMI data is not so optimistic. It is unusual that the core sector numbers are up, but PMI in manufacturing has gone down.
Growth in the coal sector slowed to 1.7 per cent in March compared to 3.8 per cent in February, while the crude oil sector contracted sharply by 5.1 per cent in March compared to a growth of 0.8 per cent in February.
Another reason why the jubilation over a recovery might be premature is that the strong growth in March 2016 could likely be a result of a base effect brought on by the contraction seen in the index in March 2015.
The index of eight core industries contracted 0.7 per cent in March 2015.
This comparison shows that the index grew 5.6 per cent in March 2016 over its level two years previously.

Developing countries face double problems in WTO

Developing nations, including India, are facing a double disadvantage at the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) Dispute Settlement Body (DSB).
Commerce Secretary said these nations are challenged not only by the lack of a sufficient pool of trade law experts to represent them effectively at the DSB but also by certain efforts to bring within the body’s ambit non-trade issues such as labour and environment.
She said “ Labour and environment cases would pose a great challenge for developing nations because very often these are conditions that add as restrictions in the freedom of trade particularly for developing countries.”
With the global trade slowdown and the consequent rise in trade restrictive measures taken by many countries, the world is witnessing increasing use of trade remedies.
There are only a few Indian law firms in trade law practice, Ms. Teaotia said. Therefore, to handle India’s trade disputes with other countries, the government has been engaging both international and Indian law firms.
The official said the commerce ministry was trying to build capacity to comprehensively track the trade restrictive measures taken by other countries, especially those that hurt India’s exports.
The developed world, however, is keen that the WTO addresses, what they call, global trade’s “new challenges”, including labour and environment.

:: Sports ::

SC says state cricket associations will have to comply with R.M. Lodha committee report

The Supreme Court said State cricket associations would have no choice but comply with the Supreme Court-appointed Justice R.M. Lodha Committee recommendations to reform Indian cricket once the apex court gives the final word.
The court said that some of the suggestions of the Justice Lodha panel report had already been incorporated by the BCCI, and the court was presently weighing those the BCCI was objecting to.
“The committee constituted in wake of match-fixing and spot-fixing allegations was a serious exercise and not futile exercise,” Chief Justice Thakur observed.
The observations were directed at various cricket associations and sports bodies who set to either lose their memberships in full or would be reduced from their status as full members to associate members.
They will have no voting rights on the Board in case the ‘one State, one member, one vote’ recommendation of the Justice Lodha panel gets the apex court’s green signal.
The court referred to the Lodha report to say that whatever structural changes done within the cricket administration mechanism so far was only cosmetic and more needs to be implemented.