Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 12 May 2016

:: National ::

Apex court passed guidelines to Union and State for tackling the drought

In a scathing 53-page verdict on the “lack of will” shown by the Centre and States in combating drought and saving lives, the Supreme Court pronounced the Centre guilty of “washing its hands of” a national disaster.
It also pulled up Gujarat, Bihar and Haryana for adopting an “ostrich-like attitude” towards declaring drought and driving their own people to suicide, starvation and mass migration.
A Bench of Justices Madan B. Lokur and N.V. Ramana issued a slew of directions on tackling the drought situation on a petition filed by the NGO Swaraj Abhiyan.
Among the steps it suggested were taking the help of the National Disaster Response Force and a Disaster Mitigation Fund.
The PIL plea had alleged that parts of 12 States, such as Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Odisha, Jharkhand, Bihar, Haryana and Chhattisgarh, were hit by drought.
The court found that the total population in the districts affected by drought is about 33 crore.
“Can we afford to ignore the plight of such a large population,” the Supreme Court asked the government. It accused the Centre of taking refuge in the concept of “federalism” to pass the buck to the States.
“The ostensible purpose of introducing this concept [of federalism] is to enable the Union of India to wash its hands of in matters concerning drought declaration and to give enough elbow room to a State government to decide whether to declare a drought or not,” the Bench observed.
Meanwhile, States such as Bihar, Gujarat and Haryana, the court observed, were not even willing to acknowledge a drought.
Their failure to declare drought has robbed the poor of their fundamental right to dignity of life, the court held.

Low conviction rate under the Protection of women and domestic violence act

The government told the Rajya Sabhathat “some times” provisions of the Domestic Violence and Anti-Dowry Acts were misused and several NGOs had also given reports supporting it.
MoS (Home) said that only 13 persons were convicted out of the 639 charge sheeted in 2014 under the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act 2005.
After the reply of the Minister in question hour, Samajwadi Party member Javed Ali Khan raised the issue of misuse of the Act, a contention which was resented by women members vehemently but was supported by Vijay Goel (BJP).
Mr. Rijiju told the House that the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) started collecting data on the Act only since 2014.
According to the reply, 426 cases were registered under the Act in 2014, of which charge sheet was filed in 312 cases. Conviction happened in just nine cases. Trial was completed in 19.1 per cent cases.
Of the 693 persons arrested in these cases, 639 were charge-sheeted. Only 13 were convicted.
The Minister said that in many cases, the husband and wife reach a compromise at a later stage and that the offences under the Act were of “civil” nature.

Parliamentary standing committee favours bringing national space law early

The Parliamentary Standing Committee dealing with the Department of Space has favoured early enactment of a national Space Law to promote commerce and regulate Space-related activities in the country.
While suggesting that the department's outlays should not be reduced during year-end revision of the budget, the committee pulls up the DoS for not fully using allocated funds and delaying a few projects in the preceding two years.
The draft National Space Act of India which is in the making may take at least a year before it completes the mandatory processes and reaches the Cabinet or Parliament, says the department-related Standing Committee on Science & Technology and Environment & Forests of the Rajya Sabha.
The draft law, it notes, must first get the approval of the Prime Minister, who holds the Space portfolio, and go through parliamentary procedures, public comments and inter-ministerial consultations.
Coming at a time the DoS is increasing its engagement with public and private sector industries, a Space Law will cover licensing, authorisation, regulation and supervision of activities by other players in the sector.
The report was tabled in the Lok Sabha and presented to the Rajya Sabha on Monday. The Department has also been urged to speed up its decision on an internal committee report relating to supporting start-ups in the Space sector.

:: International ::

Tension in Bangladesh after Jamaat leader hanging

Activists from the Islami ChatraShibir, the student wing of Jamaat-e-Islami, clashed with police in parts of Bangladesh after their party chief Motiur Rahman Nizami was hanged for 1971 war crimes.
They also organised funeral prayers for Nizami. As part of their countrywide plan, the Jamaat activists held prayers at the BaitulMukarram national mosque in Dhaka and at the port city of Chittagong.
Clashes erupted at the Parade Grounds near the Chittagong College when activists from the Bangladesh Chaatra League, student wing of the ruling Awami Party, tried to stop the prayers.

:: Science and Technology ::

Kepler mission has announced the largest collection of exoplanets

NASA’s Kepler mission has announced the largest collection of exoplanets ever discovered after it verified 1,284 new planets outside the solar system.
Of the nearly 5,000 planet candidates found to date, more than 3,200 now have been verified, and 2,325 of these were discovered by Kepler.

:: Business and Economy ::

Tax collection showing big jump

Indirect tax collections for April 2016 grew 42 per cent over their level in April 2015.April's collections amount to 8.3 per cent of the Budget Estimates for the financial year.
The Budget Estimate for indirect tax collections for this financial year is Rs. 7,78,000, 9.7 per cent higher than the actual collections during 2015-16 of Rs. 7,09,022 crore.
Central excise collections saw a 71 per cent increase in April 2016, coming in at Rs. 28,252 crore compared to the Rs. 16,546 crore in April 2015.
Excise collections thus made up nearly 44 per cent of the government’s total indirect tax collections in April.
The growth in total indirect tax collections were mainly driven by the growth in excise collections due to several additional revenue generating measures taken by the government over the last year such as increasing the excise duty on petrol, diesel, and tobacco.
Excluding such measures, the growth in total indirect tax collections stood at 17 per cent, according to the government.
Service tax collections amounted to Rs. 18,647 crore in April 2016 compared to Rs. 14,585 crore during the same period of the previous year, a growth of 27.9 per cent.
The third category of indirect tax collections, customs duty collections, came in at Rs. 17,495 crore in April 2016, up 22.5 per cent from the Rs. 14,286 crore seen in April 2015.
This data comes at a time when the government announced on Tuesday that it has unearthed approximately Rs. 50,000 crore of indirect taxes evasion and undisclosed income of Rs. 21,000 crore over the last two years.

Govt will import more gas if long term affordable rates are secured

The government is ready to import at least 70 to 80 million metric standard cubic metres (mmscm) of natural gas for India’s idle gas-based power plants if it can secure long-term ‘affordable’ rates.
Obtaining the required gas will lead to the re-starting of 20,000 MW of idle power capacity in India.
The minister recently visited Australia and secured assurances for gas supply at $5 per mmbtu but suppliers were not willing to sign long-term contracts.
If the government gets gas at $5 per mmbtu, gives custom duty waiver, reduces marketing margins and gas transportation charges by half and reduces inter state transmission charges to zero, the industry will be able to absorb the price.

Government to bring clarity to Budget provisions

The government is likely to come out with a definition for the term ‘new employees’ for implementing its Budget promise of footing the bill for pension scheme contribution in a bid to create more formal sector jobs.
Accordingly, ‘new employees’ may be defined as those in excess of the average employee base of a firm for the previous three years,
The payment of the EPS contribution will be in the form of reimbursements to employers.
The scheme will be applicable for the new employees, earning Rs.15,000 a month, who have worked for 240 days during a year in an establishment.
About 3.5 lakh establishments, which hire more than 20 workers, will be covered under the scheme.
The Finance Minister had said the government had decided to pay 8.33 per cent of wages to Employees Pension Scheme (EPS) on behalf of employers for workers during first three years of employment.
For this an allocation of Rs.1,000 crore had been made in the Budget under the scheme, Pradhan MantriRojgarProtsahan Yojana .

Industry bodies express concern over large pictorial warning

Expressing concern over larger pictorial warnings on tobacco products, industry bodies CII and FICCI said that this had led to a spurt in illegal import of cigarettes.
They urged the government to take steps to curb such activities while maintaining the status quo on the matter.
In letters to Health Minister J.P. Nadda, the industry chambers said illicit cigarettes were threatening the “livelihood of crores of farmers and people employed in the industry.”
An increase in unscrupulous trade activity had resulted in law and order problems as well as a threat to the livelihood of millions of farmers and the legal (tobacco) industry.
CII urges the government to look into the matter and ensure that a balanced view on the issue of graphic health warnings is taken. Until we are able to rein in the illegal trade in the sector effectively, it would be desirable to maintain a status quo on pictorial warning.
Companies making cigarettes had been compelled to shut operations due to lack of clarity on the warnings.

:: Sports ::

V.R. Raghunath, Dharamvir Singh and Ritu Rani nominated for the Arjuna Award

V.R. Raghunath, Dharamvir Singh and Ritu Rani have been nominated for the Arjuna Award for sporting excellence for 2016.
The trio has been nominated by Hockey India, along with veteran Sylvanus Dung Dung, who has been recommended for the Major Dhyan Chand Lifetime Achievement Award, while coach C.R. Kumar has been named for the Dronacharya Award.
India captain Ritu is not only one of the most experienced and talented midfielders of all time but also has the distinction of leading the side to an Olympic qualification for the first time in 36 years.
A product of the hockey nursery of Shahbad, Ritu is considered among the most astute readers of the modern game.
Drag-flicker Raghunath has been part of the Indian team’s defence for more than a decade, having made his international debut during the bilateral series against Pakistan in 2005.
He has been part of most of the Indian team’s recent successes, including the 2014 Asian Games gold, the HWL Finals bronze and the 2007 Asia Cup gold.
Dharamvir was also part of the Asiad gold-winning team and the silver-winning Commonwealth Games 2014 side.
The 70-year-old Dung Dung struck the winning goal to help India claim gold at the 1980 Olympics, the last time the team managed to do so, while Kumar is currently part of the senior women’s team staff and has been associated with various teams for almost two decades.