Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 08 June 2016

:: National ::

Union government working on suite of Bt cotton genes

The Union government is working to develop a suite of Bt cotton genes that can be integrated into traditional varieties and be made available to farmers as a viable alternative to the current technology.
The Indian Council of Agricultural Research has for many years unsuccessfully tried to develop Bt cotton, which contains insecticidal genes sourced from a soil bacterium and targeted at key cotton pests.
There were already several genes available in various labs and stages of development, but the aim was “that India not be dependent on foreign technology”, said a top official privy to the project but who did not want to be identified.
Agriculture Ministry mooting a change in the way seed companies and seed-technology companies such as the MMB share royalty, technology and determine the price as which farmers buy cotton seed.
Different arms of government are split over whether seed tech companies have the right to, or are obliged to license, their technology to seed companies on request.
Cotton is the only genetically-modified seed that’s legally allowed in India.
Gm food crops such as brinjal and mustard, which are in advanced stages of regulatory clearances, are yet to become available to farmers due to stringent opposition by anti-GM activist groups.
Historically multinational companies’ research budgets far outweighed that of Indian research agencies.

US handed over Chola age Ganesha idol

U.S. government handed over the Chola age Sripuranthan Ganesha idol and 200 other stolen Indian artefacts to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
It was in 2013 that, an accountant in the shipping sector, matched the photograph of the idol taken by the French Institute at Puducherry (IFP) with that of an idol housed in the Toledo Museum of Art (TMA) in Ohio, U.S.
In an ongoing investigation by the U.S. Homeland Security department into art dealer Subhash Kapoor’s questionable dealings, the Ganesha idol was among the many object d’arts found to be stolen and housed in museums across the world.
In the case of the Ganesha idol, Mr. Sundaresan’s tip off and painstaking matching of pictures (showing at least 19 similarities between the idol in Toledo and the picture kept by the IFP) were decisive in terms of establishing that the art work was stolen.

Govt wants to develop Sabarimala as international pilgrim centre

The Union government is planning big for developing Sabarimala into an international pilgrim centre.
The Centre will set up a joint committee comprising representatives of the Union Ministries of Forest, Environment and Climate Change, Water Resources, Tourism, Railways, Road Transport, and Highways and Shipping soon to study various aspects of the development,
The sacred grove of Sabarimala is situated in the buffer zone of the Periyar Tiger Reserve and the Ministry will have to take a key role in initiating any development programme there.
High security for the temple as well as the pilgrims, full insurance cover for pilgrims, and foolproof pilgrim facilities would be major attractions of the Centre’s proposal, he said.
The administrative body of the temple is the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB), a constitutional body headed by nominees of the State government.
The Centre will have to constitute a statutory board chaired by a high-ranking civil servant for Sabarimala administration once it is declared a national pilgrim centre.
Mr. Rajasekharan said Prime Minister Narendra Modi was keen on Sabarimala development and funds would never be a problem for it. Mr. Modi is likely to assign the task of Centre-State coordination on Sabarimala to a senior Union Minister.
Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu expressed his willingness to make additional fund allocation for the Sabari Rail project if the State promised its active cooperation for the project.

:: International ::

Chinese media criticises India’s Chabahar deal

The recent India-Iran deal to develop the strategic Chabahar Port is part of India’s “larger geostrategic calculations” to gain access to West Asia and Central Asia and to counter the Pakistan-China plan to develop Gwadar port, a media report said.
The sea-land route of Chabahar Port is designed to bypass Pakistan. Indian strategists suggest that India can take further advantage of its ties with Iran and Afghanistan and gain new leverage,” the report said.
It added that Indian also views the investment “as a counterweight against Pakistan’s Gwadar Port”.
However, it said that “India may not be able to meet its generous offers and high-sounding rhetoric”.
The report said that if India expected too much from Iran, it is “bound for disappointment”.

Another Communal attack in Bangladesh

Unidentified assailants shot and hacked to death a Hindu priest in Jhenaidah in southwestern Bangladesh in an attack that bore the hallmarks of the recent murders of activists and writers in the country.
Farmers discovered Mr. Ganguly’s body in a rice field near his home in the village of Naldanga. The Islamic State terror group has claimed responsibility for the murder.
In the last two days, two other people have been killed in a similar manner. The wife of a senior police officer, who was involved in counter-terrorism, was stabbed and shot in the head in the port city of Chittagong.
Bangladesh has seen a rise in suspected Islamist attacks in the last two years targeting bloggers, online activists, secular intellectuals, and members of religious minorities.
The IS and the al Qaeda have reportedly claimed responsibility for many of these attacks, though the government has kept denying any “organisational presence” of such terrorist groups in the country.
Meanwhile, Bangladesh police launched a deadly crackdown on Islamist militants.
Two “high-ranking” members of the Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) were shot dead in a battle in Dhaka and another was killed in a northwestern district, police told AFP.
Home Minister again linked the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party to the attacks, saying they were part of a wider conspiracy that also involved Mossad.
Amnesty International demanded "a prompt, thorough, impartial and transparent investigation" into the recent killings, adding that the government must “protect those still under threat”.

Hillary Clinton officially secures Democratic nominations

Americans voted in the last major State primaries of the 2016 White House race from New Jersey to California, after delegate counts showed Hillary Clinton clinching the Democratic nomination.
Ms. Clinton declare victory as the first woman in U.S. history to secure the presidential nomination of a major party, putting her on course for a showdown with New York billionaire Donald Trump,
Her challenger Bernie Sanders ignored media reports that she has already clinched the magic number of delegates.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi — who was the first woman speaker of the House of Representatives and is a California super-delegate this year — formally endorsed Ms. Clinton shortly before voting kicked off in her home State.
The comments came on the heels of a weekend phone call with President Barack Obama, who has stayed out of the Democratic primary to date but is poised to endorse Ms. Clinton as early as this week.

:: India and World ::

India- Japan nuclear deal facing difficulties

It may take more than a year for the India-Japan civil nuclear agreement to fructify.
This is because the National Diet, the Japanese legislature, failed to take up the agreement in the summer legislative session that ended on June 1, even the “technical details” were yet to be finalised.
The pact, firmed up during the visit of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in December 2015, needs the legislative approval as the Japanese government wants to convince parties in the Diet.
Bilateral discussion on the nuclear deal is likely to take place during the visit of External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj to Tokyo. However, the visit has not been finalised so far.

Modi, Obama discusses important Paris climate deal, missile treaty

U.S. President Barack Obama held discussions with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on measures to bring the landmark Paris climate change agreement into force as quickly as possible.
They also discussed financing for India’s ambitious plans to expand solar power and clean energy.
Mr. Modi said the U.S. and India were cooperating on issues of global concern, including nuclear security, climate change and terrorism.
The two leaders also welcomed the start of preparatory work on six nuclear reactors in India, a key step in closing the first deal stemming from a U.S.-India civil nuclear accord, which was struck over a decade ago.
A joint statement said that India and the U.S. Export-Import Bank intend to work together toward a competitive financing package for the project and would work to finalize agreements by June 2017.
Once completed, the project would be among the largest of its kind, fulfilling the promise of the U.S.-India civil nuclear agreement and demonstrating a commitment to meet India’s growing energy needs while reducing reliance on fossil fuels.
India and the U.S agreed to initiate domestic processes to ratify the Paris Agreement on climate change — negotiated by over 190 countries in December 2015 — and complete the process within this year.
Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd. (NPCL) and nuclear reactor builders, Westinghouse, will immediately start the engineering and site design work on six reactors to be set up in Gujarat under an early work agreement; all commercial agreements will be completed by June 2017.
The Obama administration has already made a public commitment that it would seek to ratify the Paris agreement. India’s ratifying the deal — which will be a decision of the Union Cabinet — will take it closer to coming into force.
At 6.96 per cent of the total global emissions, India ranks fourth after China, the U.S. and the EU on the list of polluters.
India came closer to the first of four nuclear regimes it is trying to gain entry into, with countries belonging to the 34-member Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) raising no objection to India’s membership later this year.
Meanwhile, the MTCR chair has now begun the next stage of formalities for India, which require each of the 34 member countries to send a “diplomatic note” stating formally that they accept India’s membership.
India’s membership had been blocked in 2015 by Italy that seemed to link it to the standoff over the detention of the Italian marines. With the return of the second marine to Rome, Italy is no longer blocking the consensus.
India is also hopeful of building on the MTCR entry with membership to the Nuclear Suppliers Group.
Meanwhile, China has insisted on consensus among the NSG members over India's admission. “Members still differ on the accession of countries which are not party states to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT).

:: Business and Economy ::

RBI keeps rates unchanged

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Raghuram Rajan cited the April retail inflation “surprise” as the key factor that prompted the central bank to leave interest rates unchanged.
The central bank chief said the RBI was also committed to providing liquidity as required by the banking system and observed that the Centre could also aid credit flows through a timely infusion of capital into “constrained” public sector banks.
On growth, the central bank said some high frequency indicators for April point to a firming recovery, although it is still uneven.
The central bank said the transmission of the monetary policy as well as timely capital infusion in the banks remained critical for growth to revive.
Banks have been reluctant to cut lending rates which prompted the central bank to ask banks to shift to a new loan pricing mechanism — Marginal Cost of funds based Lending Rate (MCLR) from April.
Mr. Rajan said the RBI will review the implementation of the new framework .
The RBI also said there could be outflows of about $20 billion once the foreign currency non-resident (bank) deposits, which were garnered during the 2013 currency crisis, mature.
While the RBI has covered those requirements in the forward markets, Mr. Rajan said there could still be a shortage of dollars and assured market participants of dollar supply in case of extreme volatility.
On the issue of cleaning up of banks’ balance sheets, Mr. Rajan reiterated that the central bank will not reconsider any kind of regulatory forbearance.
He said the RBI is in discussion with the government to facilitate flow of credit to projects with appropriate capital structures.

India will submit proposal on Trade facilitation in services to WTO

India will soon submit a formal proposal before the World Trade Organisation (WTO) on a Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA) in services.
The objective of the proposed TFA in Services is to ease the flow of global services trade, including temporary movement of software, accounting, medical and consulting professionals as well as similar skilled workers.
The WTO DG and most of the trade ministers welcomed the idea. The DG wanted India to formally submit a proposal.
Once India will have a TFA in services at the WTO-level, it will even pave the way for better negotiations on services at the bilateral and regional Free Trade Agreement negotiations.
In the formal proposal, India is likely to push for a clear distinction between temporary movement of professionals and (permanent) migration.
This is important because India is strong in terms of skilled white-collared workers and professionals from streams like IT, medical and para-medical services, and architecture.
Therefore, their easier movement to other countries for short-term projects has been high on its agenda.
A global pact on services trade facilitation will also help in providing greater clarity in case of disputes arising out of visa-related restrictions, the Minister said.
India and the US are currently engaged in a dispute at the WTO level after Washington increased visa fees for H-1B and L-1 categories which are extensively used by Indian IT companies.
Meanwhile, countries including China are pushing for a ‘TFA in Investment’ at the WTO level, but that proposal has not received much support, sources said, adding that several developed countries also wanted discussions at the WTO level on e-commerce and global value chains.
India and several other countries have already ratified a ‘TFA in Goods’ for easier movement (including release and clearance) of goods across borders.

Real Estate Investment Trusts to be made more attractive

With an aim to make Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) more attractive to investors, markets regulator SEBI plans to relax its norms to allow these trusts to invest more in under-construction assets and have a larger number of sponsors.
SEBI had put in place its regulations for REITs in September 2014 but these trusts have not generated enough interest among investors and industry players who have been seeking further measures to make them attractive.
While the government has already announced various tax-related and other sops for REITs, SEBI has now decided to further amend its regulations by taking into account representations received from various quarters.
A proposal to amend REIT Regulations would be placed before SEBI’s Board next week, after which a consultation paper would be floated for seeking further comments from various stakeholders before making the final changes to the norms.
A consultation process is already underway for making the InViT (Infrastructure Investment Trusts) Regulations.
India’s real estate sector has grown rapidly in recent years and the growing scale of operations of corporate sector has increased the demand for commercial buildings, office spaces, shopping centres, warehouses and conference centres.
Among the proposed changes, SEBI plans to remove the restriction on the SPV (Special Purpose Vehicle) to invest in other SPVs holding the assets, which in turn would allow REITs to invest in a holding company owning stake in SPVs.
It is being proposed that the REIT would hold controlling interest and at least 50 per cent equity in the Holding Company. The Holding Company can in turn hold controlling interest and at least 50 per cent equity in underlying SPV.
A large proportion of real estate projects in India are financed by financial institutions on project-finance basis where lenders require a pledge on shares of the SPV.
In such cases, if the SPV is held directly by the SPV, the lenders would want pledge of the SPV shares held by the REIT and this might not be attractive for REIT investors with the existing restriction.
Currently, an SPV is required to hold at least 80 per cent of its assets directly and cannot invest in other SPVs.
Another proposed move is to allow the REITs to have up to five sponsors.