Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 09 November 2016

:: National ::

Government demonetised currency with 500 and 1000 rupee notes

Five hundred and 1,000 rupee notes will cease to be legal tender, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced in a surprise address to the nation. He said the decision was taken to root out the menace of black money and corruption.
Notes of 100, 50, 20, 10, five, two and one rupee remain legal tender and will be unaffected by the decision, the Prime Minister said, adding that all banks and ATMs will be closed on 9th and ATMs in some places on 10th as well.
Mr. Modi announced that existing Rs. 500 or Rs. 1,000 notes can be deposited in an individual’s bank or post office accounts between November 10 and December 30.
Currency value of up to Rs. 4,000 can be exchanged from any bank or post office per day till November 24 by showing a government identity card.
However, for 72 hours, government hospitals, railway, air and government bus ticket booking counters will continue to accept the old notes.
Old notes will also be accepted till November 11 at petrol, diesel and gas stations authorised by public sector oil companies, consumer co-operative stores authorised by State or Central government, milk booths authorised by States.
The Reserve Bank of India will issue new Rs. 500 and Rs. 2,000 notes starting from November 10.
The new Rs. 500 note will feature the Red Fort and the new Rs. 2,000 note will feature Mangalyaan, Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das said. These notes will become available from November 10.
Once the ATMs start functioning, there will be a withdrawal limit of Rs. 2,000 per debit card, which will be increased to Rs. 4,000 later, Mr. Modi said in a 40-minute televised address to the nation.
There will, however, be an overall limit on withdrawal from banks of Rs. 10,000 per day and Rs. 20,000 per week, which will be increased in the coming days.
Mr. Modi said there will be no restriction of any kind on non-cash payments by cheques, demand drafts, debit or credit cards and electronic fund transfer.
PM made a pointed reference to cross-border terror which was being funded by forged currency notes. “In the country’s history of development, there comes a moment where powerful and decisive decisions are needed,” Mr. Modi said.
Till March 2016, Rs. 14 lakh crore out of Rs. 16 lakh crore worth currency issued by RBI were in denominations of Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000, as per the central bank’s official data.
Justice M.B. Shah, (retired) who heads the Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team on black money, said there was no other alternative to curb black money than to scrap the Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000 currency notes.
Welcoming Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s pronouncement Justice Shah, a former Supreme Court judge, said this would spell the end of circulation of unaccounted wealth inside the country.
Earlier this year, the SIT had called for a complete ban on cash transactions above Rs. three lakh as well as setting a Rs. 15-lakh cap on cash holdings by individuals to prevent holding of unaccounted wealth in cash.
It had also recommended the government to frame a new law to make transactions above this threshold illegal if the amount was not paid by cheque, bank draft, or electronic clearing system through a bank account.
The SIT recommendation had followed a Finance Ministry statement that large amounts of unaccounted wealth was stored and used in the form of cash.

SC directed BCCI to bear the expenses for India- England test series

The Supreme Court directed the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to bear the expenses for all the matches to be played in the India-England Test series till December 3.
Ordering BCCI to foot the bill of Rs. 58.66 lakh for the first match in Rajkot scheduled for November 9, Bench said that the payments should be made directly to the parties the board has entered into contracts with for the series.
The Bench made it clear that the BCCI should not pay a farthing to the board’s member cricket associations in the States where the series matches are going to be held, including the Rajkot/Saurashtra Cricket Association.
According to a October 21 judgment, disbursal of funds from the BCCI to the State member associations is conditional on the latter filing undertakings to implement the Justice R.M. Lodha Committee recommendations in letter and spirit.
The BCCI moved the Supreme Court saying there are no funds for the India-England Test series scheduled to start on November 9.
The board sought a judicial order to the Lodha panel to clear the funds required for the match.

To check air pollution NGT bans construction activities

The National Green Tribunal banned all construction activities in Delhi city for a week to check the alarming air pollution levels. It said stone crushers and brick kilns should not operate in the region during this period.
Not stopping at this, the green court asked the Delhi government what the basis was for its decision to close schools and why it was sprinkling water using cranes.
A bench headed by NGT chairperson Justice Swatanter Kumar took the secretaries of Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh to task for not implementing its orders against burning crops and to contain air pollution.
“What did you do when all this smog was building up and particulate matter had increased beyond prescribed limits? What steps did you take till yesterday,” the bench asked.
“For the first five days, nobody did anything, be it the States or the Centre. Show us one thing visible to the common man.’’

Centre extends AFSPA to three Arunachal Pradesh districts

The Centre has decided to extend the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) in three districts of Arunachal Pradesh.
One of the primary reasons cited by the Centre is “extortion and intimidation” by the cadres of National Socialist Council of Nagaland (Isak-Muivah), who are “contriving to dominate areas hitherto occupied by NSCN (Khaplang).”
The notification has been issued even after the NDA government signed a ‘framework agreement’ with NSCN-IM in September 2015 to find a final solution to the six-decade-old Naga issue.
After decades of violence, the NSCN-IM had entered into a ceasefire agreement with India in 1997.
The largest group representing the Nagas has demanded a “Greater Nagalim” or a contiguous land for the Nagas, across the States of Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Mizoram.
The ceasefire signed with NSCN-IM is only for Nagaland; it does not include Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur. This notification has been issued after much consultation between the security agencies.”
NSCN-K had unilaterally abrogated the ceasefire in March 2015 but NSCN-IM continues to be in a ceasefire pact with the Government of India.

:: India and World ::

India’s entry into NSG will again take the centre-stage

India’s bid for membership of the Nuclear Suppliers Group will be centre-stage again this week as the group meets for the Consultative Group technical meeting on September 9-10, followed by the Plenary session in Vienna.
The government hopes its application will be considered again, five months after the last unsuccessful round.A flurry of diplomatic activity since then has focused on all the countries, including China, that didn’t back India’s bid.
While a slew of leaders from New Zealand, Turkey, Brazil and South Africa, all NSG countries that have hardline positions, have been invited to India in the past month.
India’s nuclear negotiators have travelled to other countries, who are still unconvinced about the issue of non-signatories to the Non Proliferations Treaty(NPT) — like India — being made members of the nuclear club.
However, with China making it clear that it’s position hasn’t changed, and little movement in the objections of other countries on the issue of the NPT, officials are calling it a “long haul”, given that the NSG works by consensus.
At best, India will hope that a process will be set into motion to define criteria for non signatories to the NPT, but that the criteria will broadly fit India’s credentials as a non-proliferator.
India, Pakistan, Israel and South Sudan are all non-signatories of NPT, of which India and Pakistan have both applied for NSG membership this year.
Meanwhile, India has been working with its support base that includes the U.S., Japan, Australia and South Korea, that has been exerting its influence as the new Chairperson of the NSG to push for India’s case.
India also hopes Prime Minister Modi’s visit to Tokyo on November 11, that coincides with the NSG Plenary session, will boost India’s non-proliferation image, as India and Japan are expected to announce their civil nuclear accord.
The U.S., that has backed India, said it remained optimistic about India’s chances of NSG membership by the year-end.

China-Pak to set up joint counter-terrorism system

China and Pakistan planned to set up a joint counter-terrorism command system even as they held a bilateral anti-terrorism exercise, state media reported.
Their joint military exercise was carried out in a border region and involved elite commandos from both special forces, state-run China Radio International (CRI) reported.
The report quoted Rehang Aiming, a senior officer with the Chinese special forces, as saying that the troops also held in-depth discussion on a joint counter-terrorism command system.
“The Chinese and Pakistani forces have conducted in-depth and detailed communication regarding the subjects of construction of a counter-terrorism command system and use of tactics,” he said.

:: Business and Economy ::

Finance Minister says India is relatively well protected from outside

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said that India may still be a developing country but is no longer influenced by the rising clamour for protectionism around the world, and is instead looking to further open up its economy to spur investment and trade.
Normally, it is the least developed and developing economies that cry for protectionism and that is a voice which is now almost not heard in India. We are looking to open up and that’s been the direction of our economy.”
And an aspirational nation does not want to let go of any opportunities for the future,” Mr. Jaitley said, adding that though India is now the fastest growing major economy, there is a great amount of impatience to grow even faster.
“To reform more, open up further, attract more investment, expand more in manufacturing, fill up the infrastructure deficit faster than we have been doing, there is a growing impatience in India, and rightly so,” the Finance Minister said
“If industry has been investing outside, we welcome that, we encourage that,” he said. He referred to the fact that India is now one of the largest investors in the United Kingdom. “We (also) seek a lot of investment into India.
And therefore, we have liberalised our policy, created more instruments and our FDI policy is amongst the most open the world over,” the Finance Minister said.

India-UK to look for deeper trade and investment ties

India and the U.K. have begun to look at ways to deepen trade & investment ties even without a Free Trade Agreement (FTA), Commerce Secretary said.
However, India will seek greater market access in the U.K. for goods including generic drugs and services such as IT/ITeS and healthcare through a bilateral FTA as well.
Negotiations on the proposed India-U.K. FTA will begin only after Britain completes the formalities for withdrawal from the European Union (EU) by around 2019, the secretary said.
In the absence of an FTA, India and the U.K. will have to address constraints inhibiting the development of bilateral trade and investment relations, she said.
In the meantime, India will attempt to conclude talks for an FTA with the EU, she said while speaking at a seminar titled ‘Brexit: Prospects for an India-UK FTA’ organised by the Centre for WTO studies at the IIFT, and industry bodies FICCI and FISME. \
Both the nations will gain if the U.K. National Health System procures generic drugs from India and if British insurance companies recognise the relatively low-cost treatment in India's globally accredited hospitals.
Negotiations on the proposed India-EU FTA have been stuck on issues including the EU's demand for greater market access in India for its automobiles and wines and spirits as well as on India's demand for ‘data security status’ for its IT sector.
Indian companies are the second largest creator of employment in the U.K., Ms. Teaotia said. There are huge complementarities between both the countries, she said.

President says Govt should encourage exports from small and medium enterprises

President Pranab Mukherjee said the Centre needed to ensure that India’s exporters, particularly those in the Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) segment, are adequately supported through appropriate policy interventions to help them tide over the present downturn.
India’s exports had contracted in 20 of the 21 months till August this year except in June 2016, when it expanded 1.27 per cent.
Mr. Mukherjee said the Centre will have to consider strengthening India’s institutional credit guarantee framework in the trade sector to put the country back on a high export growth path.
The framework includes the state-owned ECGC that promotes the country’s exports by improving the competitiveness of the Indian exporters through credit risk insurance covers and related services.
“Export credit insurance and guarantees in the spectrum of trade financing are of critical importance in today’s scenario of continuing high systemic risk,” Mr. Mukherjee said.