Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 14 November 2016

:: National ::

Confusion over India and Japan Nuclear deal

Indian and Japanese officials continued to wrangle over the legality of a document signed as part of the nuclear deal during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Tokyo.
The document indicates a link between nuclear testing and the cancellation of the deal.
While government say the document is “not legally binding,” a Japanese official insisted the document had been signed by the nuclear negotiators in the presence of Prime Ministers Shinzo Abe and Narendra Modi, and hence “legally binding.”
The ‘Note on Views and Understanding’ contains contentious clauses that effectively allow Japan to invoke an “emergency” suspension of supplies if India were to test a nuclear weapon, and to contest any compensation claims from India in court.
India has traditionally refused to link its nuclear trade with pre-conditions on testing, holding it is a matter of nuclear sovereignty, and instead giving a voluntary moratorium on tests.
In response to questions about the differences, government sources said the note is simply a “record by the negotiators of respective views on certain issues,” given “Japan’s special sensitivities as the only nation to have suffered a nuclear attack.”

PM Modi made an emotional appeal to the people

Four days after he announced the demonetisation of Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000 notes, Prime Minister Narendra Modi made an emotional appeal to Indians to give him 50 days to rid the country of black money.
He also promised more measures against the menace and asked the people to take the inconvenience in their stride.
The Prime Minister returned from Japan and attended three public functions in Goa, Belgavi in Karnataka and in Pune respectively, where he appealed for support in his drive against black money and corruption.
Reflecting the amount of political capital he had invested in the move, Mr. Modi almost broke down when he recalled his political journey:
“I am not here to just occupy a chair, I left my home, I left my family to do something for the country.”
Mr. Modi spoke in Goa first, after he digitally laid the foundation stone for a new greenfield airport at the Mopa plateau.
“I know what kind of forces and what kind of people are against me now. I am looting what they had accumulated over 70 years,” he said, adding that he apprehended a threat to his life due to his strong stance against corruption.
“They will not leave me alive. They will destroy me. Let them do what they want. The nation should just help me for 50 days,” he said.
He further assured the nation that the demonetisation drive was not the end of his campaign against corruption and black money.

UN asks for patience from India regarding Masood Azhar

India must show patience on its counter-terrorism concerns, says the U.N.’s senior most official on the issue of designating JeM chief Masood Azhar and implementing U.N. sanctions against LeT leaders Hafiz Saeed and Zaki-ur-Rahman in Pakistan.
“India and all member states should understand that [the U.N. processes] take time and they must continue to cooperate,” said Jean Paul Laborde.
He is the Executive Director of the Security Council’s counter-terrorism body, CTED, that was formed under resolution 1373 after the 9/11 attacks in the U.S. to help countries work together on prosecuting terrorists.
Mr. Laborde was in Delhi to address the concerns over the slow processing of India’s applications with the U.N. on terror.
Chief among those is the early ratification of the Comprehensive Convention on International Terror (CCIT) that India introduced in 1996. The CCIT has been held up at the U.N. by several countries, mainly the U.S. and France.

:: International ::

Trump’s victory puts doubts over Paris Agreement

As Donald Trump’s victory in the U.S. presidential polls was confirmed, delegations at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change conference (COP 22) in Marrakech considered the prospect American pull out of the Paris Agreement.
Mr. Trump’s presidency could freeze progress on the climate pact that entered into force on November 4. The U.S. could also ignore its voluntary climate action commitments under the Paris Agreement and cut funding for climate finance.
U.S. special envoy for climate change, denied the likelihood of his country withdrawing from the Paris Agreement at a pre-COP22 briefing session.
He said because of domestic advantages in staying in the agreement, the U.S. may not exercise the provisions for withdrawal in Article 28 of the Agreement.
Mr. Pershing also said investment opportunities opened up by the Agreement in renewables were significant.
Domestic circumstances such as flooding in Florida, superstorm Sandy and drought were real consequences, and required the U.S. to continue with its promise.
On a Kyoto Protocol-like situation, he said unlike that Protocol, the Paris Agreement was not a top-down international treaty.

Trump vows to deport 3 million undocumented immigrants

Donald Trump will keep his vow to deport millions of undocumented migrants from the United States, he said in an interview, saying that as many as three million could be removed after he takes office.
“What we are going to do is get the people that are criminal and have criminal records, gang members, drug dealers, where a lot of these people, probably two million, it could be even three million -— we are getting them out of our country.
The billionaire real estate baron made security at the U.S.-Mexico border a central plank of his insurgent presidential campaign, which resulted in last Tuesday’s shock election victory against his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.
Mr. Trump added that the barrier to be erected on the U.S. border with Mexico may not consist entirely of brick and mortar, but that fencing could be used in some areas.
During the election campaign, Mr. Trump had warned that for countries which do not accept these illegal immigrants, he would enforce the legal provision of stopping of issuing of visas to their people.
Mr. Trump said he would take a call on the fate of the rest of the illegal immigrants after the border is secured.

:: India and World ::

India gets strong support from U.K. And France for UNSC

India’s bid for a permanent seat in a reformed U.N. Security Council has received a strong support from many U.N. member-states, including the U.K. and France.
More than 50 speakers shared their suggestions and concerns over reform of the 15-nation UNSC during a General Assembly session.
Among the large number of nations supporting a permanent seat for India and other emerging powers like Brazil and Germany were two veto-wielding permanent members of the Council, the United Kingdom and France.
German Ambassador to the U.N. Harald Braun said the Council reform was an urgent matter.
India’s Ambassador to the U.N. Syed Akbaruddin lamented the “never-ending carousel of discussions” on UNSC reforms saying “it is time to break the impasse” to urgently reform the U.N. body that is “unresponsive” to the current global situation.

:: Business and Economy ::

In the wake of demonetisation Unions have called off strike

Trade unions have postponed their strike plans to help Centre’s demonetisation process proceed without any hindrance.
Representatives of the All India Grameen Bank Workers Organisation and the All India Grameen Bank Officers Organisation on Sunday met officials of the Department of Financial Services to discuss the strike.
The Grameen Bank workers were threatening to go on strike due to issues with the Government on payment parity, lack of pension, and gratuity and overtime issues.
The Grameen unions had earlier on October 29 called for a nation-wide dharna on November 21 and December 5-7. All such agitations have been deferred to the first week of January 2017.
Additionally, the Federation of LPG Distributors of India wrote to Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Dharmendra Pradhan stating that they too would be deferring their agitation in light of the demonetisation move.
The LPG distributors were set to launch a nation-wide strike on December 1 and an indefinite strike starting December 15 if Mr Pradhan’s office failed to hold talks regarding safety concerns they had raised about the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana.

Micro finance sector worst hit by the demonetisation

The country’s micro finance sector (MFI), which essentially extends small loans to the poor and weaker section of the society, is one of the worst hit by the demonetisation move of the Centre.
The micro finance sector extends loans and well as accepts repayments in cash. With Rs.500 and Rs.1,000 notes being demonetised, both business and recovery of loans have been impacted badly.
Repayments have fallen to below 10 per cent since the demonetisation drive, which is typically 100 per cent for micro lenders. Loans worth Rs.650 crore has become over due and the numbers will go up.
Microfinance Institutions Network (MFIN) — the self regulatory body of micro lenders — has written to both the Finance Ministry as well as the banking regulator for allowing them to accept Rs.500 and Rs.1,000 bank notes.
The micro finance institutions which are a part of MFIN, has 3.5 crore customers from low income households across India, of which ‘99.9 per cent is women’, Ms. Viswanathan said.
Centre’s demonetisation move has led to a spike in the usage of debit and credit cards, especially in the small ticket size segment as currency notes are increasingly becoming scarce in banks and ATMs.
The usage of cards for transactions less than Rs.500 has more than doubled since November 8, when the government announced that Rs.500 and Rs.1,000 notes would no longer be accepted as legal tender.
Consumers have been mostly using cards to pay for everyday essential things like grocery and medicines apart from categories like entertainment and restaurants.
A further analysis of the data shows that the number of online transactions of less than Rs.250 increased by 177 per cent post demonetisation. Further, transactions in the range of Rs.250-500 rose 135 per cent.
The surge in the Rs.500-750 bracket has been only 75 per cent while there has been no notable spike in transactions worth over Rs.750.
Industry participants agree that the Centre’s move would lead to an increase in the usage of credit and debit cards leading to the twin objectives of financial inclusion and making India a cashless society.
Interestingly, overall increase in transactions is more skewed towards debit cards with over 70 per cent surge when compared to the 40 per cent rise in credit card usage.
Categories like entertainment, restaurant and liquor saw a jump in the range of 160-190 per cent suggesting that consumers are not postponing their spending but just migrating from cash to cards.

Demonetisation to help in removing fake notes as well as Economy will become cashless

The withdrawal of 500 and 1,000 rupee notes may have come as a bolt from the blue. But it appears to be a part of a calculated process set in motion way back in January 2014.
The fulcrum of that larger process revolves around addressing the twin menace afflicting the decision-making exercise of the economy managers.
The unaccounted pockets of the economy and illegal notes together combine to render policy initiatives ineffective and redundant.
Reserve Bank of India had sought to crack the whip on this way back in January 2014 by deciding to withdraw completely from circulation all bank notes issued prior to 2005.
The idea then was to replace the older notes with new ones with hugely beefed-up security features.
By withdrawing these notes, the RBI, it was pointed out, wanted to weed out fake notes in the system if any and also ensure that faking becomes difficult and costly by introducing new notes with tighter security features.
A series efforts to have a connected web by linking Aadhar number, PAN number and bank account and the like have all been carefully calibrated to push a steady movement towards an organized system.
The prevalence of a vast space outside the organised sector, it is pointed out, is making things difficult for the policy planners to offer precisely workable prescriptions.
On many an occasion, the RBI bosses have stressed this limiting factor.Given all these, the de-monetisation cannot be treated as an isolated exercise but must be viewed as a larger effort to push the society into a cashless one.
Viewed from a holistic perspective, the latest move should be judged by the efficacy or otherwise of the system to capture all sorts of financial transactions – small and big ones alike.
Hopefully, this could help bring in a sense of fairness and equity in the economy. At the same time, one expects this to facilitate policy formulators arriving at reasonably accurate diagnosis for the ills of the economy in a dynamic situation.
Short-term pains in the transition process have already thrown up a host of logistical imponderables, pushing the BJP Government at the Centre in a tight corner.
Notwithstanding the transitory political risks in the move, the long-term gains are bound to bring about a major metamorphosis in the way the financial affairs are managed in India.