Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 06 January 2017

:: National ::

President says economy may face a brief slowdown due to demonetisation

President Pranab Mukherjee said that the demonetisation aimed at fighting corruption may lead to a brief economic slowdown.
“Demonetisation, while immobilising black money and fighting corruption, may lead to temporary slowdown of the economy.
We all will have to be extra careful to alleviate the sufferings of the poor, which might become unavoidable for the expected progress in the long term,” he said in his New Year address to Governors and Lt. Governors.
The recent package announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi would provide some relief to the poor, he said.
Referring to the coming Assembly elections, Mr. Mukherjee spoke about the ill-effects of competitive populism and vote bank politics.
He said India was a country held together by strong but invisible threads. Tolerance, he said, was a core civilisational value for India.
“In a pluralistic democracy like ours, tolerance, respect for contrary views and patience are a must. These values have to be preserved. India’s strength lies in her diversity.
“The multiplicity in culture, faith and language is what makes India special,” he said.
“There will always be divergent strands in public discourse. We may argue. We may disagree. But we cannot deny the prevalence of multiplicity of opinion.
“You can, through your calm influence, inculcate amongst the citizens of your state this fundamental ethos of our civilisation,” the President said.

Decision of Party symbol by EC

The Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order, 1968 empowers the EC to recognise political parties and allot symbols.
Under Paragraph 15 of the Order, it can decide disputes among rival groups or sections of a recognised political party staking claim to its name and symbol.
Under Paragraph 15, the EC is the only authority to decide issues on a dispute or a merger. The Supreme Court upheld its validity in Sadiq Ali and another vs. ECI in 1971.
The ECI primarily ascertains the support enjoyed by a claimant within a political party in its organisational wing and in its legislative wing.
The Commission examines the party’s constitution and its list of office-bearers submitted when the party was united.
It identifies the apex committee(s) in the organisation and finds out how many office-bearers, members or delegates support the rival claimants.
For the legislative wing, the party goes by the number of MPs and MLAs in the rival camps. It may consider affidavits filed by these members.
Where the party is either vertically divided or it is not possible to say which group has a majority, the EC may freeze the party symbol and allow the groups to register themselves with new names or add prefixes or suffixes to the party’s existing names.

Rape definition in POCSO and IPC

A chink in the colonial-era Indian Penal Code (IPC) condoning sexual intercourse and exploitation of a 15-year-old child ‘wife’ has been brought to the Supreme Court’s attention.
An exception to Section 375 (rape) in the IPC allows a man to go scot-free despite having sex with his 15-year-old ‘wife’. This exception ensures that he will not be charged with rape even though child marriage is a crime.
Nobel Peace laureate Kailash Satyarthi, through his organisation Bachpan Bachao Andolan, appealed to the Supreme Court for help to end this “statutorily-backed” crime against children.
In a petition before a Bench led by Chief Justice of India J.S. Khehar, the organisation said an estimated 47 per cent of children in India were married off before they turned 18, according to the United Nations.
The illegal practice was a serious deterrence to the physical, social, psychological and moral well-being of children.
The petition said the IPC condones the rape of a 15-year-old by her husband despite the fact that the more recent Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act of 2012 qualifies those aged below 18 as ‘children’.
POCSO has specific penal provisions against ‘penetrative sexual assault’ and ‘aggressive penetrative sexual assault’ on children below 18.
Section 6 of the Act enunciates the punishment for aggravated penetrative sexual assault as rigorous imprisonment of not less than 10 years to life imprisonment.
The apex court directed the government to address the issue within four months. The Bench asked Mr. Satyarthi to approach the court on the same grounds for immediate resolution if he is not satisfied with the government’s response.

:: International ::

Bill backing key changes in the H1-B visa re-introduced in the U.S. Congress

A bill backing key changes in the H1-B programme that allows skilled workers from countries like India to fill high-tech jobs in the U.S. has been re-introduced in the U.S. Congress.
The ‘Protect and Grow American Jobs Act’ makes important changes to the eligibility requirements for H1-B Visa exemptions was re-introduced on Wednesday by Republican Darrell Issa and Scott Peters — both from California.
The Bill, among other things, increases the minimum salary of H-1B visa to $1,00,000 per annum and eliminate the Masters Degree exemption.
The legislation, they argued, will help crack down on abuse and ensure that these jobs remain available for the best and brightest talent from around the world.
The Bill comes after a number of companies — Disney, SoCal Edison and others — have come under fire for abusing the H1-B visa programme to replace American workers with foreign workers.

:: Science and Technology ::

World's tallest solar tower in Israel

With Israel traditionally running its economy on fossil fuels, renewable energy has long been hobbled by bureaucracy and a lack of incentives.
But the country is starting to make an effort, setting a goal of generating 10 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2020, up from the current 2.5 per cent.
The Ashalim project, deep in the Negev desert, is made up of three plots, with a fourth planned for the future, each with a different solar technology. Together, the fields will be Israel’s largest renewable energy project when completed by 2018.
They are set to generate some 310 megawatts of power, about 1.6 per cent of the country’s energy needs enough for about 130,000 households, or roughly 5 per cent of Israel’s population, according to Israel’s Electricity Authority.
Solar towers use a method differing from the more common photovoltaic solar panels, which convert sunlight directly into electricity.
Instead, towers use a solar-thermal method — Thousands of mirrors focus the sun’s rays onto the tower, heating a boiler that creates steam to spin a turbine and generate electricity.
Encircling the Ashalim tower are 50,000 mirrors, known as heliostats, in a shimmering blanket of glass over the desert.

:: Business and Economy ::

Trade Infrastructure for Export Scheme to come

The Centre will tie up with the States to soon roll-out a new scheme called ‘TIES’ — or Trade Infrastructure for Export Scheme — to boost export infrastructure, Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said.
States must develop their own export strategy in alignment with the national foreign trade policy, as well as enhance co-operation with Central agencies to set up common facilities for testing, certification, trace-back, packaging and labelling.
Indian roads carry nearly 65 per cent cargo against the global trend where railway is the major contributor.
Therefore the States should focus on improving the last mile connectivity of major exporting hubs to Inland Container Depot/Ports. Quality of roads including their load bearing capacity may be upgraded for smooth transit of export goods.
States should cooperate with the Centre for setting up common facilities like testing labs and training institutes as well as to ensure packaging and storage support to the Indian industry.
So far only 17 States (of the 29 States and seven Union Territories in the country) have prepared their export strategy.
On services, IT and ITeS had an overwhelming predominance in India’s services exports but were largely restricted to the U.S. and EU markets and are therefore vulnerable to changes imposed by these two trading blocs.
There is a need to diversify our services exports. Areas like medical tourism, nursing and healthcare, education, audio-visual media have an excellent potential that can be harnessed.
For this, we need to develop the right competencies like language skills for the East and North East Asian markets.
Meanwhile, the Centre has decided to soon bring out a Logistics Performance Index to rank states on steps taken to facilitate trade and improve logistics.
Measures in the pipeline include expediting the proposal for a north east corridor to improve connectivity with south east Asian countries and exports to that region.

Telecom Commission has given approval to the second phase of Bharat Net

The Telecom Commission has given approval to the second phase of BharatNet project that seeks to provide broadband connectivity to 1.5 lakh gram panchayats at an estimated cost of Rs. 27,000 crore.
Both the strategy and elements of BharatNet Phase II have been approved by Telecom Commission and we will now place it before the Cabinet for their decision.
The first phase entailed a cost of Rs. 18,000 crore and for the second phase the estimates are likely to be in ballpark range of Rs. 27,000 crore.
The figures of cost will be fixed only after the Cabinet approval. Govt is working on it and will try to take it to the Cabinet in this quarter itself.
The ongoing BharatNet phase I seeks to connect 100,000 gram panchayats by March this year, and the next phase is expected to begin from mid-2017 running all the way up to September 2018.