Current Affairs for BANK, IBPS Exams

01 December 2015

NATIONAL

World leaders calls to reduce emissions

• U.S. President Barack Obama and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, representing the two top emitters of greenhouse gases in the world, made a firm commitment at the Paris Climate Change conference to work for change

• They also called for an agreement that would cut carbon emissions and pave the way for a global transition to a green economy.

• Touching on an emerging issue in climate policy, French President Francois Hollande called for a progressive tax on carbon to reflect its true price, and send the message that there is a cost to emitting greenhouse gases damaging the environment.

• At the Leaders Event being held for the first time in such talks, Mr. Obama want- ed the Paris conference to send the right signal that it means business on encouraging new clean technologies.

• Hundreds of billions of dollars were waiting to be deployed internationally to foster green innovation.

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while inaugurating the India Pavilion at the COP21 event, said India intended to make massive changes to its energy profile by increasing the share of renewables, achieving 175 GW by 2022.

Contentious issues in the GST

• Keen on breaking the parliamentary deadlock over the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Bill, the NDA government is scouring the file notings made by the UPA Finance Ministers pertaining to the Bill to come up with solutions to the three objections of the Congress.
• Setting up of a grievance redress mechanism is one of the three issues flagged by the Congress. The other two are a one percent cess on the manufacturing States and mentioning an 18 per cent cap on tax rates in the Bill itself.
• The other two issues are more complex, but we are committed to a differentiated rate of tax for essential and luxury goods.
• The mentioning of a tax rate cap in the Bill itself is a “non-negotiable” point, according to the government, since any tax incentive or change will have to go through a cumbersome parliamentary process.

INDIA & WORLD

PM Modi says India will fulfil its commitment towards climate change

• Mr. Modi, in his meeting with Mr. Obama, also appreciated the openness with which the U.S. President addressed issues with him and said it would help in developing a better understanding.
• India will fulfil expectations from it and its responsibilities. The country is working to take forward development and (protecting) environment together,” Mr.Modi said at a joint press event with Mr.Obama.
• The Prime Minister also mentioned India’s ambitious target of producing 175 GW of renewable energy.
• The Prime Minister’s comments came in the back- COP21 drop of India’s green agenda strong resentment over U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry’s statement that India would be a “challenge” at the climate conference.
• Mr.Modi also talked about the solar alliance initiative, saying it would help in fulfilling the dreams which had brought the countries together here.
• PM Modi had said that there was an urgent need to craft a comprehensive, equitable and durable agreement to limit glob- al warming.
• In the joint press conference they said”We must come together in a partnership to bring clean energy within the reach of all. The world has assembled in Paris to change the course of our planet to a sustainable path”.

International Solar Alliance

• India launched an International Solar Alliance (ISA) at the CoP21 Climate Conference, with an announcement by Prime Minister Modi that the revolution in the field would bring power to all citizens, and create unlimited economic opportunity.
• The new body, which has invited all countries located fully or partly between the tropics of Cancer and Capricorn to join, is to function from the National Institute of Solar Energy in India, Gurgaon.
• The Centre will provide land and $30 million to form a secretariat for the Alliance, and also support it for five years,
• In its launch resolution, the ISA says it seeks to share collective ambitions to reduce the cost of finance and technology that is needed to deploy solar power widely; generation and storage technologies would be adapted to the individual countries’ needs.
• Among the tasks that the Alliance would pursue are, cooperation in training, building institutions, regulatory issues, common standards, and investment including joint ventures.

INTERNATIONAL

BRICS media summit in China

• China has taken the initiative for creating an alternative media platform for the emerging economies by hosting the first media summit of countries belonging to the Brazil-Russia-India-China- South Africa (BRICS) grouping.
• A total of 25 media organisations are participating, which hopes to create a new institutional framework that would be tailored to benefit the media of five emerging economies, which have deep link- ages with the Global South.
• The initiative follows the formation of the New Development Bank, which is play- ing its part in evolving a new global financial architecture sensitised to meet the needs of the developing world.
• The organisers hope that their deliberations will also yield an agenda-setting consensus among the BRICS media on coordinating the coverage of G-20 summits, in tune with the priorities of the emerging economies.

BUSINESS & ECONOMY

Second quarter saw impressive growth in manufacturing

• India’s GDP grew at 7.4 per cent in the July-September 2015 quarter as compared to 7 per cent in the previous quarter, driven by a resurgence in manufacturing growth. At 9.3 per cent, the manufacturing sector grew the fastest in three years.

• This news comes a day before the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) monetary policy review where it will decide on whether to further cut interest rates or keep them as they are.

• This stronger growth, and the extent to which the RBI has already cut rates, suggests that the RBI will keep rates unchanged this time around.

• Growth in this quarter, like in the previous quarter, was driven by services, with the ‘trade, hotel, transport, communication and services related to broadcasting’ grow- ing at 10.6 per cent and the ‘financial, insurance, real estate & professional services’ segment registering a growth rate of 9.7 per cent.

• However, the manufacturing sector greatly increased its growth rate in the second quarter of this financial year, rising to 9.3 per cent compared to 7.2 per cent in the previous quarter and 7.9 per cent in the second quarter of the previous financial year.

• The acceleration in the manufacturing sector shows that the government’s policy direction is bearing fruit.

• The Make-in-India campaign with its objective of raising the growth rate in the manufacturing sector has begun to make an impact.

• The share of private consumption expenditure in the second quarter of this financial year fell marginally to 55.9 per cent of GDP in Q2 2015-16 from 56.2 per cent in Q2 2014-15.

• Similarly, the share of gross fixed capital formation, which serves as a gauge of investments, also fell marginally to 30.1 per cent of GDP from 30.3 per cent in the second quarter of the previous year.

October sees slow growth rate in core sectors

• The output of eight core sector industries increased 3.2 per cent in October 2016, slowing from the 9 percent pace registered in the year earlier.
• The eight industries combined contribute almost 38 per cent of the weight of items included in the Index of Industrial Production (IIP). Incidentally, most core sector companies have reported a fall in their profits in the September quarter, as they did in the previous two quarters.
• most core sector companies have been spend-ing a size able portion of their profits to service debt. The interest amounts spent by these companies have also been climbing.
• The star performer in October’s core sector numbers was the cement sector, Coal production was the next best on a month-on-month basis, Fertiliser production was also healthy, Electricity growth slipped, steel production continued to be in the red shrinking, Refinery products output contracted, Crude oil output also shrank. natural gas production also shrank

Rupee may weaken

• The rupee could weaken past the 67 a dollar mark, a level last seen during the currency crisis of 2013, after depreciating 2.15 per cent in November. Concern that the U.S. Federal Reserve’s anticipated start of interest rate increases in December could help the greenback strength-en against all major currencies has weighed on the rupee as well.

• After 2013 crisis a series of steps by the central bank and the government, including restrictions on the import of non-essential items and steps to attract foreign fund flows, the currency had stabilised. The central bank has built up its foreign ex-change reserves, more than$75 billion in two years, which are sufficient to meet about nine months of imports.

‘Project Leap’ – Airtel programme

• The country’s largest telecom services provider, Bharti Airtel, announced that it will investRs.60,000 crore over the next three-years to upgrade its networks to provide quality services amid increasing competition.“The programme, called ProjectLeap, will see a network transformation. Large parts of this investment will improve voice and data services
• Under Project Leap, Airtel will deploy over 70,000 base stations in the current fiscal, its largest deployment in a single year since inception

SPORTS

Ronaldo, Messi and Neymar make it to Ballon d’Or shortlist

• Barcelona’s Lionel Messi and Neymar were on named on the shortlist for FIFA’s prestigious Ballon d’Or along with double reigning title holder, Cristiano Ronaldo of Real Madrid. While Ronaldo has triumphed over the last two seasons, Messi has previously won the coveted award four times while Neymar makes the shortlist for the first time.

Djokovic tops ATP world rankings

• Novak Djokovic has finished the year on top of the ATP world rankings, according to the final list of 2015. The Serb, who also topped the rankings at the end of 2011, 2012 and 2014, finished more than 7,500 points ahead of his closest rival and world No. 2 Andy Murray.
• He won the ATP Tour Finals title for a record fourth successive year.
• Djokovic is the first player in the tournament’s 46-year history to take home the trophy four years in a row and he joins Pete Sampras and Ivan Lendl on five victories at the season ending event.

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