Current Affairs For Bank, IBPS Exams - 04 February 2016

Current Affairs for BANK, IBPS Exams

04 February 2016

:: National ::

Home minister send dual message to Pak

Sending out a dual message to Pakistan, the government said that it would continue to engage with it to ensure it makes progress on the Pathankot investigation, but also made it clear that the Sharif government would have to show “sincerity” as it is from their territory that most attacks come from.
Most of the terror attacks emanate from Pakistan. It has to show some sincerity and take action against terrorists operating from its soil,” Home Minister Rajnath Singh said at a counter-terror conference.
“Our government will stand by Pakistan if it takes decisive action against terrorists and their organisations,” he added.
Earlier in the day, Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar said that despite the attacks, India would continue to engage Pakistan at both the Foreign Secretary and National Security Adviser levels.
The statements by the Foreign Secretary and the Home Minister, as well as those made by President Pranab Mukherjee and NSA Ajit Doval indicate the government’s next steps with Pakistan are still under discussion, with no clear signs on whether India will go ahead with Foreign Secretary-level talks that were called of last month.

Bharat Biotech announced developing world’s first Zika vaccine

Vaccines manufacturer Bharat Biotech announced a breakthrough in developing the world’s first Zika vaccine.
The Hyderabad-based company has submitted to the government two vaccine candidates: one inactivated and one recombinant.
It said pre-clinical studies would be concluded in the next five months, and then the process for regulatory approval would start.
An inactivated vaccine consists of the disease-causing microbe killed with chemicals, heat, or radiation. This is more stable and safer than live vaccines.
A recombinant vaccine is produced through the recombinant DNA technology. This involves inserting the DNA encoding an antigen (such as a bacterial surface protein) that stimulates an “immune response.

Govt wants to provide DBT for social sector schemes as well

The government has drawn up an ambitious plan to scale up the present regime for direct transfer of benefits to the poor under various welfare schemes, by creating a unified national database of beneficiaries that can be updated in real-time and automatically trigger new benefits such as vaccine shots for a newborn baby.
The blueprint drawn up over the past three months aims to transform the direct benefits transfer (DBT) regime launched in January 2013, into a social security platform linked to the beneficiary database that will have details about the household.
While the trinity of Jan Dhan Yojana, Aadhaar and mobile connectivity, referred to as JAM, would still play a key role, the government believes there are still several operational issues with thethree elements that will take time to sort out.
For instance, improvement in mobile network coverage and higher enrolments under Aadhaar would take time.
A committee in the Cabinet Secretariat is also working with the Finance Ministry to create a network of 2 million cash points such as kirana stores, chemists and Grameen Dak Sewaks in 6 lakh villages by March 2017, so that getting the cash in hand isn’t an ordeal for the rural poor.

Instructions on OROP implementation issued

Moving a step closer to fulfilling its promise of implementing the One Rank One Pension (OROP) scheme for military personnel, the government released detailed instructions and tables on its implementation.
This is a follow-up to the notification on OROP on November 7 last year.
According to the notification, the annual recurring cost of the scheme would be Rs.7,500 crore, pushing the total Defence budget for pensions from Rs.54,000 crore (Budget estimate 2015- 16) to around Rs.65,000 crore (proposed estimate for 2016-17).
The arrears for 18 months from July 2014 to December 2015 would be Rs.10,900 crore.
According to the government, 86 per cent of the total expenditure on account of OROP would benefit jawans and Junior Commissioned officers.
However, the OROP notification had been rejected by ex-servicemen who said that it was in violation of the “accepted definition”.
In December, the government appointed a one-man judicial commission headed by Justice L.Narasimha Reddy, former Chief Justice of Patna High Court, to look into the issues arising out of the implementation and the report to be submitted in six months.

:: International ::

Zika virus can be transmitted sexually

A person in Texas has been infected with the Zika virus after having sex with an ill person who had returned from South America.
It’s the first case of the virus being transmitted in the U.S. during the current outbreak of Zika, which has been linked to birth defects in the Americas.
There was report of a Colorado researcher who picked up the virus in Africa and apparently spread it to his wife back home in 2008, and it was found in one man’s semen in Tahiti.
The CDC has already recommended that pregnant women postpone trips to more than two dozen countries with Zika outbreaks, mostly in Latin America and the Caribbean.
In the epidemic in Latin America and the Caribbean, the main villain identified so far is called Aedes aegypti a species of mosquito that spreads other tropical diseases, including chikungunya and dengue fever.
It is found in the southern United States, though no mosquito-borne transmission has been reported in the continental United States to date.

India and Thailand for freedom of navigation and connectivity in Southeast Asian region

India’s Vice-President Hamid Ansari told the leader- ship of Thailand that India- Thailand collaboration is necessary to ensure freedom of navigation and connectivity in the Southeast Asian region.
During the ongoing tour of Southeast Asia, the Indian delegation led by Mr. Ansari hasexpressed Indian concerns about freedom of navigation in the region due to growing
maritime disputes between China and several other regional countries over SouthChina Sea.
Thailand has been the country coordinator of ASEAN-China relations and took useful steps towards solving the dispute.
India and Thailand recently held a joint task force meeting in Delhi to deepen maritime and defence cooperation which covers a range of issues, including ocean safety, disaster management and anti-terror drills.
The delegations also confirmed that India and Thailand will soon hold naval exercises in the Andaman Seas.

:: Business and economy ::

Govt to come up with measures to increase exports

India’s exports, since December, 2014, have been in negative territory. While the primary reason has been the slowdown in the global economy, declining crude oil prices coupled with low commodity prices have added to the woes of the exports sector.
However, domestic challenges like slowdown in manufacturing, high logistics cost, increasing transaction cost and product profile of our exports have also contributed in no less measure.
Our competitors like Vietnam and Bangladesh have shown positive exports growth in the last 6 months or so asking us to do some introspection.
The recent incentives by the government in the form of revision of MEIS benefits and its expansion, announcement of Interest Equalisation Scheme on Export Credit along with the benefits on all Industry Rates of Duty Drawback did give some cushion in such difficult times.
However, Chinese slowdown and devaluation of Yuan has come as yet another jolt for the sector.
In the upcoming Union Budget, we expect that the inverted duty structure in respect of various items may be addressed as it not only affects exports but also the manufacturing sector and adversely impacts Make in India and the import substitution strategy.
The exemption from service tax on ex- port may see the light of the day.The biggest challenge affecting MSME exports is on the marketing front.
The total marketing support extended by Department of Commerce under MAI and MDA is insufficient and therefore a Export Development Fund (EDF) should be created with a corpus of 0.5 per cent to 1 per cent of total export value so that sizeable money is available to pro- mote MSME exports.
In view of current global trend, we expect country’s exports to reach $260-$270 billion in 2015-16.
All exporters may also be given Interest Equalisation Benefit (IES) as cost of credit is the same across sectors.
With all these happening, we expect the exports sector to see some green shoots coming out only from the second quarter of the FY 2016-17 expecting to end the financial year with an export figure of $310-15 billion.

Coal linkages to steel, aluminium, cement sectors only via auction

Coal linkages to non-regulated sectors such as steel/sponge iron, cement and aluminium will be provided only through auctions.
This was decided by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) which met under Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The auction of coal linkages will be transparent and creates a level-playing field, Coal and Power Minister Piyush Goyal said.
The auction ensures all market participants have a fair chance to secure the coal linkage, irrespective of their size. It attempts to ensure an optimal allocation of coal across user industries and geographies.
As per the CCEA decision, all allocations of linkages/ Letter of Assurance (LoAs) for non-regulated sector (but excluding fertilizer (urea) sector), including their cap- tive power plants, shall from now on be auction-based.
State-owned Coal India Ltd (CIL) and Singareni Collieries (SCCL) will put up 25 per cent of their incremental production during 2015-16 over 2014-15 for auction. The
Supreme Court in August and September 2014 had declared 204 coal mines/blocks allocated since 1993 as illegal on the grounds that the proce- dure followed was arbitrary.
Pursuant to this judgment, e- auction of Schedule II and Schedule III Coal Mines wasconducted. The same philosophy of non-discretionary al- location is being extended for the coal linkages as well. This would require CIL to allocate linkages through a market- based mechanism.
The union cabinet allowed the railways ministry to form joint venture (JV) companies with the state governments to mobilize resources for under- taking various rail infrastructure projects in states.
The JV can also form project-specific SPVs with equity holding by other shareholders like banks, ports, public sector undertakings, mining companies etc.
The JV exercise would ensure greater participation of states in implementation of railway projects in terms of financial participation and decision-making process.
This will facilitate in faster statutory approvals and land acquisition. Besides transporting people, various cement, steel and power plants would get the necessary rail link for transportation of their raw material and finished products.

Good future markets necessary for farmers to get fair price

Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh said that better developed ‘futures markets’ for agricultural commodities will be significant for farmers as it could help them secure fair price for their products.
Mr. Singh, said with a better developed futures market, farmers will face lower price risks.
This is good indication for the agriculture arena of the countrythat Assocham is taking interest to revitalise agricultural sector by adopting sophisticated techniques so as to improve production in agricultural sector.
Mr. Singh said most of Indian farmers are small and marginal and they do not enjoy specific capacity to transact the deals concerned, which is a serious problem.
They deal with their business in low-benefiting markets and are victimized to exploitation owing to limited awareness about marketing.
A better-developed futures markets for farmer meant for agricultural commodities attribute to great importance. He said the government was working towards developing National Agriculture Market (NAM) a pan India electronic trade portal.