Current Affairs for BANK, IBPS Exams

07 February 2016

:: NATIONAL ::

FM asks states to use greater devolution for anti-poverty and infra projects

• Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, urged the Statesto boost spending on infrastructure creation and anti-poverty programmes by leveraging the increased devolution from the implementation of the 14th Finance Commission’s recommendations.

• At a pre-budget consultative meeting, the StateFinance ministers, in turn, asked the Centre to release the compensation for phasing out the central sales tax.

• They said the government should reappraise its role in fundingsocial sector schemes such as the SarvaShiksha Abhiyan.

• The Centre had reduced its contribution to such schemes after the 14th Finance Commission’s recommendationswere implemented, placing a greater burden on the States.

International fleet review at Visakhapatnam

• The International Fleet Review, the second in the country, on the vast expanse of the Bay of Bengal of Visakhapanam provided a big opportunity to the Indian Navy to show case its might, even as its ships anchored alongside foreign vessels in a spirit of camaraderie and bonhomie.

• President Pranab Mukherjee, Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, reviewed the fleet on the Presidential Yacht INS Sumitra, accompanied by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar and Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Robin K. Dhowan.

• As the Presidential column set sail, around 100 ships of the Indian Navy and navies across the globe dotted the seascape in six columns with their sailors clad in white in grand salutation.

• There were 24 foreign ships, 65 Indian Navy ships, three submarines, two Coast Guard ships and three merchant marine ships. Fifty-one navies sent either their ships or delegations to the IFR.

• Calling upon navies to refocus their efforts on countering the rising tide of non-traditional maritime challenges, Mr. Mukherjee said the country had established a credible record of cooperative initiatives to promote stability of the oceans by realigning its maritime strategy.

• President also said India’s geographical location on major shipping routes of the In- dian Ocean gave it a pivotal maritime role, and the Indian Navy played a central role in ensuring the safety of the vital sea lines of communication across the ocean.

Indian medical association also supports Menaka Gandhi’s view

• The Indian Medical Association (IMA) came out in support of Union Minister Maneka Gandhi’s suggestion to make pre-natal sex determination compulsory to check female foeticide.

• The IMA said the recent statement by the Union Women and Child Development Minister indicates that a 20-year old ban on foetal sex determination may be lifted.

• India is among the countries with the worst child sex ratio in the world. The 2011 Census showed that the child sex ratio has dipped from 927 girls in 2001 to 919 girls in 2011.

• Child sex ratio is the number of girls per 1,000 boys betweenthe age 0-6 years.

• Since the PC-PNDT Act, the sex ratio in the country has not changed.

:: INTERNATIONAL ::

Srilanka’s reform process gets support from India

• India has expressed support for Sri Lanka on its reconciliation and development policies. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, who was here on a two-day visit, conveyed this to President MaithripalaSirisena.

• Tamil National Alliance (TNA)wants India should remain concerned in getting the issue resolved “in a reasonable way and in an amicable manner”.

• President Sirisena sought India’s assistance for his government’s comprehensive programme to improve the health and education of people living in estates who were essentially of the recent Indian origin, to which Ms. Swaraj favourably responded.

Fiscal management a tough job for this budget

• The last budget had promised fiscal prudence through gradual reduction in fiscal deficit to three per cent of GDP by FY 18.

• It encouraged FIIs to invest in our debt market. This year the budget has to manage the conflict of financing additional expenses of Rs.1 lakh crore for implementation of Seventh Pay Commission recommendations and enhanced allocations to public investment to keep the economy on a growth path.

• The Budget does have the benefit of large savings on fuel subsidy due to lower oil prices.

• The path of raising taxes or borrowing to fund increased expenses will adversely impact debt, currency and equity market.

• Instead smartly monetising assets from land, natural resources and spectrum to investment in SUUTI will positively impact markets.

• Budget can consider following proposals to raise resources to accelerate economic recovery and reassure investors on fiscal stability.

• The Government collects lots of data on many transactions such as buying of automobiles.

• Empower a private company to analyse that data and other publicly available information like social media to assist tax regulators to improve tax compliance.

• Improve asset utilisation over asset hoarding. Incentivise faster conversion from land to affordable houses by taxing vacant land and unoccupied premises.

• Launch a fast track settlement mechanism for disputed taxes to increase revenue collections. Excess manpower can be deployed from fighting time consuming litigations to widening of tax base and improved compliance.

• Encourage creative destruction by providing incentives to scrap old auto- mobiles above certain age.

• Government’s spend on such old vehicles will be far lower than taxes on replacement demand. The economy will benefit by way of lower pollution, better fuel efficiency and more jobs in auto sector.

China will not devalue yuan further this term

• China will fine tune monetary policy and keep the yuan basically stable while guarding against systemic financial risks, the country’s central bank said in its fourth-quarter monetary policy report.

• China will also maintain an appropriate level of liquidity and achieve reasonable growth of money and credit, the People's Bank of China (PBOC) said in the report.

• The report comes after China reported economic growth of 6.9 per cent for 2015, its weakest in 25 years, while depreciation pressure on the yuan adds to the case for the central bank to take more economic stimulus measures over the near-term.

• It also said it would seek to explore mechanisms to enhance management of interest rates,while increasing the flexibility in both directions of the yuan ex- change rate.

• A slew of economic indicators has sent mixed signals to mar- kets at the start of 2016 over the health of China’s economy.

• Activity in the services sector expanded at its fastest pace in six months in January, a private survey showed on February 3, while manufacturing activity fell to the lowest since August 2012.

:: INDIA and World ::

Nepal confirms PM visit on Feb 19

• Within hours of the end of commercial blockade in Birgunj, the biggest trading post on the Indo-Nepal border, Nepal declared that Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli would visit India on February 19.

• The end of the blockade at Birgunj had persuaded Nepal to finally declare the date of the visit which had been underdiscussions since Mr.Oli became Prime Minister of Nepal in October 2015.

• The China-Nepal economic agreements, meanwhile, added substance to the reports that the Nepal Prime Minister might choose to visit Beijing first, instead of Delhi.

In the mutual interest India and Thailand might exchange prisoners

• Worried over the possible proxy use of narcotics and human trafficking networks by terror operators, India and Thailand have started talks on exchanging prisoners that are of mutual interest.

• One of the first cases that both sides have begun to look into involves a Kindergarten teacher, Mitu Mandal, who has been in Thai custody since May, 2014, when she was arrested in Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport with 1.62 kilogram of “Ya Ice” (meth- amphetamine).

• Ms. Mandal reportedly confessed to Thai authorities that she was used by a narcotics network covering Thailand, India and Nigeria.

• Prisoners exchange is one of the steps being planned in bilateral legal collaboration following two major extraditions from Thailand since January 2015.

:: SPORTS ::

India performing well in south Asian games

• Host India enjoyed a field day on the opening day of the weightlifting competitions of the 12th South Asian Games, picking three of the four gold medals.

• India’s No. 1 women’s ace archer Deepika Kumari,, maintained her focus in tough weather conditions to beat Sonam Deki (Bhutan) 6-2 in the quarterfinals and Beauty Ray of Bangladesh 6-0 in the last-four to enter the final.

• The Indian men’s badminton team reached the semifinals with 3-0 wins over Maldives and Bangladesh in Group A, without losing a game.

• India made a clean sweep of the gold medals on of- fer on the opening day of the wrestling competition.

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