Current Affairs For Bank, IBPS Exams - 11 October, 2015

Current Affairs for BANK, IBPS Exams

11 October 2015

:: National ::

NHAI to appoint an external auditor

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has decided to appoint an external auditor to investigate cases of wide discrepancies between the NHAI-approved project cost and the bank loans taken by developers.
“I am going to retroactively assess some instances of discrepancies. So I am… identifying which are the ones where there are such sweeping differences,” NHAI Chairman Raghav Chandra told The Hindu in an exclusive interview.
Earlier this week, Roads Secretary Vijay Chhibber had told The Hindu that banks had killed the roads sector by not doing due diligence and lending developers loans far above the NHAI-determined project cost even before land was acquired.
The NHAI was also taking other steps to reduce such discrepancies, Mr. Chandra added.
However, such discrepancies do not make a fit case for blacklisting. “It is ultimately their choice if a bank is naïve enough to give a high loan,” he said, adding that he would like to analyse the effect of such a variance and determine whether it had a significant role in delaying projects or preventing them from taking off.
State Bank of India, IDBI, Yes Bank and IDFC have high exposure to the road construction sector, he said.
As for a recent Crisil report that said one of the major problems plaguing the road sector was the delay in land acquisition and environmental and forest clearances, Mr. Chandra said that while there was a problem, NHAI was taking every step to address it.

:: International ::

ICC calls for Bashir’s arrest, Delhi says ‘no’

The India-Africa summit to be held in Delhi in October 26-29 is expected to be a grand affair, with a record 52 of 54 African countries confirming their acceptance. However there may be some anxious moments as the International Criminal Court has called for India to arrest one of the guests expected to attend, Sudan President Omar al-Bashir, who is wanted for war crimes by the ICC.
However, India is not a signatory to the ICC, which is an independent international court not part of the U.N. system which has 123 member States. Officials told The Hindu there was no question of regarding the ICC’s plea, as the U.N. Security Council resolution wasn’t internationally binding on non-member States.
“We will be compliant with our statutory international legal obligations,” official MEA spokesperson Vikas Swarup said. Mr. Bashir was invited personally by Minister of State for External Affairs V.K. Singh, who travelled to Khartoum on September 19.
President Omar al-Bashir has been indicted by the ICC for war crimes and genocide during the Darfur conflict of 2003 in which 300,000 people were killed. Among the charges against Mr. Bashir is the funding of the pro-Arab Islamist militia, Janjaweed, accused of carrying out systematic ethnic cleansing of black non-Arab African groups who took up arms against the Bashir government.
In June 2015, the South African government faced deep embarrassment as a Pretoria court issued an order to bar Mr. Bashir from leaving the country and then ordered his arrest, when he landed in Johannesburg to attend an African Union summit.

:: Science & Technology ::

NASA reveals detailed outline of its plans to send humans to Mars

The US space agency has released a detailed outline of its plans to send manned mission to Mars.
In a report titled “NASA’s Journey to Mars: Pioneering Next Steps in Space Exploration,” agency administrator Charles Bolden said that NASA is closer to sending American astronauts to Mars than at any point in our history.
“Today, we are publishing additional details about our journey to Mars plan and how we are aligning all of our work in support of this goal.
“In the coming weeks, I look forward to continuing to discuss the details of our plan with members of Congress, as well as our commercial and our international partners, many of whom will be attending the International Astronautical Congress next week,” he said in a statement.
The journey to Mars crosses three thresholds, each with increasing challenges as humans move farther from Earth.
The “Earth Reliant” exploration is focused on research aboard the International Space Station.
“From this world-class microgravity laboratory, we are testing technologies and advancing human health and performance research that will enable deep space, long duration missions,” Mr Bolden added.
Future Mars missions will represent a collaborative effort between NASA and its partners — a global achievement that marks a transition in humanity’s expansion as we go to Mars to seek the potential for sustainable life beyond Earth.

:: Miscellaneous ::

Raising wages can boost growth in India, says ILO

The latest International Monetary Fund report has warned of a global slowdown of economic growth to 3.1 per cent, even though countries such as India and China have been projected as doing relatively better when compared to other advanced economies.
Given this global context, International Labour Organisation’s Deputy Director-General (Policy) Sandra Polaski told The Hindu that increasing wages through state intervention will be the way forward for India to protect its workers and also shield its economy from the ripple effects of slow growth globally.
She was visiting India this week to hold discussions with the Union government regarding ILO’s Decent Work programme, which focuses on promoting jobs, guaranteeing rights at work, extending social protection and promoting social dialogue.
“If you look at a number of successful economies, like China, their mantra for growth during the last 15 years has been to raise wages under government control, and extend social protection systems, such as pensions, health care and insurance, but in India that has not been the case and wages have in fact been falling,” she noted. Referring to China’s wisdom in not banking on export-led growth and boosting domestic demand by raising wages at home, Ms. Polaski suggested that India do the same.

Labour reforms

Referring to the labour reform policies of the Narendra Modi government, where measures are being taken to make it easy to hire and fire workers, with an eye on foreign investors likely to invest in the country under the ‘Make in India’ programme, Ms. Polaski said that such measures alone cannot guarantee better Foreign Direct Investment (FDI).
More and more investors from the West were finding that ‘portfolio investment’, where bonds and stocks are purchased in the short-term and them sold for a profit, especially with government bonds, provided a higher rate of return, and were opting for it, she said.
Therefore, a balance of domestic demand and increase in export demands was the way forward for countries like India to improve growth.
According to a recent report by the McKinsey Global Institute, India could add 60 per cent to its 2025 GDP by bridging gender gap at work. At present India seriously lags behind in female labour force participation, having missed its Millennium Development Goal target in this area. To this, Ms, Polaski said relatively strong growth and implementation of MGNREGS has perhaps pushed female labour participation down from 34 % earlier to 28 %.
With the garment export industry suffering due to reduced demand globally, and India’s inability to compete with cheaper labour provided by countries like Bangladesh, she said that tapping into the domestic market was a better way to sustain these industries and also ensure that women, who dominate such industries, get to keep their jobs.