Current Affairs for BANK, IBPS Exams 17 May 2016

Current Affairs for BANK, IBPS Exams

17 May 2016

:: National ::

Govt wants Christian Michel extradited

The Enforcement Directorate will approach the Ministry of External Affairs to initiate extradition proceedings with the UAE against Christian Michel, British middleman and prime accused in the AgustaWestland deal case.
It had earlier sought his extradition from the United Kingdom, which wanted certain clarifications on the status of the case against him.
Dubai agencies are also probing Mr. Michel’s role in a case ofalleged cheating
The investigating agencies have already got Inter- pol to issue Red Notice against Mr. Michel, who has been accused of routing 30 million euros to bribe Indian oicials for swinging the deal in AgustaWestland’s favour.

Meeting between stakeholders involved in cleaning of Ganga called by NGT

The National Green Tribunal has convened a meeting of all stakeholders involved in cleaning of River Ganga from Haridwar to Kanpur to deliberate on the mechanism to make the river pollution-free.
The green panel has divided the work of cleaning the river into different segments - Gomukh to Haridwar, Haridwar to Kanpur, Kanpur to border of UP, border of UP to border of Jharkhand and borderof Jharkhand to Bay of Bengal.
On December 11, last year, the tribunal had imposed a complete ban on use of plastic of any kind from Gomukh to Haridwar along the river from February 1 and decided to slap a penalty of Rs. 5,000 per day on erring hotels, dharamsalas and ashrams spewing waste into the river.

Spaceplane launch by ISRO

The first technology demonstrator (TD) launch of the Indian Space Research Organisation’s Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV), or the spaceplane in popular par- lance, will take place on May 23
Visually, the RLV-TD is a rocket-aircraft combination measuring about 17 m, whose first stage is a solid propellant booster rocket and the secOnd stage is a 6.5 m long aircraft-like winged structure sitting atop the rocket.
In RLV-TD that is awaiting launch at SHAR, the first stage, weighing about 9 tonnes, is merely the Satellite Launch Vehicle (SLV-3) flown in the 1980s.
The objective is to achieve hyperSOnic speeds to basically test the hypersonic aero-thermo-dynamic characterisation of the winged body’s re-entry, its control and guidance systems, autonomous mission management to land at a specific location at sea and test- ing of “hot structures” that make up the structure of the RLV.
Also, while an LV experiences limited flight regime of say Mach 0 to Mach 2 or so, the RLV experiences a much wider range of flight regimes.]
The ultimate objective of the RLV programme of ISRO is to enable the vehicle traverse a very wide range of flight regimes from Mach 0 to Mach 25 based on air-breathing propulsion for achieving two-stage-to-orbit (TSTO) launch capability.
The present design is basically “a flying test bed to evaluate various technologies, namely hypersonic flight, autonomous landing, powered cruise flight and hypersonic flight using air-breathing propulsion using a scramjet engine.
The HEX series of experiments will be followed by the landing experiment (LEX), return flight experiment and scramjet propulsion experiment (SPEX)

Ken-betwa project poses danger to ecology according experts

A team of wildlife experts submitted a crucial report, which hinges the fate of the first-ever inter-State river linking project since India’s independence.
The submitted report — not yet public — warns of the dangers to the ecology and animal life due to the proposed Ken-Betwa project.
The main feature of the project is a 230-km long canal connecting the Ken and Betwa rivers which will irrigate 3.5 lakh hectares of drought- prone Bundelkhand.
However, it will also inundate about 400 of the 4300-hectare Pan- na Tiger reserve in Madhya Pradesh.
The report neither endorses nor disapproves of the Ken- Betwa project but notes that if the government were to go ahead it ought to ensure that the proposed canal does not hinder tiger movement and that there should be enough habitable forest land developed to compensate for theloss of tiger reserve land.\
The Ken-Betwa river inter-linking project is being vigorously promoted by the incumbent NDA government as the first in a series of projects to transfer surplus water from certain rivers into deficient ones and improve irrigation as well as hydropower availability.
Given the threat to the tigerreserve, the Environment Ministry, whose clearance is mandatory for the project, tasked the National Board for Wildlife (NBWL) with an ex- pert analysis on the environ- mental impact.
The number of tigers in the reserve had plummeted from 25 in 2006 to zero in 2009, sparking national consternation.In conservation efforts in the seven years since, tigersfrom other reserves were relocated and are now believed to number 18.
The Environment Minis- try’s go-ahead will enable the National Water Development Agency (NWDA), a Water Resources Ministry body, to begin work on the project.

:: International ::

China says US to stay away from the continent affairs

Asking the U.S. to respect the efforts by China and India to resolve their boundary dispute peacefully, a top Chinese official said the two nations are wise enough to deal with it.
“The Chinese side is committed to safeguarding peace and tranquillity of the border areas between China and India and resolving the boundary question through negotiation,” the Chinese Foreign Ministry said.
The U.S. military report also warned of increasing Chinese military presence in various parts of the world, particularly in Pakistan.
“It is difficult to conclude on the real intention behind this,” Mr. Denmark said after submitting Pentagon’s annual 2016 re- port to the U.S. Congress.
“It is difficult to say how much of this is driven by internal considerations to maintain internal stability, and how much of it is an external consideration,” he said in response to a question on China upgrading its military command in Tibet.

World powers are ready to arm Libya

World powers said they supported the lifting of an arms embargo on Libya and were ready to supply weapons to the country’s new unity government to help it fight the growing threat posed by the Islamic State (IS) group.
The Government of National Accord has voiced its intention to submit appropriate arms embargo exemption requests to the UN Libya Sanctions Committee. We will fully support these efforts,” read a statement by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and 24 other top diplomats after talks in Vienna.
The conference was co-chaired by Mr. Kerry and his Italian counterpart Paolo Gentiloni whose country has faced a major influx of migrants from Libya fleeing violence and poverty in the post-conflict years.

:: India and World ::

First round of discussions under Maritime security dialogue between India and US

Towards deepening the evolving partnership in the maritime domain, India and the U.S. held the first round of discussions under the recently-constituted maritime security dialogue between officials of two countries.
Among the issues discussed were Asia-Pacific maritime challenges, naval cooperation, and multilateral engagement.
The dialogue was one of the several new initiatives agreed between Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar and his U.S. counterpart Ashton Carter during the latter’s visit to India last month as part of the maritime security objectives under the India- US Joint Strategic Vision for the Asia-Pacific and Indian Ocean Region.
Security Dialogue, cochaired by officials at the Joint Secretary/Assistant Secretary-level of the Indian Ministries of Defence and External Affairs and the U.S. Departments of Defence and State,”
U.S. Ambassador to India, Richard Verma, who participated in the discussions, noted that the creation of this dialogue “is a further sign of the growing relations be- tween our two countries.”
The other initiatives agreed include the conclusion of a “white shipping” technical arrangement to improve data sharing on commercial shipping traffic and Navy-to-Navy discussions on submarine safety and anti- submarine warfare.

:: Business and Economy ::

WPI move out of deflationary territory after 17 months

Wholesale prices moved out of deflationary territory after 17 months in April, rising by 0.3 per cent compared to a contraction of 0.8 per cent in March—driven largely by rising food prices.
With consumer price inflation in April rising to 5.4 per cent, prospects for a fresh interest rate cut by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) have dimmed for the next few months.
On the food side, there were some alarming signals as pulses saw an increase of close to 4 per cent from the previous month showing that supply constraints in certain pockets can lead to flaring upof food inflation.
The food articles category, among primary articles, saw inflation accelerating to 4.2 per cent in April, compared to 3.7 per cent in March. Manufactured food inflation surged to 8 per cent from 4.5 per cent over the same period.
Inflation in manufactured products moved into positive territory after 13 months, rising to 0.7 per cent in April from a contraction of 0.13 per cent in the previous month.]
The situation in the fuel and power segment easedsomewhat in April with infla- tion in the sector contracting 4.8 per cent compared to a contraction of 8.3 per cent in March.
There are, however, other factors that could drive infla- tion up in the future such as monsoon and fuel prices.
If the outlook on the monsoons turns negative, the prices of food products may go up further with traders trying to hedge their posi- tions now to gain in the fu- ture.

World Bank approves $625 million loan for rooftop solar power

The World Bank Board announced it had approved a loan worth $625 million for the government’s initiative for rooftop solar power generation.
The Board also approved a co-financing loan of $120 million on concessional terms and a $5 million grant from the Climate Investment Fund’s Clean Technology Fund.
The project will finance the installation of at least 400 MW of Grid Connected Rooftop Solar Photovoltaic(GRPV) across India,” ac- cording to a statement from the World Bank.
The project will alsostrengthen the capacity of key institutions, and support the development of the overall solar PV market.
The project is to be implemented by the State Bank of India, which will on-lend the funds to solar photovoltaic developers and end-users.
Despite energy shortages, and the high cost of backup supply, rooftop solar PV systems have not yet become widespread in India,” according to the World Bank.