Current Affairs for BANK, IBPS Exams

19 June 2016

:: National ::

Governor of the Central bank announced that he would not seek second term

• In a surprise move that sent ripples across the financial sector, Governor of the Reserve Bank of India Raghuram Rajan announced that he would not continue to head the central bank after his term expires on September 4.

• Mr. Rajan announced his decision to RBI employees via an email which was published on the central bank’s website for ‘wider dissemination’.

• This is the first time during Dr Rajan’s tenure that his communication to staffers has been made public.

• Speculation is rife on why Mr. Rajan decided not to continue and communicated his decision two and half months before his term ends.

• The government’s decision to form a search panel, headed by a cabinet secretary to select financial sector regulators has not gone down well with the RBI governor as the governor’s post is also cabinet secretary rank.

• In the past, the prime minister and the finance minister have held consultations to select the governor of the central bank.

• The Finance Ministry’s proposal in last year’s budget to hand over bond market regulation to the SEBI was criticised by Mr. Rajan following which the proposal was rolled back.

• More recently, Mr Rajan’s comment that India is one eyed king in the land of blind has not gone well with ministers with Nirmala Sitaraman, minister of state for commerce criticised the comments in the media.

History was created when Defence Minister presented ‘wings and brevets’ to 3 women

• History was created at the Air Force Academy (AFA) at Dundigal when Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar presented ‘wings and brevets’ to three women — Avani Chaturvedi,BhawanaKanth and Mohana Singh.

• After commissioning 129 cadets in all at an impressive Combined Graduation Parade in the AFA, including the trio, he said it was the endeavour of the Centre to bring gender parity in the Armed Forces.

• He would discuss the details with service chiefs before taking any step forward. “Any move towards ushering in gender parity has to be a smooth affair and not a forced operation,” he told press-persons.

• He described it as a ‘golden day’ and one that should be open up for more women to join the armed forces”.

• Hoping that more would volunteer for combat duties, he said it was a challenge when it came to having the required women-friendly infrastructure in place.

• Citing an example, he said the women would need separate hostels and washrooms and a host of related facilities.

• For now, the government was going ahead with a need-based approach, he said and pointed out that a completely different set of infrastructure was required to be put in place.

Draft report on the new national policy on education

• The draft report on the new national policy on education submitted by a panel headed by T.S.R. Subramanian wants reservation for disadvantaged children to be extended to unaided minority schools.

• While the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009, mandates that even private, unaided schools shall provide admission to children from disadvantaged groups and weaker sections in admission.

• But private, unaided minority institutions are exempt from this requirement of 25 percent quota for disadvantaged group.

• The Supreme Court, in April, 2012, held that the provision did not extend to institutions set by minorities, which are defined as religious and linguistic minorities in India.

• The panel report says that “it is now important to reconcile the rights of the economically weaker sections with the rights of the minorities under Article 30 (1), particularly when minority institutions appear to clutch at any prop to ensure that their obligations, met by other aided or unaided schools, are circumvented.”

• The Right to Education Act includes the Scheduled Castes, the Scheduled Tribes and the Socially and Educationally Backward Classes in its definition of “disadvantaged group” and defines a child belonging to “weaker sections” as one whose parent or guardian earns below a minimum level of income specified by the appropriate government.

:: International ::

Role of Saudi Arabia in 9/11 still unclear

• In February 2004, two U.S. investigators interrogated a man they believed might hold answers to one of the lingering mysteries of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks: What role, if any, did officials in Saudi Arabia’s government play in the plot?

• However, nearly, 15 years after the attacks, the question of a Saudi connection has arisen again amid new calls for the release of a long-classified section of a 2002 congressional inquiry into the attacks that discusses a possible Saudi role.

• At the FBI, the Sept. 11 plot officially remains an open case. While there is broad agreement on how it unfolded, there are aspects of the investigation that remain unresolved.

• And the mystery begins with the arrival at Los Angeles International Airport on Jan. 15, 2000, of two Saudi men who more than year and a half later would be among the hijackers who crashed American Airlines Flight 77 into the Pentagon.

• That circumstance would make it all the more critical for the FBI, after the attacks, to find out whether the two hijackers received help after reaching Los Angeles.

• An FBI document from 2012, cited last year by an independent review panel, concluded that al-Thumairy “immediately assigned an individual to take care of al-Hazmi and al-Mihdhar during their time in the Los Angeles area”.

• Whether out of charitable instincts or at someone’s direction, Bayoumi helped the two future hijackers settle in San Diego, in the apartment building where he himself lived.

Two amendments for cut in the U.S. aid to Pakistan have been defeated

• Two legislative amendments seeking a cut in the U.S. aid to Pakistan have been defeated in the House of Representatives with most lawmakers arguing that it is essential to maintain ties with a nuclear armed country.

• The first amendment moved by Congressman Ted Poe that sought to cut funding to Pakistan from $900 million to $700 million in coalition support fund (CSF) was defeated on the House floor by a recorded vote of 191 to 230.

• Another amendment moved by Congressman Dana Rohrabacher seeking to prohibit funds from being used to provide aid to Pakistan has been defeated by a recorded vote of 84 to 236.

• However, majority of the lawmakers did not support Poe and Rohrabacher in cutting aid to Pakistan.

:: Science and Technology ::

PSLV-C34 to take highest number of satellites

• The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C34), which will lift off at 9.25 a.m. on June 22 from Sriharikota, is an important mission for the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).

• The vehicle will not only put 20 satellites into the same orbit — the highest number of satellites to be put into orbit by a PSLV — but it will perform two tricky experiments of the same nature.

• Fifty minutes after the satellites are injected into the orbit from the fourth stage of the vehicle, its engine will be re-ignited for five seconds.

• The ISRO wants to master this complex manoeuvre so that it can put multiple satellites into different orbits using the same rocket.

• A forthcoming PSLV launch will put the ISRO’s SCATSAT-1, meant for forecasting weather and cyclone detection, and a foreign satellite in two different orbits.

• On December 16, 2015, after the PSLV-C29’s fourth stage put six Singapore satellites into the same orbit, the ISRO re-started the fourth-stage engine for four seconds.

• On June 22, eight minutes after the PSLV-C34 lifts off, the fourth stage engine will sizzle into life, taking the stage to an altitude of 514 km.

• The fourth stage engine will be cut off 16 minutes and 30 seconds after the lift-off. Over the next 10 minutes, 20 satellites will be injected into the same orbit from the fourth stage, one after another.

• In 2008, the PSLV-C9 deployed 10 satellites, but in the same orbit.

:: Business and Economy ::

Ministries to study adding labour rules in trade talks

• The Labour Ministry will initiate a dialogue with external affairs and commerce ministries to explore the possibility of inserting labour provisions in trade negotiations, Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya said.

• This comes on the back ofBharatiyaMazdoor Sangh (BMS) move opposing India’s stand at the recently concluded International Labour Organisation conference in Geneva.

• He said that adding labour as a condition in trade agreements will become a “trade barrier and impede the growth of the country.”

• “The net importing country would say that your labour laws are not in conformity with our laws and this will affect our own production and economic growth,”.

• The issue was taken up at the ILO where India had objected to bringing labour conditions as a part of trade agreements and BMS had issued a statement earlier this week saying their “condemn the stand” taken by the government.

• The Centre had introduced a system-generated inspection system in 2014 under various labour law Acts wherein inspectors were not allowed to inspect a factory on his own will, unless he receives a complaint or gets an instruction from a Central Analysis and Intelligence Unit.

Tatkal window for patents set a limit on applications that it will consider

• The government, which opened a ‘tatkal’ window to expedite examination of patent applications in the backdrop of 2.37 lakh pending patent applications, has now set a limit on applications that it will consider under the fast-track clearance mechanism.

• The number of requests for expedited examination to be received by the Patent Office on or before December 31, 2016 has been limited to 1,000 requests.

• The ‘tatkal’ window was opened after the amendments to the patent rules came into effect from May 16.

• Under the ‘tatkal’-like system, applicants can opt for the ‘expedited examination’- route on the grounds that they have chosen India as the competent International Searching Authority or International Preliminary Examining Authority in the corresponding international application, and file their applications first in India.

• The ‘expedited examination’-route is also available to all entities that qualify as a start-up as per the definition for start-up provided in the Patent Rules. The applications for this route have to be filed only electronically.

• There is a need to have more patent examiners with technical skills because the top ten filers of patent applications belong to the hi-tech category, namely telecom, semi-conductors and consumer electronics.

• The 'tatkal' window was aimed at popularising India as a patent filing hub to ensure more companies file applications in India.

• Currently, several applications for the initial examination are filed abroad, in places like Europe, the US or Japan.

• Under the ‘expedited examination’ route, the fees for individuals and start-ups have been fixed at Rs.8,000, while for small firms it is Rs.25,000 and for large companies, the fee is Rs.60,000.

• The Centre is aiming to bring down the time period for clearing applications from the present 5-7 years to two-and-a-half years.

India’s Tea output made new record

• India’s tea output rose three per cent to 1,233.1 million kgs in the last fiscal year — a record for the commodity, according to the Tea Board of India.

• Tea exports gained 17 per cent by volume and value during this period, according to official statistics. Exports, breached the 230-million-kg mark for the first time since 1980-81, touching 232. 9 million kgs in 2015-16 and valued at Rs.4,493.1 crore.

• Auction prices of tea rose as did the volume sold through auctions. Bought Leaf Factory sector (which buys teas produced by the small tea growers) increased its share by 5.8 per cent.

• About 33.9 per cent of total tea production is now coming from small growers.

• In a statement, the industry regulator said that north Indian tea estates led by Assam were able to increase their output, offsetting the reverses suffered by South India which accounts for a quarter of India’s tea crop.

• The Tea Board statement said that Russia, Iran, Germany and Pakistan accounted for most of the increase.

• Russia, India’s single largest market, and one which is showing increased preference for high value teas, bought 22.4 per cent more teas.

:: Sports ::

India gets champions Trophy silver medal

• The Indian hockey team settled for a silver medal in its best ever Champions Trophy performance after the spirited side went down 1-3 to world champion Australia in a controversy-marred summit clash penalty shootout here.

• Only Harmanpreet Singh was able to score in the shootout, while S.K. Uthappa, S.V. Sunil and Surender Kumar all missed the target. Just four attempts were required from the two teams as Australia had gained a winning 3-1 lead.

• India thus improved on its bronze medal show in the 1982 edition.

• There was plenty of drama in the shootout as Beale’s shot was re-taken after he failed to score and sought a video review. The video umpire asked the shot to be taken again, leaving Indian coach RoelantOltmans fuming on the sidelines.

• At the end of the match, India protested against the second successful attempt awarded to Beale, delaying the final announcement on the result of the match.

• After discussing the appeal for more than an hour, the jury declared that there was unintentional obstruction on part of Indian goalkeeper Sreejesh in the seventh second thus the re-take of the shot was justified.

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