Current Affairs for BANK, IBPS Exams

22 June 2016

:: National ::

China shifts its strategy on India’s NSG membership

• China said the “door is always open for discussions” on NSG memberships, subtly shifting from its earlier stand that India’s membership was not on the agenda for the nuclear group’s plenary in Seoul this week.
• In sharp contrast to what China said earlier: “The upcoming NSG Plenary Meeting in Seoul will not cover this issue (of NSG memberships for non-signatories to the Non Proliferation Treaty (NPT)) either.
• Therefore there is no point talking about supporting or opposing the entry of a particular non-NPT country at this moment.
• Meanwhile, Pakistan Prime Minister’s advisor on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz told parliament that Islamabad has “successfully” blocked India’s bid to gain membership of the NSG.

A high-power committee recommended changes to infrastructure along coast

• A high-power committee has recommended changes to laws governing infrastructure development along India’s coast.
• The most significant being giving greater powers and responsibilities to coastal States to regulate development, maintain and conserve ecologically fragile zones.
• Also the committee has in several places recommended that local town planning regulations be preferred over the existing Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) restrictions.
• Last month, the Central Information Commission ordered that the Environment Ministry share the report with Mr. Kohli. The report can be viewed on the CPR website.
• According to a statement by the CPR analysing the report, the new Act proposes the devolution of powers to State and Union Territory governments along with local authorities for CRZ II (built up cities and towns), CRZ III (rural areas) and CRZ IV (12 nautical miles into the sea) areas.
• These are for activities not covered under the Environment Impact Assessment Notification, 2006.

The Environment Ministry has proposed a new policy for the management of forests

• The Environment Ministry has proposed a new policy for the management of forests that among other things proposes a green cess to promote “ecologically responsible behaviour” and called on the government to promote the sustainable use of wood.
• Promotion of wood use, obtained from sustainably-managed forests and trees, would play a positive role in mitigating climate change and ensuring sustainable living.
• Governments and stakeholders must shift from regulating to promoting cultivation, harvesting, transportation and marketing of wood,” the policy added.
• This even as the forest policy also emphasises that the government “must double tree cover, outside forests, within a decade.”
• It proposes a national implementation framework to be in place within six months of the notification, and exhorts States to draft their state forest policies and prepare an implementation framework.
• “Environmental cess, green tax, carbon tax etc. may be levied on certain products and services for facilitating ecologically responsible behaviour, garnering citizen's contribution and supplementing financial resources,” the policy adds.
• India has set an ambitious target of bringing a third of its geographical area under forest-and-tree cover within a decade, up from the current one-fourth.
• The policy acknowledges it but recommends that this be done by replenishing these lands with native species rather than “introducing exotic species.”
• In a nod to the Union government’s controversial decision to declare certain animals as “vermin” and implicitly sanctioning the slaughter of nilgai, wildpigs and monkeys in certain States.
• the forest policy recommends mitigating human-wildlife conflicts by taking up habitat enrichment, providing adequate and timely compensation in case of injury or loss of human life, property, crop damage or livestock casualties and developing teams of well-equipped and trained forest personnel.i

India looking towards Mozambique for pulse imports

• The Union government sent a delegation to Mozambique to explore the options of importing pulses on a government-to-government basis.
• The high-level delegation is led by Consumer Affairs Secretary Hem Pande, an official statement said.
• The delegation includes senior officials of the Ministries of Commerce and Agriculture and those from the Metals and Minerals Trading Corporation of India, a state trading body.
• Another team of senior officials is already in Myanmar on the same mission.
• India’s pulse output has been affected by two consecutive years of drought.
• Because of a gap of 7 million tonnes between demand and supply, the retail prices have soared, with urad dal costing Rs. 195 a kg last week. In most parts of the country, the average prices, primarily of tur dal and urad dal, are ruling high.
• Malawi is another African country with which India is having talks on buying pulses.
• During 2014-15, India produced 17.2 million tonnes of pulses, while during 2015-16 the output was 17.06 million tonnes against the demand of 23.66 million tonnes. The pulse prices increased by 29.6 per cent on an average during 2015-16.

:: Science and Tech ::

Scramjet engines now on ISRO’s agenda

• Flush with the success of the technology demonstration flight of its Reusable Launch Vehicle last month, ISRO is gearing up to test a scramjet engine based on air-breathing propulsion.
• The test flight of the indigenously developed scramjet engine is scheduled to take place from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota sometime in July.
• Named Advanced Technology Vehicle (ATV), the test platform will comprise a scramjet engine hitched to a two-stage sounding rocket (RH- 560).
• The air-breathing engine will be released at a height of 70 km and ignited during the coasting phase. Apart from the hypersonic ignition at Mach 6, ISRO hopes to sustain the combustion for 5 seconds.

Third satellite in cartosat-2 series to be launched

• The PSLV-C34 is set to lift the third satellite in the Cartosat-2 series and an Indian record-making 19 small satellites into space. It will be the 36th PSLV launcher to fly from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota.
• The current Cartosat-2 spacecraft is an Earth observation spacecraft and will be put into a pole-to-pole orbit 515 km from surface.
• The spacecraft is said to offer the best resolution of less than a metre on an Indian satellite, going as sharp as 60 cm. That is a measure of the smallest size of objects it can pick up on Earth.
• This is the highest number of deployments by an Indian launcher.

:: International ::

Panama inaugurate wider canal

• The Central American nation is to officially open its expansion work on the century-old Panama Canal after years of costly work with a ceremony featuring regional leaders and foreign dignitaries.
• The project ran hundreds of millions of dollars over budget and two years past deadline, taking nine years to complete at a cost of more than $5.5 billion.
• It required the construction of new locks, enlarged access and a deepening of the canal bed. Enough metal was used over the nine years to build 20 Eiffel Towers.
• The pharaonic task of broadening the 80-kilometer canal, which is sometimes called the eighth modern wonder of the world, is a source of pride for Panama.
• With the expansion, the Panama Canal — through which five per cent of world maritime commercial traffic already passes — will be able to take ships carrying three times as much cargo as before, up to 14,000 containers.
• The government also hopes to wrest back “a good part” of the cargo traffic currently going through Egypt’s Suez Canal.

:: Business and Economy ::

Visakhapatnam Port has been declared as the second gateway port for Nepal

• Visakhapatnam Port has been declared as the second gateway port for Nepal after Kolkata-Haldia.
• The movement of traffic-in-transit between Port of Visakhapatnam and Nepal will be in sealed containers and in full rake only and the cost of transhipment will be borne by the consignor/consignee.
• Visakhapatnam Port has the deepest container terminal among major ports with permissible draft of 15 metres and LOA up to 320 metres. Most of the transit cargo of Nepal will be from China.
• The terminal can act as an ideal gateway for east-bound cargo. Handling of cargo will be advantageous in terms of ocean freight and liner detention.
• India and Nepal signed the agreement recently to provide the additional transit facility to Nepal through the Visakhapatnam Port as second gateway port.
• The agreement provides for transport of the cargo through the rail route connecting Visakhapatnam-Jogbani or/and Visakhapatnam-Birgunj. In addition to the rail route, four road routes have been identified.
• The agreement facilitating transport of EXIM cargo through the Visakhapatnam Port is a historic milestone.

Small businesses, which contribute 45 per cent to India’s GDP, transact primarily in cash

• Small businesses, which contribute 45 per cent to India’s GDP, transact primarily in cash despite the Centre’s push towards digital transactions, according to a study.
• A study by MasterCard and the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) estimates that there are 10 crore micro-merchants — defined as primarily business-to-consumer (B2C) enterprises, with an employee strength of 2-20 workers each and who deal only in cash — constituting about 95 per cent of the MSME sector.
• The government’s push towards digital transactions has barely made a dent in this category because providing access in itself is not enough.
• Currently, even the government’s Jan Dhan Yojana and RuPay debit cards are focussed on rural India bypassing most of the small merchants who reside in towns.
• Where people have cards, they do not use them for transactions.
• There are three main deterrents in going for digital transactions. The first is the rule that transactions of more than Rs.2 lakh will draw the attention of the Income Tax Department since they require a PAN card to be provided.
• The second hindrance is that banks charge an additional fee for card transactions, which the merchants, who already survive on small margins, have to pass on to the customer. This, in effect, makes cash a cheaper option for the consumer.
• The third deterrent is there is lack of awareness about the benefits of using cards for payments and higher costs in conducting cash transactions.

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