Current Affairs for BANK, IBPS Exams

26 March 2016

:: NATIONAL ::

India rejects Pakistan’s claim of Indian spy in Balochistan

• India rejected Pakistan’s claims that it had arrested a serving naval officer in Balochistan for what it called “subversive activities”.

• In a statement, the Ministry of External affairs however, admitted that the man believed to be arrested was a former officer of the navy.

• India has now sought consular access to him. The government said that India has no interest in interfering in internal matters of any country and firmly believes that a stable and peaceful Pakistan is in the interest of all in the region.

• According to documents released by Military intelligence sources in Pakistan, the arrested man identified himself as Kulbhushan Yadav, formerly a commander in the navy, who, Pakistan claims, was sent under deputation to the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) to Iran.

• A passport (No. L9630722), purportedly belonging to the arrested man, showed his assumed name as ‘Hussein Mubarak Patel’, born in Sangli, Maharashtra, and living in Powai, as well as a valid Iranian visa in his name.

Election commission gives its approval for PM’s Mann Ki Baat

• The Election Commission of India has given its approval for PM’s radio broadcast “Mann Ki Baat”, with a condition that his address to the public should not violate the Model Code of Conduct in place for the coming Assembly elections in four States and a Union Territory.

• The Model Code of Conduct came into force on March 4 when the ECI announced the schedule for elections.

• Elections in Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry will be held on May 16, and beginning April 4 in West Bengal. Assam will go to the polls in two phases on April 4 and 11.

• Owing to the Model Code, it is learnt that the Information and Broadcasting Ministry had approached the ECI seeking clearance for the PM’s monthly address.

In order to curb extremism and radicalisation U.S. Wants to work with India

• The U.S. has proposed to work with India to prepare a road map in countering violent extremism and radicalisation.

• The phenomenal rise of the terrorist outfit, the Islamic State (IS), is one of the reasons that prompted the move and the U.S. has proposed that both countries exchange information on this aspect.

• India and the U.S. are to meet for Homeland Security dialogue soon and this is one of the agenda points that will be discussed.

• In a countrywide raid in January this year, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and the police had cracked down on a pan-India IS network and arrested around 25 young men from various parts of the country.

• The accused had pledged allegiance to the IS and wanted to establish ‘Janood-ul-Khalifa-e-Hind’ or the Army of Caliph of India by carrying out terror strikes at important installations.

• The United States has also reiterated its proposal that India agree to the Homeland Security Presidential Directive (HSPD-6), a model text agreement for exchange of terrorist screening information between Terrorist Screening Centre (TCS) of the U.S. and any Indian security agency.

• On its part, the U.S has said that in the past one year, “two dozen people with terrorist links” were arrested in Canada and Australia with the help of HSPD-6 as both countries are signatories to it. In all, the U.S. has finalised the agreement with 30 other countries.

• If India signs it, it could get access to the U.S. database of 11,000 terror suspects. Indian security agencies are apprehensive of giving unhindered access to the U.S. on sensitive data related to terrorists and the agreement is stuck for the past several years.

:: International ::

In a major breakthrough US forces killed IS second-in-command

• U.S. forces killed the Islamic State group’s second-in-command this week, dealing a blow to the extremists’ ability to conduct operations in Iraq, Syria and abroad, Pentagon chief Ashton Carter said.

• Mr. Carter told reporters, referring also to the killing early in the month of Omar al-Shishani, the man known as “Omar the Chechen”, who was effectively IS’s defence minister.

• The latest killing “will hamper the ability for them to conduct operations inside and outside of Iraq and Syria,” Mr. Carter said of Abdar-Rahman Mustafa al-Qaduli, referring to him as Haji Imam.

• He said al-Qaduli served as the group’s finance minister and had been behind some foreign plots.

• The U.S. Justice Department had offered a bounty of up to $7 million for information leading to al-Qaduli.

After Brussels attack EU leaders look to implement decisions taken after Paris attack

• Calling the Brussels terror attack an “attack on our open, democratic society”, an urgent meeting of European Union Ministers for Justice and Home Affairs held in Brussels resolved to swiftly implement decisions taken at a similar meeting held after the Paris blasts in November last year.

• The failure to share intelligence was identified as the lesson not learned following the Paris attacks — a major failure that has had costly consequences.

• Therefore a key outcome of the meeting was the decision by the Ministers to “increase as a matter of urgency the systematic feeding, consistent use and interoperability of European and international databases in the fields of security, travel and migration.”

• The attacks were a “shock but unfortunately not a surprise”, DimitrisAvramopoulos, member of the European Council in charge of Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship, told a press conference.

• On the importance of intelligence and data sharing he said the EU Ministers resolved to quickly set up a joint liaison team of national experts that would become the nerve- centre of counter terrorism.

• Mr. Avramopoulos castigated the EU institutions for their failure to implement some of the political decisions taken after the Paris attacks.

• He cited the example of the explosives used in the Paris and Brussels attacks, which were home-made.

:: BUSINESS and ECONOMY ::

India will appeal WTO’s verdict in solar case

• India will appeal against the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) verdict over its policy relating to solar power equipment.

• “The U.S. made it a prestige issue. It is very unfortunate that they pursued the complaint in the WTO. It reflects the hollowness of the U.S.’ commitment to clean energy,” Power Minister Piyush Goyal said

• India had, as part of its National Solar Mission, imposed a stipulation that solar cells and solar modules be locally sourced.

• The U.S. had filed a case against India at the WTO demanding a level-playing field for Indian and foreign solar component manufacturers. The world body ruled in favour of the U.S.

• India’s capacity to produce solar components and solar cells comprises only a portion of the demand in India. This means that the foreign component makers would still have a substantial market to cater to.

• Indian manufacturers had a complaint against the U.S. counterparts for dumping in India, he said. This would have attracted huge anti-dumping penalties and duties for the U.S. manufacturers, had it been pursued.

• The Minister also said he was examining the situation in the U.S. where nine states had similar programmes to protect their domestic manufacturers

• The Indian government was committed to its domestic manufacturers and would find other ways to protect them.

Indian forex reached all time high

• The country’s foreign exchange reserves rose to an all time high of $355.94 billion for the week ended March 18, latest data released by the Reserve Bank of India showed.

• According to the central bank, total reserves grew by $ 2.54 billion for the week ended March 18 on the back of sustained inflows in the equity market.

• The previous all time high was reached on the week ended 21 August, 2015, when it touched $355.35 billion.

• According to RBI, foreign currency assets mainly contributed to the rise in total reserves which grew by $2.5 billion during the week to $ 322.5 billion.

• The government maintained the fiscal deficit target for 2016-17 at 3.5 per cent while reducing the small savings rate which could create more room for the central bank to lower interest rate.

• RBI, which has reduced interest rate by 125 bps since January 2015, is widely expected to cut it by at least 25 bps when it reviews the monetary policy on April 5.

• In about two and half years since Raghuram Rajan took over as the governor of the central bank, foreign exchange grew by $122 billion, from a low of $274.8 billion, reached on the week ended September 6, 2013 when the country was in the middle of a currency crisis.

• The healthy growth in foreign exchange reserves has increased the import cover close to 10 months, which fell to a low of 6-7 months during the currency crisis of 2013.

Non-convertible debentures becoming important source of finance for Indian firms

• Indian firms have raised a staggering over Rs.58,000 crore through issuance of non-convertible debentures (NCDs) in the ongoing fiscal, amid a sluggish equity markets.

• This was much higher than Rs.9,713 crore garnered in the entire last fiscal.]

• Most of the funds have been mobilised for expansion, to support working capital requirements and for other general corporate purposes.

• The debentures are loan-linked bonds that cannot be converted into stock and usually offer higher interest rates than convertible debentures.

• As per the provisional data with Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), firms raked in a total of Rs.58,533 crore through non-convertible debentures in the current fiscal (2015-16) as on March 14.

• In terms of numbers, 20 issuances have taken the NCD route in the ongoing fiscal as compared to 25 in the entire 2014-15.

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