Current Affairs for BANK, IBPS Exams - 26 November 2017

::National::

12th Inter-State Council meeting

The Centre and the State governments should engage in greater cooperation so that differences on issues such as deployment of Central forces are resolved quickly, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh said.
At the 12th Inter-State Council meeting, he said a number of steps had been taken in recent years by the Centre to promote cooperative federalism.
Andhra Pradesh had opposed the recommendation made by the Puncchi Commission that Central forces could be deployed without the concurrence of the State government.
It also suggested that the Centre should not charge any cost to the State government whenever Central forces are deployed at the request of the State government, a press statement issued by the State said.
Mr. Singh said it is important for everyone to promote the spirit of cooperation with greater zeal and expressed satisfaction over the deliberations held in a “harmonious and congenial” atmosphere for arriving at consensus on complex issues.
He said the standing committee is being convened to lend speed to the process of harmonising Centre-State relations.

ISRO to send solar mission Aditya-L1 to a vantage point in space

Sometime in 2019 or 2020 India will send ISRO’s solar mission Aditya-L1 to a vantage point in space, known as the L1 Lagrange point, to do imaging and study of the sun.
This launch will happen in the early part of the next solar cycle - an occurrence in which sunspots form on the face of the sun, growing in size and number and eventually diminishing, all over a period of eleven years. It will be a mission of many firsts.
The so-called L1 point is 1.5 million kilometres away. Here, due to the delicate balance of gravitational forces, the satellite will require very little energy to maintain its orbit.
Also it will not be eclipsed from the sun. The 1,500-kg class satellite will be programmed to orbit this point and image the sun’s magnetic field from space for the very first time in the world.
Scientists hope to capture the close-ups of the sun from here, uninterrupted by eclipses for years.
Few other space agencies have successfully placed their satellites at this location.
Among the few, the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO), a NASA-ESA collaboration involving America and Europe, and NASA’s Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) are at L1 exclusively to study the sun and space weather, respectively.
Aditya-L1 is expected to be the very first to study from space two months from the time of launch, the magnetic field of the sun’s corona. The corona is the outer layer that we see during total solar eclipses.
It will be the first 100% Indian mission which will not only negotiate a challenging orbit, but will also benefit the global scientific community in understanding the sun.
The mission will carry seven payloads,consisting of a coronagraph, equipment that will image the sun using ultraviolet filters, X-ray spectrometers, and particle samplers all being made within the country.
The largest payload, or instrument, aboard the satellite, will be the Visible Emission Line Coronagraph (VLEC). This can view the sun more closely than has been done before even by SOHO.

President seeks steps to have more women, OBCs and SCs in courts

Expressing concern over the “unacceptably low” representation of women, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and OBC's in the higher judiciary, President Ram Nath Kovind called for long-term measures to remedy this situation.
He said that only 4,700 of the 17,000 judges — roughly one in four — in India were women.
“In addition, there is an unacceptably low representation of traditionally weaker sections such as OBCs, SCs and STs, especially in the higher judiciary,” the President said at the inauguration of the National Law Day conference, which is jointly organised by the Law Commission and NITI Aayog.
“Like our other public institutions, our judiciary too has to be judicious in being representative of the diversity of our country,” he said.
Mr. Kovind said all the three organs of the State — the judiciary, the executive and the legislature — needed to be careful not to cross into one another’s finely defined spaces.
“Public life is today a glasshouse. There is a relentless demand for transparency and scrutiny. Our legal fraternity needs to be mindful of these legitimate urges of the people — the ultimate masters in a democracy. All three organs of the State are obligated to be models of good conduct,” he said.
Mr. Kovind said that there was a crying need to ensure speedy justice. “While we take pride in our courts and their independence, it is a paradox that the poor often shy away from a legal battle, worried about the duration and the cost,” he said.
The President said there was a need to look at alternative dispute resolution mechanisms. Mr. Kovind said lawyer fees needed to be brought down and India’s reputation of having an expensive legal system must be changed.

Rural women are subject to far less voilence after liquor ban

However, they said, the most striking feature of prohibition as mentioned in the report was the sharp drop in the numbers of rural women who were subjected to physical violence earlier.
The survey samples have been collected from Purnia, Samastipur, Nawada, Kaimur and West Champaran districts, covering all the four regions of the State. A total of 2,368 individuals, including 1,001 women, 242 men and 647 adolescent girls were surveyed to prepare the report.
The researcher, however, admitted that the survey found that 19% of people still continue to drink liquor in the State spending Rs. 80 every day on it. \
“Both countrymade and Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) are available in the State but at two or three times the actual price,” he said. Bihar was declared a dry State on April 5 last year.

Indian Airforce in need of Aircrafts

The Indian Air Force, one of the largest in the world, operates a diverse mix of legacy and modern fighter jets, including MiG-21, MiG-27, MiG-29, Jaguar, Mirage 2000, Su-30MKI and Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas.
India sees the possibility of a two-front war — with Pakistan in the west and China in the north — and to be able to tackle it, the IAF has a projected requirement of 44 fighter squadrons.
However, it now has 33 squadrons, much lower than the sanctioned strength of 42 squadrons. With the IAF set to phase out 11 squadrons of the ageing MiG-21s and MiG-27s, the number may dip to 25 squadrons, according to a report of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Defence released early this year.
The LCA programme was launched in the early 1980s to indigenously build a single-engine lightweight fighter jet to replace MiG-21s. But delays in development, coupled with sanctions, meant time and cost overruns.
After a long development cycle, the Tejas is now in the process of being inducted. The IAF has placed orders for 40 of them in the basic configuration and constituted its first squadron last year with three aircraft.
It is scheduled to place orders for 83 aircraft in the Mk-1A configuration with specific improvements. So, by 2024, the service is likely to have 123 Tejas aircraft, making up six squadrons.
The delay in the development of Tejas and its induction meant looking for the alternatives from abroad. The idea to buy new fighters to replace the single-engine MiG-21s came up in 2000.
After several iterations, the search for a single- engine fighter metamorphosed into the Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) contest for which both single- and twin-engine aircraft were evaluated.
The request for proposal (RFP) for 126 MMRCA was issued in 2007, and after extensive evaluation, the twin-engine Rafale, built by Dassault Aviation of France, was selected as the lowest bidder in 2012 and contract negotiations began.
The aircraft was supposed to be built in India under technology transfer, but after several years of negotiations there was a gridlock.
In 2015, visiting Paris, Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a surprise announcement to buy 36 Rafale jets in a fly-away condition through an inter-governmental agreement, citing “critical operational necessity” of the IAF.
After some tough negotiations in September 2016 the two countries concluded a €7.87-billion deal for 36 aircraft, spares, weapons and a five-year maintenance guarantee.
This was the first fighter aircraft deal India had signed since the purchase of Sukhoi from Russia in the late 1990s. Deliveries are scheduled between 2019 and 2022. However, 36 is too small a number to meet the requirements or even make operational viability for maintenance and support.
India and Russia have been negotiating the joint development of the Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft. But talks have protracted over high cost and the work share. Given the current trend, the travails of the IAF to make up the fighter strength are likely to continue.

Printed Study Materials for IBPS, SBI Bank Exam

::International::

China's infrastructure building is in full swing in Tibet

China’s well-tested mantra that has powered its economic rise — build quality infrastructure and the rest will follow — is in full play in Tibet. The Qinghai-Tibet railway, the 1,956-km track passing over bridges and through tunnels, has already made history.
An offshoot of that railway, also called Lari railway, is now being stretched from Lhasa to the extremities of Tibet. Trains have already reached Xigaze, the terminus of this line. That is not far from Tibet’s border with Nepal.
Another track from Xigaze will head towards Yadong, a Chumbi valley town made famous by the 1904 Tibet expedition led by Francis Younghusband, a colonel in the British Indian Army.
Yadong is on the doorstep of Sikkim. The Nathu La, the point of entry in Sikkim, is only 34 km away, approachable by a road from Yadong.
Apart from railways and roads, Chinese planners are also focussing on hydropower plants.
Tibet is well-known as the water tower of the world. Several major rivers — the Yangtze, the Yellow river, the Lancang (better known as the Mekong), the Nu river and the Yarlung Zangpo, which becomes the Brahmaputra once it enters India — originate in Tibet.
Chinese plans for massive hydro projects have triggered much concern among environmentalists, who are worried about the possible damage that this may cause to a fragile ecosystem in this natural wonderland.
The Yarlung Zangpo flows into Bangladesh and India. The Lancang is the lifeline of much of Southeast Asia. The Nu flows into the Andaman Sea through Myanmar.
In tune with its plans, China has announced the construction of the Suwalong hydropower station on the Jinsha river, which forms the upper reaches of the Yangtze.
The Suwalong project is located in Southwest China — on the border of Tibet’s Mangkam county and Batang county of the neighbouring Sichuan province.
Incidentally, Mangkam county, especially its Yanjing valley, has a colourful history. It is known for its traditional salt wells and over a 100 hot springs, of much therapeutic value.
The area also hosted part of the famous trans-Himalayan Tea-Horse trade route that wound its way from China’s Yunnan province en route Tibet to India.
Once completed, the Suwalong project would generate 2,000 MW of power, which would be channelled into the country’s well-off eastern region. The Suwalong project’s design capacity is double that of the Zangmu hydropower plant, established on the Yarlung Zangpo river.

::Business and Economy::

Govet has notified post- GST rates for textiles and apparels

In a bid to boost exports from ready-made garments and made-ups as well as employment generation in these two segments, the government has notified post-GST rates under the scheme for Remission of State Levies (RoSL) on exports of ready-made garments, made-ups and under Advance Authorization-RoSL for garments.
Post-GST rates of RoSL are up to a maximum of 1.7% for cotton garments, 1.25% for man made fibres (MMF), silk and woollen garments and 1.48% for apparel of blends.
The government said that the DGFT had issued a public notice by which rates for incentives under the Merchandise Exports from India Scheme for ready-made garments and made-ups had been enhanced from 2% to 4% of value of exports with effect from November 1, 2017 till June 30, 2018.
“The estimated annual incentives will be Rs. 1,143.15 crore for 2017-18 and Rs. 685.89 crore for 2018-19,” it added.

::Science and Tech::

Amount of dust aerosol during the pre-monsoon period has decreased

Though the aerosol burden over north India is three times more than the global mean value and has been increasing at about 3% per year for the past few decades, the amount of dust aerosol during the pre-monsoon period has decreased by 10-20% during the period 2000 to 2015.
“Past studies have shown that whenever pre-monsoon dust aerosol is more over north Indian region, the early part of monsoon rainfall is higher,” says V. Vinoj from the School of Earth, Ocean and Climate Sciences at the IIT Bhubaneswar.
Besides gathering data from ground-based stations, the team of researchers led by Dr. Vinoj used satellite-based measurements from different platforms.
All five ground-based stations (AERONET sites) show a decreasing trend in the aerosol loading during the pre-monsoon period across the Indo-Gangetic Plain. Largest decrease has been over Jaipur and the least reduction was in eastern Uttar Pradesh.
Since the amount of aerosol loading has been increasing in this region on an annual basis, the reduction registered at these stations must be due to decrease in dust aerosols, the researchers say.
The satellite-based measurements too indicate a reduction in aerosol loading during the pre-monsoon period over a large swathe of area over northwest India. Generally, satellite-based methodologies are not very good at distinguishing between aerosol types.
However, the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) on board the Aura satellite, which is sensitive to absorbing aerosols, shows a decreasing trend. This indicates that the changes are related to dust and/or black carbon, both of which are more absorbing in nature.
Ground-based stations in Karachi, Lahore and Kanpur, which have the longest available data, show “significant reduction” in dust loading during 2000-2015. The decreases are 10-20% over all the sites.
The decrease in aerosol has been most pronounced in the areas west of the Indo-Gangetic Plain, with Jaipur registering about 3% drop per year with respect to the year 2000, while Kanpur showing a relatively lower reduction of about 0.5%.
Based on aerosol size and absorption information collected from ground-based stations, the researchers have been able to confirm that the decreasing trend is due to dust particulates. MERRA2, a more sophisticated, model-based analysis, too, shows similar trends.
The reason for a reduction in dust loading during the pre-monsoon period is due to increased rainfall, with maximum increase seen over Pakistan region and Thar desert, which is a dust-source region.
The pre-monsoon rainfall makes the soil wet thereby reducing the amount of dust that gets emitted and also increases the removal of dust present in the atmosphere.
In addition, there has been a gradual slowdown in wind speed in the vicinity of Thar desert. “These two factors might be contributing to reduced dust loading during pre-monsoon period over north India,” he says.

Cadmium-Zinc-Telluride Imager consistently making important observations

The Cadmium-Zinc-Telluride Imager (CZTI), an instrument to observe and image hard X-rays on board the Indian space observatory AstroSat, has consistently been making important observations since AstroSat’s launch in 2015.
The latest discovery, published in Nature Astronomy, is a polarization analysis of the Crab nebula pulsar that has completely baffled astrophysicists studying pulsars.
In this work, observations of the Crab pulsar made by CZTI have been analysed in the so-called phase-resolved X-ray polarimetry – a measure of the polarization of X-ray beams emanating from it.
The experiment determines the magnitude and orientation of the polarization of the hard X-ray beams. This is the most sensitive and precise measurement of this variable until now.
An analysis revealed that the values are contrary to what is predicted by all existing theories of pulsars.
Stars that have masses beyond a critical value of about 1.4 times the mass of our Sun will in the course of their lifetime explode to form a supernova.
Even as some matter escapes from the explosion to create a glow, the remnant at the centre shrinks to become a black hole or a neutron star. The Crab nebula, in the Taurus constellation, is one such supernova remnant that has become a type of neutron star known as a pulsar.
Known as the Crab pulsar, this emits electromagnetic radiation in a beam and also spins rapidly so that distant observers see the beam as a pulsating spot of light, justifying the name “pulsar.”
The pulses of radiation from the Crab pulsar show two peaked shapes coinciding with its north and south poles. In between these two high regions is a low-intensity, zero point called the off-pulse region.
CZTI detected non-vanishing polarization having a definite varying structure in the off-pulse region where no variation was expected.
Existing theories predict that there should not be such a variation of the polarisation. However, since the experiment has been repeated several times and the signs persist, it has forced theorists to rethink their theories of pulsars.
The extremely sensitive measurement was possible mainly because of the way the instrument was built and systemic errors were understood, he adds.