Current Affairs for BANK, IBPS Exams - 27 February 2018

::NATIONAL::

Record Olive Ridley Nesting

With 4,28,083 mother olive ridley turtles nesting,the endangered species has created an all-time record of mass nesting at the Rushikulya rookery coast in the Ganjam district of Odisha this year.
The mass nesting is expected to continue for another two to three days, said Berhampur divisional forest officer Ashis Behera.
Interestingly, mass nesting of olive ridley turtles has not yet started on the coasts along the Gahirmatha beach and the mouth of the Debi river, two other major nesting sites in Odisha.
Forest officials say the Gahirmatha beach is the largest mass nesting site for olive ridley turtles along the Indian coastline, followed by the rookery at the mouth of the Rushikulya river.
With 3,65,000 nests, olive ridley turtles had created a record of mass nesting at Rushikulya in 2017.
They have already broken the record this year, indicating that the environment of this coast continues to be conducive for their mass nesting.
In 2016, for some unexplained reason, there was no mass nesting at this coast.
This year, sea waves and winds have widened a portion of the beach near the Rushikulya rookery.
A sandbar near the Podampeta village eroded entirely, and its sand was deposited on the coast, widening a stretch of the beach and increasing its height.
This is the region where a large number of nestings took place this year.
The turtles have also extended their area of nesting northward till the Bateswar temple, said Mr. Behera.

Centre at local level

For sharper delivery of the government’s message to the voters, the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting (I&B) approved the hiring of 716 social media executives, one for each district of the country.
Their primary responsibility will be to analyse local news media and help the government adapt the message according to the responses to it.
The responsibility of these executives will be to “monitor local editions of newspapers, local cable channels, local audio channels and important local social media handles for important local developments”.
They will also have to analyse the news to assess whether the government’s message was received positively or negatively.
This hiring is part of the Ministry’s outreach programme for smaller cities and rural areas.
The social media executives will be expected to run a structured campaign to highlight the Modi government’s achievements.
The new media wing is being set up by the Broadcast Engineering Consultants India Limited (BECIL).
Recently, the Ministry also did real-time monitoring of public online conversations around the word ‘Budget’. All online conversations on open forums like Twitter, public Facebook pages, blogs and so on were read closely by a small unit set up by I&B Minister Smriti Irani.
Based on the analysis of the group, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley was told to change the message.

Genetic disorder shouldn’t be reason for denial of cover: HC

Most policies have exclusionary clauses that deny clients’ claims if they suffer from such disorders.
The verdict could open up a large number of ailments as claimable under medical insurance.
“The exclusionary clause of ‘genetic disorders,’ in the insurance policy, is too broad, ambiguous and discriminatory — hence violative of Article 14 of the Constitution,” Justice Singh said.
The court directed the Insurance Regulatory Development Authority of India to re-look at the exclusionary clauses in insurance contracts and ensure that insurance companies do not reject claims on the basis of exclusions relating to genetic disorders.
Justice Singh highlighted that there are different types of genetic disorders and even common diseases like diabetes and cardiac diseases could be included in the broad definition.
“In effect, it would mean that large swathes of population would be excluded from availing health insurance which could have a negative impact on the health of a country,” she remarked.
The High Court’s verdict came on a petition filed by United India Insurance Company Limited challenging an order passed by a trial court here directing it to honour the medical claim of a person who was suffering from genetic disorder.
The court remarked that insurance companies are free to structure their contracts based on reasonable and intelligible factors which should not be arbitrary and cannot be ‘exclusionary’.

Investment of 4.39 lakh crore: A.P

The third edition of the three-day CII Partnership Summit and the Sunrise Investment Meet held here saw the signing of 734 Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs).
It envisaged an investment of Rs. 4.39 lakh crore, with a potential for providing employment to 11 lakh people.
Unlike the previous two editions, the amount of investment proposals fell down drastically.
But Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, at the concluding ceremony, said that after a lot of spadework they had inked the agreements only with serious players.
The MoUs with proposed investment of Rs. 4.67 lakh crore were signed in 2016, the first post-bifurcation year, and it increased to Rs. 10.54 lakh crore in 2017.
The government rejected 306 MoUs with an investment proposal of nearly Rs. 4 lakh crore as there was no detailed feasibility reports.
The summit attracted 2,500 delegates from 15 countries, partnership with South Korea, Japan and Singapore and 55 bilateral meetings.
Prominent MoUs include investment by Reliance, the LuLu Group, the Adani Special Economic Zone, electronic clusters, renewable energy and tourism.
The fallout of differences between the BJP and its ally Telugu Desam Party were evident as only Union Commerce and Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu attended the summit besides Civil Aviation Minister P. Ashok Gajapathi Raju, who is from the TDP.
Mr. Naidu, during a special session with Art of Living founder Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, expressed his dissatisfaction over the failure of the Central government in fulfilling its commitments.
He said that despite so many difficulties and division of the State in an unscientific manner, he had been working to transform Andhra Pradesh as the most developed State by 2029 and the best destination for living and investment by 2050.

Andhra Pradesh ready for safe nesting

With large numbers of olive ridley turtles being sighted along the coastline of Andhra Pradesh, wildlife authorities here have intensified measures to ensure a safe nesting season for them.
Their primary focus is on the sanctuaries along the coastline — the Krishna Wildlife Sanctuary in Krishna district, the Coringa Wildlife Sanctuary in East Godavari district, as well as the strategic beaches (from Baruva and Bhavanapadu on the Andhra Pradesh-Odisha border to the beaches of Nellore on the Andhra Pradesh-Tamil Nadu border).
As many as six rookeries have been set up in Krishna district and three in Guntur district.
“Six of the sites can be reached only by boat,” said Ms. Bhavani, ranger in Avanigadda. “Since January 22, 141 turtles have been sighted in the Krishna Sanctuary and 16,240 eggs have been collected,” she said.
Over 800 nestings of the turtles may take place this year along the Visakhapatnam coast. Five hatcheries have been identified.

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::INTERNATIONAL::

Humanitarian Pause: Putin

Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a daily “humanitarian pause” to air strikes on Eastern Ghouta, Moscow’s Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu.
“On the instructions of the Russian President, with the goal of avoiding civilian casualties in Eastern Ghouta, from February 27 — tomorrow — from 9.00 to 14.00 there will be a humanitarian pause,” he said.
Further, fresh Syrian regime air strikes on rebel-held Eastern Ghouta killed 10 civilians on Monday as Western powers piled pressure on Russia to make a UN truce deal come into force.
The world body’s chief demanded the immediate implementation of a resolution calling for a 30-day truce, as another suspected chemical attack left a child dead in the enclave.
“Eastern Ghouta cannot wait. It is high time to stop this hell on earth,” Antonio Guterres told the opening of the 37th session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.
Saturday’s UN Security Council resolution had raised hopes that a week-old assault by regime forces that has killed more than 500 civilians might end.
But while the intensity of the bombardment eased a little over the weekend, warplanes have continued their raids.
Among the latest victims were nine family members killed when their home in Douma collapsed on their heads.
“Nine civilians from a same family were killed in regime air strikes in Douma, after midnight,” Rami Abdel Rahman, the head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said.
On February 18, the Syrian government turned up the heat on the territory.
More than 550 civilians, almost a quarter of them children, have since been killed and extensive destruction wrought on the enclave’s towns.

::ECONOMY::

Coal Shortage in Power plants: Report

The power sector seems to be facing coal shortage again as 46 coal-fired power plants reported stocks of less than a week, according to official data.
According to the daily coal stock report of 113 power plants monitored by Central Electricity Authority (CEA), six plants have coal stocks for zero day and eight plants have stocks of just one day to generate electricity as on February 22, 2018.
Industry sources said coal supplies have not improved since the monsoon season last year when some of the coal-fired power plants had faced acute shortage.
Power, coal and railway ministries had taken a series of measures to improve coal supplies to power plants after power prices crossed Rs. 11 per unit at energy exchanges in September last.
The CEA report stated that there are 12 non-pithead power plants facing super critical coal stock situation, or in other words, have coal stocks for less than four days.
Besides, there are six such plants that have coal stock of less than seven days.
Of these 46 plants with stocks of less than a week, Badarpur, Bhatinda and Panki plants are shut down.
The government, in January-end, had decided on various steps to boost coal supplies to power plants.

Slow growth in Port traffic for next 5 years: Crisil

The containerised cargo segment will cushion port traffic growth in the next five years as coal, the mainstay until last fiscal, has been logging a slower pace of growth, Crisil Research said in a report.
“Port traffic is estimated to log a compound annual growth of 3-5% in the five years through fiscal 2022, a notch down from 4.4% in the last five years,” it said.
The moderation would be mainly due to coal. In the last five years, port traffic growth was led by a surge in coal imports, especially at non-major ports.
In the next five years, coal traffic is expected to remain flattish as an increase in coastal traffic due to increased production is offset by a corresponding fall in imports, according to the research report.
The report pegged container traffic growth, in contrast, at 6-8%, riding on improvement in export-import trade in sectors including chemicals and automotives and ancillaries.
Incremental container traffic from upcoming terminals at the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust terminal, Vizhinjam, Ennore and Dhamra are expected to further augment growth.
“Over the five years through fiscal 2022, as container traffic growth out-paces other segments, its share in total traffic handled at Indian ports is expected to increase to 19%, from 16% now,” Prasad Koparkar, senior director, Crisil Research, said.
“Coal, which accounts for 22% of total traffic, is expected to see a dip in share to about 19%,” he said.

RBI on KYC norms for e-wallets

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has said that customers can use their electronic wallets, which are not compliant with know your customer (KYC) guidelines.
This was for payments to merchants after February 28, even as it clarified that reloading the wallet with more funds would need a fully KYC-compliant account.
In October, RBI had directed all mobile-wallet operators, to make all accounts fully KYC-compliant by December 31, 2017.
The deadline was later extended to February 28.
“Sufficient time has already been given to meet the prescribed guidelines,” RBI deputy governor B.P. Kanungo said while addressing the media.
RBI has issued licences to 55 non-bank mobile wallets while another 50 banks have their own wallets.
According to RBI, requirement of full KYC for PPIs is a step towards interoperability.
The (PPI) guidelines are designed to strengthen safety and security of transactions and customer protection, a necessary step to pave the way for interoperability between PPIs, bank accounts and cards in a phased manner.
The regulator is expected to issue guidelines on interoperability shortly.
In the first phase, wallets will be made interoperable; in the second, wallets and bank accounts would be interoperable; in the final stage, wallets and cards will become interoperable.
Since many wallet accounts are not fully KYC complaint, banks often do not allow users to transfer funds from their accounts to wallets.