Current Affairs for BANK, IBPS Exams 30 April 2016

Current Affairs for BANK, IBPS Exams

30 April 2016

:: NATIONAL ::

Economically backward class gets 10% reservation in Gujrat

In a bid to placate the Patidars demanding reservation in jobs and education, the government in Gujarat announced a 10 % quota for those earning Rs. 6 lakh a year or less among the upper castes.
“Gujarat government has decided to accord 10% reservation for economically backward in general category,” Chief Minister Anandiben Patel said.
She also added that the existing 49% reservation for SC, ST and OBC will remain untouched.
But the Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti dismissed the announcement as “lollipop” and demanded specific quota for the Patidars.

Govt says conducting NEET this year is difficult

Attorney general suggested before a Bench led by Justice Anil R. Dave that the NEET on May 1 be scrapped and instead a combined exam be held on July 24.
The “majority” of States and private medical colleges had almost completed or were midway through their own entrance tests, Mr. Rohatgi pointed out that States like Tamil Nadu did not even have a legacy of entrance exams.
But the court had chosen to go by the assurances given by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), the Medical Council of India (MCI) and the Health Ministry that holding NEET was definitely possible this year.
NEET, as per the December 21, 2010 Medical Council of India notification brought back to life on April 28, replaces all other exams for medical and dental admissions in the country.
The common entrance examination is meant to end rampant corruption in medical admissions.
It was quashed by the Supreme Court in 2013 on the ground that it interfered with the administrative powers of government-run and private colleges.
A petition on whether NEET is constitutionally valid is listed for fresh hearing on May 3 before a five-judge Bench.

Govt declassifies a new batch of Netaji files

The latest instalment of files on the Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, released by the government, suggest that the Janata Dal government of V.P. Singh was unsure whether it was indeed Bose’s ashes that were being preserved in Japan.
This was in variance with the government’s stated position, built over decades and on the basis of two inquiry commissions, that Bose had died in an air crash in Taiwan, and his cremated remains were preserved at Rekonji Temple in Tokyo.
Documents show that on August 7, 1990, the then Prime Minister, Singh, got a letter from Shantilal Patel, Member of Parliament, requesting that the government ceremoniously prepare to receive Netaji’s ashes.
Mr. Singh replied on the advise of his colleagues in the Prime Minister’s Office, that “in the absence of consensus in our country on whether the ashes, which are preserved in the Renkoji Temple in Japan, are those of Netaji, it is difficult to consider bringing these ashes to India at this stage.”
The Indira Gandhi government too had stayed away from attempting to retrieve Netaji’s ashes largely because his brother, Sarath Chandra Bose, disputed the conclusions of the commissions — set up in 1956 and 1970.
Both ruled that Bose had died in a air crash, and it was his remains that were being preserved in Japan.
The communications of Singh, Shanker and Patel are all part of 25 documents that were uploaded on the Ministry of Culture’s Netaji microsite.
Though the Indian mission in Tokyo had taken custody of Netaji’s ashes in the early 50s, it did not send the remains to India and had spend Rs. 52,66,278 between 1967 and 2005 on the upkeep of the remains at Rekonji Temple.

Odd-even shows mixed data

Emissions from all sources, including vehicles, appear to have been lower this month compared to April 2015, but levels of harmful fine particulate matter have been about the same or more during the corresponding period last year.
An analysis of air quality data from eight stations in Delhi by the Union Ministry of Earth Science’s SAFAR has found that the level of the dangerous ozone gas has been less this April compared to 2015.
Ozone does not exist at the surface level on its own; it is formed when volatile hydrocarbons and other gases emitted by combustion sources like vehicles react in the air.
Ozone becomes a bigger concern in the summer as the hot weather lends itself to its formation.
The level of ozone from April 1 to 28 this year has been less than the corresponding daily figure for 2015.
Despite favourable weather conditions, ozone has been less than last year. This is not much to do with the odd-even scheme as the level was less during April 1 to 15 as well.
Delhi has seen several measures in the past year that could have contributed to the reduction, including the Supreme Court-ordered imposition of ‘green tax’ on commercial vehicles entering the city.
According to the Environment Pollution Control Authority, which was tasked with monitoring the implementation of the tax, the number of commercial vehicles entering Delhi has decreased by 50 to 60 per cent.
Though the ozone levels have been less, the level of PM2.5, which is harmful for health, on April 26, 27 and 28 was more than the same dates last year.

:: International ::

India looking to explore Papua New Guinea’s oil and gas resources

India is looking to explore and develop Papua New Guinea’s vast oil and gas resources through joint ventures and investments from both the Indian private and public sectors in ongoing and new projects.
The Pacific island country agreed that oil and gas exploration and development could be a new avenue of cooperation between the two countries, keeping in view India’s desire to achieve energy security.
Indian companies are looking at projects coming up in Papua New Guinea after natural gas was discovered in the country’ s Southern Highland Province.
Gas discoveries elsewhere in the country have evoked interest among Indian companies that believe they could participate in associated projects as well as in some gas blocks.
Papua New Guinea is estimated to have 35 trillion cubic feet of natural gas as recoverable reserves.
India agreed to provide a line of credit of $100 million to Papua New Guinea for infrastructure projects and signed a pact to set up a ‘Centre of Excellence’ in information technology.
The request for the line of credit had been made by Papua New Guinea Prime Minister during a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the sidelines of a summit of the Forum for India-Pacific Islands Cooperation.
Four memorandums of understanding were signed on the second and final day of President Mukherjee’s visit, the first state visit by an Indian head of state to the island nation.
Papua New Guinea gave support for India’s claim for permanent membership in the UN Security Council and agreed to expedite a proposed Bilateral Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement to facilitate investments.
Mr. Mukherjee announced that India would provide anti-retroviral drugs and equipment to benefit 20,000 HIV positive patients in Papua New Guinea, a figure that would help at least half the number of those suffering from the disease.
UNAIDS estimates say that between 37,000 and 41,000 people were living with HIV in 2014 in the country, which has a population of about eight million.

India- EU could go for a deal which is lesser than BTIA

India and the EU should consider a less-ambitious free trade agreement if necessary, vice chair of the Delegation for Relations with India, said.
“Yes I would prefer a watered down agreement, it’s better to take small steps and move on than moving for a very high goal that is not achievable in the near future,” she said.
The India EU summit of March 30 failed to breathe life back into the stalled Broadbased Trade and Investment Agreement (BTIA).
There have been gaps in the offers and demand of both sides in the trade in services, automobiles and wine and spirit sectors.

Former bureaucrat N. K. Singh will receive one of Japan’s highest civilian honours

Former bureaucrat and parliamentarian N. K. Singh will receive one of Japan’s highest civilian honours for promoting economic, educational and cultural ties between India and Japan.
Mr. Singh, who is a former Member of the Planning Commission, will receive the ‘Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver’ and is among 91 foreign recipients to be honoured during the 2016 Spring Imperial Decoration of Japan.
The Orders of the Rising Sun are conferred in recognition of distinguished accomplishments of an individual.
The statement from the Embassy of Japan acknowledged Mr. Singh’s contribution to enhance Japan-India educational ties through his association with the Nalanda University.

:: Science and Tech ::

In a major breakthrough skin cells transformed into heart cells and brain cells

In a major breakthrough, a team of researchers, including an Indian origin scientist, has transformed skin cells into heart cells and brain cells using a combination of chemicals.
The team used chemical cocktails to gradually coax skin cells to change into organ-specific stem cell-like cells and, ultimately, into heart or brain cells.
Reprogramming a patient’s own cells could provide the safest and most efficient way to regenerate dying or diseased heart muscle.
The research lays the groundwork for one day being able to regenerate lost or damaged cells with pharmaceutical drugs.
The researchers used genes to convert scar-forming cells in the heart of animals into new muscle that improved the function of the heart, using a chemical reprogramming approach.
The team conducted two studies using a cocktail of nine chemicals to change human skin cells into beating heart cells and brain cells.
They began the process by changing the cells into a state resembling multi-potent stem cells, which can turn into many different types of cells in a particular organ.
With this method, more than 97 per cent of the cells began beating and they also responded appropriately to hormones, and molecularly, they resembled heart muscle cells, not skin cells.
When the cells were transplanted into a mouse heart early in the process, they developed into healthy-looking heart muscle cells within the organ.

:: Business and Economy ::

After tussle between labour and finance ministry govt rolls back EPF interest rates

The Finance Ministry backtracked from its attempt to lower the payout on Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF) savings for 2015-16 to 8.70 per cent, after a tussle with the Labour Ministry, which had announced 8.80 per cent returns.
This marks the third time, in little over 50 days, that the government has rolled back contentious policy decisions pertaining to retirement savings of the working class.
The labour ministry will “immediately” notify 8.80 per cent interest rate to EPF subscribers.
The Finance Ministry had asked the EPFO to keep a surplus of over Rs 1,000 crore to give interest to inoperative EPF accounts that were not getting interest credits since 2011.

India resumed publishing its income tax data

India on Friday resumed publishing its income tax data, which was suspended in 2000 owing to staffing and technical issues.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that it is a big step towards transparency and informed policy-making was expected to assist researchers and analysts.
The decision comes three months after French economist Thomas Piketty remarked in a lecture that India could be vastly under-estimating inequality levels in the country in the absence of this data.
In the absence of data, he said, it was not possible to show the evolution of wealth in India as a result of which “we could be vastly underestimating inequality.”
India had first started publishing its income tax statistics in 1961. The driving force behind the revival of this practice is Chief Economic Advisor (CEA) Arvind Subramanian.
He demonstrated the usefulness of the data in the Economic Survey in a chapter titled “Fiscal Capacity for the 21st Century”.
Conclusions based on analyses of the data were reported in the chapter, the crux of which was that just four per cent of India’s voters are taxpayers, though it should be closer to 23 per cent, and 85 per cent of the net national income falling outside the tax net.
On Friday, the Income Tax Department put up income tax data from the year 2000, on its website. Along with it, the department also released the State-wise breakup from 2008-09.

Direct tax collection sees highest growth in Gujrat

The precipitous drop in the growth rate of direct tax collections was accompanied by an equally dire slowdown in the growth of corporate tax.
Corporate tax grew at an average annual rate of 7.1 per cent between assessment years 2011-12 and 2015-16, down from the heady 15.6 per cent seen in the previous five years.
The personal income tax data on the other hand, barely witnessed a change in growth rates in this period, growing at an annual average of 9.1 per cent between 2011 and 2015.
Interestingly, the data shows that there were 13.3 lakh individuals declaring an income of more than Rs 10 lakh a year — the section of people the government has excluded from the LPG subsidy.
Among the states, Gujarat saw the fastest growth in its direct tax collections, growing 185 per cent in FY2014-15 to Rs 12,577 crore compared to its level in FY2008-09.
Tamil Nadu saw the next-fastest growth in the period, with its direct tax collections growing 116 per cent to Rs 20,651 crore in FY2014-15.
Maharashtra (112 per cent) and West Bengal (105 per cent) were the other states seeing rapid growth in their direct tax collections.
The State-wise data also revealed some anomalies. For example, Mizoram recorded Rs 39.8 crore of direct tax collections in FY2014-15, which is more than double what it collected in the previous year.