Current Affairs for BANK, IBPS Exams

26 April 2016

:: NATIONAL ::

Mobile phones will have button for distress from next year

• Starting next year, all mobile phones sold in India will come with a dedicated ‘panic button’ that can be used to send out a signal in case of distress.

• The Panic button and Global Positioning System facility in all mobile phone handsets Rules, 2016 are aimed at improving the safety of women and ensuring a quick response from security agencies.

• The notification says that no handset shall be sold in India from January 1, 2017, without a panic button and all handsets must also have GPS from January 1, 2018.

• “Technology is solely meant to make human life better and what better than using it for the security of women,” Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said.

• Once the panic button is pressed, a signal/call will be made to the nearest security agency. However, the details of how the system will work are yet to be finalised.

After recommendation from pay commission Govt looking to make allowances structured

• Secret allowance, family planning allowance, desk allowance, cash handling allowance, metropolitan allowance and headquarters allowance are among 52 of the nearly 200 allowances which the government could scrap soon.

• The Seventh Pay Commission found inadequate the justifications offered by the Ministries for these allowances.

• The government was asked to suggest rationalisation of a variety of allowances. A committee is examining the Commission’s recommendations.

• The Commission found the entire system of nearly 200 allowances “haphazard”.

• There are 13 for travel, 14 for additional duty, 51 for risk and hardship, nine for uniform, 4 for good services, 5 sumptuary allowances, 2 for training and 3 for knowledge update.

• Many were meagre cash payments and lost significance.

• The CommissionRejected the demand for doubling the family planning allowance ranging from Rs. 210 to Rs.1,000 a month depending on grade pay, for those who adopt family planning norms after one child.

Union government considering to make prescription of generic drugs mandatory

• The Central government is considering the introduction of a law to make it mandatory for doctors to prescribe generic drugs so that patients can access affordable medicines provided through state-run Jan Aushadhi stores.

• The legal route to counter doctors’ preference for branded medicines is expected to be discussed with Prime Minister Narendra Modi at an upcoming meeting to assess the progress made in the plan to set up 3,000 Jan Aushadhi stores across the country this year, a promise made in the Union Budget.\

• A major hurdle is that doctors don’t prescribe generic medicines supplied through Jan Aushadi stores, so patients find it tough to ask for the correct generic equivalents.

• The Bureau of Pharma PSUs of India (BPPI) is the agency under the Department of Pharmaceuticals entrusted with implementing the Jan Aushadhi programme which was launched in 2008.

• BPPI’s main focus is accessibility, affordability and availability. But if generic equivalents are not prescribed by doctors, sales won’t take place. Pharmacists should have the option to give the generic substitute.

SC slammed M.H. Govt for delay in the grant of licences to conduct dance performances

• The Supreme Court slammed the Maharashtra government for delaying the grant of licences to hotels and bars in the State to conduct dance performances.

• Apex court said that it is better for women to dance professionally on a platform rather than beg on the streets or get into other “undesirable means of livelihood”.

• A Bench of Justices Dipak Misra and Shiva Kirti Singh said the State should not adopt a prohibitory mindset when the apex court has only asked it to regulate the activities of dance bars.

• “As the State, your job is to protect the dignity of these women in their workplace. Your attitude should not go into the extremes of prohibition when you are only supposed to regulate. This is 2016.”

• “We are talking about dance as a profession, as art. In case the performances slip into obscenity, it naturally stops having legal permissibility and the Indian Penal Code will take care of the rest,” Justice Misra explained

• The court, however, acknowledged the plea of Additional Solicitor-General Pinky Anand, appearing for Maharashtra, that the State has to ensure that there is no “obscenity” in dance bars and the dignity of women is protected there.

• The court directed all dance bars applicants to co-operate with providing information on any criminal antecedents of their employees to the police, besides installing CCTV cameras.

• Ms. Anand submitted that over 150 applications for dance bar licences were received, of which only 39 bars had offered themselves for inspection.

:: INTERNATIONAL ::

United States will send special forces to help rebel fight IS

• President Barack Obama said the U.S. would send up to 250 more military personnel including special forces to Syria to help rebels fight Islamic State group jihadists.

• Mr. Obama was in Germany for talks with Chancellor Angela Merkel. In a speech on transatlantic unity, Mr. Obama hailed NATO partners’ progress so far in pushing back IS, which he called “the most urgent threat to our nations”.

• Mr. Obama had pressed for all parties to the Syrian conflict, including Russia, to return to the negotiating table and “reinstate” the ceasefire.

Hillary Clinton campaign chief says relations with India is her priority

• If elected President of the U.S., Hillary Clinton will take relations with India to a new level and better economic and strategic ties with New Delhi will anchor the U.S. in the region, her campaign chief has said.

• Chairman of Ms. Clinton’s campaign committee, said a future Democratic administration under Ms. Clinton will have a significant presence of Indian Americans.

• Mr. Podesta, who served as chief of staff to president Bill Clinton and as adviser to President Barack Obama, said successive Presidents have been in agreement on strengthening relations with India, and Ms. Clinton would “follow in that tradition”.

• Mr. Podesta said Ms. Clinton has built strong relations with India when she was the First Lady and later as Secretary of State.

• Mr. Podesta said Republican candidate Donald Trump’s campaign was dangerous for the country, referring to him mocking Indian call centre workers at an election rally.

Iran does not want frozen funds to be diverted to compensate victims of attacks

• Iran threatened to take legal action in the International Court of Justice against the United States if $2 billion in frozen funds are “diverted” to compensate victims of attacks.

• Tehran said the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to deduct $2 billion from its frozen assets to compensate American victims of “terror” attacks amounted to theft.

• “We hold the U.S. administration responsible for preservation of Iranian funds and if they are plundered, we will lodge a complaint with the ICJ for reparation,” said Foreign Minister.

:: India and World ::

Foreign secretary of Pak and India to meet at the ‘Heart of Asia’ conference

• Pakistan Foreign Secretary Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry will meet Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar for bilateral talks with their delegations on the sidelines of the Afghan donor ‘Heart of Asia’ conference.

• Officials of both countries confirmed that the initiative for the meeting came from the Indian side.

• In a statement issued in Islamabad, Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Mr. Chaudhry would hold “bilateral meetings with other leading delegations attending the [‘Heart of Asia’] meeting.”

• The bilateral meeting might include discussions on the Pathankot airbase attack and a possible visit by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to Pakistan to probe the plot behind the attack.

India cancelled visa for Dolkum Isa

• In an about-turn, India cancelled the visa issued to the exiled Uighur-Chinese leader Dolkun Isa, even as the Citizen Power for China, the Washington DC-based organisers of the Dharmshalaevent told that the event may not take place in the way planned.

• The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said that the glitches of the electronic visa system of the Ministry of Home Affairs is the reason for cancellation of visa.

• China criticised the Indian move to grant him a visa to attend the conference, despite an Interpol Red Corner notice against him, Isa said that he believed “India had bowed to Chinese pressure.”

• Mr Isa, heading the World Uighur Congress, was designated a “terrorist” by Beijing and has faced travel curbs under Chinese pressure.

:: Business and Economy ::

India registers record FDI inflow

• India received $51 billion in foreign direct investment (FDI), the highest-ever FDI inflow in a fiscal, during April-February FY16.

• The increased FDI inflow was the result of the government’s efforts to improve the ease of doing business and initiatives such as ‘Make In India.’

• According to data from the DIPP,the previous highest FDI inflow was in FY12 when the country received $46.55 billion, which was a 34 per cent increase over $34.8 billion it got in FY11.

• However, India recorded its largest-ever percentage increase in FDI when it received $22.8 billion in FY07, representing a 155 per cent increase over the $8.9 billion in FY06. This includes equity, re-invested earnings and other capital.

• Computer software and hardware sectors received $5.3 billion while services sector accounted for $4.2 billion. \

• Automobile and telecom sectors received $1.7 billion and $1.07 billion respectively. Region-wise, the National Capital Territory (comprising Delhi, part of Uttar Pradesh and Haryana) received $10.6 billion while Mumbai got $5.2 billion.

• In order to boost the investment environment and bring in foreign investments, the government had brought in FDI-related reforms and liberalisation touching upon 15 major sectors of the economy by putting more FDI proposals in the automatic route.

Central bank to simplify registration process for NBFC’s

• Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will simplify the registration process for non-banking finance companies (NBFCs), Deputy Governor R. Gandhi said.

• The new application forms will be simpler and the number of documents required to be submitted will be reduced. The entire process could be made online for ease, speed and transparency. RBI resumed issuing licences to NBFCs last year.

• Totally exempting small NBFCs from regulations may not be feasible from the customer service point of view, he said.

• ‘Make in India’ and ‘Start Up’ businesses could offer fresh opportunities to NBFCs for growth.

• The deputy governor also said the central bank would come out with a discussion paper on peer-to-peer lending (P2P).

• P2P is where consumers lend and borrow from each other with the help of an intermediary.

• Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) had come up with a discussion paper exploring the securities aspect of the business.

• However, RBI is yet to come up with its own discussion paper from the lending and borrowing side.The banking regulator will consult SEBI before finalising the norms.

LPG subsidy for high income consumers goes

• Oil and Gas Minister Dharmendra Pradhan told Parliament that his Ministry is “excluding” people earning more than Rs.10 lakh a year from LPG subsidies.

• The government has decided to rationalise the subsidy outgo by excluding such LPG consumers from the purview of subsidy, whose or whose spouse have taxable income of Rs.10 lakh above during the previous financial year computed as per the Income Tax Act, 1961 with effect from January 1, 2016.

• Joint Secretary Ashutosh Jindal said theMinistry had identified about 3 lakh people earning more than Rs.10 lakh a year.

:: Sports ::

Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis suffered a shock defeat in the final of the Stuttgart Open

• Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis suffered a shock defeat in the final of the Stuttgart Open tennis tournament, losing in three sets to Caroline Garcia and Kristina Mladenovic.
• The top-seeded Indo-Swiss pair was beaten 6-2, 1-6, [6-10] in an hour and 21 minutes by the second-seeded French combination.
• Sania and Hingis have fumbled in recent tournaments, bowing out in the second-round of the Miami Masters and the first round at Indian Wells.

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