Current Affairs for BANK, IBPS Exams - 27 October 2017

::NATIONAL::

lack of Aadhaar’ shouldn’t deprive people of PDS benefits

• The Centre has instructed the States not to deny PDS benefits to any person who does not have Aadhaar or has not linked the ration card to the 12-digit biometric identifier, and warned them of strict action for violations. It also asked the States not to delete eligible households from the list of beneficiaries for non-possession of Aadhaar.
• The instruction was issued to all the States, after an 11-year-old Jharkhand girl allegedly died of starvation recently after she was denied PDS rations.
• In the directive, the Union Food Ministry clarified that deletion from the ration card database could happen only after a proper verification of the ration card holder establishes “beyond reasonable doubt” that an entry pertaining to the said ration card holder is not genuine.
• State field functionaries have been asked to ensure that beneficiaries are not turned away for non-possession of Aadhaar, and all exceptions in this regard are recorded in a separate logbook.
• The States and the Union Territories will have to provide Aadhaarenrolment facilities to those without Aadhaar and link their Aadhaar numbers with ration cards, the Food Ministry said, warning of strict action for violation of the notification. As per the National Food Security Act, the States have been given time till December to link Aadhaar with ration cards.
• However, the Centre told the Supreme Court that the deadline for mandatory linking of Aadhaar for benefits of government schemes would be extended till March 31 next for those who do not have the biometric identification number. So far, 82% of the ration cards have been seeded with Aadhaar.
• The Food Ministry’s directive mentions that until Aadhaar is assigned to the beneficiary, subsidisedfoodgrains will have to be given on production of ration card, enrolment slip and other stipulated documents.
• Irrespective of whether all members of an eligible household have Aadhaar, full quantity of subsidisedfoodgrains or transfer of food subsidy on complaince with the requirements will have to be extended.
• Even in the case of failure of biometric authentication due to a glitch or poor biometric quality, the beneficiary will have to be given the benefits on production of Aadhaar card along with the ration card.
• All these cases — those without Aadhaar, Aadhaar not linked to the ration card, or failure of biometric authentication — will have to be recorded as “exceptions” by the fair price shop dealer.
• As per the National Food Security Act, the States have been given time till December to link Aadhaar with ration cards.

Tougher consumer protection law in shaping

• A new consumer protection law is on the anvil to crack down on misleading advertisements and simplify the grievance redressal mechanism, Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He was speaking at the inauguration of a two-day international conference on Consumer Protection for East, South, Southeast and Asian nations.
• Mr. Modi said India’s consumer protection traditions dated back 2,500 years. Laws existed even in the Vedic period to prevent unfair trade practices and adulteration of products, he said.
• Extolling the virtues of the new Goods and Services Tax (GST), Mr. Modi said it was one of the key consumer-friendly reforms that his government had introduced. The GST would benefit consumers in the long run as prices would come down because of competition among manufacturers, he said.
• Consumers can no longer be cheated as they can see on receipts the tax they are paying, Mr. Modi said.
• The new law will replace the Consumer Protection Act, 1986, and is in line with the revised UN guidelines on consumer protection. It is currently with the Cabinet Secretariat and will be placed before the Cabinet for consideration soon, the Prime Minister said.
• Stringent provisions are proposed against misleading advertisements. A Central Consumer Protection Authority with executive powers will be constituted for quick remedial action,” Mr Modi added.
• Prime Minister said protection of consumer interests is a priority of his government and is part of his resolution for New India. He listed the new Real Estate law, new Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) Act, the Ujjwala scheme and direct benefit transfers as steps taken to empower consumers in the last three years.
• The Real Estate Regulatory Act, for example, Mr Modi said will protect home buyers from the builders’ monopoly. The builders will no longer able to cheat them by diverting funds of certain project to another. There will be a robust grievance redressal mechanism, he said.

::INDIA AND WORLD ::

Gulf’s VAT regime to benefit Keralites

• Beginning New Year’s, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (the UAE), where citizens do not pay personal income tax, will launch a value-added tax (VAT) regime. This is expected to create thousands of jobs in the accounting, auditing, tax consultancy, and tax administration sectors in the two countries for Indians, especially Keralites. Currently, these two countries are home to by far the largest number of Indian expatriate workers in the world.
• At a time when hundreds of non-resident Indian (NRI) workers are forced to return home every day from these two countries on account of increasing nationalisation of the labour force and the deep slump in oil prices, the potential opening up of new job avenues is a welcome news for Keralites.
• Both Saudi Arabia and the UAE have announced that the VAT regime will begin on January 1, 2018. The tax would be 5%, with a few exceptions of higher rates, in both the countries. Struggling to tide over the oil-price crisis, the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council (others are: Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, and Oman) had recently decided to introduce uniform VAT in the countries. The UAE and Saudi Arabia are launching it shortly while others will follow suit later next year.
• The oil price slump, continuing for over three years, has deeply hurt the Gulf economies that heavily rely on their oil supplies. The oil price, which has fallen by around two thirds, forced some of these countries to run deficit Budgets, and hence look for other sources of revenue.
• Taxes have been extremely low in the Gulf states and personal income tax is generally unfamiliar to their citizens. Since imposition of personal income tax would require a huge administrative infrastructure, the GCC has opted for the indirect value-added tax.
• The VAT will throw open new avenues of jobs as it will require a large number of financial-sector professionals to implement.
• According to one report, the UAE alone will require around 5,000 professionals in accounting, auditing, and tax consultancy immediately. Saudi Arabia might require more.
• It would be hard for Saudi Arabia, which is on an intense labour market nationalisation drive, and the UAE, which has a small local population, to find such professionals locally. This would mean that trained accounting and auditing professionals from India, especially Kerala, would be recruited. When the other four countries in the GCC too launch the VAT later next year, several thousands more trained professionals would be hired.

India- Sri Lanka

• Weeks after pro-Rajapaksa protesters clashed with the police outside the Indian consulate in Hambantota, Sri Lanka signed an agreement with India to build 1,200 houses in a public ceremony held in the southern port city.
• Following the agitation against the government’s reported move to lease out a nearby airport to India, police arrested eight protesters, including Hambantota parliamentarian NamalRajapaksa, the son of former President MahindaRajapaksa. They were all granted bail the following week.
• The coastal city of Hambantota gained strategic significance after President Rajapaksa built a massive port and an airport with huge Chinese loans. In July this year, his successor government sold majority stakes of the port to China to service an outstanding $8-billion debt it owes China, fanning concerns of countries with competing strategic interests, particularly India and the U.S.
• The agitation outside the Indian consulate earlier this month followed media reports about India’s interest in running the nearby Mattala airport, which is mired in heavy losses.
• The signing of the MoU in Hambantota amid assumes significance not only in its timing, but also in taking India’s housing project to the Sinhala-majority Southern Province.
• As many as 46,000 homes have been built in the Tamil-majority north and east, while 4,000 houses are currently being built in the hill country in the Central and Uva provinces, where several thousand Sri Lankans of recent Indian origin live and work.
• Of the 1,200 houses to be built following MoU, 600 will be constructed in the Southern Province, while the remaining would be built across Sri Lanka, through one model village in each of the country’s 25 districts, according to a press release from the Indian High Commission in Colombo.

::SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY ::

Tracking urban heat island effect

• Between February and May, most of the 89 Indian cities that are to be developed as Smart Cities have been found to be 1-5 degrees C cooler during the day relative to the surrounding non-urban areas. More than 60% of the total 89 urban areas are 1-5 degrees C cooler during April (it’s 70% in May).
• This observation is in variance with the globally witnessed phenomenon of urban areas getting significantly warmer during the day compared with the surrounding areas as a result of urban heat island effect.
• In contrast, during the post-monsoon period (October to January), about 80% of the urban areas show typical urban heat island effect and are 1-6 degrees C warmer than the surrounding non-urban areas.
• During the night, all the cities studied are warmer (1-5 degrees C) than the surrounding non-urban areas due to urban heat island effect regardless of the season and location.
• Compared with other cities, urban areas in semi-arid and arid regions of western India show higher warming in the night.
  The night time warming is driven mainly by heat stored in buildings and impervious concrete areas.
• These cities (Kurnool, Vijayawada, Badami, Bijapur, Aurangabad and cities in Gujarat and Rajasthan) are typically located in western and central parts of India.
• However, cities (Varanasi, Lucknow, Allahabad, Kanpur, and Patna) in the Gangetic Plain, north-western India (Punjab and Haryana) and southern tip of the west coast show typical urban heat island effect during the day; these cities are 3-5 degrees C warmer than the surrounding non-urban areas during the pre-monsoon (February-May) and post-monsoon (October-January) periods.
• The non-urban areas in these areas have vegetation in the form of trees or agriculture and have moisture due to irrigation.
• There are two reasons why urban areas in western and central parts of India become cooler than non-urban areas during summer. The non-urban areas have no crop and moisture, the soil is dry and day-time air temperature is above 40 degrees C.
• On the other hand, the urban areas have vegetation cover and water bodies. This is why cities are cooler than the surrounding non-urban areas during the day.
• More than 70 of the 89 cities studied are surrounded by non-urban areas which have more than 50% of total land cover under agriculture between November and March.
• This results in non-urban areas being cooler than the cities during the post-monsoon season. The results were published in the journal Scientific Reports .
• Aerosols too have an effect in reducing the temperature but their role in cooling during day time is less compared with vegetation and irrigation.
• During heat-waves, the prominent night urban heat island effect which is prevalent across cities could worsen the levels of discomfort.
• The researchers used satellite data (2000-2014) and community land model to identify the impact of irrigation and show the cooling seen in cities is due to lack of vegetation and moisture in non-urban areas relative to cities.

6000 year old skull likely to the world’s oldest known tsunami victim

• A 6,000-year-old skull found in Papua New Guinea is likely the world’s oldest-known tsunami victim, experts said after a new analysis of the area it was found in.
• The partially preserved Aitape Skull was discovered in 1929 by Australian geologist Paul Hossfeld, 12 km inland from the northern coast of the Pacific nation.
• It was long thought to belong to Homo erectus (upright man), an extinct species thought to be an ancestor of the modern human that died out some 1,40,000 years ago.
• But more recent radiocarbon dating estimated it was closer to 6,000 years old, making it a member of our own species — Homo sapiens . At that time, sea levels were higher and the area would have been near the coast.
• An international team led by the University of New South Wales returned to the site to collect the same geological deposits observed by Hossfeld.
• Back in the lab, they studied details of the sediment including its grain size and geochemical composition, which can help identify a tsunami inundation.
• They also identified a range of microscopic organisms from the ocean in the sediment, similar to those found in soil after a devastating tsunami hit the region in 1998.
• The conclusions, aided by researchers from the United States, France, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea, are published in the journal PLOS ONE .
• Mr. Goff, a world authority on tsunamis, said while the bones of the skull had been well-studied previously, little attention had been paid to the sediments where they were unearthed.
• “The geological similarities between these sediments and the sediments laid down during the 1998 tsunami made us realise that human populations in this area have been affected by these massive inundations for thousands of years,” he said.
• “After considering a range of possible scenarios, we believe that, on the balance of the evidence, the individual was either killed directly in the tsunami, or was buried just before it hit and the remains were redeposited.”
• Following the 1998 tsunami, which penetrated up to five kilometres inland, attempts to retrieve victims were called off after a week because crocodiles were feeding on the corpses, leading to their dismemberment.
• This may also explain why the skull of the person who died 6,000 years ago was found on its own, without any other bones, the researchers said.

::BUSINESS AND ECONOMY::

SEBI revised block deal

• Markets regulator SEBI revised the framework for ‘block deals’ by providing two separate trading windows of 15 minutes each and increasing the minimum order size to Rs. 10 crore.
• The move is aimed at ensuring confidentiality of the large trades and stable prices for such transactions.
• The block deal window is provided for buyers and sellers to execute trades for a large number of shares. Such deals are usually negotiated before their execution.
• Under the new rules, SEBI would provide two block deal windows — morning and afternoon — of 15 minutes duration each.
• Besides, the regulator has increased the minimum order size for execution of trades in the block deal window to Rs. 10 crore.
• Presently, block deal for shares worth Rs. 5 crore through a single transaction is allowed.
• The decision has been taken as SEBI received suggestions from market participants to review the block deal framework.
• The final norms have been put in place after taking into consideration views of market participants and Secondary Market Advisory Committee (SMAC).
• The morning window would operate from 8:45 a.m. to 9 a.m. and the reference price for execution of block deals in this window would be the previous day’s closing price of the stock.
• With regard to afternoon window, the regulator said it would operate from 2:05 pm to 2:20 pm.
• The pricing would be based on the volume weighted average market price (VWAP) of the trades executed in the stock in the cash segment between 1:45 p.m. to 2 p.m.

India attracting investors in oil and gas sector

• India is likely to attract investments worth more than $40 billion in the next five years in the oil and gas sector alone as several global oil companies such as Saudi Aramco, BP Plc., Vedanta Resources and Total of France have evinced interest in investing in world’s fastest growing market, oil minister DharmendraPradhan told .
• “Cumulative estimated investments of $40 billion is expected in India’s E&P [exploration and production] sector in the next 4-5 years. The total investment required is $25 billion in production-sharing contract [PSC] regime, of this FDP worth of $13.6 billion have been approved and investment of $11.6 billion is under declaration of commerciality,” said Mr. Pradhan,
• “During Pre-NELP and NELP, total investments of $40 billion has been done. In the last three years, pending projects worth $25 billion have been started. Our liberal policies and transformation reforms undertaken recently had led to investments of $25.2 billion under the PSC regime.”
• The government has come out with the HELP (Hydrocarbon Exploration and Licensing Policy) framework with a vision to reduce India’s import dependency in oil and gas by 10% by 2022.
• “The ministry has enacted a series of reforms to incentivise domestic exploration and production of oil and gas.
• “Discovered small field (DSF) bid round 2016 introduced under a liberalised framework has been extremely successful and we hope to get good investments under the upcoming round of bids in December,” K.D. Tripathi, Petroleum Secretary, said.
• The government is banking on investments from three key reforms in the petroleum sector- Open Acreage Licensing (OAL), Discovered Small Fields (DSF) and Production Enhancement Contracts (PEC).

NHAI issuing bonds to finance highway projects

• The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) will soon issue bonds to finance highway projects, Road Transport and Highways Minister, Nitin Gadkari, said.
• “Foreign and domestic investments for building roads and highways infrastructure would follow naturally because of the pro-active infrastructural policies of the government.
• “The NHAI is preparing to issue bonds worth lakhs of rupees by way of tapping the capital market... efforts are [also] on to generate funds from other such portfolios. This is being done to make sure that funds are raised to support and finance roads and highways without any delay,” he said at the 112th Annual Session of PHD Chamber.
• Mr. Gadkari had said that NHAI has a AAA rating that would help it tap into the capital markets. He had said that funds to the tune of Rs. 4-5 lakh crore can be raised from the markets for highway projects.
• The Cabinet approved the BharatMalaPariyojana to build 34,800 km roads worth Rs. 5.35 lakh crore.
• It would include building economic corridors, inter-corridor and feeder routes, national corridors efficiency improvement, border roads and international connectivity, coastal roads and port connectivity and greenfield expressways.
• For Bharatmala, Rs. 2.09 lakh crore will be raised as debt from the market and Rs. 1.06 lakh crore will be mobilised through public-private partnership (PPP). The remaining Rs. 2.19 lakh crore will flow from accruals of the Central Road Funds and toll projects.

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