(General Awareness For Bank's Exams)

International

Novemeber - 2014

U.S. air strikes target IS convoy in Iraq

•  U.S. air strikes destroyed an Islamic State convoy near the Iraqi city of Mosul but U.S. officials said it was unclear whether the group’s top commander Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi had been in any of the 10 targeted vehicles.

•  Colonel Patrick Ryder, a Central Command spokesman, said the U.S. military had reason to believe that the convoy was carrying leaders of Islamic State, an al-Qaeda offshoot which controls large chunks of Iraq and Syria.

•  The convoy consisted of 10 Islamic State armed trucks.

•  “I can confirm that coalition aircraft did conduct a series of air strikes in Iraq against what was assessed to be a gathering of ISIL leaders near Mosul,” said Colonel Ryder, using another name for Islamic State

•  “We cannot confirm if ISIL leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was among those present.” Islamic State had been changing its strategy since the air strikes began, switching to lower profile vehicles to avoid being targeted, according to residents of towns the group holds.

•  A Mosul morgue official said 50 bodies of Islamic State militants were brought to the facility after the air strike.

•  Mosul, northern Iraq’s biggest city, was overrun on June 10 in an offensive that saw vast parts of Iraq’s Sunni regions fall to the Islamic State and allied groups.

•  A month later a video posted online purported to show the reclusive Baghdadi preaching at Mosul’s grand mosque. Al-Hadath television channel said U.S.-led air strikes targeted a gathering of Islamic State leaders in a town near the Syrian border, possibly including Baghdadi.

•  Iraqi security officials were not immediately available for comment on the report from the station, part of Saudi-owned al-Arabiya television, but two witnesses told Reuters an air strike targeted a house where senior Islamic State officers were meeting, near the western Iraqi border town of al-Qaim.

There is an attempt to create a chilling effect: Kumi Naidoo

•  As a young man growing up in South Africa, Kumi Naidoo looked to India for inspiration. Now there is a twinge of disappointment. Mr. Naidoo, the executive director of Greenpeace International, is puzzled at how the government came to freeze the organisation’s bank accounts in India without giving a reason.

•  Though the Delhi High Court sent a notice to the Ministry of Home Affairs directing it to unblock Greenpeace India’s foreign funds, there is no respite with the Ministry asking for more details on remittances from abroad.

•  Mr Naidoo is in India to discuss the role of civil society in the context of certain individual and non-governmental organisations (NGO) being targeted for being “anti-national”.

•  He said, “Thankfully Greenpeace India is quintessentially an Indian entity, with 60 per cent of our resources coming from individual Indian citizens and 40 per cent from Greenpeace International.”

•  After the government’s move, Mr. Naidoo sought solace in Mahatma Gandhi. “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you and then you win. We are not panicking because of Gandhiji.

•  We take comfort in this that we are being fought and we are one step away from winning the argument for a different development model which includes sustainable meaning for growth,” he said. Mr Naidoo has asked for a meeting with the Home department and the Environment Minister.

•  It’s a bit disappointing for me to see what’s happening in India. As a young person growing up in South Africa, we looked to India as a bastion of democracy- no country supported us as much as India politically and in terms of skills development. I first came in 1989 first time to India as part of an African National Congress (ANC) delegation.

Nuclear Reactors to reactivate in Japan

•  The Governor of Japan’s Kagoshima prefecture approved the reactivation of two nuclear reactors at the Sendai plant.

•  Sendai was the first plant in Japan on which new regulations were imposed by Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority after the accident at the Fukushima plant triggered by an earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011.

•  The plant is expected to start its commercial activities from 2015 after the NRA completes its last security reviews in Sendai.

•  The approval granted is almost the final step for the reactivation of the power stations, whose 48 commercial-use reactors are non-functional until they adopt the NRA norms.

Russia signs another mega-energy agreement with China

•  Russia pivoted decisively towards the East, after signing another mega-energy agreement with China, which could dwarf Europe as the largest consumer of Russian gas once the project is completed.

•  Russian President Vladimir Putin’s fifth meeting in a year with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, on the sidelines of the summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Conference (APEC), yielded an agreement that seemed to rebuff Europe, which had imposed sanctions on Russia following the crisis in Ukraine.

•  China would receive 30 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas per year along the so-called “western” or “Altay” route, according to the agreement. This would supplement the proposed 38 bcm Russian gas to China that would flow through the “Power of Siberia” pipeline, passing along the “eastern route”.

•  The “eastern route” deal, worth $400 billion, was signed in May, and work on the project has already commenced.

US, China unveil ambitious goals to cut pollution levels

•  The United States and China unveiled ambitious targets to reduce greenhouse gases, aiming to inject fresh momentum into the global fight against climate change ahead of a make-or-break treaty to be finalized next year.

•  President Barack Obama announced that the U.S. would move much faster in cutting pollution, with a goal to reduce by 26 per cent to 28 per cent by 2025, compared with 2005 levels. Earlier in his presidency, Mr. Obama set a goal to cut emissions by 17 per cent by 2020.

•  Chinese President Xi Jinping, whose country’s emissions are still growing as it builds new coal plants, didn’t commit to cut emissions by a specific amount.

Russia signed an agreement to build nuclear reactors for Iran

•  Russia signed an agreement with Iran for helping the latter build two new nuclear reactors, media reported.

•  The two new nuclear reactors will be built in a nuclear power plant based in Iran’s Bushehr region, which houses the country’s existing 1,000 megawatt reactor that was completed by Russia’s Rosatom corporation and started operation last year.

•  According to the protocol signed by Russian and Iranian representatives in Moscow on Tuesday, the two countries agreed to eventually expand the number of reactors using Russian technology to eight in Iran, including four at the Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant in southern Iran.

•  Nuclear fuel for the eight energy reactors will be provided by Russia and the used fuel rods will be returned to Russia, RIA Novosti news agency reported. Rosatom corporation stressed in a statement that the project will be under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

China’s economic ‘vision’ wins over APEC

•  The members of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) members have agreed to initiate the formation of a free trade area in the Asia-Pacific — a vision steered by China, which competes with the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) initiative of the United States.

•  Summit host Chinese President Xi Jinping praised the in principle endorsement of the Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific (FTAAP) as a decision that “will be written into history books”. He said backing for the initiative “demonstrated the confidence and determination of the APEC in advancing regional economic integration”.

•  In his closing address, Mr. Xi said the business community wanted the FTAAP, which is expected to include Russia, Beijing’s geostrategic partner.

•  Russian President Vladimir Putin has praised the Chinese initiative, a day after Beijing and Moscow signed a preliminary agreement on a new route to transfer copious quantities of Russian natural gas into China.

Malaysian MH370 may be declared ‘lost’

•  Relatives of passengers of the Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370, that vanished mysteriously eight-months ago with 239 people on board, have expressed shock after a senior airline official reportedly said that the plane would be declared “lost” by the year end.

•  The Airlines’ commercial Director Hugh Dunleavy reportedly said that the Malaysian and Australian governments were working together with the national carrier to determine compensation details, adding that the formal announcement of the loss would likely be made by the year end.

China will launch about 120 satellites

•  China will launch about 120 satellites to meet the country’s requirements in communication, space infrastructure and navigation sectors.

•  “We will focus on building a self-controlled national space infrastructure that can operate continuously and stably for a long time,” said Yang Baohua, deputy general manager of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation.

•  However, Yang did not specify the period of time over which the launches will span.

•  The Communist nation will launch about 70 remote sensing satellites to detect the near-earth space environment and predict extreme events, beside about 20 communication satellites to meet communication demand in national security and public services.

•  In addition, China will launch about 30 navigation satellites to provide accurate and reliable global positioning and navigation services, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

•  The Chinese economy will continue to record relatively high growth, generating more demand for aerospace technologies, Yang said at an international aviation and aerospace forum held in south China’s Zhuhai city.

G-20 decided to set up Global Infrastructure Hub

•  The G20 leaders decided to set up a Global Infrastructure Hub to help reduce barriers to investment and improve information sharing for channelising funds into the sector.

•  Located in Sydney, the Hub will contribute to developing a knowledge-sharing platform and network between governments, the private sector, development banks and other international organisations.

•  “The Hub will foster collaboration among these groups to improve the functioning and financing of infrastructure markets,” said the communiqué released at the end of two day G20 meeting in Brisbane.

Pakistan & Russia sign defence deal

•  Pakistan and Russia signed a military cooperation agreement to deepen their defence ties and vowed to translate their relationship in “tangible” terms during the first visit of a Russian Defence Minister in 45 years.

•  Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu’s visit to Pakistan comes at a very critical juncture as U.S.-led NATO forces are drawing down from Afghanistan by the end of this year. “The signing of the Military Cooperation agreement between the two significant countries of the region is a milestone.

•  “Both sides will translate this relationship in tangible terms and further strengthen military-to-military relations,” said Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Asif without elaborating on the agreement.

•  The visit by the Russian Defence Minister comes against the backdrop of reports that Moscow had given go-ahead for the sale of MI-35 helicopters to Pakistan, which is interested in purchasing up to 20 helicopters.

•  The last visit took place as far back as 1969, when USSR Defence Minister Andrey Grechko made a trip to the country.

WB approves $285 million to fight Ebola

•  The World Bank has approved a grant of $285 million to finance the three West African countries hardest hit by the Ebola crisis.

•  The grant is part of the nearly $1 billion of financing previously announced by the World Bank for Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, reports Xinhua.

•  The additional financing will enable the three countries to deploy additional national and international health workers, scale up community-based care and community engagement for early detection of suspected Ebola cases, the World Bank in a statement.

•  A previous World Bank analysis showed that if Ebola continues to surge in these three countries and spreads to neighbouring countries, the two-year regional financial impact would reach $32.6 billion by the end of 2015.

•  According to the World Health Organisation, as of November 14, 2014, 14,413 Ebola cases have been registered in eight countries since the outbreak, with 5,177 deaths.
  Obama formally announces $3 billion contribution to Green Climate Fund

•  U.S. President Barack Obama formally announced a $3-billion U.S. contribution to an international fund to help poor countries cope with the effects of climate change.

•  “Today, I’m announcing that the United States will take another important step. We will contribute $3 billion to the Green Climate Fund to help developing nations deal with climate change,” he said in a speech at Queensland University in Brisbane, where he is attending the G20 meeting.

•  The contribution doubles what other countries had previously pledged ahead of a November 20, 2014 deadline.

United States warplanes come to aid of Kurds

•  United States warplanes renewed air strikes against Islamic State jihadists near the Syrian town of Kobane as Iraqi peshmerga soldiers prepared to reinforce their fellow Kurds in the border area, the U.S. military said.

•  U.S. fighter jets and bombers had carried out eight air raids near Kobane, targeting six vehicles, a building and several IS fighting positions over the past 24 hours, said the military’s Central Command, which oversees the air war in Iraq and Syria.

•  In Iraq, American unmanned drones and fighter jets conducted six bombing raids, including three near Sinjar in the north and three around Fallujah, west of Baghdad, Central Command said in a statement.

•  The latest air strikes came as heavily armed peshmerga forces were poised to cross the Turkish border into Kobane to help the local Kurdish militia that has held out against a relentless assault by IS militants for weeks.

•  Free Syrian Army rebels crossed from Turkey to Kobane. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Washington had seen the reports that FSA fighters were crossing the border.

•  “We welcome the support they would provide to Kobane’s defence,” Ms. Psaki told reporters, adding it would be up to officials on the ground to confirm when the process was completed.

•  Iraqi Kurdish officials said up to 200 fighters would be sent. The town has become a crucial symbol in the battle against IS, an extremist Sunni Muslim group that has seized large parts of Syria and Iraq and declared an Islamic “caliphate.”

Drones seen over French nuclear power plants

•  French authorities said that they had detected drones over two nuclear power plants, the latest in a baffling series of incidents across the country.

•  A spokesman for security forces said: “Drone-type machines overflew two nuclear plants during the night. They were detected by police in charge of protecting the plants and staff.”

•  “These machines were not neutralised because they did not represent a direct threat” to the nuclear facilities, the spokesman added.

•  It is against French law to fly within a five km radius of a nuclear plant.

Currency down after election in Brazil

•  Brazil’s stock exchange is down, and its currency has fallen against the dollar in the first hours of trading following the country’s volatile presidential race in which President Dilma Rousseff won re-election over her centrist, pro-business rival Aecio Neves.

•  The Brazilian real slipped over 4 percent in early morning trading Monday to $0.39. The Sao Paulo-based Bovespa stock exchange was down more than 6 percent.

•  Analysts had predicted the market would react negatively to a victory by Ms. Rousseff, under whom the once-booming economy has largely stalled. After four straight years of weak growth, the economy is now in technical recession.

•  Mr. Neves was overwhelmingly favoured by Brazil’s business community, who believed his market-friendly policies would help jumpstart growth.

Brisbane airport bans climate change billboard

•  A bid by environmentalists to confront world leaders with a digital billboard highlighting climate change has been thwarted by Brisbane airport authorities who deemed the message too political.

•  Brisbane Airport will be the Australian gateway for leaders of 20 economies when they gather in the Queensland state capital next week for the annual G20 summit.

•  Dermot O’Gorman, chief executive of the World Wildlife Fund, said he was surprised that the Brisbane Airport Corp. had refused to allow the climate change message in the international arrivals hall as part of the onmyagenda campaign.

•  The campaign is supported by nine environment groups and encourages people to tweet G20 leaders asking them to include climate change as a stand-alone item on the G20 agenda, as it was on the previous eight G20 summits.

•  “The reality is climate change is a global problem affecting economies, societies and environments all around the world, we can’t afford to sweep it under the carpet,” Mr.
  India And The World

Pakistan Taliban threatens to attack India

•  Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (Jamaat ul-Ahrar), the group that claimed responsibility for the suicide attack at a Pakistani check post near the Wagah border that killed 61 people, has threatened attacks on India next. In a telephone interview to agency Reuters, the spokesperson of the group Ehsanullah Ehsan (assumed name) said. “I have already conveyed it to Modi... that if our suicide bombers can carry out attacks.

•  On this side of the border, they can easily do it on other side of the border in India,” he told Reuters by telephone from an undisclosed location.

•  “I told him that his hands are red with the blood of Kashmiri mujahideen (fighters) and innocent people of Gujarat for which he would have to pay the price.”

•  Ehsan was probably referring to an earlier message on his twitter account, which said, “You (Modi) are the killer of hundreds of Muslims. We wl (will) take the revenge of innocent people of Kashmir and Gugrat” (sic).” The message has since been deleted, but sources said PM Modi has been briefed about the threat since, and security agencies are taking the threat “very seriously”.

U.S.-India pact paves the way for global trade deal

•  Decks have been cleared for a possible global trade deal after India and the U.S agreed on the way forward to break the logjam in global trade negotiations. With the agreement in place, India is all set to move its proposal on food security before the WTO’s General Council at its next meeting scheduled for early December.

•  This proposal will seek to make open-ended the interim protection of a ‘peace clause’ that was agreed to at the Bali Ministerial last December.

•  The clause safeguards support prices for farmers against the WTO’s limits on agricultural subsidies. India was in danger of breaching these subsidy caps.

•  India wants to make sure that this protection would be available in perpetuity, should a permanent solution to the problem of the WTO agriculture subsidy caps not be found. Whether the Bali Declaration provides that the ‘peace clause’ could be available beyond 2017 was open to interpretation.

•  Announcing that an agreement had been reached with the U.S, Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Nirmala Sitharaman said on Thursday that the U.S had agreed that India’s right to protect its right to food security cannot be denied by the WTO, paving the way for removing the imperfections in the Bali Ministerial package.

•  U.S Trade Representative Michael Froman also released a statement which said the agreement with India reflected shared understandings regarding the WTO’s work on food security.

•  Sources on the Indian side indicated that the resolution was possible after an understanding was reached with the U.S that India’s subsidies are not trade-distorting and aimed at achieving food security. India, on the other hand, was able to reassure the U.S that it was not opposed to trade facilitation and in fact was on course to implement it.

Germany hopeful of solution over language row soon

•  Even as a row continued to simmer over the Human Resource Development Ministry’s decision to take off German from the third language slot of the Kendriya Vidyalaya curriculum, Germany hoped a solution would be found soon.

•  German Ambassador Michael Steiner said a solution would be found to allow the language to be taught in these schools.

•  He expressed confidence that after raising the issue with the Union government, both sides would be able to work out a way that would take care of children’s desire to learn foreign languages.

•  Human Resource Minister Smriti Irani said an investigation had been ordered since the existing arrangement violated the three-language formula.

•  After an MoU between the Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan and the German government in 2011, German was added to the third language list.

Australia-India sign pact to enhance skill development

•  Australia and India have decided to map common standards on job roles and further strengthen bilateral cooperation on skill development. The Indian Government has also decided to expand the capacities of 12,000 industrial training institutes.

•  At the ‘3rd India Australia Skills Conference: Skills for Better Business’ in Mumbai, a memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed between the National Skill Development Corporation, India (NSDC) and TAFE Directors, Australia, on Technical and Vocational Education and Training cooperation.

•  The purpose is to further strengthen cooperation between the two to enhance and extend bilateral cooperation between Australia and India, a statement noted. The aim is to contribute positively to the development of technical and vocational education and training related linkages between India and Australia, it added.

•  Bandaru Dattatreya, Minister for Labour and Employment, was present at the signing. In a statement, he said that with India going to add 10 million people to the work force each year, for the next 15 years, they would all need to be skilled and employed.

•  He informed the ministry had launched a scheme for flexi memorandum of understandings between industry and industrial training institutes, which would lead to a minimum of 80 per cent of placement in the industry.

•  Around three years ago, the India-Australia engagement on skills development had made an initial foray. The project has made rapid progress. It may be recalled that during the visit of the Indian delegation to Australia in July 2014, five sectors were identified and one or more critical job roles were taken up for developing the Indo-Australian Trans National Standards.

India-Australia seek early closure of civil nuclear deal

•  India and Australia sought early conclusion of negotiations for a comprehensive economic partnership agreement and a closure on the civil nuclear deal as Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his counterpart Tony Abbott held talks in Canberra.

•  After the two leaders held talks, India and Australia signed five pacts on social security, transfer of sentenced prisoners, combating narcotics trade, tourism, and Arts and Culture.

•  “We also agreed on seeking early closure on the civil nuclear agreement, which will give Australia a chance to participate in one of the most secure and safe nuclear energy programme in the world,” Mr. Modi said in a statement to the media at a joint press conference with Abbott.

•  Later, while addressing the Parliament, Australian Prime Minister Abbott said, “If all goes well, Australia will export uranium to India under suitable safeguards because cleaner energy is one of the most important contributions that Australia can make to wider world.”

Musharraf warns of proxy war with India in Afghanistan

•  The departure of Nato combat forces from Afghanistan could push India and Pakistan towards a proxy war in the troubled state, Pakistan’s former military ruler General Pervez Musharraf warned in an interview with AFP.

•  As Pakistan’s ruler, Musharraf was a key US ally in its “war on terror”, but he now lives under tight security in his Karachi home, facing Taliban death threats and a litany of criminal cases dating back to his near decade-long rule that ended in 2008.

•  The 71-year-old — who seized power in a bloodless coup in 1999 — praised new Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, who made his first official trip to Pakistan last week in a bid to reset fractious ties with Islamabad.

•  Pakistan’s support is seen as crucial to Afghan peace as US-led forces pull out by the end of this year after 13 years battling the Taliban.

•  But the former strongman said calming tension between India and Pakistan — running high at the moment after some of the worst cross-border firing in years — is key to peace in Afghanistan.

•  “The danger for Pakistan is... the Indian influence in Afghanistan,” he told AFP at his house in Karachi.

•  “That is another danger for the whole region and for Pakistan because Indian involvement there has an anti-Pakistan connotation. They (India) want to create an anti-Pakistan Afghanistan.”

UNICEF wants to support India in ‘Clean India Mission’

•  UNICEF hailed Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ambitious ‘Swachh Bharat’ mission and offered its support to the government to successfully implement the programme, particularly in rural India.

•  “We are really welcoming this initiative....We are really putting everything we can to support this initiative,” UNICEF India Representative Louis-Georges Arsenault said in New Delhi.

•  Noting that hygiene and sanitation in many Indian districts, particularly in Uttar Pradesh are “very weak,” Arsenault expressed hope that the new initiative would help spread awareness among people about hygiene in their surroundings.

•  He was reacting to a question on UNICEF’s role in cleanliness and the new initiative of the government.

•  UNICEF officials said that the organisation’s long standing support for improving water supply, sanitation and hygiene stems from a firm conviction and based on sound evidence that these are central to ensuring the rights of children.

•  UNICEF supports the Centre and State Governments in developing and implementing a range of replicable intervention models for sanitation, hygiene and water supply.

•  On October 2, Modi launched the ambitious Swachh Bharat campaign that was joined by Chief Ministers, lawmakers and prominent personalities from various fields, along with lakhs of countrymen in a drive that is expected to cost nearly Rs, 2 lakh crore.

Trilateral Coast Guard exercise ‘Dosti-XII’ ends

•  A four-day trilateral Coast Guard exercise ‘Dosti-XII’ among India, Maldives and Sri Lanka off the Maldives coast ended. Five ships and two aircraft participated in the event.

•  “Two ships from Indian Coast Guard, Samar with Integral Helicopter, Rajdoot along with a Dornier aircraft, one ship from Sri Lankan Samudura and two ships from Maldives, Huravee and Shaheed Ali participated,” a Coast Guard release said.

•  ‘Dosti’ was institutionalised in 1991 as bilateral exercise between the Indian Coast Guard and the Maldives National Security Service. Sri Lanka became part of the exercise in 2012.

Tax-free bonds 2013 are still a good investment

•  Stock investors may be celebrating, but even those who invested in tax-free bonds have got reasons to cheer. Tax-free bonds issued in 2013 and earlier this year has churned out terrific returns of up to 25%.

•  The 20-year tax-free bond from the National Housing Bank (NHB), which hit the market on 30 December 2013, is quoting at Rs 6,225, a return of 24.5% on its issue price of ‘5,000. Other bonds issued around the same time have also given good returns.

•  A combination of factors has led to the rally in these long-term bonds. First, there is no new supply of tax-free bonds because the 2014 Budget did not allow new tax-free bond issues. Second, the Budget also changed the tax rules for debt mutual funds, which drove more high net worth investors to tax-free bonds.

New GDP data with 2011-12 as base year in Jan 2015

•  Seeking to present a more realistic picture of the economy, the government will release a new series of national accounts with 2011-12 as base year for computing the economic growth rate.

•  The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) data based on the new series will be released for three consecutive years from 2011-12 in January next year.

•  At present, the GDP is computed on 2004-05 base year. “The new series will better reflect the economy as it would include more sectors. However, it would be difficult to say whether there would be any significant change in growth rates for the previous years,” National Statistical Commission Chairman Pronab Sen, who was associated with formulation of the new series, said.
   

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