Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 02 January 2017

:: National ::

State Bank of India (SBI), the country’s largest lender, has reduced its marginal cost of funds based lending rate (MCLR) by a whopping 90 basis points.
Among the steepest interest rate cuts in a long time, the move is aimed at boosting loan growth, which has fallen to a multi-decade low.
MCLR is the benchmark rate to which all loans are linked. A percentage point equals 100 basis points (bps).
According to a statement issued by the SBI, its one-year MCLR would be 8 per cent as compared with 8.9 per cent earlier. Home and auto loans of most banks, including SBI, are linked to their respective one-year MCLRs.
The rate cut will be applicable to all fresh loans. The effective interest rate for new home loans is likely to be between 8.25 per cent and 8.5 per cent.
Existing loans linked to the MCLR will be impacted when they are re-priced. MCLR has been in effect from April 1 and had replaced the base rate.

The Centre will deposit Rs. 2,000 crore into the bank accounts of 36,000 Hindu refugees from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).
The compensation package for the Hindu refugees was announced by PM Modi last year, and it got the clearance from the Union Cabinet in December. These refugees migrated to Jammu and Kashmir in 1947, 1965 and 1971.
Currently, violent protests have erupted in the Valley against domicile certificates being issued by the State government to 19,000 west Pakistan refugees, who came to India after Partition, but are yet to be given any voting rights or financial package.
The west Pakistan refugees have been demanding a similar package, but the previous Omar Abdullah government had vehemently opposed the move.
However, packages for PoK refugees were cleared by the Union Cabinet on November 30 and the “resettlement fund” will be disbursed once the figures and data of refugees are compiled.
The Home Ministry has sought bank account details of all the families from the State government as it intends to transfer the money directly into their accounts instead of giving it to the State government.
This is for the first time that the Centre has allocated Rs. 2,000 crore for providing relief instead of setting up a State-Centre committee first to examine their demands.

Two Indians died in a New Year’s eve terror strike at a night club in Istanbul, Turkey, that claimed 39 lives. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj made the announcement on Twitter.
The Rizvis are well-known businessmen in Mumbai with interests in real estate, education and entertainment. Turkish police launched a massive manhunt for the gunman who went on the rampage at the nightclub.
The assailant shot dead a policeman and a civilian at the club entrance and then turned his gun on partygoers.

A ‘leap second’ was added to the Indian clock at 5:29.59 hours on Sunday to synchronise with the Earth’s rotational clock.
As the atomic clock at the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) here struck 23:59:59 last night, it was programmed to add an extra second to 2017 to compensate for a slowdown in the Earth’s rotation.
Adding a second barely has an impact on the daily life, but it does matter in the fields of satellite navigation, astronomy and communication.
The Earth and rotation around its own axis is not regular, as sometimes it speeds up and sometimes it slows down due to various factors, including earthquakes and moon’s gravitational forces.
As a result, astronomical time (UT1) gradually falls out of sync with atomic time (UTC), and, as and when the difference between UTC and UT1 approaches 0.9 seconds, a leap second is added to UTC through atomic clocks worldwide.
Adding the leap second to the Indian clock is done by the NPL under the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research.
Atomic clocks are so precise that the margin of error in its functioning is just of a second in 100 million years.

The future agenda of the government, as stated by PM in his speech on New Year’s eve, is to channel the wealth that was previously being hoarded as black money into cheaper capital for affordable housing, women’s health, the agriculture sector.
Mr. Jaitley added the remonetisation process is progressing “extremely well” and would be completed very soon.
While saying that 2016 saw several major economic reforms like the passage of the insolvency law, the creation of the Monetary Policy Committee, and the passage of the constitutional amendment bill on the Goods and Services Tax.
On demonetisation, Mr. Jaitley said that it process has been completed in “a very successful and peaceful manner”, with the whole country supporting it overwhelmingly.
“The remonetisation process has progressed extremely well and I am sure in the days to come it will be very soon completed,” he said.
“The benefits of this are already flowing into the system. What was the shadow economy and black money has now lost its anonymity and come into the banking system. This will lead to a changed spending habit of the people.”
“There will be more taxation receipts of the government, so the government’s ability to spend and support the spending will also increase.”