Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 07 February 2017

:: National ::

NGT has sought the response of the Centre, the Tamil Nadu government and others on a plea seeking compensation for people affected by the recent oil spill off the coast of Tamil Nadu and seizure of the vessels involved in a collision.
A Bench headed by NGT chairperson Swatantar Kumar issued notice to the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF), the Central and State pollution control boards, the Ministry of Shipping and the Tamil Nadu government.
On January 28, 2017, MV Maple Galaxy, carrying LPG, and MT Dawn Kanchipuram, carrying petroleum oil lubricants, collided near the Kamarajar Port in Ennore, Tamil Nadu.
The petitioners have sought seizure of both the offending merchant vessels until their owners paid adequate compensation for the damage to the environment caused by them.
They have also sought constitution of a panel to oversee and monitor the entire clean-up process and assess the damage caused to the environment.

Over 80% of the city’s markets are structurally unsafe and prone to fire accidents.
An internal audit conducted by the Delhi Fire Services (DFS) after a portion of C block in Connaught Place collapsed, found that a disaster is waiting to happen in a majority of the markets.
At least 30% of the accidents can be prevented if norms are followed, but neither the shop owners nor shoppers take this seriously.
According to the Delhi Fire Safety Rules of 2010, any structural alteration made to a building needs to be approved by the department.
But out of the total building approval plans that are tabled before the DFS, only 10% come back for regular approvals.
An assessment of the 2005 bomb blast in Sarojini Nagar showed that the impact was greater because the exit points of the markets were blocked by street vendors.
Though after the incident several drives were conducted to clear markets of illegal encroachments, vendors returned as there was lack of rehabilitation and designated space allotment.

Bangladeshi authorities have decided to relocate thousands of refugees from Myanmar to a thinly populated island in the Bay of Bengal to avoid adverse socioeconomic impacts in the mainland.
Rohingya refugees, including those who have moved in from Myanmar in the recent months, would be relocated from the Cox’s Bazar district to Thengar Char, an island in the Bay of Bengal about 30,000 hectares in area.
Rohingyas are currently living in different camps in Cox’s Bazar including Nayapara, Leda and Kutupalang — apart from other parts of the country.
Bangladeshi Foreign Minister told the diplomatic community based in Dhaka, that the country needs international support to provide “assistance in developing the island and in transporting the refugees to the new place”.
According to the government, over 4,00,000 Myanmar nationals, including the 69,000 people who recently arrived, are now living in Cox’s Bazar after fleeing military persecution in Myanmar’s Rakhine State.
The relocation would be a “temporary arrangement”, government have stressed. Bangladesh has requested the international community to take “meaningful measures” for repatriation of the refugee population to Myanmar.

Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said she would soon take up with World Trade Organisation (WTO) Director General Roberto Azevêdo the need to ensure that processes on outstanding issues.
Issues including on food security — of the WTO’s Doha Round negotiations are completed before the December 2017 Ministerial Conference (MC) in Argentina.
India is clear that ‘new issues’ including e-commerce and investment cannot be brought into the formal agenda of the WTO-level negotiations on liberalisation of global trade without consensus among all the WTO members.
The MC, which is the WTO’s highest decision-making body, usually happens every two years.
After the December 2015 MC in Nairobi, the government had said: “In view of the reluctance of developed countries to agree to continue the Doha Development Agenda post-Nairobi, India negotiated and secured a re-affirmative Ministerial Decision on public stockholding for food security purposes.”

The applications — on foreign direct investment (FDI) in India in sectors under the approval route — considered by the FIPB will soon be taken up by the concerned ministries and sectoral regulators.
The Centre had, in the Budget 2017-18, proposed that the FIPB — which offered a single window clearance mechanism for FDI applications in sectors under the approval route – will be abolished in FY’18.
Ms. Sitharaman said more than 92% of the FDI inflows were through the automatic route.
The whole idea was to make doing business in India easier. Now that majority of the investments coming in are through the automatic route, a superfluous or an additional layer in the form of FIPB is not any longer required.
On the proposal by American multinational technology major Apple for establishing a manufacturing unit in India for products, including iPhones and iPads, the Centre said it had so far not taken the final call.
It said whenever a policy decision is taken on the matter it will be applicable to the entire sector and not just one company.
On January 25, a high-level panel had heard out Apple’s demands including tax and duty concessions to help it go ahead with its ‘Make In India’ plans.
There were more than 40 companies manufacturing mobile phones in the country, none of them had sought similar concessions – including easing labelling and local sourcing norms – for starting manufacturing in the country.