Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 14 January 2017

:: National ::

India’s demonetisation has triggered a serious financial crisis in Nepal. Not just the government but the people are also facing hardships, said Nepal’s envoy.
The government is facing a severe shortfall of its annual stock of Indian currency, due to the lack of supplies from the Reserve Bank of India.
Mr. Upadhyay said citizens living in the far-flung mountain region of Himal have nowhere to go with the Indian currency that they traditionally held as savings for difficult times.
The Nepal Rashtra Bank has asked the Reserve Bank of India to make some Nepal-specific rules to help the people hit by the note ban that it can do the needful for Nepali citizens if RBI could make some Nepal-specific rules.
The envoy said that Nepal’s difficulties with demonetisation in India is far more extensive.

Faced with a worsening drought situation, the government has imposed curbs on the use of water in reservoirs and stepped up the review and monitoring system at the district level.
District Collectors have been directed to stop the release of water through canals for irrigation and keep a close tab on the water level in reservoirs.
The assessment of the water situation in terms of Litres Per Capita per Day (LPCD) is being reported to the government on a regular basis. The Chief Secretary is closely monitoring the situation in each district and coordinating drought mitigation.
Efforts are on to establish drinking water kiosks in all wards. The project is expected to achieve momentum with the finalisation of the rate contract for installation of tanks by the Joint Commissioner, Land Revenue.
The government is also monitoring the utilisation of groundwater by industries. The SDMA had proposed a 75 per cent cut in the extraction of groundwater by industries.
The impact of the drought on the tourism, industries and power sectors is being closely observed. The loss caused by the drought in these sectors would be assessed and included in the State’s memorandum to the Centre.
Meanwhile, the season’s rainfall from January 1 shows a deficit of 99 per cent, signalling a post-monsoon dry spell expected to last till March.

The U.S. is increasingly worried over the rising range and variety of Pakistan’s missile capability and that the recent decision of the Obama administration to impose trade restrictions on seven Pakistan entities came out of this concern.
The official announcement of the decision did not detail the reasons, but said there was “reasonable cause to believe, based on specific and articulable facts”, that these entities “have been involved in actions contrary to the national security or foreign policy interests of the United States”.
All the entities are linked to Pakistan’s missile programme. With the addition of these seven, there are 47 Pakistani entities that are under strict watch of U.S. agencies.
What has triggered the alarm bells in Washington is Shaheen-III, which has a range of 2,750 km.
Pakistan has officially explained its longest-range missile to date, tested for the first time in 2015, as a capability to strike the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, the farthest Indian territory from its shores.
But the missile also has Israel in its range, along with several European countries — something that the U.S. strategic community finds unnerving.
The incoming administration will continue with the existing U.S. policies towards India, Pakistan and Asia in general, Defence Secretary-designate indicated during his confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Forces Committee.

India has imposed anti-dumping duty on certain variety of steel products imported from China and European Union to protect the domestic players from cheap inbound shipments.
The duty was slapped on ‘pre-painted, colour coated or organic coated flat steels in coils or not in coils whether or not with metallic coated substrate of zinc, aluminium-zinc or any other substrate coating, excluding plates of thickness 6mm or more.
The Department of Revenue in a notification said that the anti-dumping duty is being imposed for six months on the imports from these countries.
The measure follows recommendation by the Directorate General of Anti-Dumping and Allied Duties.

NITI Aayog, the government’s premier think-tank, will soon set up an expert committee to arrive at a new poverty line, according to an official.
“We have said that we needed an expert committee to look at poverty line as most states are not much in sync with each other,” said a senior government official.
Pursuant to the decision taken at the first meeting of the Governing Council of NITI Aayog held at 2015, a Task Force on Elimination of Poverty in India was set up by NITI Aayog on March 16, 2015.