Current Affairs for IAS Exams – 16 May 2016


Current Affairs for IAS Exams – 16 May 2016


:: National ::

IMD says arrival of monsoon to be delayed

  • The India Meteorological Department (IMD) said that the arrival of the southwest monsoon in Kerala will be delayed by at least a week beyond the normal of June 1.

  • However, IMD also said while this could lead to reduced rainfall in June, it would not affect the overall quantum of rains across the country.

  • This widely diverges from a forecast earlier this week by Noida-based forecaster Skymet, that the monsoon would set in over Kerala between May 28 and 31.

  • June accounts for only 18 to 20 per cent of the monsoon rains but it marks the beginning of the kharif sowing season.

  • July and August account for about two-thirds of monsoons and are critical for a good harvest. Last year, the monsoon arrived at the Kerala coast on June 5, later than the agency’s predicted date of May 30.

  • This was the only time, the IMD claims, its monsoon onset model failed to get the date within the model’s error margin since it began issuing such forecasts in 2005.

  • The monsoon is expected to set in at the Nicobar islands around May 17, and set in substantially over the Andamans by May 20. It’s the timing of its subsequent journey into Kerala that’s in doubt.

  • “The cooling of the Pacific waters has been better than expected and we expect the La Nina to set in slightly earlier around the second half of monsoon,” IMD said.

  • The delay in onset over Kerala is because of the El Nino, which, though waning, is still strong, and the waters of the Indian Ocean being warmer than usual for this time of the year.

  • Generally rain-bearing winds begin to be drawn across the equator by this time of the year.

Payment to Iran still un resolved

  • With less than a week to go for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Teheran, officials are working hard to seal an agreement to repay $6.5 billion owed to Iran over the years when it was under sanctions.

  • The effort has run into a brick wall over the reluctance of European banks to process the payments, officials in the Oil and External Affairs ministries have told The Hindu .

  • The repayment agreement is among a slew of announcements India and Iran hope to make during Mr Modi’s first visit to Teheran on May 22-23.

  • Other announcements include the signing of a trilateral trade agreement, which includes Afghanistan, that has already been finalised, an MoU for the development of Chabahar port, progress on Indian exploration of the ‘Farzad-B’ gas oilfields.

  • While the other agreements are on track, officials say it is the hunt for the repayment channel to Iran that is keeping them on tenterhooks.]

  • This is despite several banks including the Danske bank of Denmark, Europaeisch-Iranische Handelsbank (EIH) of Germany, Central Bank of Italy and Halkbank of Turkey having been identified to carry out the transactions, and the RBI has identified corresponding banks in India.

  • New Delhi has repeatedly said it is keen to pay back Iran the $6.5 billion, most of it for oil transactions.

India test fired indigenous supersonic interceptor missile (Register and Login to read Full News..)

Amended FCRA will allow foreign companies to fund NGOs and Political parties (Register and Login to read Full News..)

:: International ::

Obama will be the only U.S. President to serve two terms with nation at war

  • President Barack Obama came into office seven years ago pledging to end the wars of his predecessor, George W. Bush.

  • On May 6, with eight months left before he vacates the White House, Mr. Obama passed a sombre, little-noticed milestone: He has now been at war longer than Mr. Bush, or any other American President.

  • If the United States remains in combat in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria until the end of Mr. Obama’s term, he will leave behind an improbable legacy as the only President in U.S. history to serve two complete terms with the nation at war.

  • Mr. Obama, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009 and spent his years in the White House trying to fulfil the promises he made as an anti-war candidate, would have a longer tour of duty as a wartime President than Franklin D. Roosevelt, Richard M. Nixon or his hero Abraham Lincoln.

  • Mr. Obama is leaving far fewer soldiers in harm’s way — at least 4,087 in Iraq and 9,800 in Afghanistan — than the 200,000 troops he inherited from Mr. Bush in the two countries.

  • But Mr. Obama has also approved strikes against terrorist groups in Libya, Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen, for a total of seven countries where his administration has taken military action.

  • Mr. Obama’s closest advisers say he has relied so heavily on limited covert operations and drone strikes because he is mindful of the dangers of escalation.

  • Publicly, Mr. Obama acknowledged early on the contradiction between his campaign message and the realities of governing.

  • The President has tried to reconcile these truths by approaching his wars in narrow terms, as a chronic but manageable security challenge rather than as an all-consuming national campaign.

  • More so than Mr. Bush or President Bill Clinton, Mr. Obama has fought a multi-front war against militants. Officials at the Pentagon referred to the situation as “the new normal.”

Chinese ‘Guam killer’ can attack 5500 km away

  • China’s new ‘Guam killer’ missile, capable of hitting targets some 5,500 km away, is raising new fears of a growing Chinese threat to key American military facilities and stability in the Pacific Rim, the Congress has been warned.

  • A congressional panel has issued a report warning of the dangers of the DF-26 intermediate-range ballistic missile, during a week in which U.S.-China tensions flared anew with a U.S. Navy destroyer sailing close to a Chinese-claimed island in the disputed South China Sea.

  • The U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission said this week that China’s DF-26 missile — dubbed by analysts the “Guam killer” and unveiled at a high-profile military parade in Beijing last September — allows China to bring unprecedented firepower to bear on the U.S. territory of Guam.

  • The territory, 4,023 km from Beijing, sits well within the missile’s range, says the report.

Deadly IS attack on Yemen (Register and Login to read Full News..)

:: Business and Economy ::

FM ruled out any depletion of FDI due to imposition of capital gains tax

  • With a revised Mauritius pact in place to check round-tripping, Finance Minister said investors must pay taxes on money earned in India and ruled out any depletion of FDI due to imposition of capital gains tax on investments through the island nation.

  • He asserted that India no longer needs any “tax-incentivised route” to attract foreign investments as India economy is now “strong enough” and said there was no “serious apprehension” of investors shifting base to other tax havens

  • By checking round-tripping of funds, the amendment would help boost domestic consumption.

  • After toiling for almost a decade to redraw the tax treaty with Mauritius, India will begin imposing capital gains tax on investments in shares through Mauritius from April next onwards.

  • This has been made possible with amendment to the 34-year-old tax treaty between the two countries.

  • As markets reacted cautiously to India expanding its crackdown on tax treaties to make it harder for investors to use tax havens as a shelter to avoid levies.

  • Stating that the Mauritius tax treaty created a “tax-incentivised route” at a time when India was looking at foreign investments to boost economy, he said the economy has become strong enough and “now those who earn must pay taxes“.

  • The original treaty, signed almost a decade before India opened up its economy in 1991, has helped channelize more than a third of the $278 billion (nearly Rs 19 lakh crore) foreign direct investment India received in the past 15 years.

  • The imposition of taxes has been “done in a phased manner to avoid shock and I don’t expect any depletion to FDI because of this. Also eventually, markets have to operate on inherent strength of economy.

  • Stating that the treaty provides for ‘grandfathering’ till March 2017, Jaitley said: “From then till up to two years, 50 per cent of the rate and then from April 2019, 100 per cent of the tax rate.

  • But this concessional rate of 50 per cent would apply to a Mauritius resident company that can prove that it has a total expenditure of at least Rs 27 lakh in the African island nation and is not a ‘shell’ company with just a post office address.

SC to decide on validity of levy on miners (Register and Login to read Full News..)

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Sources: Various News Papers & PIB

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