Current Affairs for IAS Exams – 16 December 2016

:: National ::

Govt announces benefits for digital payment

Fifteen lakh citizens opting to make cash-less payments for transactions between Rs. 50 and Rs. 3,000 through RuPay cards, UPI, the Aadhaar-enabled payment systems and USSD will get Rs. 1,000 in a cash-back incentive under a lucky draw scheme.
Calling the Lucky Grahak Y ojana a Christmas gift for citizens, NITI Aayog CEOsaid the scheme, to be launched on December 25, would cover all transactions made from November 8.
As money comes back into the system, we don't want to give rise to a new parallel economy with black money, so these schemes are meant to incentivise con-sumers to move away from cash.
Grand prize winners will get Rs. 1 crore, Rs. 50 lakh and Rs. 25 lakh at the end of of the programme's first phase, while there will be weekly prizes of Rs. 1 lakh, Rs. 10,000 and Rs. 5,000.
Transactions made through private banks' credit cards and e-wallets such as Paytm would not be eligible.

Apex court banned liquor shops on state and national highways

The SC banned States and Union Territories from granting licences for the sale of liquor along National and State highways across the country, noting that drunken driving was the main culprit behind a large number of road accidents in the country.
A Bench of Chief Justice of India T.S. Thakur and Justices D.Y. Chandrachud and L. Nageswara Rao said the licences of liquor shops across the highways will not be renewed after March 31, 2017.
The judgment ordered that the prohibition on sale of liquor alongside highways would extend to stretches of such highways that fall within limits of municipal corporations, city towns and local authorities.
The court prohibited signages and advertising of availability of liquor on high-ways and ordered the existing ones to be removed forth-with from both national and State highways.
It ordered that no shop for sale of liquor should be visible from the National and State highways.
Neither should they be directly accessible from the highways nor should they be situated within a distance of 500 metres from the outer edge of the highways or ser-vice lanes.
The judgment is a result of the deep concern the court had expressed recently on the 1.5 lakh fatalities annually in road accidents. It had blamed the Centre and the States for not doing enough as lives were lost on the roads.

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:: International ::

After ceasefire evacuation started in Aleppo

An operation to evacuate thousands of civilians and fighters from the last rebel bastion in Aleppo was under way, part of a ceasefire deal that would end years of fighting for the city and mark a major victory for Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said the evacuation of around 200 wounded people had star-ted. Russia, a major ally of Assad, said 5,000 Syrian rebels and family members were being brought out of eastern Aleppo.
The convoy of 10 ambulances and at least 17 green buses with nearly 1,000 aboard drove from the Ramousah district next to the rebel-held area of Aleppo, which was besieged for months by Syrian government forces.
Rebel officials have said that civilians who wish to leave will also be able to do so as part of the ceasefire and evacuation deal. Footage of the buses appeared to show that most ofthose inside were young men.
Columns of black smoke could be seen rising from the rebel-held area, where residents hoping to departwere burning personal be-longings they do not want to leave for government forces to loot.
Syria had guaranteed the safety of rebels and their families, who would be taken towards Idlib, a city in north-western Syria which is out-side government control.
The evacuation agreement would include the safe passage of wounded from the Shia villages of Foua and Kefraya near Idlib that are besieged by rebels, accord-ing to a military media unit run by Hezbollah, a group al-lied to Mr. Assad.

:: Business and Economy ::

Trade deficit increased on import jump

The country's trade deficit ballooned to $13 billion in November — the highest since $13.08 billion in July 2015, and sharply wider than the $10.41 billion gap in October — as imports, including purchases of gold, outpaced exports of goods.
The trade deficit in November 2015 was $10.47 billion. For the third consecutive month, exports recorded a positive growth of 2.29 per cent year-on-year to $20 billion.
However, goods imports grew at a faster pace of 10.4 percent to $33.02 billion, ac-cording to the data released by the Commerce Ministry.
Gold imports jumped 23.2 per cent in November to $4.36 billion. The previous highest in value terms was $4.96 billion in August 2015. In October 2016, imports of the yellow metal had more than doubled to $3.5 billion.
In the wake of the withdrawal of high-denomination banknotes last month, there had been intense speculation that the government might impose curbs on imports and domestic holdings of gold.
Oil imports rose 5.9 per cent in November to $6.8 billion, while non-oil imports grew 11.7 per cent to $26.2 billion.
Exports experienced a protracted contraction be-tween December 2014 and May 2016 amid persistent weak external demand, be-fore recording 1.97 per cent growth in June.
However, the overseas shipment of goods again slipped back into negative growth territory in July and August before re-entering the positive growth zone in September with a 4.8 per cent increase.
However, overseas sales of gems & jewellery contracted in the month by 12.8 per cent to $2.5 billion, while exports of ready-made garments shrank 2.93 per cent to $1.1 billion.
India's goods exports during the full fiscal year would be about $270-$280 billion.

Federal Reserve raised its benchmark rates

The rupee weakened against the U.S. dollar after the Federal Reserve raised its benchmark interest rate, in a widely anticipated move, by 25 basis points. The Indian currency slid 40 paise to close at 67.83 per dollar.
Economists said the rupee was likely to fare marginally better than its emerging mar-ket peers in the coming months as the Fed pursues its policy normalisation by gradually increasing interest rates.
ICRA expects the rupee to trade in a range of 67-70 against the dollar in the remaining period of the cur-rent fiscal year.
The benchmark Sensex slid 83.77 points, or 0.31 per cent, to close at 26,519.07. Among the Sensex pack, 18 stocks lost ground though counters including TCS, Axis Bank, ONGC, Bajaj Auto, State Bank of India and Wipro managed to buck the overall negative trend.
A total of 1,317 stocks lost ground on the BSE, as against 1,280 gainers. The broader Nifty lost 28.85 points, or 0.35 per cent, to close at 8,153.60.