Current Affairs for IAS Exams – 17 May 2016

:: National ::

The Enforcement Directorate will approach the Ministry of External Affairs to initiate extradition proceedings with the UAE against Christian Michel, British middleman and prime accused in the AgustaWestland deal case.
It had earlier sought his extradition from the United Kingdom, which wanted certain clarifications on the status of the case against him.
Dubai agencies are also probing Mr. Michel’s role in a case ofalleged cheating
The investigating agencies have already got Inter- pol to issue Red Notice against Mr. Michel, who has been accused of routing 30 million euros to bribe Indian oicials for swinging the deal in AgustaWestland’s favour.

The National Green Tribunal has convened a meeting of all stakeholders involved in cleaning of River Ganga from Haridwar to Kanpur to deliberate on the mechanism to make the river pollution-free.
The green panel has divided the work of cleaning the river into different segments - Gomukh to Haridwar, Haridwar to Kanpur, Kanpur to border of UP, border of UP to border of Jharkhand and borderof Jharkhand to Bay of Bengal.
On December 11, last year, the tribunal had imposed a complete ban on use of plastic of any kind from Gomukh to Haridwar along the river from February 1 and decided to slap a penalty of Rs. 5,000 per day on erring hotels, dharamsalas and ashrams spewing waste into the river.

Asking the U.S. to respect the efforts by China and India to resolve their boundary dispute peacefully, a top Chinese official said the two nations are wise enough to deal with it.
“The Chinese side is committed to safeguarding peace and tranquillity of the border areas between China and India and resolving the boundary question through negotiation,” the Chinese Foreign Ministry said.
The U.S. military report also warned of increasing Chinese military presence in various parts of the world, particularly in Pakistan.
“It is difficult to conclude on the real intention behind this,” Mr. Denmark said after submitting Pentagon’s annual 2016 re- port to the U.S. Congress.
“It is difficult to say how much of this is driven by internal considerations to maintain internal stability, and how much of it is an external consideration,” he said in response to a question on China upgrading its military command in Tibet.

Towards deepening the evolving partnership in the maritime domain, India and the U.S. held the first round of discussions under the recently-constituted maritime security dialogue between officials of two countries.
Among the issues discussed were Asia-Pacific maritime challenges, naval cooperation, and multilateral engagement.
The dialogue was one of the several new initiatives agreed between Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar and his U.S. counterpart Ashton Carter during the latter’s visit to India last month as part of the maritime security objectives under the India- US Joint Strategic Vision for the Asia-Pacific and Indian Ocean Region.
Security Dialogue, cochaired by officials at the Joint Secretary/Assistant Secretary-level of the Indian Ministries of Defence and External Affairs and the U.S. Departments of Defence and State,”
U.S. Ambassador to India, Richard Verma, who participated in the discussions, noted that the creation of this dialogue “is a further sign of the growing relations be- tween our two countries.”
The other initiatives agreed include the conclusion of a “white shipping” technical arrangement to improve data sharing on commercial shipping traffic and Navy-to-Navy discussions on submarine safety and anti- submarine warfare.

Wholesale prices moved out of deflationary territory after 17 months in April, rising by 0.3 per cent compared to a contraction of 0.8 per cent in March—driven largely by rising food prices.
With consumer price inflation in April rising to 5.4 per cent, prospects for a fresh interest rate cut by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) have dimmed for the next few months.
On the food side, there were some alarming signals as pulses saw an increase of close to 4 per cent from the previous month showing that supply constraints in certain pockets can lead to flaring upof food inflation.
The food articles category, among primary articles, saw inflation accelerating to 4.2 per cent in April, compared to 3.7 per cent in March. Manufactured food inflation surged to 8 per cent from 4.5 per cent over the same period.
Inflation in manufactured products moved into positive territory after 13 months, rising to 0.7 per cent in April from a contraction of 0.13 per cent in the previous month.]
The situation in the fuel and power segment easedsomewhat in April with infla- tion in the sector contracting 4.8 per cent compared to a contraction of 8.3 per cent in March.
There are, however, other factors that could drive infla- tion up in the future such as monsoon and fuel prices.
If the outlook on the monsoons turns negative, the prices of food products may go up further with traders trying to hedge their posi- tions now to gain in the fu- ture.