Current Affairs for IAS Exams – 20 April 2016

:: NATIONAL ::

India has been told to either agree to eliminate tariffs on most products or leave the talks on the proposed Trade Agreement,negotiated by the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, trading bloc of 16 Asia-Pacific countries.
Apprehensions were voiced at the last round of negotiations in Brunei, adding that the 12th round of RCEP talks slated for April at Perth in Australia could be a “turning point” in the negotiations with India.
In particular, trade negotiators from the other RCEP members, comprising the 10-member ASEAN bloc, and China, Japan, Australia, South Korea and New Zealand were upset over India’s protectionist stance.
Ministries of External Affairs and Commerce are expected to seek a clear direction from PM Narendra Modi on whether or not India should be part of the RCEP.

The Centre has rejected the proposal of the Tamil Nadu government to re- lease seven convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case.
This is the second time in two years that the State had written to the Centre seeking its views on its decision to remit their sentence. The first letter was sent during the UPA government’s tenure in February 2014.
The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has told the State that “since the matter is sub judice in Supreme Court, it has no authority to release the prisoners.”
In 1999, the Supreme Court found the seven guilty of conspiring to assassinate former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in May 1991.
The death sentences of Sriharan, Perarivalanand Suthendraraja were commuted to life imprisonment by the Supreme Court in 2014 due to delay in disposal of their mercy petitions.
Nalini’s death sentence was commuted to life by the State Cabinet in 2000. The remaining three are serving life sentence.

Amid a string of diplomatic exchanges, China has described its ties with India as a factor in promoting a multi-polar world, as well as an important component for fostering stability in the region.
On the eve of the arrival in Beijing of National Security Adviser, China said: “China and India are two largest developing countries and major emerging economies as well as two significant forces that drive forward world multi-polarisation.”
China said that the “intensive high level interactions” reflect that Beijing-New Delhi ties are “enjoying a sound and stable momentum of development, with in- depth growth of political mutual trust.
China also said enhanced exchanges and cooperation in various fields, and sound coordination and cooperation in international and regional affairs.

The Reserve Bank of India will continue to use currency intervention to reduce volatility in the country's exchange rates, the bank's governor said.
India will intervene in the currency market when there's a sustainable risk in global markets and the country sees a flood of capital coming in, he said.
India's foreign exchange reserves swelled to a record high of $360 billion for the week ended April 1, largely on account of the central bank's dollar purchases to rein in the rupee's strength as foreign funds poured into Indian financial markets.
Rajan confirmed that India's reserve build-up was a result of the central bank's intervention.
India's central bank governor said he was closely watching inflation developments as well as monsoon rain forecasts in terms of impact on monetary policy.

India’s outdated grid infrastructure is incompatible with the storage technology that private investors are looking to install and is holding back the emergence of the electricity storage sector.
The government’s push for the adoption of renewable energy sources such as solar and wind will increasingly rely on power storage sincesupply from such sources is irregular.
Power storage facilities are critical for the government’s rural electrification pro- gramme as well.
This segment is taking time to scale up because there needs to be a large scale over- haul (in the existing grid infrastructure). Some states like Gujarat and Rajasthan are better than others.
Solar energy suffers from a periodicity in supply due to there being no supply during night-time while wind energy is irregular more due to seasonal factors.

Sources: Various News Papers & PIB

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