Current Affairs for IAS Exams – 20 November 2016

:: National ::

After Govt initiatives queues reduced in the bank

Bank branches saw orderly queues following restrictions imposed by the government, but chaos at ATMs continues with most of them running out of money .
Despite the government announcement allowing withdrawals of Rs 2.5 lakhs for weddings, hapless people were running from pillar to post to avail of the scheme.
Bank branches are unable to dispense this amount in absence of operational guidelines from RBI.
Similarly people are visiting their branches with the gazette notification allowing relaxation of limits being provided to farmers but to no avail.
This being the marriage season, people thronged the bank branches with all possible evidence for marriage and their identity proof to get the much-needed cash.
There were reports of heated exchange from various parts of the country while lining up for the cash.
All banks today served only their respective customers and did not exchange old Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes from customers of other banks.
However, this restriction was not applicable on senior citizens as they are allowed to visit any bank branches to exchange the defunct notes.
There was no let-up in the queues outside ATMs in Mumbai while those opting for bank withdrawal had a smoother run as banks offered exchange service of scrapped currencies only to their respective customers.

Centre govt sent teams across the country for assessment

The Union Government announced that a team of officials from the Centre was being rushed to different States for a spot assessment of the situation arising out of the demonetisation.
Respective teams from each assigned State would submit a report to the government on how exactly the decision of the Prime Minister is being implemented.
They would, of course, identify the bottlenecks in the system so that whatever course correction is required from New Delhi can be applied.
The official said that the Centre is ready to look at demands from various quarters, be it the State governments or the industry and commerce circles to see how best the ‘pain’ could be minimised.

PM says times are changing, don't come in its way (Register and Login to read Full News)

:: International ::

US president limits oil exploration in Arctic

U.S. President Barack Obama declared portions of the Arctic off-limits for oil exploration for the next five years, dealing a blow to Republican efforts to expand fossil fuel extraction.
The decision means new oil and gas exploration leasing in the Chukchi Sea and Beaufort Sea will not be considered until after 2022.
The U.S. government made a similar announcement in March, when it removed the Atlantic Ocean from the five-year road map.
Environmental groups hailed decision as historic and coming at a key moment, as President-elect Donald Trump has promised to expand drilling for oil and to revive the American coal industry.
The decision will protect wildlife migration routes, crucial feeding grounds, seafloor habitats and the larger Arctic marine ecosystem, said the Pew Charitable Trusts.

Dalai Lama on a visit to Mongolia (Register and Login to read Full News)

:: Business and Economy ::

25 percent of country’s ATM’s have been recalibrated

About 25 per cent of the country’s automated teller machines (ATMs), or 47,000, have been recalibrated since the exercise began, to enable them to start dispensing the new Rs.500 and Rs.2000 denomination bank notes.
The task force for reactivation of ATMs which was set up under the chairmanship of the Reserve Bank of India deputy governor S.S. Mundra has been tracking the recalibration process on a daily basis.
Banks were asked by the task force to recalibrate 12,500 ATMs every day.
The recalibration is taking place in two phases. One, at the central switch of a particular bank and two, at the ATM level.
Companies that maintain the teller machines equip them with cassettes that are configured according to the thickness and size of the new series notes.
The new notes are smaller than the ones that were withdrawn.The task force aims to recalibrate all the ATMs in at least the top 30 cities of the country by the end of this month. The country has a total of 2.2 lakh ATMs.
The process of supplying currency notes from the printing presses has been speeded up and, at times, they are airlifted to reach the destination.
The presses, which are now predominantly printing Rs.500 denomination notes, are working in two shifts.
Priority has been given to the printing of Rs.500 denomination notes now as we have adequate number of Rs.2000 notes.

PNB CMD says that panic and anxiety after withdrawal of notes has faded (Register and Login to read Full News)

:: Science and Technology ::

India-Norway began project to understand global warming response on Antarctic

An Indo-Norwegian project to understand the response of Antarctic ice shelves to the global warming has begun in the less-studied areas of East Antarctica, especially theDronning Maud Land (DML).
This area is characterised by loosely-connected ice shelves along the 2000-km-long coast. Ice shelves of East Antarctica are poorly understood when compared to the West Antarctica region.
Climatologists are increasingly worried about the large uncertainties in the future Antarctic contribution to the global sea-level rise since the Antarctic contribution to the climate changes has increased significantly during the past two decades.
Under the project, mass-balance, dynamics, and climate of the DML coast, MADICE, geophysical field measurements, ice core drilling, ice-sheet modelling and satellite remote sensing-based studies will be conducted to understand the future Antarctic contribution to the global sea-level rise.
Under the MADICE, research will be conducted during 2016-17 and 2017-18 Antarctic field seasons.
The scientific programme, jointly funded by the Ministry of Earth Sciences, India and the Research Council, Norway, has NCAOR and the Norwegian Polar Institute (NPI) as the partnering research institutions.
The researchers will try to better understand the current status and dynamics of ice shelves in Dronning Maud Land to decipher its response to the future climate change.
Studies on the mass balance and long-term evolution of the Antarctic ice rises and assessment of its impact on the Antarctic ice-shelf stability and ice-sheet loss too will be carried out.
Attempts will also be made to reconstruct the recent changes in Antarctic climate using ice cores and its possible teleconnections to global climate.
Each field campaign will include over-snow traverse and camping over ice shelves for nearly two months. Maitri, India’s Antarctic research station, will serve as the logistic support base.