Current Affairs for IAS Exams – 23 September 2016

:: National ::

India said Pakistan’s campaign had failed

India said Pakistan’s campaign to highlight Kashmir at the United Nations had failed even as Govt stopped short of giving a definite answer on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s plans to attend the November SAARC summit in Islamabad.
Uncertainty continued over Mr. Modi’s presence at SAARC as India held consultations with Afghanistan and the U.S., and pushed Pakistan to shut down the infrastructure of terrorism affecting South Asia and the world.
SAARC stands for regional cooperation which is underpinned by peace and stability. The biggest threat to peace and stability we all know is terrorism.
Squarely addressing this will benefit the entire region and also strengthen regional cooperation.
India’s stand on solidarity among terror victims came after Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif described slain Hizbul Mujahideen militant BurhanWani as a “young leader” in his UNGA speech.
India had rebutted it by saying that the Pakistani leader had used the highest podium of the U.N. to “glorify” terrorism.
The India-Afghan common approach to regional terrorism was also boosted by the India-U.S.-Afghanistan trilateral that was held on the sidelines of the UNGA on September 21 in New York.
The trilateral covered “peace and reconciliation” and the security situation in Afghanistan.

Grain production likely to touch record figure in this Kharif season

India’s grain production in the ongoing kharif (2016-17) season is likely to be a record high 135.03 million tonnes, with an improved output of rice and pulses, thanks to a good monsoon.
“We are likely to achieve an all-time high grain production which could be nearly four million tonnes more than the previous record,” Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh said.
India achieved a record kharif production of 131.27 million tonnes during 2011-12. The production for 2015-16 stood at 124.01 million tonnes.

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:: Business and Economy ::

Centre and States agreed on a timetable for deciding on the tax rate

Moving towards rolling out GST from April 1, Centre and States agreed on a timetable for deciding on the tax rate and completion of legislative work but differences remained on the turnover limit for exemption from the new tax.
The first meeting of the newly constituted GST Council saw States like Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh demanding a larger say than one-state-one-vote principle that puts a smaller state on equal footing with a large manufacturing one.
While some states demanded traders with turnover of Rs.10 lakh or less be exempted, a large number, including Delhi, were in favour of the limit being fixed at Rs.25 lakh in a year.
With tax collected from traders being just 2 per cent of the total tax collection, majority view was in favour of a higher exemption limit.
Clarity on base year for compensating states for loss of revenue following implementation of GST, which is to subsume an array of central and state levies including excise, service tax and VAT, will be deliberated further.

Govt named external nominees to MPC

The Centre named three academics trained in economics as the external appointees on the monetary policy committee (MPC) that will work with the Reserve Bank of India’s three members to decide interest rates.
The RBI is represented on the MPC by Governor Urjit Patel, Deputy Governor in-charge of monetary policy R. Gandhi, and M.D. Patra, the executive director who was nominated by the RBI board.
The three external members — PamiDua, Chetan Ghate and Ravindra Dholakia — will have a fixed four year term, which is non-renewable.
The RBI will set interest rates according to the majority view of the six-member MPC, with the Governor having the casting vote in case of a tie.
The MPC will be responsible for ensuring inflation based on the Consumer Price Index is contained within a range of 2 per cent to 6 per cent, a target announced as part of the new monetary policy framework agreed to by the Centre and the RBI.
Previously, decisions were taken by the RBI Governor. The move to inflation targeting and committee based rate-setting were part of changes recommended by former Governor Raghuram Rajan and then Deputy Governor Dr. Patel.
Chetan Ghate is the only member of the Technical Advisory Committee on Monetary Policy who becomes a member of the MPC, and is therefore familiar with the RBI’s policy making process.
Dr. Ghate, who is a professor at the Indian Statistical Institute, Delhi, is a macroeconomist with a research focus on economic growth, fluctuations, economic development, and monetary and fiscal policy in developing and emerging market.