Current Affairs for IAS Exams – 24 April 2016

:: NATIONAL ::

Govt looking to make exploration policy more attractive to private players

• To make exploration more attractive for private players, the Union government will reimburse the costs to mining firms that fail to find adequate mineral wealth and ofer them a share of the revenue from blocks where they do strike valuable reserves.
• However, the exploration firms will not enjoy any preferential right to the blocks where they find viable mineral reserves or be eligible for direct compensation from firms that end up operating the mines they discover, as was earlier envisaged.
• The Union Ministry of Mines has set forth these ideas in the final Cabinet note on the new mineral exploration policy, which was circulated for inter-ministerial consultations this week.
• Under the Mines and Mineral (Development and Regulations) Act of 2015, reconnaissance permits cannot be converted into a prospecting licence or a mining licence, though there was a provision for that in the earlier law.
• Firms that did not find anything in the blocks they explored would be reimbursed on the basis of normative costs so that they did not suffer any loss.
• The Geological Survey of India has identified 108 blocks in 23 States that can be taken up for mineral exploration, once the Cabinet approves the new policy.

IMD says that there will be no respite from heat waves for few more days

• Several parts of India reeled under severe heat wave conditions, with the maximum temperature exceeding 47 degrees Celsius at Titlagarh in Odisha and above 45 degrees in several other parts of the country.

• No respite is in sight till April 27, as India Meteorological Department issued severe heat wave or heat wave warnings for parts of Odisha, Jharkhand, Telangana and Rayalaseema in Andhra Pradesh.

• Vidarbha in Maharashtra, Bihar and the Gangetic West Bengal also recorded above normal temperatures.

• IMD declares a heat wave when the maximum temperature exceeds 40 degrees Celsius in the plains.

• If the normal maximum temperature of a place is less than or equal to 40 degrees Celsius, an increase by 5-6 degrees Celsius is needed for heat wave to be declared.

• If the temperature goes up 7 degrees Celsius above normal, it is considered a severe heat wave.

• Heat wave across several places has already claimed over 160 lives. Heat wave during the third and fourth week of May last year claimed over 2,200 deaths in the country.

Ujjwala scheme to provide five crore free LPG connections

• Petroleum Minister said 10,000 new LPG distributors will be appointed in the current financial year.

• At present, there are 18,000 gas distributors in the country and in the coming three months, 2,000 new distributors will be made and by the end of this financial year 8,000 more distributors will be made

• The Rs. 8,000-crore Ujjwala scheme will provide five crore free LPG connections to BPL families using the money saved from 1.13 crore cooking gas users voluntarily giving up their subsidies.

• Mr. Modi will launch the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana on May 1 and do a repeat function at Dahod in Gujarat on May 15.

• 61 per cent households in the country have LPG connections, while in Uttar Pradesh 53 per cent houses have gas connections.

Centre notifies rules for amended SC/ST Act (Register and Login to read Full News..)

Access to Justice survey puts gloomy picture (Register and Login to read Full News..)

:: International ::

China to provide power to islands through floating nuclear plants

• All the radar systems, lighthouses, barracks, ports and airfields that China has set up on its newly built island chain in the South China Sea require tremendous amounts of electricity, which is hard to come so far from the country’s power grid.

• Beijing may have a solution: floating nuclear power plants.

• A state-owned company, China Shipbuilding Industry Corp., is planning to build a fleet of the vessels to provide electricity to remote locations including offshore oil platforms and the contentious man-made islands.

• China would not be the first country to employ floating nuclear power plants. In the 1960s, the U.S. Army installed a nuclear reactor inside the hull of a World War II freighter to provide electricity for the Panama Canal Zone.

• And nuclear power has been on vessels since 1955, when the commanding officer of the Nautilus, an American submarine, sent word that the craft was “underway on nuclear power”.

IS takes responsibility for Bangladesh professor’s murder (Register and Login to read Full News..)

:: Business and Economy ::

Randstad award survey says salary and employee benefits are major criteria for workers

• Salary and employee benefits, long-term job security and financial health of the company are the top three priorities among the Indian workforce while choosing an employer, says the Randstad Award survey.

• The Randstad public opinion survey on employer branding, independently conducted with more than two lakh respondents across 25 countries worldwide.

• Survey also revealed that salary and employee benefit continued to be top driver with (48 per cent), long-term job security (46 per cent), financial health of the company (43 per cent), pleasant working atmosphere (40 per cent) and good work- life balance (38 per cent).

• However, the importance of salary has decreased from 2015 (six per cent).

• The survey findings also reflected that the Indian workforce prefers to work or move to sectors such as IT and Communication (70 per cent), followed by automobiles (66 per cent) and FMCG, re- tail and e-commerce (64 per cent).

• It is a proven fact that companies that are capable of attracting the right talent for the right job simply perform better.

GST will help resolve various taxation issues

• Implementation of GST will help resolve various issues concerning taxation and logistics with regard to e-commerce business, which has been recording rapid growth in the country, says a study.

• The e-commerce space has rapidly evolved but several challenges have surfaced primarily in areas of taxation, logistics, payments, internet penetration and skilled man power

• In taxation, for example, the lack of a uniform tax structure leads to several issues such as double- taxation or impediments in the free flow of goods across the country.

• However, the ensuing Goods and Services Tax (GST) is expected to help in overcoming these challenges through a uniform tax structure.

• Clearly defined rules for e-commerce transactions in GST and a consultative approach while framing these rules will be favourable to both, the government as well as e-commerce companies.

Negative interest rates may not provide desired benefit (Register and Login to read Full News..)

:: Sports ::

Indian Olympic association has signed Salman Khan as goodwill ambassador

• The Indian Olympic Association (IOA) has signed actor Salman Khan as the good- will ambassador for the Indian contingent bound for the Rio Olympics.

• The announcement was made in the presence of Olympic medallists and Rio star athletes boxer M.C. Mary Kom, hockey captain Sardar Singh, and shooter ApurviChandela, among others.

• And, in its long-term goal towards becoming financially independent, the Indian Olympic Association has roped in three sponsors.

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Sources: Various News Papers & PIB

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