Current Affairs for IAS Exams – 24 November 2016

:: National ::

SC says cases in different HC’s to continue on note ban

• The Supreme Court refused to stay the cases in High Courts against the demonetisation of Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000 notes.

• A Bench led by Chief Justice of India T.S. Thakur said the petitions in the various High Courts highlighted the differ-ent inconveniences across the country.

• “Maybe some relief can be had by these people.” Earlier, the Supreme Court had refused to “shut its door” on the “frantic and affected” public.

• The court also allowed co-operative banks to approach their respective High Courts with their grievances.

• The Centre maintained that the demonetisation policy, an exercise intended to weed out black money and cripple terror funding, was a success.

• Mr. Rohatgi responded thatthe situation was “much better” and more than Rs. 6 lakh crore had been deposited in banks since the demonetisation was announced on November 8.

• The AG said queues in front of banks and ATMs had thinned and the situation would become normal in the next 20 days.

Potential Hydro power projects in Himalaya faces risk of flood

• Potential hydro power projects in the Himalayan region would need to factor in chances of increased floods from the formation of new lakes and the expansion of existing ones due to melting glaciers, says an analysis of Himalayan glaciers.

•  The results are part of a modelling study by Swiss researchers on the impact of climate change in the Himalayas.

• According to the study, 441 hydro-power projects spanning India, Nepal, Pakistan and China, that is, 66% of constructed and potential hydro power projects, are on possible Glacier Lake Out-burst Floods (GLOF) tracks.

• This means they could be gorged with extra water from melting glaciers. Almost a third of these hydro power projects could experience GLOF discharges well abovewhat these dams account for, says a study.

• India accounts for 129 of the hydro projects analysed. India's environment and water resources ministries areengaged in a tiff with the power ministry over the construction of forthcoming hydro power projects in Uttarakhand.

• Broadly, they deal with the impact of these projects on the local ecology and on the natural flows of the rivers they are built upon.

• In the Beas basin, six lakes in 1989 had increased to 33 in 2011, and in the Parvati Valley catchment area, there was an increase from 12 lakes (in 1989) to 77 lakes (in 2014).

• Most of the Himachal Pradesh lakes were relatively small or with a capacity of a million cubic metres, and only a few of them had a capacity larger than 10 million cubic metres of water.

After proposal of several changes GST council meet postponed (Register and Login to read Full News)

Special window of Rs. 21,000 crore to district central cooperative banks (Register and Login to read Full News)

:: International ::

Nikki Haley picked as U.S. Ambassador to United Nations

• Nikki Haley was named as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations by President-elect Donald Trump, becoming the first Indian-American to be appointed to a Cabinet-level post in any U.S. administration.

• Daughter of Indian immigrants from Punjab, Ms. Haley (44) is the first woman tapped by Mr. Trump for a top-level administration post during his transition to the White House.

• The presidential transition team said this would be a Cabinet-level position in the Trump-Pence Administration. The Cabinet position would require confirmation by the Senate.

• Noting that Ms. Haley is one of the most universally respected governors in the country,she has travelled abroad to negotiate with international companies on behalf of South Carolina.

Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation to discuss implications of Donald Trumps election (Register and Login to read Full News)

:: Business and Economy ::

SEBI liberalised norms for angel funds

• The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has liberalised norms for angel funds to invest in early-stage entities as part of its attempts to facilitate fund-raising for start-ups.

• The capital markets regulator also enhanced the scope of investment of foreign investors in unlisted debt securities.

• The regulator has in-creased the upper limit for number of angel investors in a scheme from forty nine to two hundred.

• Angel Funds will also be allowed to invest in start-ups incorporated within five years instead of the earlier norm of three years.

• The requirements of minimum investment amount by an angel fund in any venture capital under-taking has been reduced from Rs.50 lakh to Rs.25 lakh.

• Further, the lock-in requirements of investment made by angel funds in the venture capital undertaking has been reduced from three years to one year.

• Such funds have also been allowed to invest in overseas venture capital undertakings up to 25 per cent of their investable corpus in line with other Alternative Investment Funds (AIFs).

• The regulator also clamped down on agreements between company management personnel and shareholders that assure a certain compensation or share in profits to the employee.

• SEBI has stated that all such agreements entered into during the last three years will have to be dis-closed to the stock ex-changes and companies will have to seek an approval from the public shareholders of the company.

• Further, interested per-sons involved in the trans-actions will have to abstain from voting on the said resolution, the capital mar-kets regulator said

Paytm rolled a new feature in its mobile wallet

• Paytm has rolled out a new feature on its mo-bile wallet application that will allow shopkeepers to accept payments through credit or debit cards. The move eliminates the need for a point-of-sale (PoS) or swipe machine.

• Currently, there are about 14.8 lakh PoS machines in India, used by seven lakh retailers, for about 74 crore debit and credits cards in use. With this update, buyers need not have a Paytm account.

• The bill is generated by the shopkeeper, who will then pass his phone to customers to enter card details. The customer will receive a one-time-password (like in the case on any online transaction) on his/her mo-bile number.

• The details, entered by the customer, will not reside on the app but on the bank's website, making the process secure, Paytm said. The company said merchants can accept up to Rs.50,000 a month, as stipulated by the central bank.

For smooth movement govt wants digital tags (Register and Login to read Full News)

Goldman Sachs expects GDP growth around 6.8 percent (Register and Login to read Full News)

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