Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 25 February 2017

Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 25 February 2017

:: National ::

Racial attack on Indians in US

  • An apparent act of racial hatred left an Indian engineer dead and another injured in Olathe city in Kansas in Midwestern U.S.

  • Srinivas Kuchibhotla (32), along with his friend Alok Madasani, had gone to a bar, where he was shot, allegedly by a 51-year-old Navy veteran who shouted, “get out of my country,” before the act.

  • Kuchibhotla died later, while Mr. Madasani who was also hit, has recovered and has been discharged from hospital.

  • Ian Grillot, a 24-year-old white man, who took a bullet on his chest trying to stop the shooter, has emerged the hero in the tragic episode that snuffed out the dreams of the Hyderabad-born Kuchibhotla.

  • Originally from Hyderabad, Kuchibhotla was a B. Tech in electrical and electronics engineering from Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University. He had a master’s degree from the University of Texas El Paso.

  • Anecdotal evidence points to a sweeping sense of insecurity among the three million plus Indian Americans, many of whom are nervous about moving around freely in recent weeks.

  • India reached out to the family, Spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs Vikas Swarup said the government will provide all possible support to the family of the deceased who was killed in an attack that left another Indian injured.

  • External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj took to social media soon after two Indians Srinivas Kuchibhotla and Alok Madasani were shot at a bar in Olathe, Kansas.

India to throw open its border roads to help Bangladesh construct outposts

  • In a rare gesture, India has decided to throw open its border roads to help Bangladesh construct border outposts in Chittagong hill tracts, known for its inhospitable terrain.

  • Some areas in Chittagong, bordering Tripura and Mizoram, have no motorable roads and India has decided to allow the Border Guard Bangladesh to construct 13 border outposts using the road connectivity available in the two States.

  • The Border Security Force, deployed along the Bangladesh border, will monitor the construction activities.

  • India has on multiple occasions handed over details of insurgent camps operating from the Bangladesh soil, particularly in the dense Chittagong Hill Tract area.

  • Following the leads, the neighbouring country has acted against these camps and demolished them.

  • The proposal was first mooted during the annual Home Secretary-level talks last year.

  • A 19-member Indian delegation, mainly comprising BSF officials, which concluded its Dhaka visit last week informed the BGB that the proposal had been approved.

India likely to unveil its most powerful supercomputer of 10 petaflops (Register and Login to read Full News)

Enormous, glowing blob of gas in the distant universe spotted (Register and Login to read Full News)

:: International ::

672 million dollar pledged to prevent a famine in Africa

  • A group of countries pledged at least $672 million at an international donor conference on Friday to prevent a famine in the African countries around the Lake Chad Basin.

  • “We have now started an important process,” said Norway, country pledged 1.6 billion kroner ($192 million) over a three-year period to tackle “a serious humanitarian situation” in the region encompassing Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad and Niger.

  • Norway co-hosted the conference with Germany, Nigeria and the UN.

:: Business and Economy ::

India's first-ever auction for wind energy projects

  • Wind power tariffs closed at Rs. 3.46 per kWh in India's first-ever auction for wind energy projects as the country aims to tap renewable energy to overcome its power shortages.

  • The bid was called by government-owned Solar Energy Corporation of India for 1 GW of wind capacity.

  • Mytrah Energy, Green Infra, Inox and Ostro Energy each won the rights to set up 250 MW of wind capacity in a location of their choice and to sell the energy generated to state-run Power Trading Corporation.

  • Such low tariffs in wind energy come on the back of historically low solar tariffs achieved in a recent auction of a total capacity of 750 MW.

  • The reverse auction completed in Rewa in Madhya Pradesh saw solar tariffs fall to Rs. 2.97 per unit and Rs. 3.3 per unit when levelised over the 25-year power purchase agreement period.

  • After solar cost reduction below Rs. 3 per unit, wind power cost down to Rs. 3.46 per unit through transparent auction. A green future awaits India.

  • However low tariffs could prove to be a problem for developers since the focus will now have to shift to ensuring low costs.

  • The choice of location is with the bidder so that they can choose to locate the project where there is enough wind resource.

  • "Wind is a gift to mankind by environment & the historic low cost of Rs. 3.46 per unit wind power shows our commitment to leverage clean energy,” Mr. Goyal said in a subsequent tweet.

The creation of a ‘bad bank’ will help in resolution of stressed assets

  • The creation of a ‘bad bank’ will speed up resolution of stressed assets in the banking system, but it will also require significant capital infusion in the state-run banks to meet any shortfall, says a report.

  • The recent economic survey mentioned about formation of a bad bank that will purchase stressed assets and take them to resolution.

  • “The creation of a ‘bad bank’ could accelerate the resolution of stressed assets in country’s banking sector, but it may face significant logistical difficulties,” international agency Fitch Ratings said in a report.

  • It said the country’s banks have significant asset quality problems that are putting pressure on profitability and capital, as well as constraining their ability to lend.

  • It expects the stressed-asset ratio to rise over the coming year from the 12.3% as at end-September 2016, with the ratio significantly higher among state-owned banks.

  • The rating agency said the banking sector will require around $90 billion in new total capital by financial year 2018-19 to meet Basel III standard and ongoing business needs.

  • This estimate is unlikely to be significantly reduced by the adoption of a bad-bank approach, and could even rise if banks are forced to crystallise more losses from stressed assets than currently expected, the rating agency said.

  • It said bad bank’s most likely form would be that of a centralised asset-restructuring company (ARC).

  • Bad bank’s proponents believe it could take charge of the largest, most complex cases, make politically tough decisions to reduce debt, and allow banks to refocus on their normal lending activities, it said.

India’s demonetisation led to huge cash shortages (Register and Login to read Full News)

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