Current Affairs for IAS Exams – 27 November 2016

:: National ::

Friction between Govt and Judiciary continues

Chief Justice of India Thakur again pointed to the vacancies in High Courts across the country and then Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad took a pot-shot at the Supreme Court, saying that it had failed the country during the Emergency.
Prasad blames SC “Let us not forget, during Emergency, High Courts showed courage, but the Supreme Court failed us,” the Law Minister said at the Supreme Court of India Constitution Day Lecture Series.
He said the courts can pass directives, but governance must remain with those elected to govern and that legislation must remain a preserve of the legislature. Problems will resolve if all organs work within their domains.
Earlier, Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi said everyone, judiciary included, should recognise that thereis a lakshmanrekha that needs to be respected and they should be prepared for introspection.
Justice J.S. Khehar, who is next in line to be CJI as per seniority norm and author of the majority judgment in NJAC case, said the judiciary has always kept to the lakshmanrekha by upholding the Constitution.
Chief Justice Thakur add-ed that the significance of the Constitution is that it hasunited a vast continent into a single nation. If Parliament has the power to enact laws, it should do so within the limits defined under the Constitution, he said.

Security forces in Kashmir saw highest casualties after 2007

The year 2016 is turning out to be the worst year for security forces in Kashmir in almost a decade, with data showing a dramatic deterioration in the situation from most perspectives.
According to statistics available and projected figures, the current year will record the highest number of casualties after 2007. Conversely, 2016 would also record the highest number of successful militant infiltrations from Pakistan after 2007.
Militancy has seen a steady decline since 2007 upto 2014. Kashmir also recorded a steady drop in militancy-related violence starting from 2008. The trend continued until 2014, when the situation suddenly began to worsen and violence flared up.
Until September 30, 2016, a total of63 security personnel had been killed in Kashmir while 181 were injured.
The death toll among security agencies could go up by another 20 by the end of the year, if the trend in violence continues. It would be the highest number of security personnel killed in a single year after 2007.

PM stresses on soft skills in policing (Register and Login to read Full News)

Terror outfit’s logistics and capabilities hit by demonetisation (Register and Login to read Full News)

:: International ::

Fidel Castro, communist revolutionary, died at the age of 90

Fidel Castro, the fiery apostle of revolution who brought the Cold War to the Western Hemisphere in 1959 and then defied the United States for nearly half a century as Cuba's maximum leader, bedevilling 11 U.S. Presidents, died on 26th.
In declining health for several years, Castro had orchestrated what he hoped would be the continuation of his Communist revolution, stepping aside in 2006 when he was felled by a serious ill-ness.
Raúl Castro, who had fought alongside Fidel from the earliest days of the insurrection and remained Minister of Defence and his brother's closest confidant, has ruled Cuba since then.
Fidel Castro had held onto power longer than any other living national leader, except Queen Elizabeth II. He became a towering international figure whose importance in the 20th century far exceeded what might have been expected from the head of state of a Caribbean island nation of 11 million people.

:: India and World ::

Qamar Javed Bajwa will replace Raheel sharif as Pak army chief

Lt. Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa, who has extensive experience of handling affairs in Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir and the northern areas, was appointed Pakistan's new army chief. He will succeed Gen. Raheel Sharif.
Lt. Gen. Bajwa will take charge of the world's sixth-largest army by troop numbers in a formal handover, when General Raheel formally retires. Gen. Raheel in January declared he would not seek ex-tension.
There were speculation that the PML-N government would give him extension at the eleventh hour citing reasons that he was needed by the country to lead war on terror.
The post of Army chief is the most powerful in Pakistan. Lt. Gen. Bajwa was serving as Inspector General of the Training and Evaluation be-fore being promoted to the top post.

:: Business and Economy ::

RBI wants to absorb excess liquidity in banks due to demonetisation

RBI has taken steps to absorb excess liquidity in the banking system following demonetisation and said banks have to maintain 100 per cent CRR for the incremental deposits they received between September 16 and November 11.
The central bank clarified that the overall CRR requirement would stay at 4 per cent and the move would come into effect from the fortnight beginning November 26.
CRR is the proportion of deposits that banks have to keep as cash with the central bank. Banks do not earn any interest on CRR balances kept with the RBI.
The RBI withdrew the prevailing Rs.500 and Rs.1,000 notes on November 8 and banks started depositing and exchanging those notes from November 10.
The central bank said the incremental CRR requirement is intended to be a temporary measure and within its ‘liquidity management framework', and will be re-viewed on December 9 2016 or even earlier.
According to latest RBI data, deposits in banks swelled by Rs.3.24 lakh crore between September 16 and November 11. The last fortnight of September saw deposit mobilisation jump by Rs.3.5 lakh crore.
According to bankers, the move was likely to have only a marginal impact on bank's cost of funds since it was a temporary measure.

Industry concerned about centre keeping penalties with themselves

The Centre has empowered itself to impose penalties on businesses that fail to pass on the benefits of the GST to consumers in the form of lower prices, triggering concerns in industry about a re-turn to the era of socialist controls and harassment.
It will achieve this through an enabling provision introduced in the model Goods and Services Tax (GST) law, unveiled by the Centre on November, 26.
The revised drafts of the model GST law, as well as the Integrated GST Act and GST (Compensation to the States for loss of revenue) Act — which the government hopes to introduce and pass in this session of Parliament.
The new proposed GST bills, seeks to allay some industry concerns about its implementation by exempting free goods from GST unless they are being supplied to related parties, and treating supplies to special economic zones as ‘zero-rated.'
Securities will be exempted from GST as well as subsidies paid by the Centre and states, while credits will bepermitted against payments of excise and counter-veiling duties.
However, the new anti-profiteering measure is being seen as a potential dampener as it could lead to more discretion in the hands of the tax authorities.
A similar caveat has also been imposed on the credit of excise and countervailingduties paid on transition stock and such input credits would only be allowed if the benefit is passed on to the recipient.
While the proposal to treat ‘intangibles' as services in the earlier draft model GST law has been removed, several concerns of the services sector, particularly with respect to single centralisedregistration and clarity in terms of place of supply rules, have not been adequately addressed.