Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 3 June 2017

::National::

U.S. stopped implementation of commitments under the Paris agreement

•       The U.S. has stopped implementation of its commitments under the Paris climate agreement signed by 195 countries in 2015.

•       The accord “would undermine our economy, hamstring our workers, weaken our sovereignty…,” Mr. Trump, who had campaigned in the             2016 election promising to pull out from it, said.

•       The Paris agreement gives undue advantage to India and China, “the world’s leading polluters”, at the cost of U.S. interests, Mr. Trump                  said, unravelling a critical area of mutual interest and cooperation between New Delhi and Washington in recent years.

•       India ratified the agreement last year, and former President Barack Obama considered it as a defining legacy of his tenure.

•       Mr. Trump’s tirade against India, whose per capita carbon emission is one-tenth of the U.S., comes ahead of a likely visit by Prime Minister         Narendra Modi to Washington later this month.

•       “India makes its participation contingent on receiving billions and billions and billions of dollars in foreign aid from developed countries,”              
Mr. Trump said, of the financing commitments by developed countries under the pact.

•       The President’s decision was immediately challenged by the Democrats and business leaders. “Disappointed with today’s decision.                     Google will keep working hard for a cleaner, more prosperous future for all,” CEO Sundar Pichai posted on Twitter.

•       Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Disney CEO Robert Iger resigned from the President’s economic advisory council in protest. GM said it                         considered clean energy technologies as a good business opportunity.

•       Historian Ramachandra Guha, in his letter to the CoA chairman Vinod Rai focussed on the issues affecting Indian cricket ranging from                 conflict of interest to the ‘superstar syndrome’.

•       Mr. Guha, who made the letter public, said there was a divergence between him and the CoA.

•       “It has seemed clear for some time now that my thoughts and views are adjacent to, and sometimes at odds with, the direction the                          Committee was taking as a whole,” he wrote.

•       Dwelling on the issue of conflict of interest, Mr. Guha wrote: “The BCCI has accorded preferential treatment to some national coaches, by             giving them ten month contracts for national duty, thus allowing them to work as IPL coaches/mentors for the remaining two months.”

•       His remarks are seen as a pointer to Rahul Dravid, who is India A coach for a large part of the year, and also mentors Delhi Daredevils in           the IPL.

•       Mr. Guha stressed that national coaches cannot be associated with the IPL as it leads to divided loyalties.

•       Highlighting the ‘superstar syndrome’, Mr. Guha wrote: “Awarding M. S. Dhoni an 'A' contract when he had explicitly ruled himself out from           all Test matches was indefensible.”

•       Mr. Guha also sympathised with Indian team head coach Anil Kumble and wrote: “Kumble was left hanging, and then told that the post                 would be re-advertised afresh.”

•       Even as environmental organisations in India lambasted U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw from the 195-nation Paris               agreement, India reiterated its commitment to the accord.

•       Prime Minister Narendra Modi reaffirmed India’s commitment to reducing carbon emissions under the Paris pact, as he invited global                   businesses to invest in the world’s fastest growing economy, saying “sky is the limit” for them.

•       Some days ago, Mr. Modi had said in Germany that failing to act on climate change would be “morally criminal.”

•       About 31% of the world’s “multidimensionally poor” children live in India, according to a new report by the Oxford Poverty and Human                   Development Initiative (OPHI).

•       “In terms of countries, fully 31% of the 689 million poor children live in India, followed by Nigeria (8%), Ethiopia (7%) and Pakistan (6%),”              noted the survey, titled ‘Global Multidimensional Poverty Index [MPI], 2017’.

•       OPHI is an economic research centre at the Oxford University, led by Professor Sabina Alkire, and the study is based on a survey                         conducted among 103 countries.

•       A “multidimensionally poor” child is one who lacks at least one-third of ten indicators, grouped into three dimensions of poverty: health,               education and standard of living.

•       The health dimension comprises indicators such as nutrition, child mortality, and education. Under standard of living are indicators such as          access to cooking fuel, improved sanitation, safe drinking water, electricity, flooring, and asset ownership.

•       In terms of the number of such multidimensionally poor children as a proportion of the total population, India stood 37th among 103                       countries. Out of India’s 217 million (21.7 crore) children, 49.9% were multidimensionally poor.

•       However, the survey pointed out that the data for India were “somewhat outdated”, being based on the Indian Human Development Survey         of 2011-2012.

•       In terms of absolute numbers, India accounts for both the highest and a staggering number of multi-dimensionally poor people.

•       Sadly, more than 528 million (52.8 crore) Indians are poor, which is more people than all the poor people living in Sub-Saharan Africa                 combined. It further stated that nearly 50% of the children in 103 countries were multidimensionally poor.

•       As for the intensity of poverty, the average percentage of deprivation in terms of the 10 MPI categories was highest in Sub-Saharan Africa,           where multidimensionally poor children were “simultaneously deprived” in 58% of the indicators.

•       Sub-Saharan Africa was followed by the region described as the Arab States (53%). South Asia occupied the third spot, with children                    deprived in 49% of the MPI indicators.

::International::

• •       The U.S. withdrawal from the Paris climate pact could “in a worst case scenario” add a 0.3 degree Celsius rise in          global temperatures over the 21st century, the UN said.

  •     The head of the WMO's atmospheric research and environment department, Deon Terblanche, underscored, however, that the likely impact of U.S. President Donald Trump’s widely-condemned decision remains far from clear.

  •       “That is the worst case scenario and this is probably not what will happen,” he added.

  •       Under the Paris deal agreed in 2015, world nations vowed steps to keep the worldwide rise in temperatures “well below” two degrees Celsius from pre-industrial times.

::Business and Economy::

• •       NITI Aayog vice chairman Arvind Panagariya said he expects 7.5% growth in the current financial year and possibly a return to the 8% growth rate by the end of the present NDA government’s tenure.

  •       Stressing that India is ‘pretty much out of the woods’ when it comes to the impact of demonetisation on the economy.

  •       Mr. Panagariya said, “Re-monetisation has happened… We should see a good turnaround in the first quarter (of 2017-18).”

  •       The contraction in the construction sector in the last quarter of 2016-17 could be due to many reasons including the war on black money that was the stated goal of demonetisation, he said.

  •       “Our main objective of demonetisation was to curb black money and prices of real estate have fallen by about 20%-25%, which in turn may have impacted construction activity,” he said.

  •       “I have studied the economic history of India… reforms do lead to accelerated growth but with a lag,” he said.

  •       “First, we had a major reform wave under PM Narasimha Rao, which was carried forward by PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee… some acceleration happened early on, but it was in 2003-04 that we got launched into this 8% growth trajectory,” he said.

  •       The government has begun compiling data from this April for a new annual employment survey to capture rural and urban job levels, with quarterly data on urban jobs, said Mr. Panagariya.

  •       Terming all the debate about jobless growth as ‘misplaced’ as there is no credible aggregate data on employment.

  Goods and Services Tax Council to finalise tax rates on goods such as textiles

  •       The Goods and Services Tax Council will meet in the capital to finalise tax rates on goods such as textiles, footwear, gold, beedis and cigarettes, biscuits, bio-diesel, and agricultural implements.

  •       The Council will also discuss the possibility of postponing the rollout of the new tax regime from the current deadline of July 1, according to officials in the Ministry of Finance.

  •       West Bengal Finance Minister Amit Mitra has stressed this week that the state is not entirely prepared to kick off the new tax regime from July.

  •       Finance, Defence and Corporate Affairs Minister Mr. Jaitley, who chairs the GST Council, said that during the last meeting there was almost a complete agreement among states about rolling out the new tax regime from July 1.

  India’s tea output reached a record high in 2016-17

  •       India’s tea output reached a record high in 2016-17 rising by 1.4 % to 1,250.5 million kilogrammes, despite a 7.7 % drop in South Indian tea crop, according to the Tea Board of India. The small tea sector now accounts for 44% of the output.

  •       North Indian tea production increased by 3.4%, with West Bengal being a major contributor with an 8.4% increase to the total output. Total output from North India was 1043.1 million kilogrammes.

  •       The increase came during June, September and November as compared to the same period in 2015-16.

  •       Assam and some of the North eastern states account for 50% of the crop, followed by West Bengal which contributes about 25%. South accounts for a quarter of the output.

  •       A clearer picture of the production share of the small tea growers emerged in 2016-17 following new norms for filing information.

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