Current Affairs for IAS Exams – 30 June 2016

:: National ::

More than one crore government employees to get hike

Govt announced an overall increase of 23.5 per cent for over one crore government employees and pensioners in line with the Seventh Pay Commission’s recommendations.
The hikes will come with the August paychecks and be paid with effect from January 1, 2016. The arrears for the six months will be disbursed during the current financial year (2016-17) itself.
In November 2015, within the overall hike of 23.55-per cent, the pay panel had recommended increases of 16% in pay and 24 per cent in pensions.
The starting salary for new recruits at the lowest level has been raised to Rs. 18,000 from Rs. 7,000 per month.
Freshly recruited Class I officers will receive Rs. 56,100. This reflects a compression ratio of 1:3.12 signifying that the pay of a Class I officer on direct recruitment will be three times the pay of an entrant at the lowest level.
The approved maximum pay, drawn by the Cabinet Secretary, is Rs. 2.5 lakh per month (against the current Rs. 90,000), higher than the salaries drawn by MPs.
To examine the concerns employees have raised, the Union Cabinet decided to set up four committees: The first will look into the implementation issues anticipated and the second one will go into the likely anomalies.
Another one will further examine the recommendations on allowances, which have largely been kept on hold. The fourth will suggest measures for streamlining the National Pension System.
In a rationalisation exercise, the Commission suggested abolishing 51 and subsuming of 37 of the existing 196 allowances.

World bank President to meet PM

World Bank President Dr. Jim Yong Kim visited an anganwadi centre to weigh India’s intervention aimed at childhood stunting.
Dr. Kim will meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi, to get a stronger commitment for scaling up investments to fight child malnutrition.
“In just about every developing country, there is not enough appreciation of investing in health, education, social security and economic growth.”
“Most of the FDI is coming into India on the assumption that there will be a workforce able to take them into the next generation.”
The latest data from the fourth round of National Family Health Survey (NFHS), released earlier this year, showed that 37 per cent of children under the age of five are stunted.
The data was released for 15 States and points to a slow reduction in malnourishment, with a fall of just five percentage points in a decade.
While Delhi – one of the better performing States — has nearly 30% stunted children, States like Bihar and Madhya Pradesh are the worst off, with 48 and 42 per cent respectively of children stunted. “
The World Bank is recommending that stunting figures from all countries be shared annually at the World Economic Forum, to keep Finance Ministers committed to ensuring that economic progress translated to countries achieving health targets.

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:: International ::

EU meet first time without Britain

Britain got its first taste of a future outside the EU as Europe’s leaders met without Prime Minister David Cameron and warned London must accept EU migrants to win access to the bloc's free trade zone.
European leaders gathering without a British representative for the first time in 40 years poured cold water on the chance of Britain gaining no-strings-attached access to the huge EU single market of 500 million people.
The statement was a blow to “Brexit” campaigners, who promised to restrict large-scale EU migration to Britain while assuring British companies would still be able to easily sell goods and services to the continent.
“If Britain wants to have common market access, like Norway for example, then the U.K. will have to respect the free movement of goods, capital, people and services,” he said.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has also warned that London cannot not “cherry-pick” the terms of the exit negotiations.
Mr. Cameron has resisted pressure to immediately activate the Article 50 mechanism to leave the EU, saying he is leaving it to his successor, who will not be named until September 9.
EU leaders say that until this notification is made, no talks can begin—formally or informally—on resetting Britain’s ties with the EU, a process meant to last two years.

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:: Business and Economy ::

Centre is planning a special package for leather sector

The Centre is planning a special package, incorporating labour reforms, subsidies and duty incentives, for the leather sector to boost investment, jobs and exports.
The move comes after a similar package was unveiled for the textile industry on June 23 to enable it to compete globally. About 2.5 million people are employed in the $12 billion leather industry.
The sector, like textiles, predominantly employs women. To increase productivity, the leather sector package may include labour reforms similar to those introduced in the textiles package.
India accounts for about 10 per cent of the world’s leather production, and is the world’s second largest producer of leather garments and footwear.
The current ILDP scheme would be in place till March-end 2017 and any changes to ILDP or a new package is likely to be implemented only in the next fiscal.
The ILDP, introduced in January 2014, was aimed at “augmenting raw material base through modernisation and technology upgradation of leather units, addressing environmental concerns, human resource development, supporting traditional leather artisans, addressing infrastructure constraints and establishing institutional facilities.”
The leather industry package may include higher incentives under the Duty Free Import Scheme (DFIS).
Under DFIS, a manufacturer-exporter or a merchant exporter having a tie-up with a supporting manufacturer is currently allowed duty-free import of inputs up to three per cent of the value of exports realised in the previous year.
The package may also include greater sops under the ILDP. Currently, ILDP provides up to 30 per cent subsidy on the cost of plant and machinery for micro and small enterprises and 20 per cent subsidy to other units.
The subsidy has a ceiling of Rs.2 crore for each product line. In the new package, this ceiling could either be done away with or enhanced.
The package may include higher subsidy for setting up of mega leather clusters to create world-class infrastructure, and for upgradation or installation of Common Effluent Treatment Plants.