Current Affairs for IAS Exams – 30 August 2016

Current Affairs for IAS Exams – 30 August 2016

:: National ::

Situations slowly eases in Kashmir valley

  • With an all-party delegation headed by Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh set to visit Kashmir Valley on September 4, lifting of curfew and security restrictions eased life for locals for the first time in 51 days.

  • Police said the curbs were withdrawn in the wake of “improvement in the situation.” Of 10 districts in the Valley, only Pampore town in south Kashmir and two police station areas in Srinagar city continued to remain under curfew.

  • Private vehicles plied in the commercial hub of Lal Chowk, where many government offices and banks resumed functioning.

  • However, shops, petrol pumps, business establishments and educational institutes remained closed in response to the separatists’ shutdown call till September 1.

  • Mr. Singh will head an all-party delegation to J&K for a dialogue with stakeholders to restore normality in the Valley, where the killing of militant commander Burhan Wani on July 8 sparked a cycle of violence.

  • Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti said Prime Minister Narendra Modi had the mandate “to take bold decisions on the lines of Vajpayeeji”.

  • “A credible mechanism for dialogue, reconciliation and resolution needs to be put in place. It should not be half-hearted efforts made in similar situations after the 2008 and 2010 unrests,” she added.

India said it would support Myanmar in all its endeavours

  • Expressing solidarity with the new government of Myanmar, India said it would support “all its endeavours.”

  • In a wide-ranging discussion with the Myanmarese President U. Htin Kyaw, who chose India as the first foreign destination, PM Modi said India would stand with Myanmar at “every step” as it opened a new chapter.

  • Chief among the MOUs signed by the two sides was the agreement on construction of 69 bridges, including approach roads in the Tamu-Kyigone-Kalewa section of the Trilateral Highway.

  • The other significant agreement was on the upgrade of the Kalewa-Yagyi road section.

West Bengal Legislative Assembly passed a resolution changing the name of the State

  • The West Bengal Legislative Assembly on Monday passed a resolution changing the name of the State to Bengal in English and Bangla in Bengali.

  • Despite the Trinamool Congress government’s strong efforts to forge a consensus on the name change resolution, the Congress, the Left Front and the BJP did not support the resolution.

  • Consent of the Parliament is necessary to effect the name change. After a vociferous debate, the resolution, under Rule 169 of the rules of procedures of the House, was passed by a voice vote.

Centre moves on vote totaliser machines (Register and Login to read Full News..) 

Expert committee on use of pellet guns has submitted its report to the Home Ministry (Register and Login to read Full News..) 

:: International ::

China continues to deepen its economic relationships with Afghanistan

  • China has flagged its second train to Afghanistan — this time to the commercial hub of Mazar-e-Sharif — as part of its deepening economic and security engagement with Kabul.

  • The state-run Xinhua news agency reported that the Afghanistan-bound train began its 15-day journey from the eastern city of Yiwu, home to the world’s leading small commodities market, on Sunday.

  • The train, hauling 100 containers of goods worth more than $4 million, will arrive at Mazar-e-Sharif via Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. A single trip is 7,500 km and takes 15 days, half the time needed for maritime transportation.

  • The northern Afghan city of Mazar-e-Sharif is a key commercial centre near the border with Uzbekistan.

  • China had sent its first cargo train to Hairatan in Afghanistan. The train that left China’s eastern city of Nantong is crossing the Alataw pass on the China-Kazakhstan border before heading into Uzbekistan towards Termez.

Boost to India’s diplomatic outreach for the Bay of Bengal economic zone (Register and Login to read Full News..) 

:: Business and Economy ::

Reserve Bank of India Governor says economic growth showing signs of picking up

  • Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan observed that economic growth while showing signs of picking up was still below the level the country was capable of.

  • On inflation, however, the outgoing central bank governor said projections were still at the upper limit of the RBI’s inflation objective, constraining space for a reduction in interest rates.

  • “The key weakness is in investment, with private corporate investment subdued because of low capacity utilisation, and public investment slow in rolling out in some sectors.”

  • The governor hoped that monsoon rains, which have been normal so far this year, coupled with implementation of the recommendations of the Seventh Pay Commission, would boost consumer demand.

  • In the annual report, the central bank said the near term domestic outlook appears ‘somewhat’ brighter than the outcome for 2015-16.

  • It said while a durable pick-up in investment activity remains elusive, consumption will continue to be the main support to aggregate demand.

  • Mr. Rajan, however, sounded cautious on inflation. Inflation projections were still at the upper limit of the RBI’s objective and room for a rate cut would emerge as inflation slowed.

  • He reiterated that the short-term macroeconomic priorities of RBI continue to be to focus on bringing down inflation towards the government-set target of 4 per cent.

  • Mr. Rajan also observed that the willingness of banks to cut lending rates was muted and there was a reluctance to lend to industry and small businesses among the more stressed public sector banks compared with the private sector banks.

  • RBI reiterated that it would continue to monitor banks’ asset quality issues in 2016-17. Banks have suffered heavy losses in recent times after the banking regulator forced them to classify many accounts as non-performing.

:: Sports ::

President honoured athletes

  • President Pranab Mukherjee honoured the medallists from Rio — P.V. Sindhu and Sakshi Malik — apart from Olympic finalists, Dipa Karmakar and Jitu Rai, with the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award.

  • While Sindhu and Sakshi with their medals were assured of the award, Dipa’s good work — she finished fifth in the World Championship and fourth in the Olympics, an unprecedented achievement for an Indian gymnast.

  • Even if there had been no Olympics, shooter Jitu Rai would have walked away with the award as he had won everything in the last three years, including the World Championship silver and the Asian Games gold.

  • The Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award, given for the first time to four at a time, carries with it a cash prize of Rs.7.5 lakh each.

  • Lalita Babar, who made the final in the women’s 3000m steeplechase, boxer Shiva Thapa, hockey players Rani Rampal and V.R. Raghunath, shooters Gurpreet Singh and Apurvi Chandela, table tennis player Soumyyajit Ghosh and wrestler Vinesh Phogat were the other Olympians, to get the Arjuna Award.

  • The Dronacharya Award was presented to Raj Kumar Sharma, the coach of Virat Kohli, Nagapuri Ramesh, athlete Dutee Chand’s coach, Bishweshwar Nandi (Dipa’s coach), and Sagar Mal Dhayal in boxing.

  • Swimming coach S. Pradeep Kumar and wrestling coach Mahabir Singh were chosen in the ‘lifetime achievement’ category.

  • The Dhyan Chand Award was presented to S. Geetha in athletics, Sylvanus Dung Dung in hockey and Rajendra Prahlad Shelke in rowing. All the awards carry a cash prize of Rs. 5 lakh.

Good news for yogeshwar dutt (Register and Login to read Full News..) 

Click Here to Register for Full News

Click Here for Archive

Sources: Various News Papers & PIB

This is a Part of Online Coaching Programme for IAS Exam

Buy Printed Study Material for IAS Pre General Studies (Paper-1)

Join Online Test Series for IAS (Pre.) Exam