Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 8 June 2017

Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 8 June 2017

::National::

WHO has divided the drugs into three categories — access, watch and reserve

In an effort to curb antibiotic resistance, the WHO has divided the drugs into three categories — access, watch and reserve — specifying which are to be used for common ailments and which are to be kept for complicated diseases.
Commonly used antibiotics will be available under ‘access’ category; the second line of antibiotics, slightly more potent have been categorised under “watch” and potent drugs to be used only as a “last resort” now fall under the ‘reserve’ category.
This is the biggest revision of the antibiotics section in the 40-year history of the essential medicines list (EML).
The new WHO list should help health system planners and prescribers ensure that people who need antibiotics have access to them, and ensure they get the right one, so that the problem of resistance doesn’t get worse.”

RBI kept the policy repo rate unchanged at 6.25%

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) kept the policy repo rate unchanged at 6.25% and asserted that the current state of the economy did not warrant “premature” policy action that could risk “the loss of credibility.”
The RBI’s six-member Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) said the decision was aimed at ensuring retail inflation stayed close to 4% on a “durable” basis while supporting growth.
Chief Economic Adviser Arvind Subramanian slammed the RBI’s decision and termed real policy rates “tight and rising” at a time of low inflation and slowing growth.
RBI Governor Urjit Patel said the MPC had declined a Finance Ministry invitation to meet ahead of the policy review.
“The meeting did not take place,” he said, asked whether such meetings could undermine the RBI’s autonomy. “All the MPC members declined the request of the Finance Ministry for that meeting.”

India says it is willing to join hands with Pakistan and China to combat terrorism

India says it is willing to join hands with Pakistan and China to combat terrorism.
Astana, Kazakhstan, where India will be admitted as a full member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), the External Affairs Ministry said the fight against terrorism was “incumbent” on all.
Ministry spokesperson Gopal Baglay explaining that counter-terror collaboration with members of the SCO, such as China and Pakistan, was also a possibility.
The comment is significant as full membership will require India to coordinate with member countries both on the trade front in the SCO headquarters in Beijing and at the Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS) based in Tashkent.
Pakistan, which has been an observer of the SCO like India, will join as full member in this summit meeting.
The spokesperson highlighted that the SCO would be an institutional forum where India would cooperate with the neighbours of Afghanistan to establish peace and stability and hold consultation on counter-terror.
Under the framework of the SCO, an annual counter-terror exercise is hosted by a member country. Mr. Srinivas said that as a member country, India could consider participating in it.
Cooperation on counter-terrorism is expected to emerge as a major point of India’s exchange with SCO. Mr. Srinivas said India hoped to benefit from both the wings of the SCO — trade and security.
The Joint Secretary said India’s engagement with SCO would be determined by the 38 documents that it had signed with the multilateral organisation on a whole range of issues.

Sri Lanka says Chinese investment is not against India

Chinese investment in Sri Lanka is reviving a “3,000-5,000-year-old shipping route”, said visiting Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Ravi Karunanayake, defending his government’s decision to join the Belt and Road Initiative.
Colombo hoped for similar investments from India and Japan, and would welcome Indian investment in the “East Terminal” of the Colombo Port, one of two new container terminals to be built in the next phase of the Chinese-built harbour project.
Five consortiums including two with Indian companies, Container Corporation of India and Shapoorji Pallonji Limited, are reported to have filed bids for the project in 2016.
He said that in his talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, he had expressed the desire for an early resolution to the fishermen issue and “bottom-trawling” by Indian fishermen in the Sri Lankan waters.
He also thanked Mr. Modi for India’s assistance during the recent floods in the island.

::International::

Britain will head to the polls as the issue of terrorism continue

Britain will head to the polls as the issue of terrorism continued to dominate the agenda, and as both parties sought to get the upper hand in the debate on security, following three terrorist attacks in the country in as many months.
While Prime Minister Theresa May signalled her party’s willingness to put aside human rights laws in order to be able to bring in greater restrictions on those suspected of being involved in terrorism activities.
Ms. May pledged her party would introduce steps to restrict the movement of terror suspects, even those against whom there was not enough evidence to launch formal prosecutions.
The Conservatives’ manifesto committed the party not to repeal or replace the Human Rights Act while exiting the EU, but says the party would “consider our human rights legal framework when the process of leaving the EU concludes”.
The roller-coaster campaign, which began less than two months ago, has seen a dramatic turnaround in the fortunes of the main parties, and a shift of focus away from the reason for which the election was purportedly called: Britain’s imminent exit from the EU.
Many domestic issues such as the state of the National Health Service and other public services have entered the forefront of the debate.
The campaign has seen intense personalisation too, with the main political parties seeking to attack perceived weaknesses in the top leadership of their opponents.
The Conservatives on the other hand have sought to emphasise the past battles within the Labour Party, which saw a no-confidence vote against Mr. Corbyn brought last year.

::Business and Economy ::

UNCTAD says India to remain top investment destinations

India will remain among the top three investment destinations globally till 2019, according to a survey by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).
UNCTAD’s World Investment Report 2017 also said India ranked 10th in terms of FDI inflows in 2016, with $44 billion coming in, as in 2015.
Over the next two years, India will be behind only the U.S. and China in terms of investment attractiveness, the report added.
In terms of projections for the future, the United States of America, China and India are the top prospective destinations for FDI.
Global foreign direct investment (FDI) is expected to rise by 5%, to almost $1.8 trillion in 2017.
Regarding India, the report noted that although FDI flows had remained the same in 2016 as they were in 2015, there was global interest in mergers and acquisitions in the Indian market.

Task force for employment to submit its report

The task force on employment data set up by PM Modi is likely to submit its report next week and could recommend inclusion of data on jobs created under the government’s employment generation programmes such as MGNREGA and MUDRA.
The revamped data will also use proxies such as vehicle registrations in the country in a year to determine informal job creation in the economy, using the unconventional metric that a few jobs are created with every car sold, said officials aware of the development.
The use of technology such as mobile phones or tablet devices in conducting employment survey by agencies such as NSSO and Labour Bureau is also being explored by the task force led by NITI Aayog vice chairman Arvind Panagariya.
The task force is learnt to have finalised the contours of its report on revamping employment statistics, to be submitted to the Prime Minister’s Office.
Apart from an endeavour to capture informal sector workers in the new employment-unemployment data series, the Centre would also use data from social security schemes such as the Employees’ Provident Fund, National Pension System.
While the enterprise-level quarterly survey may be conducted by Labour Bureau, the annual household survey conducted by the Bureau at present may go.
It will be replaced with a revamped annual household survey which may be conducted by National Sample Survey Office.

Govt does not agree with RBI holding policy rates

The decision by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to keep the policy repo rate unchanged, shrugging off a sharp deceleration in retail inflation, brought to the fore clear signs that the Centre and RBI are not seeing eye-to-eye on interest rates.
RBI Governor Urjit Patel told the media that the members of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) had declined an invitation to meet with Finance Ministry officials ahead of the policy review.
The six-member MPC’s decision to hold rates and retain a “neutral” stance was also the panel’s first to lack unanimity, with one member, Ravindra H. Dholakia, dissenting.
However, the RBI did not specify whether Mr. Dholakia was in favour of cutting or raising interest rates.
Tension had been brewing between the central bank and the Centre for some time over several issues, but the most important disagreement was over the RBI’s views on inflation.
The RBI had, in February, changed its policy stance from ‘accommodative’ to ‘neutral’ due to inflation concerns, surprising many.
While Consumer Price Index (CPI) data released last month showed retail inflation slowed to 2.99% in April, the MPC opined that the question as to whether the unusually low momentum in the reading for April would endure was something that needed to be still assessed.
However, after citing a couple of caveats relating to food and fuel prices, and core inflation, the RBI projected headline inflation to be in the 2.0-3.5% range for the first half of the current fiscal year and 3.5-4.5% in the second half.
Mr. Patel, who has been critical of farm loan waivers announced by some States, cited the risk of fiscal slippages that could entail inflationary spillovers.
The RBI also took steps to boost credit demand. The risk weight and standard asset provision requirement for home loans were pared.
Banks’ statutory liquidity ratio requirement was also cut by 50 bps to 20%, freeing resources.