Current Affairs for IAS Exams – 12 February 2016

:: NATIONAL ::

The highly elusive ‘gravitational waves’ have finally been detected. Understandably, and justifiably, there is great elation within the global physics community, astro- physicists and cosmologists in particular
After decades of search for these ripples in space-time, which Albert Einstein predicted exactly 100 years ago.
Scientists working with the gigantic optical instruments in the U.S. called LIGO [Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory], have detected signals of gravitational waves emanating from two merging black holes 1.3 billion light years away arriving at their instruments on the Earth.
That is to say, this cataclysmic event of two black holes merging occurred 1.3 b yrs ago, when multi-cellular organisms were just beginning to form on the Earth, the gravitational wavesfrom which are being received now on the Earth.
The announcement was beamed across all the laboratories of the world participating in the LIGO Science Collaboration (LSC). LSC comprises about 1000 scientists from 16 countries.

Lance Naik HanamanthappaKoppad, whose miraculous survival days after an avalanche hit an Army camp on the Siachen Glacier transfixed the nation, died on Thursday morning.
This brought the focus back on the challenges of military deployment on the glacier, with Pakistan indicating that it is willing to consider early de-militarisation.
The soldier of 19 Madras Regiment is survived by his wife and daughter.
Hanamanthappa was rescued alive on Monday, having been buried under 35 feet of snow, along with nine other soldiers.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi led the nation in bidding farewell to Hanamanthappa.

Disappointing results from State Bank of India (SBI), amid global weakness, dragged the BSE Sensex to its lowest close in 21 months.
The benchmark index posted its biggest single-day fall since August 24, 2015, slump- ing 807.07 points, or 3.40 per cent, to 22,951.83 at the close on Thursday.
The broader Nifty fell 239.35 points, or 3.32 per cent, to close at 6,976.35.
Investor sentiment was affected after SBI reported a 62 per cent drop in its net profit to Rs.1,115 crore owing to an increase in bad loans.
The lender saw fresh slippage of more than Rs. 20,000 crore, which took its gross non-performing assets to a staggering Rs.72,792 crore or 5.1 per cent of its total loans.
On BSE, more than 2,400 stocks declined as against 288 gainers. The rupee also weakened 0.45 against the dollar, the most in a month, to close the day at 68.30 amid foreign fund outflows.

For months now the U.S. has insisted there is no military solution to the Syrian civil war, only a political accord be- tween President Bashar Al- Assad and the fractured, divided opposition groups that have been trying to topple him.
But after days of intense bombing that could soon put the critical city of Aleppo back into the hands of Mr. Assad’s forces, the Russians may be proving the U.S. wrong.
There may be a military solution, one senior U.S. Official conceded, “just not our solution”, but that of President Vladimir Putin of Russia.
The Russian military action has changed the shape of a conflict that had efectively been stalemated for years.
Suddenly, Mr. Assad and his allies have momentum, and the U.S.-backed rebels are on the run.
His colleagues in the administration, however, fear that a three-month-long efort to begin the political process is near collapse.
If it fails, it will force Kerry and President Barack Obama, once again, to consider their Plan B: a far larger military effort, directed at Mr. Assad.
At the core of the U.S. strategic dilemma is that the Russian military adventure has been surprisingly effective in helping Mr. Assad reclaim the central cities he needs to hold power, at least in a rump-state version of Syria.

The ongoing clean- up of bank balance sheets will help spur economic growth and improve the lenders’ profitability, Re- serve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Raghuram Rajan said..
The RBI had conducted an asset quality review (AQR) of banks and identified specific accounts, which banks have to identify as non-performing in twoquarters, October-December and January-March.
As a result, bad loans have hit banks’ profitability in the third quarter with most of them posting heavy losses in Q3.
State Bank of India reported 62 per cent drop in its net profit on the back of over Rs. 20,000 crore rise in non-performing loans or bad loans.
Private banks, which are in a much better shape on the asset quality front, saw their business growing much more than their public sector counterpart.
Non-food credit growth from public sector banks, the more stressed part of the system, grew at only 6.6 per cent over the calendar year 2015.
In contrast, non- food credit growth in private sectorbanks was 20.2 %, per cent.
The Indian banking sector is seeing rise in stressed assets over the last three years.
According to RBI data, stressed asset, that is gross NPA plus standard restructured advances, as a percentage of advances moved up to 11.3 per cent as on September 2015 as compared to 9.2 per cent in March 2013.

Sources: Various News Papers & PIB

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