Current Affairs for IAS Exams – 20 January 2016

:: NATIONAL ::

IMF cuts world growth forecast third time in a year

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) cut its global growth forecasts for the third time in less than a year, as new figures from Beijing showed that the Chinese economy grew at its slowest rate in a quarter of a century in 2015.
To back its forecasts, the IMF cited a sharp slowdown in China trade and weak commodity prices that are hammering Brazil and other emerging markets.
The Fund forecast that the world economy would grow at 3.4 per cent in 2016 and 3.6 per cent in 2017, both years down 0.2 percentage points from the previous estimates made last October.
IMF report says “Near- term fiscal policy should be more supportive of the recovery, especially through investments that would augment future productive capital”.
The IMF maintained its previous China growth forecasts of 6.3 per cent in 2016 and 6.0 per cent in 2017,which represent sharp slowdowns from 2015.
The IMF projected 7.3 per cent GDP growth for India in 2015-16 and 7.5 per cent in 2016-17, levels unchanged from its outlook released in October. In 2014-15, it estimates, GDP grew 7.3 per cent.
The Union Finance Ministry last November revised downwards its projection for the current financial year to 7.5 per cent after estimates from the Central Statistics office showed that in the first six months, real GDP grew 7.2 per cent, slower than the 7.5 per cent in the corresponding period last year.
In February 2015, it projected that growth would accelerate to 8.1-8.5 per cent. The RBI’s forecast for growth this year is 7.4 per cent.

Lancet and London school hygiene to start a campaign against preventable stillbirths

Concerned over the slow rate at which stillbirths have reduced across the world, the journal, The Lancet, has launched a series of five papers about ending preventable still- births and kick-started a campaign along with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
An estimated 2.6 million third trimester stillbirths occurred in 2015 across the world, or as one of The Lancet articles in the series says. Most still- births (98 per cent) occur in low and middle income countries, The Lancet paper shows.
While the estimates for the causes of stillbirths are often frustrated by various classification systems, in 18 countries with reliable data, congenital abnormalities account only for a median of 7.4 per cent of still- births.
Many disorders associated with stillbirths are potentially modifiable and often coexist — maternal infections,non-communicable diseases, nutrition, lifestyle factors and maternal age older than 35 years.
Prolonged pregnancies, when the baby is not born after 42 weeks of gestation, contribute to 14 per cent of stillbirths.
Causal pathways for stillbirth frequently involve impaired placental function, either with growth restriction, or preterm labour or both.
The journal points out that less than 5 per cent of neonatal deaths and even fewer still births are registered.
Notably, it was in 2011, that The Lancet began its first series on stillbirths, highlighting the rates and causes of still- birth globally, exploring cost-effective interventions to prevent stillbirths (as well as maternal and neonatal deaths), and setting key actions to halve stillbirth rates by 2020.
One of the papers notes that some progress has been made in the measurement of stillbirths since the 2011 The Lancet Still- births Series.
Stillbirths are increasingly counted, which might be partly related to more visible estimates.
India continues to be at the top of the table in the rank for numbers of still-birth in 2015, recording 5,92,100, followed by Nigeria, Pakistan, China and Ethiopia.
Cultural taboos and superstitions often take the blame in the case of stillbirth — in a recent study, 36 per cent of respondents blamed the mother for her life- style or diet, 29 per cent said the baby was never supposed to live and 25 per cent blamed it on witchcraft or evil spirits.

National Family Health Survey-4 indicates improvement in health indicators (Register and Login to read Full News..)

IRCTC puts checks on ticket booking (Register and Login to read Full News..)

:: INTERNATIONAL ::

Syria peace talks may be delayed due to undecided opposition

The United Nations said it was waiting for regional powers spearheading the Syria peace process to agree on who will take part in talks starting in just one week’s time and raised the possibility of a delay.
The peace talks, the first between the Syrian government and the Opposition since 2014, are scheduled to open in Geneva on January 25, but invitations have yet to be sent to the delegations.
The 17 countries pushing for a peace deal, including the United States, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Iran, have been struggling to agree on the list of opposition leaders who will have a seat at the negotiating table.
Saudi Arabia last month hosted a meeting of armed factions and Oppositiongroups to agree on a common platform in negotiations with the Damascus regime, but Russia has said that effort did not include all players.
Moscow wants the moderate Opposition that is closer to President Bashar al-Assad to take part.

U.S. Supreme Court to look into power of U.S. President regarding immigrants (Register and Login to read Full News..)

:: BUSINESS and ECONOMY ::

New growth figures indicates China on the path of economic shift

China’s economy grew by 6.9 per cent last year, in line with the official projection of “around 7 per cent.”
The numbers signalled that the government was on track of transitioning the economy from manufacturing to the lower growth “new normal” path, where consumption and services would dominate.
Though last year’s growth was the slowest since 1990, it nevertheless calmed nerves in the global market, which had feared that the Chinese economy was on the brink of a “hard landing” following the recent mayhem in the stock market and spurts of currency volatility.
Consequently, the data emerging from China’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) triggered a significant rally in industrial commodities, in anticipation that Chinese demand may not be falling as sharply as feared.
Brent crude, the international energy benchmark, which had on Monday dropped to $27.67 a barrel — a 12- year intra-day low — firmed up by 5.5 per cent to reach $30.12, following data from Beijing.
Copper also rose to $4,447 a tonne, after dropping last week nearly to a seven- year low of $4,318.
The NBS figures revealed that China’s GDP stood at around $10.3 trillion. Significantly, the services sector — the indicator of an economic shift from inefficient manufacturing — accounted for 50.5 per cent of the GDP. This was the first occasion that services sector’s contribution had breached the 50 per centmark. Unemployment rate in major cities stood at around 5.1 per cent.
Yet, the figures showed that major hurdles had to be cross- ed before the economy settled along the planned “new normal” path. For instance, industrial output growth slowed to 6.1 per cent year on year from 8.3 per cent in 2014.

India will look towards Africa for Oil and Gas (Register and Login to read Full News..)

:: SPORTS ::

Nadal out of Australian open in First round

Rafael Nadal and Simona Halep went out of the Australian open in the first round.
Nadal was sent packing by fellow spaniard Fernando Verdasco in a five set thriller.
Women no. 2 Halep was defeated by the Chinese qualifier Zhang Shuai.