Current Affairs for IAS Exams – 28 November 2015

:: National ::

Asserting his government’s commitment to the Constitution, Prime Minister Narendra Modi told Parliament that the religion of the government was “India first” and the Constitution its “holy book.”
Mr. Modi's address in the Lok Sabha came as part of the commemoration of the Constitution to mark the 125th birth anniversary year of the chairman of its drafting committee Dr. B.R. Ambedkar
Debate coincided with a debate on “intolerance” and secularism outside Parliament.
Reaching out to the Opposition, Mr. Modi said consensus was more important than majority rule.
The government is looking to pass crucial Bills like the Goods and Services Tax Bill – which re-quires a constitutional amendment – in the ongoing winter session of Parliament and needs to get a belligerent Opposition on board.
Picking holes in the present debate on secularism, Finance minister said that if the House had again become the Constituent Assembly and Dr. Ambedkar had proposed Articles 44 (uniform civil code) and Article 48 (ban on cow slaughter) today, “how would this House have reacted?”
He added that the governments of Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi had written to States to implement Article 48 and but for Kerala and West Bengal the others responded by banning cow slaughter.

Soon you would no longer need your wallet to pay the delivery boy for your LPG cylinder. For the first time in the country, paying for your gas cylinder is set to go online.
Not just that, there are also go-ing to be LPG “smart cards” that could be used for booking a cylinder.
The project of going cashless across the country for LPG cylinders is in the pipeline and will be launched shortly.
Through this, a consumer will be able to pay for LPG cylinders online in just a few steps. Indane consumers will first have to log in to indane.co.in and then book a cylinder.

The newly adopted Constitution of Nepal might undergo the first round of amendments if the latest round of consultations being held by former Prime Minister Sushil Koirala becomes successful.
Mr. Koirala, who was away in the U.S. for treatment, returned on Thursday and summoned Mahanta Thakur, chairperson of Tarai Madhesh Loktantrik Party, for a meeting.
Following the meeting, Mr. Thakur told The Hindu from Kathmandu that Mr. Koirala has requested for all Madhesi parties to come on board for the necessary amendments.
But the dialogue between former Prime Minister Koirala and Mr. Thakur has failed to pacify the more demanding Madhesi leaders.

The four-nation Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Nepal (BBIN) friendship car rally reached Tripura..
The 19-day journey will conclude in Kolkata on December 1. The rally will be flagged of on Saturday morning at Agartala for its final destination after a halt in Bangladesh. 20 small vehicles carrying delegates from the four nations entered Tripura through Churaibari.
The rally got underway at Bhubaneswar on November 14 to follow the routes described in BBIN-Motor Vehicle Agreement signed between the countries at Thimphu in June last to create capable, safe and environment friendly transport in south Asia.
The rally in its journey is covering 4,500 km across three countries — India, Bhu-tan and Bangladesh, but skipped Nepal due to political tension in some areas of the Himalayan nation.

India's agriculture sector is in distress, and with the rise in extreme weather events, farmers have been at the receiving end and hence, they need better protection measures than ever before, said experts at the National Consultation on Crop Loss Estimation, Relief and Com-pensation organised by the Centre for Science and Envi-ronment (CSE).
CSE Director-General Sunita Narain said: “We are seeing an increased severity and frequency of extreme weather events. Farmers in India are facing the double blow of agrarian distress and extreme weather events as a result of climate change. A series of measures including better protection mechanisms are needed to support them.
The report “Lived Anomaly” — on the impact of extreme weather events on farmers and how to enable them to cope with extreme weather events — was re-leased at the event.
Around 62 per cent of India’s people depend on agri-culture. Until the problems of farmers are addressed, the economy will not boom.
one of the biggest blows to farmers in re-cent times was unpredictable rain and sudden variations in weather events.

A government appointed panel will interview candidates next month for the post of Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of India as the term of Urjit Patel, the central bank's incumbent in charge of monetary policy, expires in January.
A central bank Deputy Governor can be appointed for a term with a maximum of five years or till the age of 62, whichever is ear-lier.
Some other candidates will also be interviewed, the sources said. Apart from the all important monetary policy portfolio, Mr. Patel is also in-charge of the economic and policy research department.
The RBI has provision for 12 Executive Directors, which was in-creased from nine following the appointment of three new officials in 2014.
The RBI has four deputy governors and typically two are from the outside, of which traditionally one is a commercial banker and the other an economist.

HSBC Holdings Plc has decided to shut its India private banking operations after a strategic review, a spokesman for the bank said. The private banking customers will be given the option to be a client of HSBC Premier – its global retail banking and wealth management proposition.
The Indian private banking arm of HSBC has about 70 clients who will transferred. HSBC employees about 32,000 in India, and there may not be any lay-of.
HSBC India reported 12 percent dip in pre-tax profit for the January-June period at $335 million due to a fall in the merchant banking, retail banking and wealth businesses.