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Current Affairs for IAS Exams – 06 June 2016

:: National ::

PM Modi signed seven agreements in Qatar

India and Qatar agreed to share intelligence to combat ‘hawala’ transactions and terror financing as the two countries signed seven agreements.
The two sides highlighted the need to “isolate” the sponsors and supporters of terrorism and agreed that urgent action against all such entities which support terrorism and use it as an instrument of policy, must be taken.
Two sides decided to constitute an inter-ministerial high-level joint committee to regularly review all bilateral matters, as well as regional and global issues of mutual interest.
An MoU was signed between the Finance Intelligence Unit-India (FIU) and Qatar Financial Information Unit to share intelligence on illegal movement of money, termed ‘hawala’
There is a lot of money flow and investment from Qatar. A number of black money investigations have taken Indian authorities to Qatar’s shores and the MoU is seen as a move to help combat money offences.
Under this pact, the two sides also agreed to exchange financial intelligence to combat terrorism financing and other economic offences.
They asserted that acts of violence and extremism cannot be justified, regardless of their motivation.

Civil services topper advices to read newspaper regularly

All India Civil Services topper Tina Dabi opines newspaper reading is a must for all the aspirants of all India services.
Ms. Tina said that there were no short-cuts to the examination.
A packed Hari Hara Kala Bhavan listened to her at the felicitation function for achieving the unique feat of first SC/ST candidate to secure first rank in first attempt in the Civil Services examination.
Deputy Chief Minister K. Srihari and former judge Chandraiah said Ms. Tina’s achievement once again proved that given an opportunity anyone can come up trumps.

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:: International ::

Kerry warned against provocative and destabilising act in South-China Sea

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is on visit to Mangolia, sandwiched between undemocratic China and increasingly authoritarian Russia, the desire for deeper relations with US is mutual.
Mr. Kerry’s stop in this nation of 3 million people included heaps of praise for its unlikely democratic story.
But the top American diplomat also pushed for greater transparency in Mongolia, a sensitive issue given the foreign scramble for its rich resource deposits.
He also reached Beijing for annual U.S.-China strategic and economic talks.
Reports are suggesting China may establish an air defence zone in the contested South China Sea.
Mr. Kerry warned against what he said would be a “provocative and destabilising act”.
Such action would raise tension between China and its Asian neighbours, he said, and undermine China’s commitment to diplomatically resolve disputes over islands and maritime claims.
The matter is likely to be a major focus of discussions in the next days.

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:: Business and Economy ::

New base year for IIP and WPI by year end

Government will come out with revised IIP and WPI indices by the end of this year with a new base year of 2011-12 in order to make them more representative of the changing economic scenario.
The present indices of IIP and WPI have base year of 2004-05.
As part of the revision, the basket of items and weightage assigned to different entries on the basis of which indices is computed will be updated, he said.
With the new series in place, both the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) and Wholesale Price Index (WPI) will become more comparable with the GDP numbers than it is currently, he said.
The National Statistical Commission has recommended to revise the base year of all economic indices every five years.
Government had last revised these indices in 2011 with the base year of 2004-05.
In addition to this, the Chief Statistician also informed that the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) is working on bringing out an index for the services sector.

Study shows that India's black economy contracting

Pegging India’s ‘black economy’ at over Rs.30 lakh crore or about 20 per cent of total GDP, a new study said it has been contracting gradually over the years but still remains large.
Besides, a crackdown on black money has made the cost of capital costlier in the black economy with the lending rates having risen to as high as 34 per cent, from about 24 per cent a year ago, as per the study by Ambit Capital Research.
The study said that the crackdown has had some “unintended consequences” in form of an increase in preference for cash in its physical form and a notable decline in the usage of formal banking channels with record low deposit growth
It said the size of the India’s black economy expanded rapidly over the 1970s and 1980s, but since then had been contracting at a gradual pace and is now estimated at USD around 20 per cent of the country’s GDP.
The term ‘black economy’ typically refers to the economic activities outside formal banking channels and include cash transactions in high-value assets like gold and real estate.
A majority of black money is locked up in physical assets such as real estate and gold, it added.
Physical savings instruments have been historically preferred to financial savings instruments in India because purchase of physical assets can be funded using black money, while the purchase of financial assets can not be funded in such a manner due to a strong paper trail.
The report said that since the NDA government assumed power, there had been a clear step-up in checks around gold transactions and it has become increasingly difficult to park unaccounted cash in the form of jewellery or bullion.
Due to various measures taken by the government to tighten the noose around black money, there has been a clear drop in the prices of land and real estate and a decline in the appetite in gold, it said.
The crackdown has, however, resulted in an increase in the preference for cash in physical form and a notable decline in the usage of formal banking channels as evinced by the decline in bank deposits as well as usage of debit cards.

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:: Sports ::

Novak Djokovic completes career slam

Novak Djokovic lauded French Open final victory over Andy Murray as ‘the biggest moment’ of his career.
Murray suffered an eighth Major final defeat in 10 appearances, five of which have been inflicted by Djokovic, but the Briton was quick to lavish praise on his opponent.
In all, eight men have completed the career Grand Slam but even Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Andre Agassi, Roy Emerson and Fred Perry were unable to claim all four at the same time.