Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 12 NOVEMBER 2018

::NATIONAL::

Election Commission warns political parties on furnishing of false statements

• Candidates with criminal antecedents and their political parties can be charged with contempt of the Supreme Court if they fail to widely publicise the cases against them as prescribed. They may also be penalised for false statements, the Election Commission has said.

• Separate formats have been specified for the candidates and the parties to submit reports about publication of the declaration. The failure of the candidates and the parties to publicise the details in the manner prescribed may be a ground for post-election action like election petition or contempt of court.

• The court has made it mandatory for the candidates and their parties to publish or broadcast details of the cases against them at least three times ahead of elections. The ruling applies to all candidates in the Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Mizoram and Telangana Assembly elections. The parties are also required to upload the details on their websites.

• If anyone furnishes a false statement, the Election Commission can act under various provisions, including Section 171 (G) of the Indian Penal Code that prescribes a fine.

• The Election Commission has received a representation about expenses on television and newspaper advertisements of criminal antecedents, and it may take a decision on Monday

Air Chief Marshall confident about IAF capability in dealing emergencies

• The Indian Air Force is “very much alive” to emerging threats that could arise in the Indo Pacific region, Air Chief Marshal B.S. Dhanoa said Sunday, and asserted that his force was prepared to deal with any challenge to protect India’s national interests.

• He also said there is cause for concern over the rate of modernisation and induction of new equipment in India’s neighbourhood, even as India faces challenges emanating from “unresolved territorial disputes” and “sponsored” non-state and transnational actors. But the IAF is capable of, and is moving ahead, for countering them effectively, he told.

• Referring to India’s immediate security challenges, without naming China and Pakistan, he said, “The current challenges emanate from unresolved territorial issues, sponsored non-state actors and transnational actors who act against national interests through the global commons.

• Air Chief Marshal Dhanoa also made an indirect reference to China’s rapid modernisation of its air force and also about the infrastructure development Beijing has carried out in the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) bordering India.

• In November last year, India, the US, Australia and Japan gave shape to the long-pending “Quad” Coalition to develop a new strategy to keep the critical sea routes in the Indo-Pacific free of any influence.

• Air Chief Marshal Dhanoa said the IAF was adopting a holistic approach in harnessing all available resources at its disposal to deal with various security challenges in a collaborative and cohesive manner.

::ECONOMY::

Experts say RBI reserves belong to the centre ultimately

• The RBI and the government seem to have a problem figuring out what belongs in their respective domains.

• At stake principally, is the disposition of sums parked by the RBI to the tune of roughly Rs. 9,22,000 crore of its surplus under two heads: Foreign Currency and Gold Revaluation Account and the Contingency Fund Account.

• The former comes to Rs. 6,90,000 crore and the latter, another Rs. 2,32,000 crore. The government wants to lay claim to all of it or at least the amount that is accounted for under the head, ‘Contingency Fund’.

• The RBI thinks otherwise and hints darkly of the ‘wrath of the financial markets’ if the government has its way. The policy experts too, have jumped into the fray with prognostications of rampant inflation and other dire consequences for the economy if the government has its way.

• To be fair, the position was reiterated in later years by another RBI-appointed expert committee headed by the noted finance professional and a former member of the RBI Central Board of Governors, Y.H. Malegam.

• Even this committee was tasked to come up with an answer to the accounting question of how to present the future balance sheets of RBI! Put differently, an important question of deciding the disposition of future surpluses of the RBI was dismissed as an arcane aspect of debits and credits of financial transactions of RBI.

• Common citizens and private corporations alike, had suffered a loss on their imports as the RBI intervention had the effect of jacking up the rupee cost of their imports. The litre of petrol that you bought at the petrol bunk cost a little bit extra because RBI’s intervention in the forex market led to the rupee suffering a higher depreciation in its value relative to the dollar, said an expert.

Cotton prices remain firm as season starts

• The cotton season has commenced this year with an unusual trend — prices are up despite new arrivals.The price of the widely-used Shankar 6 variety is Rs. 130.42 a kg against Rs. 105.34 a kg last November.

• Since October 1, when the season started, more than 20 lakh bales are said to have arrived in the market. Trade and industry associations have given varying estimates for cotton production this year (October 2018 to November 2019), with expectations ranging from 343 lakh bales to 380 lakh bales. The daily arrivals of cotton have crossed one lakh bales now and are expected to go up.

• The main cause is the hike in minimum support price (MSP), says P. Nataraj, chairman, Southern India Mills’ Association. The MSP is higher by 26% to 28 % this season, depending on the cotton variety.

• The movement of international prices will also have an impact on the domestic cotton prices. If China levies duty on import of cotton from the US, which is a major cotton producer, it will have an impact on the international and Indian cotton prices.

• The yarn offtake is slow and is likely to revive from next week. Cotton yarn exports were good from April to August (553 million kg between April and August this year compared with 364 million kg during the same period last year).

• Volume of purchase of Indian cotton by the mills will depend on the price movement.

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::INTERNATIONAL::

Trump and Emmanuel Macron agree on revamping European defence

• France’s Emmanuel Macron and U.S. President Donald Trump agreed on Saturday on the need for Europe to bear more of the burden for defence, papering over an earlier Trump tweet that described Mr. Macron’s call for a European army as “very insulting”.

• Meeting for talks at the Elysee ahead of commemorations to mark the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War, Mr. Macron welcomed Mr. Trump with a firm handshake, but there appeared to be less immediate warmth between them than in the past.

• Mr. Macron echoed those sentiments, saying that he wanted Europe to bear a greater share of the defence costs within NATO, a point he has made repeatedly since taking office, alongside calls for Europe to develop its own military capability. “That’s why I do believe my proposals for European defence are totally consistent with that,” Mr. Macron said in English.

• Fresh off U.S. congressional elections that saw his Republican Party’s power eroded, Mr. Trump is in Paris to bolster the U.S.-European alliance during the Armistice commemorations.

• Discussing the threat from cyberhacking and outside meddling in the electoral process, Mr. Macron said Europe needed to protect itself against China, Russia “and even the United States”.

East Ukraine votes for new leaders defying western warnings

• Voters in rebel-held east Ukraine chose new leaders on Sunday after Russia defied Western calls not to sabotage peace talks and Kiev urged fresh sanctions against the Kremlin.

• Washington and Brussels had asked Russia not to hold what they call “illegal” polls, saying they will further hamper efforts to end a conflict that has killed more than 10,000 people since 2014.

• Kiev urged the West to punish Russia for violating a 2015 peace agreement, while President Petro Poroshenko called on east Ukrainians to snub the vote “at gunpoint”.

• But Russia and local authorities rejected the appeals, saying people deserved a chance at a normal life and stressing that the turnout was high.

• Officials said more than 60% of eligible voters had cast their ballots in the Donetsk stronghold as of 1100 GMT, while turnout stood at more than 50% in the Lugansk region.

::SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY::

Researchers develop fabrics that can store charge

• A major factor holding back development of wearable biosensors for health monitoring is the lack of a lightweight, long-lasting power supply. Now, scientists at the University of Massachusetts Amherst in the US have developed a method for making a charge-storing system that is easily integrated into clothing.

• The method uses a micro-supercapacitor and combines vapour-coated conductive threads with a polymer film, plus a special sewing technique to create a flexible mesh of aligned electrodes on a textile backing.

• The resulting solid-state device has a high ability to store charge for its size, and has other characteristics that allow it to power wearable biosensors.

• While researchers have remarkably miniaturised many different electronic circuit components, until now the same could not be said for charge-storing devices.

• Researchers are working on incorporating the new embroidered charge-storage arrays with e-textile sensors and low-power microprocessors to build smart garments that can monitor a person’s gait and joint movements throughout a normal day.

::SPORTS::

India beat West Indies in dramatic last ball finish

• On view was brutal force. The ball was bludgeoned to different corners of the ground. And India sealed another run-chase ...but only after a scare.

• The Delhi duo of Shikhar Dhawan and Rishabh Pant, both left-handers and both explosive, cut loose when the match seemed in the balance.

• Then came a twist in the tale. Pant (58) was castled by Keemo Paul and it boiled down to five runs off the last over from left-arm spinner Fabian Allen. It became one off three when Allen, holding his nerve, delivered a dot ball and had Dhawan (92) caught in the deep off the fifth.

• It was a dramatic last-gasp conclusion but eventually the blitzkriegs from Dhawan and Pant enabled India complete a 3-0 sweep of the West Indies in the T20I series at the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium on Sunday.

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