Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 13 DECEMBER 2018

Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 12 DECEMBER 2018

::NATIONAL::

India to support neighbouring countries to attain SDG’s

Prime Minister NarendraModi has said, India is one of the first countries to advocate focused attention on adolescence and implement a full-fledged health promotion and prevention programme for them.
He said, India stands ready to support its fellow countries in the march to achieving their development goals through skill building and training programmes, providing affordable medicines and vaccines, knowledge transfers and exchange programs.
MrModi stressed on partnerships between citizens, partnerships between communities and partnerships between countries. He said, goals can be achieved through partnership.
Inaugurating the fourth Partners’ Forum in New Delhi today, MrModi said, a lot of interventions required, from bigger budgets to better outcomes and from mindset change to monitoring.
He said, with sustained momentum, and a faster rate of decline during the last few years, India is on course to attend the SDG targets for maternal and child health, much ahead of the agreed date of 2030.
The Prime Minister added that the government is committed to increasing India’s health spending to 2.5 per cent of GDP by 2025, reaching more than 100 billion dollars.
Mr. Modi also said, the government will continue to work for the betterment of people and women. He said, children and youth will remain at the heart of its every policy and programme.

Supreme court extends deadline for submission & claims in NRC

The Supreme Court on Wednesday extended the deadline for submission of claims and objections for inclusion in the Assam National Register of Citizens (NRC) from December 15 to December 31.
A Bench of Chief Justice RanjanGogoi and RohintonNariman also extended the subsequent date for starting the process of verification of the claims and objections from February 1 to February 15.
The court further directed that copies of the draft NRC be made available for inspection at convenient locations, including District Magistrate/Deputy Commissioner, Sub-Divisional (Civil), circle offices and gram panchayats.
It ordered that filing of objections could be done at the district headquarters. It said that if copies of draft NRC were easily available, persons concerned would be able to verify the Application Receipt Numbers (ARNs).
The court further ordered the NRC to accept List B documents that are found to be legally valid, regardless of date of issuance. “Naturally, such acceptance would be on the adequate and full satisfaction of the concerned NRC authority who will be free to act on the basis of such satisfaction,” it observed.
On November 1, the Bench had approved the Centre’s draft Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for submission of claims for inclusion in the NRC. It had kept December 15 as the last date for filing of claims by those excluded from the draft of the NRC published on July 30, 2018.

::ECONOMY::

Govt.considering implementation of swaminathan committee report

Government fixes-the Minimum Support Prices (MSPs) of various agricultural crops on the recommendations of the Commission for Agricultural Costs & Prices (CACP), after ascertaining the views of State Governments and Central Ministries/ Departments concerned.
While recommending MSPs, CACP considers the cost of production and host of factors such as demand-supply situation, trends in domestic and international prices, inter-crop price parity, terms of trade between agricultural and non-agricultural sectors and the likely impact of MSP on consumers and overall economy along with rational utilization of scarce natural resources like land and water.
National Commission on Farmers headed by Dr. M. S. Swaminathan submitted its report in 2006. One of the recommendations of Commission was that MSP should be at least 50 percent more than the weighted average cost of production. This recommendation was not incorporated in the National policy for Farmers 2007.
However, recently Government has increased the MSP for all Kharif and Rabi crops and other commercial crops for the season 2018-19 with a return of atleast 50 percent over cost of production, which was a historic decision by the Government.

SEBI to prescribe guidelines for listing of corporate bonds

As part of its measures to minimise an industry-wide impact of a debt default, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has allowed mutual fund (MF) houses to segregate bad assets — known as side pocketing in industry parlance — in their debt and money market schemes.
The capital markets regulator would also soon prescribe guidelines for uniformity in pricing of corporate bonds and evolve a regulatory framework for such pricing by agencies like CRISIL and ICRA.
Addressing the media, SEBI chairman Ajay Tyagi said that the regulator would soon issue the regulatory framework for such segregation and include safeguards so that it did not in any way lead to fund managers misusing the facility and taking undue risk.
Interestingly, SEBI’s decisions are largely triggered by the developments at IL&FS, which has defaulted on its various repayment obligations, leading to a liquidity crisis across segments like mutual funds and non-banking financial companies.
The regulator has also expanded the universe of companies for whom the Offer For Sale (OFS) mechanism is available. Shareholders of any company with a market capitalisation of over Rs. 1,000 crore would be able to use the OFS mechanism instead of the current limit of the top 200 companies.
For the commodity derivatives market, the regulator has allowed custodial services that would enable institutional participation in the segment. In this regard, the regulator has approved the amendment of SEBI (Custodian of Securities) Regulations 1996.

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::INTERNATIONAL::

Wikramasinghe wins confidence vote in srilankan parliament

A majority of Sri Lankan parliamentarians — including 14 from the opposition Tamil National Alliance (TNA) — on Wednesday voted for ousted Prime Minister RanilWickremesinghe as their preferred candidate to serve in the post.
The motion moved by SajithPremadasa, deputy leader of Mr. Wickremesinghe’s United National Party (UNP), sought to demonstrate the support that the deposed leader has in the House.
Mr. Sirisena’s refusal to work with Mr. Wickremesinghe is at the heart of the political crisis gripping Sri Lanka for seven weeks now. In a widely-contested decision on October 26, Mr. Sirisena installed former President MahindaRajapaksa as Prime Minster, abruptly replacing Mr. Wickremesinghe.
Mr. Rajapaksa has since lost two confidence votes in Parliament, but has refused to accept them citing “breach of parliamentary procedure.”The bitter power struggle, which Mr. Sirisena maintains is “nothing personal”, has left the country without a legitimate government for weeks.
A majority of MPs have challenged his actions as executive president, in the legislature and in courts. Later this week, the Supreme Court may deliver a verdict on President Sirisena’s controversial dissolution of parliament that petitioners have called “illegal.”

India to support reconstruction & economic development in Myanmar

President Ram NathKovind has reiterated India's readiness to offer assistance to Myanmar in addressing its challenges of national reconciliation, reconstruction and economic development during its transition towards democracy.
Addressing a gathering of the Indian community in Yangon, MrKovind said that New Delhi fully respects the unity and territorial integrity of Myanmar, which is also important for Indian and regional security.
In his address, President extended India's full support to the peaceful dialogue between all stakeholders in Myanmar to make the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement more inclusive. He reminded that terrorism and violent extremism are among the biggest dangers to humankind, especially the democracies with diversity.
He urged the countries for greater cooperation and capacity sharing in the light of the increased competition for the global commons such as outer space, the high seas and cyberspace.
Myanmar considers India's security concerns very seriously and is eager to take the relations to new heights. He added that New bus service between Mandlay and Manipur is going to start soon.
He also mentioned that visa on arrival facility for Indian fliers to Myanmar has been brought into force with immediate effect, crucial for people to people contact.

::SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY::

India gets new submarine rescue system

The Indian Navy joined a select group of naval forces in the world on Wednesday when it inducted its first non-tethered Deep Submergence Rescue Vehicle (DSRV) system at the Naval Dockyard in Mumbai. The DSRV is used to rescue crew members from submarines stranded under water in the high seas.
The DSRV can be operated at a depth of 650 metres and can rescue 14 people at a time. The state-of-the-art system is also equipped with a decompression chamber that can accommodate submariners and a remotely operated vehicle (ROV), which can be used to beam images and provide immediate assistance. The Western Naval Command had recently successfully held trials with actual simulations with different classes of submarines.
The DSRV can also be transported by air, enabling it to conduct rescue operations across the globe. “Our endeavour is to train our crew to provide submarine rescue services in the Indian Ocean region and beyond,” Admiral Lanba said.
In March 2016, the Indian Navy had signed a Rs. 2,000 crore contract with the U.K.-based James Fisher Defence (JFD) for two submarine rescue systems as well as maintenance for 25 years. Admiral Lanba said the second system would be inducted in April and would be based at the Eastern Naval Command in Vishakapatnam.
The Indian Navy has also signed a Rs. 9,000 crore contract with the Hindustan Shipyard Limited for two ships, which would serve as the dedicated mother ships for the submarine rescue system, the first of which is expected to arrive by 2022.

::SPORTS::

Viratkohli maintains top spot in ICC rankings

In the latest ICC cricket rankings, India Captain ViratKohli maintains his top spot.
CheteshwarPujara's knocks of 123 and 71 were the cornerstone of India's victory in the opening Test against Australia at the Adelaide Oval.
This has given him the career-best ranking to top five. India fast bowler Bumrah has achieved a career-high ranking of 33rd, after his three for 47 and three for 68 at Adelaide which helped him to rise five places.