Current Affairs for IAS Exams – 14 December 2016

:: National ::

Centre to bear the cost of digital payments on PSUs

The Centre has decided to bear the burden imposed on public sector firms on account of the many dis-counts and incentives offered to promote digital payments.
The plan is to create a new expenditure head in the exchequer's accounts that will absorb the costs of such measures. Public sector insurers, oil-marketing firms and others will thus not take a hit on their books for the Centre's cashless push.
The government has offered many discounts on transaction charges and mer-chant discount rates that ac-company payments using cards or online.
Going forward, all government organisations, public sector under-takings and authorities have been advised to support digital payments, adopt payment-related solutions and absorb transaction fees through the ‘Pay Gov India'.
Most important, however, “all geographical areas across the country have been mapped with banks/bank mitras and ‘dark/grey spots' (where there are no banks or even banking cor-respondents) identified.
A non-tax receipt portal, bharakosh.gov.in, has been developed to enable users to make non-tax payments to the government for 237 categories including spectrum charges, RTI application fees, and purchase forms on-line, without going to either a bank or a government office.

All exemptions on old Rs. 500 ends on 14th

With all exemptions ending on 14th Dec, the use of old Rs. 500 banknotes will completely stop now.
They will no longer be accepted at government hospitals, pharmacies, government-run milk booths, crematoria, burial grounds and other places where they have been accepted as a special case.
Similarly, purchases at consumer cooperative stores (up to Rs. 5,000 as one-time payment), and for making payment for seeds from public sector outlets will not be permitted with the old Rs. 500 notes.
Other exemptions that will cease include: payment of government school fees up to Rs. 2,000 a student, fees for government colleges, court fees and pre-paid mobile top-ups up to Rs. 500 per top-up.
Payment for buying entry tickets to any monument maintained by the Archaeological Survey of India and for paying any fees, charges, taxes payable to the government along with utility payments will have to be made with new currency notes.
National highway toll plazas will stop accepting the old Rs. 500 notes for making payments above Rs. 200. The Centre had stopped the use of old Rs. 1,000 notes with effect from November 24.
The government had further discontinued the use of the old Rs. 500 notes at railway ticketing counters, ticket counters of government-run buses, for making payments for railway catering services, and for the purchase of suburban and metro rail tickets from December 10 onwards.
Over-the-counter exchange of old Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000 notes at bank and post office counters too have been stopped. Instead, old notes can only be deposited in bank accounts.

Parliamentary Standing committee on finance asked Urjit Patel to appear (Register and Login to read Full News)

:: International ::

Rex Tillerson to be next Secretary of State for U.S.

Rex Tillerson, the chief executive of petroleum multinational ExxonMobil, will be the U.S. Secretary of State under the incoming President Donald Trump.
The selection of Mr. Tiller-son, who has close ties with Russia and President Vladimir Putin, portends a significant deviation from the U.S. foreign policy.
The announcement came close on the heels of a dis-closure by the Central Intelligence Agency that the Russian government authorised cyberattacks on the U.S. in order to facilitate Mr. Trump's election.
Mr. Trump has ridiculed the claim, even as Congressional leaders of both parties called for an investigation.
The latest addition to it could set the Trump administration on a collision course with some Republican and Democratic leaders in Congress and the U.S. strategic policy establishment, all of who consider Russia inimical to the U.S. interests.
The Secretary of State requires confirmation by the Senate. Mr. Tillerson has never held any public office and little is known about his views on international affairs.
But the 64-year-old has developed ties with leaders of many countries in his 40-year career.
Under him, ExxonMobil turned around to accept that climate change is real, and it issued a statement in support of the Paris Climate Agreement. The company also favours a carbon tax now.

:: Business and Economy ::

CPI reached its lowest figures in two-years

Retail inflation eased significantly in November, with the Consumer Price Index (CPI) growing just 3.63 per cent, its slowest rate in two years, due to a sharp slowdown in food inflation.
Slowing since July Growth in the CPI was 4.2 per cent in October, and has been steadily slowing since July, when it was 6 per cent.
This was mostly due to food inflation, which registered its fourth consecutive month of slowdown, coming in at 2.56 per cent in November from eight per cent in July.
The Reserve Bank of India had, in its latest policy re-view, kept interest rates un-changed citing concerns over the possibility of firm-ing oil prices fuelling higher inflation.
However, this did not come to pass, with consumer inflation trending down-wards consistently, and economists predicting a rate cut in the next policy review in February.
While the demonetisation of high-value currency notes has hit consumption expenditure, core inflation has largely remained stable. The main effect of this will be felt over the rest of the quarter, according to economists.
The fall in retail inflation seems to be on the back of a favourable base effect coupled with some down-side due to the move to de-monetise. Core inflation has largely remained stable indicating no immediate impact from demonetisation.
November from seven per cent in October. Inflation in the clothing and footwear category slowed to five per cent in November from 5.24 per cent in October.
The fuel and light category saw inflation slowing marginally, at 2.8 per cent in November compared with 2.9 per cent in October. The housing segment, similarly, saw inflation slowing to 5.04 per cent from 5.15 per cent over the same period.
Overall, the (core inflation) number is likely to re-main below the RBI's threshold of 5 per cent for March 2017 in the coming months and should pave the way for another 25 bps cut in the coming months.