Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 19 August 2018


Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 19 August 2018


::NATIONAL::

Relief works to begin soon as water recedes in kerala

  • After five days of extremely heavy rain and floods that ravaged several parts of Kerala, Sunday brought respite following a gradual decrease in rainfall and receding water levels in the flood-affected areas, particularly Chengannur and Chalakudy.
  • Chief Minister PinarayiVijayan, who said rescue operations were in the final round, said priority would now be given to providing safe drinking water and restoring electricity and water supply. A total of 7,24,649 displaced persons have been housed in 5,645 relief camps, he told reporters.
  • The Health Department opened a control room in the office of the Director of Health Services to coordinate the functioning of various medical camps and prepare for possible outbreak of contagious diseases.
  • The Indian Air Force (IAF) said it had flown over 288 sorties and 537 survivors were rescued by winching with Airfields of Sulur, Thiruvananthapuram and Kochi (Garuda) as the centre of flying activity with extensive dawn-to-dusk operations.
  • Rescue and Relief Operations are continuing in full swing. Thousands of personnel of Indian Navy, Air Force, Army, NDRF and CAPFs are engaged in the rescue, relief and evacuation operations in Kerala with the support of dozens of helicopters, aircrafts, hundreds of motorboats. The Operations will continue till the situation becomes normal.

More than 6000 people applied for lateral entry in government services

  • More than 6,000 candidates have shown interest in 10 posts of Joint Secretaries in the Central government, offered to private sector specialists as part of the Modi government’s bid to bring in fresh talent in bureaucracy, officials said on Sunday.
  • The Personnel Ministry had recently announced recruitment of 10 Joint Secretaries in select government departments through “lateral entry” mode, thus allowing private sector talents to join the government on contractual basis.
  • The posts are in revenue, financial services, economic affairs, agriculture and farmers’ welfare, road transport and highways, shipping, environment, forest and climate change, new and renewable energy, civil aviation and commerce departments. The deadline to apply for the posts was July 30.
  • There are a maximum of 1,100 applicants against one post, depending on the department concerned. The minimum applications for a post is 290.

::ECONOMY::

Former CEA says India will maintain 7.5% growth

  • India’s economic growth seems to be back on a recovery path and the country will be on a firm 7.5%-plus growth track this fiscal, former Chief Economic Adviser (CEA) ArvindVirmani said on Sunday.
  • “Domestically, the main risk to macro stability is politically-driven government consumption spending at the cost of investment and fiscal prudence. If this temptation is resisted, the country will be back on a firm 7.5%-plus growth track this year (fiscal),” Mr.Virmani told PTI in an interview.
  • He noted that the rise in oil prices due to geopolitical factors like sanctions on Iran by the U.S. is, however, a concern.
  • Replying to a query on the U.S.-China tariff war, the economist said it will have some short term disruptive effects on the global economy. “The U.S.-China tariff war, however, provides an opportunity to increase India’s exports to the U.S. and to attract labour-intensive elements of the global supply chain unsettled by higher ‘China risk’ to India,” Mr.Virmani observed.
  • He said that every government pushes up what are referred to as populist expenditure in the year leading up to the election. “The test is if they keep it modest and don’t disturb the trend in fiscal responsibility. There is, therefore, always a risk of fiscal slippage,” he said

Current account deficit to widen as per Moody’s analytics

  • India’s current account deficit (CAD) will widen to 2.5% of the GDP in the current fiscal due to the higher oil prices that has been accentuated by rupee depreciation, Moody’s and other experts said.
  • The rupee last week slid to a record low of 70.32 to a U.S. dollar as political turmoil in Turkey and concerns about China’s economic health continued to support safe-haven assets and weighed on emerging market currencies.
  • Joy Rankothge, Vice President - Senior Analyst, Moody’s Investors Service said while the weaker rupee will benefit exports at the margins, it is unlikely to reverse the trade deficit, which hit a five-year high of $18.02 billion in July.
  • On the negative side it will increase the oil import bill leading to higher current account deficit. Also, costly oil import would seep into the economy via higher inflation, make infra and other projects, which have a large import content, expensive and will even make critical imported defence items more expensive,” Mr.Sinha said.
  • Mr.Sinha said the trade position may worsen in the short term because of the oil/other items import bill rising immediately, while the benefit of export competitiveness benefiting the economy would largely be in the medium to long term.

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::INTERNATIONAL::

Afghan president declares new ceasefire with Taliban

  • Afghan President Ashraf Ghani declared a provisional three-month ceasefire with the Taliban in a televised broadcast on Sunday, but said the truce would hold only if the insurgents reciprocated.
  • The announcement followed a bloody week of fighting across Afghanistan which saw the Taliban launch a massive assault against the provincial capital Ghazni — just a two-hour drive from Kabul.
  • Anticipation had been mounting ahead of Mr.Ghani’s speech following mixed signals from the presidential palace over whether the government would offer a fresh ceasefire, following a brief truce earlier this year.
  • The President’s announcement was immediately welcomed in neighbouring Pakistan, which has long been accused of fostering links with the Taliban’s leadership and providing sanctuary to its fighters.

Another Quake hits Indonesia

  • A strong 6.3-magnitude earthquake rocked the Indonesian island of Lombok on Sunday, sending people fleeing into the streets just two weeks after a quake which killed more than 460 people.
  • The quake was centred west-southwest of Belanting town in East Lombok, the U.S. Geological Survey said, at a relatively shallow depth of seven kilometres.
  • There were no immediate reports of deaths or injuries from the latest tremor. “The earthquake caused people to panic and flee their houses,” national disaster agency spokesman SutopoPurwoNugroho told Metro TV.
  • The tremor was also felt in the island’s capital Mataram and on the neighbouring resort island of Bali.

::SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY::

India-thailand joint military exercise concludes

  • Exercise Maitree 2018, a two week long platoon level joint military exercise between Indian Army and Royal Thai Army culminated on 19 August 2018. The Exercise Maitree is an annual event designed to strengthen the partnership between Royal Thai Army and Indian Army and the exercise commenced on 06 August 2018 in Thailand.
  • The exercise began with a cross training period involving familiarization training between two armies to evolve drills and procedures involved in counter insurgency & counter terrorist operations in urban, rural and jungle terrain under UN mandate.
  • The exercise culminated with a 72 hour joint exercise on planning and execution of series of tactical operations like raid, pursuit, establishing Military Check Post and cordon and search operations.
  • Both the armies immensely benefitted from each other’s expertise and experience in conduct of tactical level counter terrorist operations. The exercise helped in enhancing the cooperation between two armies & bonhomie between troops.

Scientists to track migration patterns of basking sharks

  • The sight of a basking shark’s brooding silhouette gliding through the waters off western France is more than just a rare treat for sailors — it is a boon for scientists trying to trace its secretive migrations across the globe.
  • It may be the world’s second largest fish, growing to more than 10 metres, but the basking shark, or Cetorhinusmaximus , is an enigma for scientists eager to help preserve the plankton-eating giant after centuries of overfishing.
  • Hunted voraciously for its massive fin — highly prized for sharks’ fin soup in China — as well as its oily liver and meat, global population of basking shark declined precipitously during the 20th century. The species has struggled to recover because of slow reproduction rates.
  • Using new tracking technology, APECS researchers monitoring sharks when they are near the water’s surface have discovered evidence of a much greater migratory range than previously thought.
  • APECS also relies on crowd-sourced information from divers, sailors and other members of the public. Alain Quemere sighted a basking shark during a fishing trip in the Glenan archipelago and reported details to APECS, enabling a research team to track and fit it with a satellite tracker.

::SPORTS::

PM congratulates BajrangPunia

  • The Prime Minister, ShriNarendraModi has congratulated BajrangPunia on winning Gold in 65 kg freestyle wrestling at Asian Games 2018.
  • This win is even more special because it is India's first Gold in the Asian Games-2018. Best wishes for your future endeavours”, the Prime Minister said.

First transgender referee takes charge in England

  • A transgender referee was to set to take charge of a football match in England on Sunday in what was hailed by the British press as a first.
  • People will be a bit shocked when I run on to the pitch,” Lucy Clark, 46, formerly known as Nick, said.Semi-professional referee Clark, a taxi driver from Surrey, southwest of London, is married with three children.

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