Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 21 July 2018

::NATIONAL::

The Supreme Court collegium has reiterated its recommendation to appoint Uttarakhand High Court Chief Justice K.M. Joseph as a Supreme Court judge.
The collegium, led by Chief Justice DipakMisra, stood firm against objections raised by the government that Justice Joseph was too junior to be appointed a Supreme Court judge and his parent High Court of Kerala too small a one.
After months of silence, matters turned from bad to worse when the government chose to unilaterally “bifurcate” Justice InduMalhotra’s file and appoint her as apex court judge while Justice Joseph’s name was returned to the collegium. Justice Malhotra became the first woman lawyer to directly become a Supreme Court judge.
Now, the government is bound by the collegium decision and has to appoint Justice Joseph to the apex court.

The Home Ministry has asked schools to start a project on tolerance, moral values, patience and ethics among others. The programme, designed for students of Class VIII and IX, will not add to the workload of students and is aimed at making them “better citizens”, an official said.
The programme seeks to build a bridge between the Police and the larger community through school students by inculcating values and ethics in them through classes in school and outside. The programme focuses on students of class 8 & 9 and special care has been taken to ensure that it does not lead to increase in the workload of the students.
There is greater emphasis on field demonstrations and hands on learning of the functioning of the Police through visits to Women Police stations, Child Protection Homes including NGOs, Traffic Police and Fire Brigade Stations. There will also be learning through group discussions, audio-visual mediums etc.
The programme shall be steered by a State level committee to be headed by the Principal Secretary, Home Department with the Principal Secretary, Education and Director General of Police as members.
There shall be a similar committee at the district level headed by the District Magistrate with the District Inspector of Schools and Superintendent of Police as members.

The Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) has refused to revoke its order in which it had sharply criticised the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) for letting off Tata Finance Ltd. (TFL) despite finding serious violations in a 2001 preference share issue.
SEBI had filed an appeal with SAT asking that the tribunal expunge the adverse remarks made in an order issued by it on May 30.
The tribunal had pulled up the capital markets regulator for not taking any action against Tata Finance despite senior SEBI officials finding serious violations in a preference shares issue that also led to the then managing director DilipPendse being barred from the capital markets for three years.
The case dates back to 2001 when SEBI received a complaint alleging that TFL had made false disclosures in the letter of offer for the rights issue of 9% cumulative convertible preference shares (CCPS.

The 28th meeting of the Goods and Services Tax Council will likely discuss the inclusion of natural gas in GST, the rationalisation of tax rates on more items, including sanitary pads and handicraft items, and the simplifying of the returns filing procedure, according to tax analysts.
While the Council has decided to defer Reverse Charge Mechansim and TDS/TCS, an update [from the last meeting] on the form and manner of further simplification of GST returns is awaited.
The rate rationalisation committee has been discussing several products, a few specific products where a lot of lobbying has been going on, such as paints and cement, and marble, where they want the rate to be reduced from 28% to 18%.
The Centre had earlier argued that reducing the tax rate on sanitary pads would result in an inverted duty structure, where the inputs have a higher tax rate than the final product. However, a leading manufacturer had refuted the argument.

U.S. President Donald Trump said in an interview released on Friday he is willing to hit all Chinese goods imported to the U.S. with tariffs if necessary.
After weeks of apparently fruitless negotiations, the U.S. early this month imposed 25% tariffs on approximately $34 billion of Chinese mechanical and technological products sparking an immediate response from Beijing, which said it would hit back dollar for dollar.
A second tranche of $16 billion in products is under review and could soon be added to the U.S. measures. Mr. Trump reiterated his claim that the U.S. is “being taken advantage of” on issues including trade policy.

China’s President Xi Jinping on Friday held talks with top UAE leaders on ways of bolstering bilateral relations on the second day of a visit ahead of a three-nation Africa tour.
The visit follows China and the Emirates agreeing oil and trade deals. State-owned Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. said on Thursday that it had awarded two contracts worth $1.6 billion to BGP Inc., a subsidiary of China National Petroleum Co., for a seismic survey in the Emirate.
The UAE’s state-owned DP World announced an agreement by the two countries to build a new trade zone in Dubai.

Indian Railways carry out periodic monitoring of track geometry and condition through inspection by designated officer with Track Recording Car (TRC) and Oscillation Monitoring System (OMS).
To overcome visibility of part of bridges difficult to access manually, drone inspection of few bridges are under consideration.
Public Sector Units under Ministry of Railways are using Drones for project monitoring.
One Drone Camera has been procured for the surveillance of Railway tracks at vulnerable locations over South Western Railway.
2 UAV/Drones are being deployed at Modern Coach Factory/Rae Bareilly for overhead watch and surveillance.

Slovakian Peter Sagan underlined his sprint credentials for the third time on the Tour de France Friday after powering to victory in the 13th stage from Bourg d’Oisans to Valence.
Sagan, of the Bora team, is one of the few real sprint specialists still in the race after surviving an Alpine stage trilogy that proved fatal to the hopes of rivals Mark Cavendish, Marcel Kittel, Andre Greipel and Dylan Groenewegen.
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