Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 24 August 2018


Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 24 August 2018


::NATIONAL::

Centre says EPFO reports not the right gauge for measuring employment

  • The recent downward revision in the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation data for September-June does not imply a decrease in formal sector employment, according to labour economists, who add that there are several problems with the EPFO data and caution against its use as a gauge of formal sector employment in the country.
  • The EPFO on Monday revised down the net enrolment numbers for the period from September 2017 to May 2018 by 5.54 lakh (12.4%) to 39.2 lakh from its earlier estimate of 44.74 lakh made last month.
  • EPFO data is a very complicated piece of work,” AbhijitSen, former member of the Planning Commission, said. “There is a lack of clarity about the methodology being followed for this dataset.” “It is not clear what happens when a person changes jobs — and that happens very, very frequently,” Mr.Sen added.
  • However, the new Goods and Services Tax regime created a certain incentive for many small enterprises to register themselves on the GST network, and so they may have registered under EPFO as well, he added. Thus, these are not new jobs being created; it is simply that they are newly registered under EPFO.
  • Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council member SurjitBhalla, while saying that the EPFO numbers are a good indicator for formal employment as well as changes in employment, added that they had certain drawbacks.

Expert panel says climate prediction crucial to prevent flooding

  • The catchments of top seven large reservoirs that produce hydropower in India are likely to experience “substantial warming” leading to increased mean annual rainfall in near future (2020-2030), mid and end (2070-2099) of the century due to global warming.
  • Based on modelling, a team of researchers from IIT Gandhinagar found the mean increase in rainfall in the catchments to be 6-11% while the mean annual air temperature is projected to rise more than 2.5 degree C by the end of century if the emissions are low.
  • In the case of high emission scenario, the mean annual air temperature is projected to increase up to 6.25 degree C by the end of century, while rainfall in the catchments is likely to rise by 13-18%, the study published in Scientific Reports says.
  • If the projected increase in rainfall occurs predominantly in the form of extreme events it is likely to pose enormous challenge to reservoir operations,” says Prof. Vimal Mishra from the institute’s Department of Civil Engineering and senior author of the paper.
  • “Almost all of the additional flow into the reservoir has to be released. This might not add to hydropower generation as the focus will be on flood or disaster mitigation than power generation.

::ECONOMY::

SEBI to monitor Mutual fund expense ratios

  • The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) might soon review the expense ratio limits for mutual funds to address the concerns related to concentration of profits among a few large fund houses.
  • You would appreciate that from an overall industry perspective, some thinking is definitely required to bring in elements that facilitate a healthy competition in the industry,” Mr.Tyagi said while speaking at an event organised by the Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI).
  • The SEBI chairman also said that fund houses should maintain an arm’s length relationship with respect to related party investments to avoid any conflict of interest.
  • Recently, there were reports that the capital market watchdog had directed ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund to return the money to its schemes that invested in the public issue of ICICI Securities.
  • Lauding the performance of the mutual fund industry, the SEBI chief highlighted the fact that the AUM has grown over two times in the last five years to touch Rs. 23 trillion in June.

Report says cyber security budgets of Indian Companies tripled

  • Indian companies are investing more on securing their data rather than pumping money into technology as they try to build comprehensive solutions to prevent hackers from attacking their networks, said SanjaiGangadharan, regional director SAARC, at U.S. cybersecurity firm A10 Networks.
  • “Also, overall costs are coming down. Here, the device cost may come down, but the need for building an overall solution which has more components, and upgrading it with more features and functionalities, that is on the rise.”
  • In 2019, the market is forecast to grow 8.7% to $124 billion. Privacy concerns, persisting skills shortages and regulatory changes such as the EU’s Global Data Protection Regulation are the main drivers, said SiddharthDeshpande, research director at Gartner.
  • Citing the example of an Australian handbag maker, he said a customer could buy the bags only by invitation. “But, the problem they faced is that the day a product releases on the market, China makes a copy of the same,they wanted to know the leak point.
  • For this, when they dug deep to find out how this was happening, they realised that it was happening from inside the organisation itself. Someone in the company was leaking the information via email. They ended up plugging the issue.
  • This is a threat, and these kinds of issues could happen to anyone. In this case, their exclusivity of having an invitation-based purchase was lost when copies started mushrooming in the market.”

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::INTERNATIONAL::

Pak also offers funds to help kerala flood relief victims

  • Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on Thursday offered to help flood-hit Kerala. The Pakistani leader’s comments came in the backdrop of growing criticism of the Indian government’s decision to decline foreign aid for flood relief and rehabilitation in the State.
  • Islamabad’s statement came a day after India said it would depend on “domestic resources” for providing short and long term help in Kerala. “In line with the existing policy, the government is committed to meeting the requirements for relief and rehabilitation through domestic efforts,” the Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson said.
  • It was understood that by ‘existing policy’, the MEA was indicating at the decision taken in 2004 to avoid foreign support in the context of the deadly tsunami that affected a large number of countries in the Indian Ocean region.
  • However, India’s decision to decline aid from abroad drew criticism from veteran diplomats and officials who said that the Central government should have been more considerate regarding the offer of support from the Gulf countries, especially from the United Arab Emirates that has offered Rs. 700 crore.
  • Some diplomats have however maintained that the issue of aid for Kerala should be resolved through internal consultation at the earliest to avoid any long term fallout. “It appears that the offer from UAE came without prior consultation with India,” said former Foreign Secretary KanwalSibal.

U.S –china trade tariffs continue to worry global markets

  • The U.S. slapped steep tariffs on another $16 billion in Chinese goods on Thursday, triggering a swift tit-for-tat retaliation from Beijing, even as negotiators from both sides seek to soothe trade tensions.
  • The latest action completes the first round of $50 billion in Chinese products that President Donald Trump had targeted, with Beijing striking back at American products dollar-for-dollar at each step.
  • China “firmly opposes the tariffs and has no choice but to continue to make the necessary counter-attacks”, the Commerce Ministry said in a statement. Beijing hit back with tariffs on an equal amount of U.S. goods, targeting iconic products such as Harley-Davidson motorcycles, dump trucks and asphalt, among hundreds of others.
  • Mr. Trump has pushed aggressive trade actions to lower the U.S. trade deficit. But U.S. trading partners have retaliated aggressively, which is hurting American farmers, manufacturers and consumers.
  • Still pending is the possibility of new duties on another $200 billion in Chinese goods, which are the subject of public hearings this week, as well asMr. Trump’s proposed 25% taxes on all auto imports to protect the U.S. car industry.

::SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY::

SCO peace mission begins in Russia

  • Exercise Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Peace Mission 2018, the latest in 'Peace Mission' series formally started on 24 August 2018 at Chebarkul, Russia. The opening ceremony was conducted in Chebarkul, Russia with military contingents of the all eight SCO member nations participating in this exercise.
  • The exercise will provide an opportunity to the armed forces of SCO nations to train in counter terrorism operations in urban scenario in a multinational and joint environment.
  • The scope of the exercise includes professional interaction, mutual understanding of drills & procedures, establishment of joint command and control structures and elimination of terrorist threat in urban counter terrorist scenario.
  • The Russian Army has the major participation of 1700 personnel followed by China with 700 & India with 200 personnel. The SCO Peace Mission Exercise is one of the major defense cooperation initiatives amongst SCO nations and will be a landmark event in the history of SCO defence cooperation.

::SPORTS::

Jhulangoswami ends T20 career