Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 26 NOVEMBER 2018

::NATIONAL::

PM urges citizens to uphold unity in 50th episode of Mann ki Baat

Prime Minister Narendra Modi says he has upheld India's unity and culture above politics. In his 50th Maan Ki Baat programme broadcast today, the Prime Minister said, Modi may come and go but this country will never let go of its unity and permanence and India's culture will remain immortal.
Justifying his decision to keep this programme apolitical, Mr. Modi said that it was the people of the country who stood as a bulwark in ensuring adherence to his resolve.
Mr Modi said, most of the people believe that the greatest contribution of Mann Ki Baat has been the enhancement of feeling of positivity in society as revealed in a survey conducted by All India Radio.
The Prime Minister lauded the role of All India Radio as a mighty means of getting across to people. He said in an era of social media he preferred Radio saying that he realised its potential, after a Radio listener in a remote village in Himachal Pradesh broke the news of India conducting nuclear test in 1998. Mr. Modi said, in terms of reach and depth of communication, Radio has been incomparable.
Mr Modi highlighted that the biggest achievement of the 50 episodes of Mann Ki Baat is that one feels like talking to a close acquaintance and not to the Prime Minister which reflects the true democracy.

PMO refuses info on black money, despite CIC orders

The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) has refused to disclose the quantum of black money brought back from abroad, citing a provision of the Right to Information Act that bars disclosure of information that may impede investigation and prosecution of offenders.
The PMO said a special investigation team had already been formed and its investigation was under way. As such, disclosure of all the action by the government at this juncture might impede investigation or apprehension or prosecution of offenders and hence would attract the provision of exemption under Section 8 (1) (h) of the RTI Act, it said in response to the application filed by whistle-blower bureaucrat Sanjiv Chaturvedi.
Such investigations came under different government intelligence and security organisations excluded from the ambit of the RTI Act, the PMO said.
Mr. Chaturvedi, an Indian Forest Service officer, sought information on the quantum of black money brought from abroad since June 1, 2014. In its initial reply, the PMO said in October last year that the question was not covered under Section 2(f) of the law that defines information. Mr. Chaturvedi then moved the CIC.
In response to another query mentioned in the Chaturvedi’s application, the PMO refused to share details of corruption complaints received against Union ministers, saying providing such information “may be a subjective as well as a cumbersome exercise”.

::ECONOMY::

Oil prices hit lowest in the year, producers considering cut in supply

Oil fell to its lowest level in more than a year on Friday on continued concerns about a rising global surplus, even as producers considered cutting output to curb supply. Prices were on course for their biggest one-month decline since late 2014.
Oil supply, led by U.S. producers, is growing more quickly than demand and to prevent a build-up of unused fuel such as the one that emerged in 2015, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is expected to start trimming output after a meeting on December 6.
But this has done little so far to prop up prices, which have dropped more than 20% so far in November, in a seven-week streak of losses.
Volatility, a measure of investor demand for options, has spiked to its highest since late 2016, above 60%, as investors have rushed to buy protection against further steep price declines.
Oil demand next year, meanwhile, is expected to grow by 1.3 million bpd. Adjusting to lower demand, top crude exporter Saudi Arabia said on Thursday that it may reduce supply as it pushes OPEC to agree to a joint output cut of 1.4 million bpd.
However, U.S. President Donald Trump has made it clear that he doesn’t want oil prices to rise and many analysts think Saudi Arabia is coming under U.S. pressure to resist calls from other OPEC members for lower crude output.
But if OPEC does not trim production, prices could head much lower, argues Lukman Otunuga, Research Analyst at FXTM.

More buyers on to flat rate loans due to lack of awareness on floating rates

Lack of awareness among loan applicants, reluctance among non-banking finance companies (NBFCs) to be upfront about their products, and a certain laxity about disclosure norms by the sector regulator have meant that customers end up paying much higher interest on loans than they should, according to industry players.
A frequent occurrence is when NBFCs don’t convey to the borrower that a reducing balance loan works out cheaper than a fixed-rate loan, even though the latter ostensibly starts at a lower interest rate.
A customer, however, will immediately choose the 10% flat rate loan because of the lower interest rate,” Bala Parthasarathy, co-founder and CEO, MoneyTap, an app-based credit line, said. “The details are in the fine print, which nobody tends to read.
The reason for this, Mr. Kumar explained, is partially that consumers do not know the difference between flat rates and reducing balance rates.The regulator does not require the lenders to disclose the facts fairly, either.
It’s a combination of consumers being misled, the lenders not being transparent, and the regulator not putting the onus on the lenders to make appropriate disclosures.
Unfortunately, it’s a very prevalent trend in the industry,” Mr. Parthasarathy added. “The banks typically don’t do it, but the NBFCs tend to do it. And this is a big problem, because the NBFCs cater to that segment of the population that is not too educated about financial matters,” he added.

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::INTERNATIONAL::

EU approves British PM’s Brexit deal

The United Kingdom’s withdrawal agreement from the European Union has been approved by EU leaders.
President of the European Council Donald Tusk announced that the 27 leaders of the bloc gave it their backing after less than an hour's discussion in Brussels today.
There was no formal vote with the EU proceeding by consensus. It follows more than 18 months of negotiations between the two sides, which began when the UK triggered Article 50 in the wake of the 2016 referendum leave vote.
The UK is scheduled to leave the EU on the 29th March, 2019. The deal needs to be approved by the UK Parliament, with many MPs opposed.
The Parliament is expected to vote on the deal early next month. Prime Minister Theresa May has appealed to the public to get behind the agreement.
Until the agreement is approved, all sides are still planning for the potentially disastrous possibility that Britain ends its four-decade EU membership with no new arrangements in place.
British MPs are most concerned about an arrangement in the withdrawal agreement to keep open the border between British Northern Ireland and Ireland, which could see the province follow EU rules for years.
But there are also concerns in EU capitals about fishing rights and commercial rules Britain must follow to maintain access to the bloc's markets.
Europe storms against sexist violence
Tens of thousands of people rallied across Europe on Saturday against sexist violence, with more than 30,000 turning out in Paris.
Demonstrations across France drew around 50,000 people in all, according to organiser Caroline de Haas, to answer a citizen collective’s call for a “feminist tidal wave” of outrage against gender violence brought into sharp focus by the #MeToo movement.
Elsewhere, a thousand people braved driving rain in Rome while similar protests drew several hundred demonstrators in Geneva and Athens on the eve of the UN’s International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women on Sunday.
Authorities put the Paris turnout at 12,000 and similar marches in Lyon, Marseille and Rennes at between 1,000 and 2,400, but Ms. De Haas felt moved to salute “the largest (feminist) mobilisation France has known”, far bigger than a rally that drew some 2,000 last year.
Participants clad in purple, the colour of the #NousToutes women’s activist protest movement, shouted slogans including “sick of rape”, “end impunity for aggressors” and “a woman is never responsible for the violence she suffers”, while also demanding sufficient government resources to tackle the issue.
The rallies drew a number of men, including Tanguy, a 19-year-old student who turned out in the western city of Rennes to declare backing for “a movement which is not based on sex it’s not a fight pitting men against women but a fight by men and women, together, against inequality.”
In Spain, protesters took to the streets in Madrid, Barcelona, Sevilla, Valencia, and Bilbao, reflecting how the fight to stop violence against woman has become a national cause in the country.

::SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY::

Kumbh Mela brings huge rise in bacterial load in rivers

Bacterial populations in the river undergo huge loss in diversity but a steep increase in bacterial load when millions of people bathe at designated bathing sites during Kumbh Mela, a team of researchers has found. The loss in microbial diversity was nearly 37.5% while the increase in bacterial load was about 130-fold during the event.
The team led by Dr. Avinash Sharma from the National Centre for Cell Science, Pune, found that bacteria belonging to certain phyla reduced significantly while the prevalence of bacteria belonging to phylum Firmicutes (known to be also associated with human skin, stools and many infectious pathogens) was nearly 95%.
The study was carried out in 2015 at five bathing sites in the Godavari River in Nashik and the results were published in the journal Microbial Ecology. Samples were collected prior to and during the Mela allowing the scientists to compare the spatiotemporal changes to water quality and bacterial communities.
Compared with skin microbiota, the faecal microbiota is predominant at one sampling site. “This site is located upstream and is a remote location and not a major bathing site. Because of this, open defecation might be more prevalent. This is my guess. We are yet to do any scientific study to ascertain the cause,” Dr. Sharma says.
Besides taking a dip in the river, pilgrims also drink the holy water. “Drinking this water containing infectious disease genes and antimicrobial-resistant genes could pose serious health issues. It might be preferable to drink the holy water much upstream where fewer people bathe,” he suggests.

::SPORTS::

Sameer Verma wins Syed Modi International Badminton

A gritty Sameer Verma pulled off a thrilling three-game victory over China’s Lu Guangzu in the men’s singles finals to retain the title at the Syed Modi International World Tour Super 300 in Lucknow on November 25.
The 24-year-old from Madhya Pradesh showed immaculate defence and a never-say-die attitude to eke out a 16-21 21-19 21-14 win in the finals against 22-year-old Lu, who has won the Australian Open and Canada Open this year.