Current Affairs for IAS Exams – 02 February 2016

:: NATIONAL ::

SC concedes mistake in notice to Arunachal Governor

• Just a few days after ordering Arunachal Pradesh Governor J.P. Rajkhowa to respond why he recommended President’s rule in the sensitive border State, the Supreme Court recalled the order, saying it made a “mistake” by not realising that Governors have “complete immunity”.

• The turn of events was triggered by Attorney-General Mukul Rohatgi, for the Centre, drawing the Bench’s attention to Article 361 (1) of the Constitution which gives the President and the Governor protection from legal action.

• Under the Article, both the President and the Governor of a State “shall not be answerable to any court” for acts done in performance of their powers and duties.

• However, such immunity to the Governor under Article 361 does not take away the power of the Supreme Court to examine the validity of his action on the ground of mala fide.

Explosive spread of Zikamerits do be declared as global emergency says WHO

• The World Health Organization has announced that the explosive spread of the Zika virus in the Americas is an “extraordinary event” that merits being declared an international emergency.

• The agency convened an emergency meeting of independent experts to assess the outbreak after noting a suspicious link between Zika’s arrival in Brazil last year and a surge in the number of babies born with abnormally small heads.

The Bombay HC says mothers getting child through surrogacy can also take maternity leave

• The Bombay High Court on Monday directed the Central Railway (CR) to grant three months’ maternity leave to its employee who became a mother by using a surrogate.

• The court ruled that a mother enjoys the same benefits of maternity leave as any other working woman under the Child Adoption Leave and Rules.

• While challenging the CR for disallowing herleave, the woman’s lawyers argued that if the maternity leave was refused, it would certainly violate the right of a child to develop a bond with the mother.

• The petitioner got married in 2004 and underwent IVF in 2007 on two occasions but lost her baby. In 2012, she was advised to have a child through surrogacy.

• When the surrogate mother completed 33 weeks, the petitioner applied for maternity leave in January 2014 as the baby was expected to be delivered in the first week of February.

SC pulled up Gujrat govt. for not implementing food security act (Register and Login to read Full News..)

Sashastra Seema bal gets first women head for any paramilitary force (Register and Login to read Full News..)

:: International ::

In a move that is likely to raise ethical issues Britain granted licence to gene editing

• Britain granted its first licence to genetically modify human embryos for research into infertility and why miscarriages happen, in a move likely to raise ethical concerns.

• The decision makes Britain one of the first countries in the world to grant this type of authorisation for experimentation on human embryos, although similar research has been carried out in China.

• Modification of the embryos would be done using a technique known as CRISPR-Cas9, which allows scientists to insert, remove and correct DNAwithin a cell.

• The embryos will not become children as they must be destroyed within 14 days and can only be used for basic research.

• Research plans to find the genes at play in the first few days of fertilisation when an embryo develops a coating of cells that later become the placenta.

• The embryos to be used in the research are ones that would have been destroyed, donated by couples receiving In-Vitro Fertilisation (IVF) treatment who do not need them.

Negotiations between Britain and European Union continue (Register and Login to read Full News..)

:: India and world ::

TPP and its effect on India

• The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), or the mega-regional free trade pact led by the U.S. and including 11 other Asia-Pacific countries, is likely to indirectly impact India’s exports in several industrial sectors.

• Sector such as textiles, plastics, leather, clothing, cotton and yarn, besides the country’s regime on investment, labour standards, intellectual property rights (IPR), government procurement and State-owned enterprises (SOE) will face problem.

• The challenges arising from the TPP — which has set very high standards for the international trading regime — could be similar to those experienced by India post the 1991 economic liberalisation.

• The External Affairs Ministry would soon do a study in the context of TPP and in- form the government what the priorities should be in terms of policy-making in the next six months.

• The TPP agreement (which India is not a part of) was reached in October last year and the member countries have two years to ratify the pact. In the meantime, the Indian government will have to consider improving the country’s standards in areas such as labour laws by holding stakeholder consultations.

• The investor-State dispute settlement mechanism adopted by the TPP was also a concern from India’s point of view.

• Some of the TPP standards were higher than that of the WTO norms, including on IPR and possible ever-greening of patents, which could hurt India’s pharma sector.

• The operations and the production methods of India’s public sector units (or SOEs) could also be constrained due to the TPP.

• Several Indian export sectors such as cotton and yarn could be affected as trade may be diverted to the TPP region due to its benefits of low or nil duties.

• Pointing out that the TPP, RCEP and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (a proposed mega- regional between the U.S. and the European Union) excluded African countries, the Minister said India would also have to focus on improving its trade with African countries.

• Meanwhile, India is also considering engaging with the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation countries to ensure that it did not miss out on the emerging trade dynamics.

:: BUSINESS ::

Core sector output recovers,grows 0.9 per cent in Dec.

• Core sector output returned to positive territory in December 2015 byregistering a 0.9 per cent growth after shrinking (-) 1.3 per cent in November 2015 but was still muchlower than 3.2 per cent growth re-corded in December 2014.

• The output of eight core industries — that comprise almost 38 percent of the weight of items includedin the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) — could record only a 0.9per cent growth in December 2015 due to 4.1 per cent contractionin output of crude oil (the fourthconsecutive month in the negativeterritory), 6.1 per cent contractionin natural gas (falling for the thirdsuccessive month) and 4.4 per centshrinkage in steel (falling for thesixth consecutive month).

• During April-December 2015 period this fiscal, the output of theseeight sectors slowed to a 1.9 per centgrowth from 5.7 per cent growth in the same period last fiscal. In 2014-15, these sectors had grown by 4.4per cent,

• The core sector growth had registeredthe steepest fall in over a decade when it shockingly shrank 1.3 percent in November 2015 compared tothe same month a year ago

• In December, fertiliser output registered double digit growth for the fifth successive month with 13.1per cent growth while coal production grew by 6.1 per cent (up from3.5 per cent in November).

• Cement output increased by 3.2 per cent (upfrom -1.8 per cent in November). Electricity production also grew by 2.7 per cent (from flat growth inNovember, and has been in the positive growth territory this fiscal bar-ring April 2015), while refinery products grew by 2.1 per cent (up from 2.5 per cent in November.

• In December 2014, the growth in output of coal was 7.5 per cent,crude oil (-1.4 per cent), natural gas(-2.9 per cent), refinery products(6.1 per cent), fertilisers (-1.6 percent), steel (flat growth), cement(3.8 per cent) and electricity (4.8per cent).

Fix inverted duty structure

• The all-round approach to reviving the economy is evident from Government’s focus on several issues including the revival of the rural economy, the fine balancing between the brick-and-mor-tar and online retailers, the need for greater generation of demand.

• Several reforms have been as focussed on nurturing the domestic manufacturer as they have been on increasing the flow of Foreign Direct Investment(FDI) into the country.

• As a build up to the budget and as part of the reforms,FDI has already been liberalized (15 sectors) to encourage investments. To support services exporters, the Government recently came out with a procedure for faster refunds of accumulated credits

• Government had, in June 2015,announced consolidation and liberalization of export incentive schemes for exporters by introducing theService Exports from IndiaScheme and MerchandiseExports from India Scheme.These are a few initiatives taken by the Government,along with other simplification procedures to encourage the ease of doing business in India.

• A specific policy to en-courage LCD panel fabrication in India: India alreadyhas a semiconductor policy,which could be extended toLCD panel fabrication asthey are treated at par internationally.

• Specialised focus on ad-dressing the inverted dutystructure by providing the Special Additional Duty(SAD) exemption to manufacturers.

• Exemption of key inputmaterials such as Polypropylene and Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS) fromthe Basics Custom Duty(BCD), subject to actual usercondition, to put domesticmanufacturers of washingmachines, refrigerators andair conditioners on par with the importers who import at0per cent BCD

• Higher excise and customs duty exemptions on theprocurement of material/equipment for producingEnergy efficient Rating(EER) products

• Measures to encouragethe use of substitutes forozone depleting substances:This will be in tune with theundertaking India has madefor implementing the Montreal Protocol.

• There is a need to address inverted duty structure. Budget 2015 extendedSAD exemption on import ofcertain products for use inmanufacture of IT hardware.

• However, appliance and consumer electronics (ACE)manufacturers still face thesame issue as the value addition in this sector, for severalproducts, is quite low and results in an inverted dutystructure.

• Also, The GSTrate should be reasonable and in line with rates prevalent in other Asian countries(varying from 6 per cent inMalaysia to 17 per cent inChina)

• Overhauling of SpecialValuation Branch (SVB) procedure to simplify imports,viz. specifying a definitivetime frame for issuance ofthe SVB order, shorter timeframes for issuance of renewal orders and relaxation/removal of SVB orders ongoods that attract a nil rate ofbasic customs duty

• Expedited customsclearances for goods that aretime critical and containR&D shipments.

• Removal of mandatorypre-deposits of tax/duty andlower limits for startups andSMEs.

• Relaxation of credit restrictions and CENVAT lim-its with respect to several in-put services which have been hitherto not been clearly put into scope

TRAI for PPP model for Bharat Net Project (Register and Login to read Full News..)

Indian likely to become CFO of AIIB’ (Register and Login to read Full News..)

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Sources: Various News Papers & PIB

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