Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 09 August 2015

Current Affairs for IAS Exams – 09 August 2015

:: National ::

Centre plans to adopt new sand mining policy for forest areas

Union Minister for Environment and Forests Prakash Javadekar said today the Centre plans to adopt a new policy to allow sand mining in forest areas to stop flood waters from flowing into forests.
Javadekar made the announcement here while referring to recent deaths of 10 Asiatic lions and other wild animals due to floods in Amreli district in June.
He said that sand mining in rivers passing through protected forest land has been banned by the Supreme Court.
The minister also claimed that his ministry cleared at least 35 projects in Gujarat, which had not been given clearance.
Some of these projects which received environmental clearances include the 800 MW extension at Vanakbori thermal power station, drilling of 103 wells in Vadodara by the ONGC, development of Dholera SIR and a limestone mining project in Rangpur village of Junagadh, Javadekar said.

:: Business ::

Commerce Ministry Moves Cabinet Note on Interest Subvention Scheme

To give a fillip to exports, the Commerce Ministry has moved a Cabinet note on a proposal to provide cheaper credit access to exporters from various sectors under the interest subvention scheme.
Under the interest subvention scheme, exporters are provided credit at subsidised rates by banks which are later compensated by the government.
Loans at subsidised rates will help exporters boost shipments as the country's exports stayed in the negative zone in the past seven months.
Last week, Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had told Parliament that the interest subvention scheme for various sectors was under consideration of the government.
The previous interest subvention scheme was available up to March 31, 2014.
For the seventh month in a row, India's exports fell 15.82 per cent in June to $22.28 billion.

:: India & world ::

Foxconn may set up a factory in every Indian state in 10 years: Terry Gou

Terry Gou, founder and chairman of the world’s largest contract manufacturer Foxconn, the trade name for Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. Ltd, made headlines this month when he announced the company’s intention to set up 10-12 factories in India over the next 10 years.
So when Gou cancelled his scheduled press conference in Mumbai where he was to launch the Foxconn Media Lab in association with Whistling Woods International—an institute for film, fashion and communication founded by filmmaker Subhash Ghai—on Friday, many were disappointed.
The reason became apparent on Saturday when Gou announced a $5 billion investment in Maharashtra in addition to the agreement with Ghai for media content creation.

India received $24 billion in FDI from EU in last 3 years

Despite the Free Trade Agreement talks with the European Union being in limbo, India has received an impressive $24 billion in foreign direct investment from the 28-nation bloc over the last three years.
As per official figures, India received $6.23 billion in FDI equity inflows from EU in 2012-13 which increased to $9.06 billion the next year.
The FDI inflow was $8.20 billion in 2014-15, which was a decline of $862 million compared to the year ago period. In 2015-16, the amount in first two months of current fiscal was $1.39 billion.
In total, India received $24.91 billion in FDI equity inflows from EU between April 2012 and May 2015.
The EU has been India's largest trading partner and the two-way trade is likely to swell significantly if the countries could firm up the long-pending Free Trade Agreement, officially called the Broadbased Investment and Trade Agreement (BTIA).
India had on Wednesday deferred scheduled talks on the proposed pact later this month which was to resume after a gap of two years after the EU imposed a ban on around 700 generic drugs which were clinically tested by India's GVK Biosciences on the ground of inaccuracy in data.
In March, the EU had not responded to India's proposal for a brief visit by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Brussels, the headquarters of the bloc, during his trip to France, Germany and Canada in April.
However, it recently invited him for the India-EU summit just before or after the G-20 summit scheduled to be held in November in Turkey. The last India-EU Summit had taken place in 2012.
The two-way commerce between EU and India stood at about USD 99 billion in 2014-15 while it was USD 101.5 billion in 2013-14.