Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 11 July 2015

Current Affairs for IAS Exams – 11 July 2015

:: National ::

Growing millionaires in India says report

The number of dollar millionaires in India in 2014 rose to 2.5 lakh from 1.96 lakh in 2013, an increase of 27 per cent, according to a recent report.
The report also predicted that India will have 4.37 lakh millionaires by 2018, and potentially double that number by 2023.

High entrepreneurship

Terming the next 10 years as ‘India’s decade’, the report by Wealth X released on Wednesday said that “the nation also has a young, well-educated population with high levels of entrepreneurship and business ownership, underpinned by a well-developed legal system that in turn would help in wealth creation.”
The report attributed this rise in millionaires and conspicuous consumption to “renewed economic optimism and performance, further propelled by the election of a new, reformist government.”

IRCTC comes up with water scarcity plan (Register and Login to read Full News..)

:: International ::

Greece exit’ will be extremely costly

“There should be no doubt that exit from the Euro would be extremely costly for Greece and its creditors,” said the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) Chief Economist Olivier Blanchard, writing in his blog on imfdirect , the Fund’s global economy forum.
Underlining the Fund’s commitment to providing assistance, Mr. Blanchard ruled out further IMF funding for Greece until old arrears are cleared.
Greece defaulted on a loan repayment of €1.55 billion due to the IMF on June 30. Greece owes a total of €6.95 billion to its creditors in July alone, of which €452 million is owed to the IMF.
Taking on the main critiques of the 2010 bail-out programme for Greece, Mr. Blanchard said he wanted to clarify points of contention and support a way forward.
Refuting the claim that the 2010 programme only raised debt levels and demanded excessive fiscal adjustment, Mr. Blanchard argued that without assistance, Greece would have had to make fiscal cuts of between 20-25 per cent of GDP, leading to more severe adjustments and higher social costs than under the five-year bail-out programme. '
Mr. Blanchard also countered the criticism that finance provided to Greece was simply used to pay back foreign banks, saying that while it was correct to say that Greece’s debt was not restructured for two years, it was due to fears of contagion risk — the risk that macro-economic shocks in once country are transmitted through price-level changes, for example, to other countries.
Mr. Blanchard ruled out further IMF funding for Greece until old arrears are cleared. Greece defaulted on a loan repayment of €1.55 billion due to the IMF on June 30. Greece owes a total of €6.95 billion to its creditors in July alone, of which €452 million is owed to the IMF.

Airbus flew its electric plane (Register and Login to read Full News..)

:: India & world ::

India to become full member by 2016

India was on Friday accepted as a full member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), a six-member regional grouping, to which Prime Minister Narendra Modi offered to work in combating terror and boosting trade by easing barriers.
India, which has had an observer status for the past 10 years, will technically become a member by next year after completion of certain procedures.
The Beijing-based SCO currently has China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan as members. Along with India, the process to include Pakistan as a member was initiated here on Friday.

Modi optimistic about Pakistan tour

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s meeting with his Pakistani counterpart, Nawaz Sharif, on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Ufa, Russia, ended with an announcement that he would visit Islamabad in 2016 for the SAARC summit, but made no commitment on restarting dialogue.
In a joint statement after the meeting that lasted more than an hour at the Congress Hall of Ufa, the Prime Ministers tasked Foreign Secretaries S. Jaishankar and Aizaz Chowdhury with announcing a five-pronged statement of progress in their discussions, including meetings between National Security Advisers Ajit Doval and Sartaj Aziz and between military and border security force chiefs of the two nations, and “discussing ways and means” to expedite the Mumbai 26/11 trial and “providing voice samples” as evidence.

WikiLeaks new disclosure (Register and Login to read Full News..)

:: Business ::

EPFO considering a scheme

Retirement fund body the Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) is considering a scheme for its subscribers so that they are able to own a house by retirement, Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya said here on Friday. “
While he did not provide details of the scheme, sources said the Ministry intends to collaborate with PSU banks, housing finance companies, state-owned construction firms like NBCC and authorities like DDA, PUDA, HUDA to build houses at prices to be fixed by the government.

:: Sports ::

Sania-Hingis in Wimbledon final

Twenty-eight-year-old Sania Mirza scripted another piece of glory when she and her partner Martina Hingis reached the women’s doubles final of the prestigious Wimbledon in London on Friday.
In the process, she achieved another incredible first – the only Indian woman tennis player ever to reach a Wimbledon final in any event. Sania and her partner defeated R. Kops-Jones and A. Spears 6-1, 6-2 in the semis, keeping aside the disappointment of losing in the mixed doubles.