Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 14 August 2013

Duty on gold, silver hiked to 10%

• As a part of ongoing measures aimed at containing the widening current account deficit (CAD), the government hiked the customs duty on gold, platinum and silver to 10 per cent, a step that will bring in an additional revenue of Rs. 4,830 crore.

• With this revision, it is the third time that the government has hiked the customs duty on gold this year with the sole objective of curbing its imports as dollar outflows on this count are seen as mainly responsible for burgeoning CAD which touched at a record high of 4.8 per cent in 2012-13 and the government has drawn a “red line” to contain it at 3.7 per cent of the GDP (gross domestic product) this fiscal.

• “Thus, additional duty of customs (CVD) on gold dore bars and on gold ore/concentrate is being increased from 6% to 8% and on silver dore bar from 3% to 7%,”

• Alongside, to bring about parity, the excise duty on refined gold bar produced from gold ores/concentrate, gold/silver dore bar or from copper smelting is being increased from seven per cent to nine per cent.

• Likewise, the excise duty on silver manufactured from silver ore or concentrate, silver/gold dore bar or from copper, zinc or lead smelting is being increased from four per cent to eight.

Keita wins Mali election

• Mali’s President-elect Ibrahim Boubacar Keita (68) began the daunting task of planning the recovery from political crisis, a military coup and war after his rival conceded defeat at the polls.

• Mali’s first election since 2007 was seen as crucial for unlocking more than $4 billion pledged by international donors who halted aid in the wake of last year’s coup, which ignited an Islamist militancy and a French military offensive.

• Mr. Keita, whose Rally of the People of Mali party is a member of the Socialist International movement, will be inaugurated in September

• His mission will include tackling an economy battered by the crisis, healing ethnic divisions in the north and managing the return of five lakh people who were internally displaced or fled abroad during the conflict.

• The country of more than 14 million people remains the continent’s third-largest gold producer, but its $10.6 billion economy contracted by 1.2 per cent last year.
• Widespread poverty has contributed to unrest in the desert north, with several armed groups vying for control in the vacuum left when the Islamists fled.

‘Hyperloop’ concept unveiled

• Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk has unveiled a transportation concept that he said could whisk passengers the nearly 643 km between Los Angeles and San Francisco in 30 minutes half the time it takes an airplane.

• In this case, the cargo would be people, reclining for a ride that would start with a force of acceleration like an airplane but then be turbulence free.
• Capsules would catapult through a large, nearly air—free tube. Inside, they would be pulled down the line by magnetic attraction.

• Each capsule would float on a cushion of air it creates like an air hockey table in which the puck produces the air instead of the surface. To minimise friction, a powerful fan at the front would suck what air is in the tube to the rear.

• “Short of figuring out real teleportation, which would of course be awesome [someone please do this!], the only option for super fast travel is to build a tube over or under the ground that contains a special environment,”
• Capsules could depart every 30 seconds, carrying 28 people, with a projected cost of about $20 each way,

Sources: Various News Papers