Current Affairs for IAS Exams – 17 December 2015

:: NATIONAL ::

Leaving aside GST government wants to pass other bills

After more than two weeks of trying to mollify and co-opt the Congress into helping it clear the Goods and Services Tax Bill, 2014, the government appeared to have turned a corner in its strategy and has decided to try and push other Bills.
Next strategy will be drawn after December 19, the day Congress president Sonia Gandhi and vice-president Rahul Gandhi will appear before a Delhi court in the National Herald case.
In the Rajya Sabha, where the Treasury does not enjoy a majority, the government countered the Congress’s protests by moving the SC/ ST Bill that made provisions for stricter punishment in case of atrocities against them.

Government wants Juvenile committing heinous crimes to be tried as adults

Union Minister for Women and Child Development Maneka Gandhi feels the intelligence reports of a “Kashmiri militant” radicalising the juvenile accused in the Delhi gang rape in a correctional home vindicates her stand that law should treat as adults those aged 16- 18 accused of heinous crimes.
Criticising the delay in the passage of the Bill in the Ra- jya Sabha after it was passed by the Lok Sabha, she said: “It’s really shameful of the Rajya Sabha that they don’t let this pass”.
This has been lying in the Rajya Sabha for over a year now. In the meantime, crime in this segment of 16-18 has become the largest amount of crime.
And the victims of this group are only children. How can we protect those seven-year-olds and three- year-olds and four-year- olds.

Helium balloons to be used by Google for data connectivity

Chennai-born Google CEO, 43-year old Sundar Pichai, had some anxious moments during the recent floods in the city as he was unable to reach his family members.
Google’s Project Loon that uses helium-filled balloons to provide data connectivity in remote areas could be of great help.
People are figuring out the right model for providing aerial data connectivity without towers and optic fibre cables.
Google is hoping to launch the Loon project in India and wants to start testing for it soon, but the government has flagged some concerns.
The proposed frequency band to be used in the project Google’s Loon Project is being used for cellular operations and it will lead to interference with cellular transmissions.

Due to lack of consensus SC appointed Lokayukta

Annoyed with the lack of consensus among constitutional authorities in Uttar Pradesh, the Supreme Court on Wednesday invoked its extraordinary powers to assume authority and appoint the State’s Lokayukta.
In a rare display of flexing its extraordinary powers under Article 142 of the Constitution to enforce its own orders in order to do “complete justice”, the Supreme Court for the first time in its history appointed a Lokayukta after slamming the “failure” of the constitutional authorities of the State to comply with its orders.
A Bench headed by Justice Ranjan Gogoi appointed for- mer high court judge Justice Virendra Singh as Uttar Pradesh’s Lokayukta after ex- pressing its annoyance at how the U.P. government failed to meet the Supreme Court deadline.

PSLV C-29 launched six satellites (Register and Login to read Full News..)

Defence minister says India ready to join fight against IS (Register and Login to read Full News..)

Rural landholding almost halved over 20 years (Register and Login to read Full News..)

World Bank gives big loan to Clean India drive (Register and Login to read Full News..)

:: INTERNATIONAL ::

Russia to deploy Su-35s in Syria

Even as the Syrian airspace gets crowded with several major powers declaring war on the Islamic State (IS), which has established a de facto Caliphate in large parts of Iraq and Syria, Russia is all set to deploy its most modern fighter aircraft Su-35 in Syria as part of its own war
This move comes shortly after Moscow deployed S-400 Surface-to-Air Missile batteries — one of the most advanced air defence systems currently available — in Syria, following the downing of a Russian Air Force Su-24M bomber by the Turkish Air Force over the Syrian border.
While the U.S. has been carrying out air strikes on ISIS targets for some time, other nations have come on board after the terror attacks in Paris by the IS supporters.
Govt. to resort to executive route
The government was now open to taking the executive action and money bill route to push legislation or just policy changes. The Public Procurement Bill could be one of the first to be converted to the executive route.
In the Rajya Sabha, where the Treasury does not enjoy a majority, the government countered the Congress’s protests by moving the SC/ST Bill that made provisions for stricter punishment in case of atrocities against them. This was done by changing the order of business

:: BUSINESS ::

India’s investment climate better: Cisco

The investment environment in the country has improved significantly in the past 18 months, enabling businesses to focus more on performance rather than worrying about factors such as an unpredictable tax regime and interest rates.
India is one of the fastest growing markets for Cisco, where it invests about $1.7 billion annually.

10th WTO Ministerial Conference- Nairobi

Nations must not overload the current agenda with “new issues” as there are still many outstanding matters such as protection of poor farmers' interests and food security rights.“The manner and haste with which important negotiating meetings are being convened does not inspire confidence
Round may have run into obstacles, but it is in the collective interest of all the nations to continue to work on all pillars, keeping intact the Round's development dimension, which is improving the trade prospects of developing and poor countries.
India wanted the Nairobi meet to re-affirm the Doha Development Agenda and all Ministerial Declarations and Decisions taken since 2001, when the Doha Round was linitiated
India is concerned over the fact that the reduction in the massive subsidization of the farm sector in developed countries which was the clear cut mandate of the Doha Round talks is now not even a subject matter of discussion
Recognising these concerns, the G-33 has strongly argued the case for an effective Special Safeguard Mechanism (SSM) for developing countries and for changing the rules relating to public stockholding for food security purposes
G-33 is a coalition of 48 nations including India and China, which has been taking up the issue of developing countries getting considerable flexibility in limiting market opening of agriculture sector. SSM is a trade remedy mechanism that will allow developing countries to hike duties temporarily to counter the import surge and price falls in farm products.
Developed countries, citing the slow progress of the ongoing Doha Round negotiations, want the Round to be either brought to an end during this ministerial conference, or its ambit to be expanded by including ‘new’ issues of their interest and what they call are the latest challenges facing global trade.
These include global value chains, e-commerce, labour, environment, competition policies, investment pacts and state-owned enterprises, on all of which the rich nations have much superior standards / rules than the developing and poor countries. Developing and poor countries feel these standards rules might become non-tariff barriers, hurting their exports.
Developing and poor countries want rich countries to drastically reduce their trade distorting farm subsidies, while simultaneously seeking adequate flexibility in reducing their own farm export subsidies.
Rich countries, on the other hand, have sought greater commitments from emerging markets such as India on undertaking greater commitments on farm export subsidies. India had sought additional flexibility for developing countries so that they can provide such more subsidies on some products, while reducing subsidies on other products.

Public equity investments touch a record high (Register and Login to read Full News..)

Ban on diesel cars to hit automakers (Register and Login to read Full News..)

:: SPORTS ::

Manoj Prabhakar selected as Afghanistan bowling coach

Former India all-rounder Manoj Prabhakar will assist the Afghanistan team as a bowling coach. His appointment runs until theT20 World Cup to be held in India next year.