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Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 23 June 2014

First Budget of Modi govt. on July 10

The first Budget of the Narendra Modi government will be presented on July 10. Parliament will be convened on July 7 for a session that will last till August 14.
The Railway Budget will be presented on July 8, while the Economic Survey will be released on July 9. Parliamentary Affairs Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu has asked all Ministries to draw up a list of pending bills.
There are at least four ordinances that need to be replaced with Acts of Parliament, including one that allowed Nripendra Mishra, who was earlier Chairman of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, to be appointed Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister. The TRAI Act had restricted jobs its chairmen could accept subsequently.
An ordinance that transferred certain areas of Khammam district from Telangana to the successor State of Andhra Pradesh to execute the Polavaram project, and another one that amended the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act are awaiting parliamentary approval.
The government has signalled that some hard measures are on the way to turn around the economy.

Modi govt. to focus on public grievances, defence, Centre-State relations

As the BJP-led NDA government completes its first month in office later this week, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has zeroed in on three key areas where he wants the PMO to pay greater attention.
Mr. Modi has given top priority to streamlining the mechanism of redressal of public grievances, improving Centre-State relations and meeting the requirements of the armed forces. The PMO would have a special cell to monitor the progress in resolving issues relating to these three priority areas.
On Centre-State relations, the Prime Minister has directed his office that any request from a State government for assistance should not be kept pending. He wants senior PMO bureaucrats to regularly meet representatives from the States.
The Prime Minister has already been given detailed briefings by the chief of the each of the three wings of the armed forces – Army, Navy and the Air Force as well as the Defence Secretary. He has asked the three service chiefs and the Defence Ministry to furnish a list of their priorities on modernisation and requirements of weapons and other gadge

Jail for three AL Jazeera journalists

An Egyptian court sentenced three Al Jazeera journalists, including Australia’s Peter Greste, to jail terms from seven to 10 years. Mr. Greste and Egyptian-Canadian Mohamed Fadel Fahmy each got seven years, while producer Baher Mohamed received two sentences — one for seven years and another for three.
Eleven defendants tried in absentia , including one Dutch journalist and two British journalists, were given 10-year sentences.
Of the six defendants in custody along with Mr. Greste, Mr. Fahmy and Mr. Mohamed, four were sentenced to seven years and two were acquitted.
All of the defendants had been accused of aiding the blacklisted Muslim Brotherhood and tarnishing Egypt’s reputation after the ouster of Islamist president Mohamed Morsy by spreading false news.

RBI fixed schedules for regulatory approvals

Moving to a time-defined process, the Reserve Bank of India, fixed schedules for various regulatory approvals, including grant of private bank licence, and also released a citizens’ charter for its various services such as clearing of transactions.
The release of ‘Timelines for Regulatory Approvals’ and ’Citizens’ Charter’ for delivery of services on the RBI’s website is a part of implementation of non-legislative recommendations of the Financial Sector Legislative Reforms Commission (FSLRC), the central bank said in a notification.
In case an applicant does not get a response within the indicated timeline, they can approach the head of the department, who will respond with status of the application, the reason for delay, request for additional information and likely time for disposal of the application, it added.
As per the citizens’ charter for RBI’s departments which have public interface, deposit accounts department should issue cheque book within 20 minutes and demand draft should be issued in an hour, among others.
Besides, refinance facility and disbursement of loans should take place in the same day of application while clearing should be completed by three days.
Similarly, timelines have been fixed for in principle approval to banks for IPO, preferential issues of capital and qualified institutional placements (30 days) and authorisation for import of gold and silver by banks (60 days).
As per one recommendation of the FSLRC, all regulators are required to move to a time-defined approval process, subject to applicable laws, for all permissions including licence to do business, as well as launch of products and services.

Sugar prices rises on import duty hike

Sugar prices jumped by at least Rs. 10 per kg in the market after the government decided to increase import duty on the sweetener and continue with the export subsidy to give relief to the industry that owes Rs. 15,000 crore to sugarcane growers.
Market sentiment was affected as the government announced a slew of measures for millers, including an additional interest-free loan of up to Rs. 4,400 crore.
At a meeting convened by Union Food Minister Ram Vilas Paswan, it was decided to raise sugar import duty to 40 per cent from 15 per cent and provide export subsidy of Rs. 3,300 per tonne till September this year.

Himalayan National Park is now a World Heritage Site

The Great Himalayan National Park (GHNP) in Kullu district of Himachal Pradesh accorded the Unesco World Heritage Site status.
The Unesco World Heritage Site Committee at Doha in Qatar granted the status to the park under the criteria of “exceptional natural beauty and conservation of biological diversity.”
The GHNP has now come in the league of Indian World Heritage Sites (WHS) such as the Taj Mahal, Ellora, Kaziranga National Park, Keoladeo National Park, Manas National Park, Nandadevi Biosphere Reserve and the Sunderbans.