Current Affairs for IAS Exams – 24 December 2015

Current Affairs for IAS Exams – 24 December 2015

:: NATIONAL ::

Electronic FIR in Maharastra

• From January 1, all police stations in Maharashtra will start registering First Information Reports (FIRs) online and the complainant will get a copy of the complaint on WhatsApp, along with a SMS confirming the filing.

• Every police station will be online and paperless. For that, every police station must register FIR electronically, as per the guidelines of the Central government. While none of the states have done it.

• On the other issue of dance bar, M.H. government is totally against restarting of dance bars and is seeking the opinion of Advocate-General on bringing a new law to ban them.

Madras court created history conducted proceedings with Skype

• The Madras High Court Bench created history, once again conducted the court proceedings over Skype from Chennai for the first time in a case related to 89 inmates of an unauthorised private children’s Home for girls run by Mose Ministries in Tiruchi.

• The urgent hearing by the Division Bench was necessitated following a request made by the SGP who informed the court that all 89 inmates of the Home, overtaken by a committee led by Tiruchi Collector on court orders.

• They staged a road blockade against the judges’ refusal to permit them to attend Christmas service in the church usually visited by them.

• Court said that it is the duty of Pastor to ensure that the inmates of the Children’s Home respect the rule of law.

• He must also inform the inmates that any group of people who stage road rokos and demonstrations at public places without prior permission would normally get arrested and prosecuted.

Maharastra government will file special leave petition in Salman Khan’s case

• The Maharashtra government will file an appeal in the Supreme Court against the acquittal of actor Salman Khan in the 2002 hit-and-run case.

• The High Court, in its order on December 10, had acquitted the actor of all charges in the accident that had killed one person and injured four.

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:: INTERNATIONAL ::

Russian raids in Syria may include war crimes

• Amnesty International said Russian air raids have killed hundreds of civilians in Syria, many in targeted strikes that could constitute war crimes, since beginning nearly three months ago.

• Some attacks appear to have directly attacked civilians or civilian objects by striking residential areas with no evident military target and even medical facilities, resulting in deaths and injuries to civilians, said Amnesty.

• Such attacks may amount to war crimes, Amnesty also said that it is crucial that suspected violations are independently and impartially investigated.

:: INDIA and WORLD ::

Two joint military aircraft projects might be revived after Modi’s visit to Russia

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Russia visit has heightened anticipation about two joint military aircraft projects from the last decade coming unstuck.

• The FGFA (fifth generation fighter aircraft) and the MTA (multi-role transport aircraft) were conceived for co-development in mid-2000 in government-to-government (G2G) deals and have moved at nano pace.

• Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL), the Bengaluru-based company under the Ministry of Defence, is the design and manufacturing partner for both the aircraft.

• The equally shared $ 600-million MTA or Il-214 plan was initiated in 2007 and a joint company was set up. It was to design, manufacture in both countries and deliver transport planes to the defence forces of the two countries. About 45 of them to replace the IAF’s aged AN-32 fleet.

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:: BUSINESS and ECONOMY ::

Financial stability report points towards bad health of the Banks

• The Reserve Bank of India expressed concern over high corporate leverage as bad loans from the country’s top corporations increased sharply between March and September, 2015.

• A significant increase in the gross non-performing asset ratios of large borrowers among public sector banks, from 6.1 per cent in March 2015 to 8.1 per cent in September 2015, has led to an increase in the GNPA ratio of the banking system, according to the report.

• As a result, standard assets among large borrowers declined from 86.2 per cent of total gross advances as of March 2015 to 84.5 per cent as of September 2015.

• Credit to top 100 large borrowers, in terms of funded amount outstanding, constituted 27.6 per cent of the credit to all large borrowers and 17.8 per cent of the credit of all commercial banks.

• The share of gross NPAs of these 100 borrowers in total gross NPAs of all commercial banks increased sharply from 0.7 per cent in March 2015 to 3.1 per cent in September 2015.

• Loans to the industrial sector account for a major share of their overall credit portfolio as well as stressed loans, according to the report.

• The gross non-performing advances of commercial banks, as percentage of gross advances, increased to 5.1 per cent from 4.6 per cent between March and September 2015, the RBI data showed The restructured standard advances as percentage of gross advances declined to 6.2 per cent from 6.4 per cent while the stressed advances ratio increased to 11.3 per cent from 11.1 per cent during the same period.

Against the popular belief more money spent on Rural development

• Contrary to the general impression that social sectors are suffering under the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led NDA government, latest official data show a nearly 10 per cent increase in real expenditure on agriculture and rural development in the first six months of this year over the corresponding period last year.

• No belt-tightening is visible in the health sector with expenditure rising. The increases are substantial both in absolute terms as well as a percentage of GDP.

• Actual plan spending by the Rural Development Ministry touched Rs 48,204 crore in April–September 2015, up from Rs 45,050 crore in the corresponding period last year. Spending by the Ministry of Urban Development has surged to Rs 7,031 crore from Rs 5,532 crore.

• The Health Ministry’s planned spending is up to Rs 15,020 crore from Rs 14,250 crore. Spending on education too is up by Rs 6,700 crore though its share in the overall GDP declined marginally.

• The quality of spending has improved too with the shift in expenditure away from current to capital investments.

• Data for both Centre and States shows aggregate capital expenditure is up by 0.5 percentage point of GDP. In real terms, this translates in to a 25 per cent jump. Of this, the Centre contributed 60 per cent and the rest came from the States. There is a corresponding reduction of 0.3 percentage points in revenue expenditures as a percent of GDP.

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Sources: Various News Papers & PIB

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