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Current Affairs for IAS Exams – 26 March 2016

:: NATIONAL ::

India rejected Pakistan’s claims that it had arrested a serving naval officer in Balochistan for what it called “subversive activities”.
In a statement, the Ministry of External affairs however, admitted that the man believed to be arrested was a former officer of the navy.
India has now sought consular access to him. The government said that India has no interest in interfering in internal matters of any country and firmly believes that a stable and peaceful Pakistan is in the interest of all in the region.
According to documents released by Military intelligence sources in Pakistan, the arrested man identified himself as Kulbhushan Yadav, formerly a commander in the navy, who, Pakistan claims, was sent under deputation to the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) to Iran.
A passport (No. L9630722), purportedly belonging to the arrested man, showed his assumed name as ‘Hussein Mubarak Patel’, born in Sangli, Maharashtra, and living in Powai, as well as a valid Iranian visa in his name.

The Election Commission of India has given its approval for PM’s radio broadcast “Mann Ki Baat”, with a condition that his address to the public should not violate the Model Code of Conduct in place for the coming Assembly elections in four States and a Union Territory.
The Model Code of Conduct came into force on March 4 when the ECI announced the schedule for elections.
Elections in Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry will be held on May 16, and beginning April 4 in West Bengal. Assam will go to the polls in two phases on April 4 and 11.
Owing to the Model Code, it is learnt that the Information and Broadcasting Ministry had approached the ECI seeking clearance for the PM’s monthly address.

U.S. forces killed the Islamic State group’s second-in-command this week, dealing a blow to the extremists’ ability to conduct operations in Iraq, Syria and abroad, Pentagon chief Ashton Carter said.
Mr. Carter told reporters, referring also to the killing early in the month of Omar al-Shishani, the man known as “Omar the Chechen”, who was effectively IS’s defence minister.
The latest killing “will hamper the ability for them to conduct operations inside and outside of Iraq and Syria,” Mr. Carter said of Abdar-Rahman Mustafa al-Qaduli, referring to him as Haji Imam.
He said al-Qaduli served as the group’s finance minister and had been behind some foreign plots.
The U.S. Justice Department had offered a bounty of up to $7 million for information leading to al-Qaduli.

India will appeal against the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) verdict over its policy relating to solar power equipment.
“The U.S. made it a prestige issue. It is very unfortunate that they pursued the complaint in the WTO. It reflects the hollowness of the U.S.’ commitment to clean energy,” Power Minister Piyush Goyal said
India had, as part of its National Solar Mission, imposed a stipulation that solar cells and solar modules be locally sourced.
The U.S. had filed a case against India at the WTO demanding a level-playing field for Indian and foreign solar component manufacturers. The world body ruled in favour of the U.S.
India’s capacity to produce solar components and solar cells comprises only a portion of the demand in India. This means that the foreign component makers would still have a substantial market to cater to.
Indian manufacturers had a complaint against the U.S. counterparts for dumping in India, he said. This would have attracted huge anti-dumping penalties and duties for the U.S. manufacturers, had it been pursued.
The Minister also said he was examining the situation in the U.S. where nine states had similar programmes to protect their domestic manufacturers
The Indian government was committed to its domestic manufacturers and would find other ways to protect them.

The country’s foreign exchange reserves rose to an all time high of $355.94 billion for the week ended March 18, latest data released by the Reserve Bank of India showed.
According to the central bank, total reserves grew by $ 2.54 billion for the week ended March 18 on the back of sustained inflows in the equity market.
The previous all time high was reached on the week ended 21 August, 2015, when it touched $355.35 billion.
According to RBI, foreign currency assets mainly contributed to the rise in total reserves which grew by $2.5 billion during the week to $ 322.5 billion.
The government maintained the fiscal deficit target for 2016-17 at 3.5 per cent while reducing the small savings rate which could create more room for the central bank to lower interest rate.
RBI, which has reduced interest rate by 125 bps since January 2015, is widely expected to cut it by at least 25 bps when it reviews the monetary policy on April 5.
In about two and half years since Raghuram Rajan took over as the governor of the central bank, foreign exchange grew by $122 billion, from a low of $274.8 billion, reached on the week ended September 6, 2013 when the country was in the middle of a currency crisis.
The healthy growth in foreign exchange reserves has increased the import cover close to 10 months, which fell to a low of 6-7 months during the currency crisis of 2013.