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Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 27 October 2014

:: National ::

India off Fragile Five list: IMF

The International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) India Mission Chief has said that among emerging markets and BRICS countries, India stands out for accomplishing the sharpest turnaround in its macro economy since the U.S. Federal Reserve started reversing its zero-interest rates monetary policy. As a result, of all these economies, India is best prepared to deal with the Fed’s monetary policy actions.
Earlier this month, the IMF raised its 2014 India growth forecast to 5.6 per cent as against its 5.4 per cent April projection while cutting its world Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth projection to 3.3 per cent. If the new government follows through with structural reforms India can see a growth of 7 per cent to 8 per cent, IMF India Mission Chief Paul A. Cashin told.
“India is the odd man out from the emerging markets and BRICS economies that were being called the Fragile Five last year… But the story for India changed quickly… India is better prepared for shocks today than when the U.S. Fed’s tapering started and more prepared than other emerging markets,” Mr. Cashin said.
The Fed’s initiation of the tapering of its monetary policy triggered sharp volatility in the rupee and a spike in the current account deficit. The CAD is down from the level of 4.7 per cent of the GDP to 1.7 per cent of GDP. “Three percentage points down is a lot... in the IMF’s history there are very few cases of that,” Mr. Cashin said. Substantial dollar inflows have led to India’s foreign exchange reserves rising from $270 billion in August to $315 billion.
The only red flags that Mr. Cashin raised were on retail food inflation and structural reforms in the infrastructure, labour and energy sectors. “Retail food inflation in India has been growing at a 10 per cent plus rate … Few countries have had such problems for such long periods of time,” he said.

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:: International ::

Vietnam PM’s top agenda is Oil & defence

Vietnam’s Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung will arrive in India for a two-day visit, and the bilateral agenda will be seen as another strong assertion of India’s interests in the South China Sea. China will be closely watching the visit.
India and Vietnam will sign three agreements, one an MoU on prospecting by OVL (ONGC Videsh Ltd.) in two more fields in the South China Sea. Discussions will be held on supplying naval vessels to Vietnam. Both issues had seen statements of concern from Beijing in the past.
However, officials confirmed that the current blocks under discussion to be signed during this visit, part of a batch of five offered by Vietnam in November, are in Vietnamese territorial waters, and not disputed.
The agreements, which will include oil exploration, economic and cultural cooperation, will be signed after meetings between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Mr. Nguyen in Delhi.
During President Pranab Mukherjee’s visit to Vietnam last month, India signed a defence agreement extending a $100-million line of credit to the country. The agreement, which came just ahead of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to India, sparked off a Foreign Ministry statement in Beijing that China would not “support any agreement” that dealt with any “waters administered by China, or is not approved by China.”

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:: Persons in News ::

Tabare Vazquez

Left-leaning former President Tabare Vazquez won the most votes in Uruguay’s presidential election, but he fell short of the outright majority needed to avoid a Nov. 30 runoff, exit polls said.
Three polls indicated that Mr. Vazquez, 74, the candidate of the outgoing president’s Broad Front coalition, would face centre-right challenger Luis Alberto Lacalle Pou, 41, of the National Party in a second-round vote.
Mr. Vazquez, who was president in 2005-10, would end up with around 44 per cent or 45 per cent of the vote, against 31 per cent to 33 per cent for Lacalle Pou, the polls predicted.
Pedro Bordaberry of the Colorado Party came in a distant third, with 13 per cent to 14 per cent. Few results were available, and officials didn’t expect to report the final count until morning.
“This political force has been voted by the majority, but we’ll have to go into a runoff,” Mr. Vazquez told supporters after the exit polls were released. “It’s a huge recognition to the nine years of the Broad Front’s government. ... Uruguay will now have to decide between five more years of progressivism, or another type of government.”

:: Business & Economy ::

Labour ministry proposed New law for small factories

The Labour Ministry has proposed the Small Factories (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Services) Bill to govern wages and conditions of work in small and medium enterprises (SMEs). The Bill envisages rules for wages, overtime hours, social security and appointment of factory inspectors in units employing fewer than 40 workers.
While the government introduced the Factories Act (Amendment) Bill, 2014 in the Lok Sabha in August, the new Bill has been proposed to align the work conditions in the SMEs with the Factories Act amendments and allow enterprises to file compliance forms online as the government announced earlier this month.
“There was a demand from the SME sector for a separate Act to govern them. In line with that, this Act will reduce the number of forms required for compliance with rules. It will allow the SMEs to employ women in night shifts based on the fulfilment of certain conditions.
It will change the inspection system to one based on self-certification and inspections based on computer lots as announced by the government earlier this month,” a senior Labour Ministry official says.
The Bill builds on the Labour Laws (Exemption from Furnishing Returns and Maintaining Registers by Certain Establishments) Amendment Bill, 2011, which increases the number of laws under which units will be exempt from maintaining registers and filings returns, he adds.

Reforming India faces an uncertain global situation

The linkage between the Indian economy and the global economy, always important for policymakers, has become pronounced recently. As the Modi-led NDA government embarks on some long-pending but overdue reforms in the petroleum and energy sectors, the dynamics of the global environment become particularly evident.
The decontrol of diesel prices, for long thought of but not implemented due mainly to political considerations, could be implemented at last as global oil prices took a tumble. What would normally be a controversial move became palatable as decontrol actually made retail diesel prices in India cheaper by more than Rs.3 a litre. With petrol prices having already been deregulated, the government has also rationalised the payment of LPG subsidies to the really needy.
However, the point needs to be made that if the unexpected fall in global prices has given a unique opportunity for reform, the real test for policymakers will come when oil prices move up from their present low levels.
Real reform here would require them to stay away during different phases of the petroleum price cycle. Unless of course there are oil shocks that create crisis situations crying out for government interventions.

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:: Science & Technology ::

UN climate change draft reports risks of irreversible damage

Climate change may have “serious, pervasive and irreversible” impacts on human society and nature, according to a draft U.N. report due for approval this week that says governments still have time to avert the worst.
Delegates from more than 100 governments and top scientists meet in Copenhagen between October 27, 2014 and October 31, 2014 to edit the report, meant as the main guide for nations working on a U.N. deal to fight climate change at a summit in Paris in late 2015.
European Union leaders agreed to cut emissions by 40 per cent below 1990 levels by 2030, in a shift from fossil fuels towards renewable energies, and urged other major emitters led by China and the United States to follow.
“The report will be a guide for us,” Peruvian Environment Minister Manuel Pulgar-Vidal, who will host a U.N. meeting of environment ministers in Lima in late 2014 to lay the groundwork for the Paris summit, told Reuters.
He said the synthesis report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), drawing on three mammoth scientific reports published since September 2013, would show the need for urgent and ambitious action in coming years.

Dengue scare still strong in Kerala (Register and Login to read Full News..)

:: Sports ::

Anirban Lahiri wins the Macau Open

A superb weekend combination of 67-66 saw Anirban Lahiri land the Venetian Macau Open, his second title of the year and his fifth career win on the Asian Tour.
The 27-year-old Lahiri, whose goal this year has been to get into the top-50 of the World Rankings, shot a final round of five-under 66 to finish at 17-under 267 and edge out the in-form and overnight leader, Scott Hend of Australia (69) and Thai Prom Meesawat (66) by one stroke.
He had started the week in the 90th spot in the rankings and could now move up to 72nd.
Lahiri dropped just one bogey in his last 44 holes. He had six birdies, four on the front nine and two on the back nine and his only blemish was the bogey on seventh. His previous bogey came on the first hole, after he started from the tenth on the second day.
A proof of his consistency was that he had two flawless rounds — 61 on first day and 67 on third and he wavered only on the second when he dropped five bogeys in his 73.
Among other Indians, Shiv Kapur was eighth with 274, while Jyoti Randhawa was tied 15th with 278. Jeev Milkha Singh was tied 26th with 285 and S.S.P. Chowrasia was tied 32nd with 286.