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Current Affairs for IAS Exams – 28 December 2015

:: NATIONAL ::

PM in his Mann ki Baat program announced a new programme for start up’s “Start Up India”.
Mr. Modi decided to frame a new nomenclature to refer to the diferently abled people as divyang.
PM also lauded a mason in Madhya Pradesh for donating free labour for building more than 100 toilets in his district.
Prime Minister continues to be the most digitally en- gaged world leader, sparking four times the number of conversations around his Facebook page than U.S. President Barack Obama.

India will soon schedule discussions with the U.S. to raise its concerns over the Obama administration’s recent decision to hike visa fees.
India will also consider retaliatory measures and even explore the possibility of dragging the U.S. to the World Trade Organisation’s dispute settlement body, but only if talks fail to amicably resolve the issue.
Issues related to the tightening of the visa and immigration regime and the fear-mongering about a large number of American jobs allegedly going to foreigners have been part of the rhetoric before elections in the U.S.
Industry bodies FICCI and Nasscom had termed America’s decision to double the fees for certain categories of H1B and L1 visas to $4,000 and $4,500 respectively — as “discriminatory” because it will mainly impact Indian IT firms.
H1B and L1 visas are temporary work visas for skilled professionals.
India is the largest user of H1B visas (67.4 per cent of the total 161,369 H1B visas issued in FY14 went to Indians) and is also among the largest users of L1 visas (Indians received 28.2 per cent of the 71,513 L1 visas issued in FY14).

China officially ended its controversial one child policy, allowing couples to have a second child amid deepening demographic crisis of shrinking workforce and ageing population in the world’s second-largest economy.
Chinese lawmakers passed a historic decision allowing all couples to have two children from January 1, ending its over three-and-half decades old policy that prevented over 400 million births in the country.

After being in the dark for several years on India’s geopolitical canvas, Russia is making an emphatic comeback as India’s trusted and strategic partner and is on course to reclaiming the position as top supplier of defence hardware.
Strangely, it is Prime Minister Narendra Modi, seen as pro-America, who is making it happen.
While both sides concluded 16 agreements across sectors, the most visible indica- tors of the renewed vigour in the partnership are in the de- fence sector.
Russia still accounts for 70 per cent of Indian arsenal, but has in recent years been overtaken by Israel and the U.S. as the big- gest hardware suppliers on an annual basis.
Russia, however, still is the largest supplier due to spares and support for hardware in the inventory and the committed liabilities for programmes under way.
It is no coincidence that the country’s first major project under the government’s ambitious ‘Make in India’ will be the production of Kamov-226T utility helicopters in India.
Under the agreement, 200 Ka-226T helicopters will be built in India for which Russian helicopters will partner with India’s Reliance group to execute the program.

The state governments and centre has come to a situation which is beneficial for both for addressing petroleum products problem in GST.
The states can levy the Value Added tax (VAT) for a “certain period.
Constitutionally petroleum products will be part of GST, but for a certain period, the states will have the freedom to determine the tax rate.

Revanta Mumbai Ga-ruda kept its blemishless record intact by taming a spirited Haryana Hammers 7-2 to win the Pro Wrestling League title at the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium.
The league augurs well for Indian wrestling. Though most of wins went to overseas wrestlers, still in long run it will improve wrestling in India.