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Current Affairs for IAS Exams – 31 December 2015

:: NATIONAL ::

The Union government is set to make an aggressive effort to accomplish one of the most ambitious intelligence projects in recent memory, which failed to take of during United Progressive Alliance rule.
Conceived in the wake of the 2008 Mumbai attacks, the National Intelligence Grid (NATGRID) is a centralised agency which stores sensitive personal information on citizens from almost two dozen agencies to be made available for counter-terror investigations.
The government will appoint a senior serving government official, in all likelihood one with an intelligence back-ground, to head NATGRID, with a mandate to operationalise it as a federal counter-terrorism centre.
The grid was to provide an intelligence database that would have networked 21 sets of data sources to provide quick and secure access of information to about 10 intelligence and law-enforcement agencies including theIntelligence Bureau (IB) and R&AW

Union Finance Minister said that India needed to grow by an additional 1-1.5 per cent for the government to bear the burden of wage increase and welfare benefits.
He said that India is growing at a good pace of 7.5 per cent at a time when the global economy is experiencing a slow- down, which is appreciable in itself; but we need to increase our growth by another 1-1.5 per cent.
the Centre would have to bear a burden of Rs. 1.02 lakh crore on account of the implementation of the Seventh Pay Commission recommendations, besides the burden from the one rank one pension for veterans.

Iran’s leading banks will soon open branches in India to energise commercial ties between New Delhi and Tehran.
The decision was amongst a slew of commercial measures taken by the India-Iran Joint Commission that met for the first time since Iran and the P-5+1 grouping struck a deal to end sanctions on Iran.
A major beneficiary of normalisation of banking channels between two sides will be India which has just begun settling more than $6.5 billion energy-related pending payment, with Iran.
Two countries also dis- cussed measures to boost logistic services, including allowing freight forwarding companies (numbering around 5,500 in India) to take advantage of the rupee payment mechanism and the insurance cover that are currently available only to exporters and importers.
India and Iran have decided to hold preliminary discussions for a preferential trade agreement (PTA).
The PTA is meant to ensure that both the countries will cut oreliminate duties on certain mutually agreed products to increase bilateral trade. A Joint Working Group will hold meetings to look at the feasibility of the PTA.

One of India’s most ambitious and costly efforts to develop a surface-to-air missile system, in collaboration with Israel, achieved a significant milestone over the last two days with its successful firings from an Indian naval warship.
The long-range surface-to- air missile (LRSAM) — land version is medium-range SAM or MRSAM — is the product of a joint development project of India and Israel.
It is said to be a very advanced SAM that can track and shoot down incoming missiles and other flying objects with high-level accuracy.
While the LRSAM is for the Navy, the Air Force has an order for the MRSAM and the Army variant has been recently approved.
Also called Barak NG (next generation), the LRSAM can intercept aerial targets up to arange of 80 km.
It is being codeveloped by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) from India and the Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) of Israel, and will be manufactured by Bharat Dynamics Ltd. (BDL).

IMF Managing Director, Christine Lagarde, said the prospect of rising interest rates in the U.S. and an economic slowdown in China were contributing to uncertainty and a higher risk of economic vulnerability worldwide.
In addition, growth in global trade has slowed considerably and a decline in raw material prices is posing problems for economies based on these, while the financial sector in many countries still has weaknesses and financial risks are rising in emerging markets, Ms. Lagarde added.
The U.S. Federal Reserve hiked interest rates for the first time in nearly a decade earlier this month and made clear that was a tentative beginning to a “gradual” tightening cycle.
There are “potential spill- over effects” with the prospect of increasing interest rates there already having contributed to higher financing costs for some borrowers,including in emerging and developing markets.

Sources: Various News Papers & PIB

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