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Current Affairs for IAS Exams – 04 December 2015

NATIONAL

Centre provides 1000 crore more to Tamil Nadu

The Prime Minister agreed with the Chief Minister that the situation in Tamil Nadu was unprecedented and expressed concern at the seriousness of the situation. He said Chennai was a growth centre and any- thing that affected Tamil Nadu affected the whole country.
Nearly 3.25 lakh persons were rescued and evacuated in Chennai, Cuddalore, Tiruvallur and Kancheepuram districts as on Thursday.
Even as defence personnel and NDRF teams went all out to rescue people stranded without food and electricity for two days, the INS Rajali naval station was converted into a civilian air- port as the flooded Chennai airport is closed till Sunday.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi undertook an aerial survey of the affected regions on Thursday and announced an additional Rs. 1,000-crore relief package. The Centre had earlier sanctioned Rs. 940 crore.

GST bill might get the consensus

Of the three objections the Congress has on the Goods and Services Tax Bill, it is becoming increasingly clear that the Modi government is prepared to address two: it is willing to scrap the one per cent additional origin tax proposed to help manufacturing states make up the losses they may incur due to GST by promising to make up those losses for five years and set up a grievance redressal mechanism.
On the third, capping the GST, a committee headedby the government’s Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian is preparing a report that could be out this week.
Instead of one fixed GST rate, the government is exploring the possibility of going for a “tax band,” which can start at a low of 18 per cent and a high of 24 per cent.
The government feels that if there is a fixed rate in the constitutional amendment, any change in the future will be difficult. A tax band will ensure that any GST rate within it can be implemented.

Illness can not be ground for divorce

In a humanitarian judgment, the Supreme Court held that divorce is invalid when a terminally-ill woman agrees to dissolve the marriage if her husband paid for her urgent and life-saving medical treatment.
The apex court laid down the law that a man cannot induce his terminally-ill Hindu wife to divorce him by promising to pay in alimony a sum that will cover the medical expenses required immediately to save her life.
The court held that it is the primary duty of a husband totake care of the health and safety of his wife.
The case dealt with a couple who agreed on divorce by mutual consent under the Hindu Marriage Act. The husband agreed to pay Rs. 12.5 lakh as a final settlement and alimony.

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INDIA & WORLD

External affairs minister statement on Nepal issue

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj informed the Rajya Sabha that Nepal has made “progress in the dialogue on the contentious issues with the agitating parties.
Nepal’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Kamal Thapa indicated that political differences and “misunderstandings” in India over the leadership of Nepal have been resolved.
A team of MPs from both the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha are expected to visit Ne- pal shortly to revive the smooth political communication channels.

International bird festival

A three-day international festival on birds from 4 -6 December at the National Chambal Sanctuary (NCS) in Agra.
As many as 25 international bird experts and over 80 Indian ornithologists are expected to attend.

INTERNATIONAL

Big divide between developing and developed nations come into fore at G77

The developing country bloc of G77 and China launched a sharp attack on some developed countries at the climate talks for trying to amend the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change by tying finance to conditionality’s in the draft agreement.
In contrast to India, which has been maintaining a low key position, the G77+China group said the developed countries that had jumped out of the Kyoto Protocol, or failed to ratify it, were introducing conditions for financing which were not part of the Framework Convention.
The G77+China views this as a deviation from what was agreed at the Climate Change conference held in Durban in 2011.
The mandate at that event was for full implementation of the UNFCCC, and come up with an agreement to deal with cli- mate change beyond 2020.
Two sharp issues raised by the group are on the inclusion of loosely defined text and conditionality’s to financing.
The draft, for instance, says that developed countries “in a position to do so” will pro- vide finances to help developing countries adapt. This is vague in legal terms, and difficult to enshrine in an agreement.
Also, issues such as an ‘enabling domestic environment’ and the ability to raise resources domestically were sought to be linked to financing.

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BUSINESS

Developed world to abandon WTO’s Doha Round talks

The government opposed alleged attempts of the developed world to“abandon” the 14-year-oldDoha Round talks of theWorld Trade Organisation (WTO) at the coming Nairobi ministerial meeting by citing the slow progress of negotiations to liberalise world trade
Over 100 member countries including India (out of the total 162 member countries of WTO) want the DohaRound to be successfully concluded expeditiously, but only after ensuring that the “development’’ dimension of the round is fulfilled in all aspects
The Nairobi ministerial meeting is slated to be held during December 15-18. The Doha Development Round the ongoing negotiation round of the WTO for a pact to open up world trade by lowering or eliminating barriers had begun in 2001.
the rich world, was not only stonewalling the Doha Round talks, but also was making efforts to introduce ‘new issues’ into the round.These new issues include labour and environmental standards, e-commerce, glob-al value chains and promotion of supply chains, environmental and sustainable goods produced using clean and green energy, transparency in government procurement, state-owned enterprises and designated monopolies, besides competition and investment provisions.
India has been pushing for an effective Special SafeguardMechanism (SSM).
SSM is a trade remedy that would allow developing countries to temporarily hike import duties on farm products to counter sudden import surges and price falls.
India also wants the rich countries to drastically reduce their ‘trade distorting’ farm subsidies, permanent solution to the issue of public food stockholding in develop-ing countries for the purpose of food security

Coal India to increase focus on its consumers

Coal India, chasing a one billion output target, is aiming to improve the grade of coal to maintain uniformity and stop the supply of boulders and foreign materials. It is also taking steps to improve marketing.
in first half of 2015-16, CIL clocked a production growth of 8.9 per cent against a net sales growth 7.3 per cent and a post-tax profit growth of 1.3per cent
To improve coal grades the company is setting up coal 15 washeries as it reduces ash content in coal.
Coal is graded according to the gross calorific value system (GCV), which is the amount of heat generated which burning a specified amount of the commodity
Currently, there are 17 bands and traditionally majority ofIndian coal has high ash con-tent, which low heat value.Washing improves this.
Surface miners are also be-ing deployed by CIL for selective mining at some of the open cast mines for producing dust-free regular size coal in order to improve coal quality, while improving the blast-ing method to prevent mixing coal with overburden material is being adopted. Efforts are also being made to iron out the differences over third party sampling.