(Current Affairs) National Events | January: 2017

National Events

India’s international counter-terror campaign suffered a setback from China

  • India’s international counter-terror campaign suffered a setback with China again blocking its attempt to blacklist Pakistan-based terror leader Masood Azhar at the U.N.
  • China’s action stopped the counter terror committee of the U.N. Security Council Taliban/al Qaeda Sanctions Committee from designating the Jaish-e- Mohammad leader, which India called a “surprising” move.
  • Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson, said, “when it comes to the listing matter of the U.N. Security Council 1267 Committee, we believe it should conform with relevant Security Council resolutions and the Committee’s rules of procedure.”
  • India began the campaign to blacklist Masood Azhar after the Pathankot attack on January 2.
  • Subsequently India highlighted the contradiction that the UNSC 1267 Committee had banned Jaish-e-Mohammed in 2001 while leaving out Mr Azhar and therefore, should proscribe him as well.
  • However, China blocked India’s attempts to list Masood Azhar in the agenda of the 1267 Committee earlier this year, neutralising India’s campaign.
  • China’s blockade also cast a shadow on India’s plans to bring an international convention against terrorism under the aegis of the United Nations.
  • The attempt to blacklist Masood Azhar will remain part of India’s multilateral agenda and India will continue to campaign for the need to place him on the list of international terrorists.

Demonetisation of old notes to end today

  • The Reserve Bank of India, meanwhile, has asked banks to put together data on how much of the demonetised currency returned to the system by December 30.
  • Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said the record number of search and seizure operations carried out by the Income-Tax department were ample proof that the decision to demonetise the high-value currency notes was on the mark.
  • Mr. Jaitley also said the cash crunch faced by people due to the lack of adequate currency in banks had eased as gauged by thinner queues at banks.
  • Though he refused to commit to a time line for lifting the withdrawal caps of Rs. 24,000 a week imposed on bank account holders.
  • The Prime Minister’s address to the nation on New Year’s Eve could hold some goodies for the common man, days before the Election Commission announces poll dates for upcoming elections.

Demonetisation have no immediate impact on the railway and aviation sectors

  • While the Centre’s move to scrap old Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000 currency notes did not have an immediate impact on the railway and aviation sectors, the toll collection on national highways took a hit.
  • 115 toll projects of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) operated by private players lost an estimated Rs. 1,100 crore over a 24-day period.
  • Following demonetisation, the Centre had withdrawn toll collection at 365 toll plazas on the national highways from November 9 to December 2 midnight. The move resulted in significant liquidity stress for most of the road projects.
  • The NHAI plans to provide immediate relief to the developers by covering 90 per cent of the interest cost and operational and maintenance expenses for the period when toll collection was suspended.
  • However, demonetisation helped the Indian Railways to exceed its target of passenger bookings for November.
  • The number of passengers rose by seven per cent to 7.09 crore against the Railways’ target of 6.6 crore passengers in November.
  • Railways’ passenger earnings grew 11 per cent to Rs. 3,802 crore in November against a six per cent dip in passenger revenues witnessed in the same month last year. However, freight earnings reduced by 1 per cent to Rs. 9,014 crore.
  • Domestic air traffic growth continued to be robust in November and increased by 22.45 per cent to 89.66 lakh compared to the previous month. In October, the passenger traffic had risen by 23.20 per cent to 86.72 lakh.
  • Global aviation consultant CAPA said traffic growth remained strong in December, and, although there was “no visible impact” as yet of demonetisation, growth may be impacted in the next financial year.

FM thinks demonetisation will improve growth

  • Finance Minister cited an upward trend in revenue collections and green shoots in several sectors, such as life insurance, mutual funds, aviation, petroleum and agriculture, since then.
  • “Of course, there would be areas which would be adversely impacted, but what was predicted by the critics has to have a rationale with the revenue collection. Assessment can be unreal but revenue is real,” Mr. Jaitley said.
  • “Already a large part of benefits of this historic move are visible. A lot more money has come into the banking system. the ability of the banks to lend has now increased,” the Finance Minister said.
  • “The indirect tax figures are also available and notwithstanding what the critics had predicted in all the categories till November 30 there is a significant increase in indirect taxation,” he said, citing a 26.2 per cent rise in central indirect taxes collection till November 30.
  • As per official data on tax collections released on December 9, net direct taxes grew 15.12 per cent between April and November this year, compared with the same period last year.
  • The growth of indirect tax collections between April and October was 26.7 per cent. Overall crop sowing in the rabi season was up 6.3 per cent compared with last year, he said.
  • Many of these indicators, when taken together with the fact that the critical part of remonetisation was “already behind us,” suggested that things “should certainly be much better in the weeks and months to come than it was in the last six weeks.”

High-level committee to draw a road map to make India a global arbitration hub

  • The Centre has constituted a high-level committee, led by the former Supreme Court judge B.N. Srikrishna, to draw a road map to make India a global arbitration hub.
  • The committee would comprise another former SC judge, R.V. Raveendran, Delhi High Court judge S. Ravindra Bhat, senior advocates K.K. Venugopal and Indu Malhotra along with others.
  • The terms of reference included analysing the effectiveness of the arbitration mechanism, identification of amendments in other laws.
  • They are needed to encourage International Commercial Arbitration and devise an action plan for implementation of the law to ensure speedier arbitrations.

Payment of Wages (Amendment) Ordinance, 2016 approved by President

  • President has approved the Payment of Wages (Amendment) Ordinance, 2016, to enable industries to pay wages by cheque or credit into the bank accounts of workers earning up to Rs. 18,000 a month without their permission.
  • However, the ordinance, promulgated on December 28, doesn’t make wage payments mandatory through the banking system. Employers can still pay in cash.
  • The Payment of Wages Act of 1936 required employers to take the permission of employees before paying salaries through cheque or bank credit.
  • The ordinance empowers the Centre and State governments to specify industries or establishments where wage payments can be made mandatory through banks.
  • Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya introduced the Payment of Wages (Amendment) Bill, 2016, in the Lok Sabha on December 15, but it couldn’t be cleared because of the impasse in Parliament.
  • The Centre decided to take the ordinance route because its decision to scrap the Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000 banknotes in November led to a cash crunch, and employers were finding it tough to pay workers in cash.

Former IAS officer Anil baijal appointed as Delhi LG

  • Former IAS officer Anil Baijal is set to be appointed as the next Lieutenant Governor of Delhi, replacing Najeeb Jung.
  • Though there was no official communication about the appointment from Rashtrapati Bhawan.
  • Mr. Baijal is currently associated with the Vivekananda International Foundation (VIF), a New Delhi-based think tank. He was also on the VIF executive council.
  • Some top level appointments in the current dispensation have been associated with the VIF, including National Security Adviser Ajit Doval.
  • A 1969 batch IAS officer of the Union Territory cadre, Mr Baijal served as the Home Secretary in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government.
  • He retired in 2006 as the Secretary, Urban Development Ministry. He also served as the vice chairman of the Delhi Development Authority.
  • Mr. Baijal was associated with the designing and roll-out of the UPA’s flagship programme, the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission.
  • He will succeed Mr Jung, who resigned on December 22, ending a three-and-a-half-year tenure, mostly marked by bitter confrontation with the Aam Aadmi Party government.

Cabinet approved an ordinance to help extinguish the Reserve Bank of India’s liability

  • The Union Cabinet approved the promulgation of an ordinance to help extinguish the Reserve Bank of India’s liability towards currency notes of Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000, which were withdrawn on November 8.
  • The ordinance also includes a provision to penalise holders of such notes above a certain threshold after March 31, 2017.
  • The government had set December 30, 2016 as the deadline for depositing into banks these currency notes.
  • After that date, those still holding such notes would be able to deposit them at the RBI up to March 31, along with an explanation as to why they failed to deposit the notes earlier.
  • Under Section 26 of the RBI Act, there is an obligation of payment of legal tender by the central bank. Now, old Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000 have ceased to be legal tender but the legal obligation on RBI also needs to be relieved. This ordinance does that.

The United Naga Council decided to intensify the ongoing economic blockade in Manipur

  • The United Naga Council decided to intensify the ongoing economic blockade in Manipur.
  • The UNC has imposed an indefinite blockade since November 1 in protest against the State government’s plan to create two new districts.
  • The Naga outfit has ignored appeals from all sections, including church leaders, to call off the agitation. The State has been without petrol, diesel, cooking gas and consumer items for days now.
  • Manipur Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh has said talks with the UNC can be held only if the group calls off the blockade and gives an assurance that it will not be repeated.

PM says terrorism and drug mafia has been badly affected by demonetisation

  • With the 50-day deadline for exchange of old Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000 notes under demonetisation drawing near, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on Tuesday said his “fight” against black money and corruption would continue unabated.
  • Acknowledging that people had undergone “immense” trouble due to the invalidation of the Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000 notes, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he was “indebted” to the people for their support.
  • Mr Modi said his government had initiated schemes for the poor, including rural electrification and the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana where cooking gas cylinders have been distributed to rural women.
  • “Through the note ban, in one stroke, we destroyed the world of terrorism, drug mafia, human trafficking and underworld,” Mr Modi said.

FCRA licences of more than 20000 NGO's cancelled in last two years

  • Since the NDA government came to power in May 2014, the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) licenses of at least 20,000 NGOs were cancelled by the Home Ministry.
  • Of these 20,000 NGOs, the FCRA licenses of over 9,500 NGOs were cancelled in 2015. Licenses of another 11,000 NGOs expired as they failed to apply for renewal in time.
  • “Expiry” technically meant cancellation and the NGOs could no longer receive foreign funds but they have been given time till February 2017 to send in fresh applications.
  • Despite the crackdown, in the past one year, the Home Ministry received applications for fresh FCRA licenses from 3,000 NGOs.
  • Among the 13,000 valid NGOs, around 3,000 have submitted applications for renewal.
  • In addition to this, 300 NGOs are currently under prior permission category but are not registered under the FCRA, which means they need the Ministry’s nod whenever they want to receive foreign funds.
  • Since the FCRA license is given for five years, this year all the NGOs had to apply for a renewal and the last date was March 31. The last time, such exercise was done in 2011 after the FCRA Act was amended in 2010.

Tribal population lags on social indicators

  • The tribal population in India lags behind other social groups on various social parameters, such as child mortality and infant mortality and women’s health, says the latest annual report of the Ministry of Tribal Affairs.
  • Tribal population, with a vast majority engaged in agricultural labour, has a higher incidence of anaemia in women when compared to other social groups.
  • The community also registered the highest child mortality and infant mortality rates, when compared to other social groups, the data indicates. While educational achievement on the whole has improved, statistics cited elsewhere in the report shows that the GER among tribal students in the primary school level has declined from 113.2 in 2013-14 to 109.4 in 2015-16.
  • While the overall poverty rates among the tribal population have fallen compared to previous years, they remain relatively poor when weighed against other social groups. Health infrastructure has also been found wanting in tribal areas.
  • At an all-India level, there is a shortfall of 6,796 sub-centres, 1,267 primary health centres and 309 community health centres in the tribal areas as on March 31, 2015, the report points out.
  • Of an estimated 85 lakh persons displaced due to development projects and natural calamities, only 21 lakh were shown to have been rehabilitated so far, the report states.

Finance minister says lower taxes will India compete globally

  • Finance Minister said India needs lower taxes to compete globally and that voluntary tax compliance by citizens should be encouraged by a friendly administration.
  • We have lived through the last seven decades in India under the impression that if avoidance could be done of government revenue, then there was nothing immoral about this. That was considered commercial smartness,” Mr. Jaitley said.
  • Payment of legitimate taxes is part of a citizen's duty, and non-payment is visited with severe con-sequences.” According to the Minister, “extraordinarily high taxation rates in the past” have encouraged people to evade taxes.
  • Tax authorities are judged by the quality of what they write or decide. The level of fairness followed by authorities will define the quality of interpretation of tax laws by authorities.
  • The voluntary compliance by citizens by payment of due taxes needs to be reciprocated by authorities through a tax-friendly administration.” Mr. Jaitley also told the trainees that tax officers should have high integrity.

Centre released funds for polavaram project

  • The Centre released ?1,981.54 crore, through the National Bank for Agricultural and Rural Development (Nabard), for Andhra Pradesh's ambitious ?16,000-crore Polavaram irrigation project along the Godavari river.
  • Releasing the amount, FM said this should quell any sense of distrust that the people of the State had developed towards the Centre over funding for the project.
  • Stressing that returns on investments in irrigation projects for agriculture can be visible by next season as opposed to investments in sectors such as manufacturing, where returns take a ‘reasonably long period' to register.
  • Using water resources to its optimal level is one of our prime goals and it is import-ant that a very large part of funding goes to this,” Mr. Jaitley said.
  • Terming the issue of water in the State's dry regions as very sensitive, he said that it took some time for the Centre to find a way to fund the Polavaram project, but it had finally done it.

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