WBCS Current Affairs 15/07/2014 to 17/07/2014

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1.Indian citizens will not have to rush to a gazette officer or a notary to get their documents attested. Giving relief to the people, the government has decided to eliminate the necessity of filing affidavits from a gazetted officer or a notary for a substantial number of government-related works. Instead of following the old practice, the government has decided to promote self-attestation of documents.

2.India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Chinese President Xi Jinping in Brazil during the BRICS Summit. Mr. Modi pressed for a solution to the boundary issue, saying if the two sides could resolve the vexed issue in an amicable manner; it would set an example for the world on peaceful dispute resolution.
In a major development, China invited India to attend a summit of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) in November 2014. APEC is a forum for 21 nations that envisages promoting free trade and economic cooperation throughout the Asia-Pacific region.

3.Sim Bhullar (21) has become the first player of Indian origin to join the National Basketball Association (NBA) after he inked a summer contract with the Sacramento Kings, a professional basketball team in the US.
Bhullar is originally from Canada but his parents hail from Punjab. He is 7.5 feet tall, weighs 360 pounds and is a centre from New Mexico State University. Bhullar is the tallest player in the NBA right now, and needs only to stand on his tiptoes to make a basket.

4.The former skipper of Sri Lanka‘s cricket team Mahela Jayawardene has announced retirement from Test cricket.

5. President of India, Pranab Mukherjee appointed Governors of five states, namely Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, Gujarat and Nagaland.
Given below is the list of Governors and their respective state of appointment:
Keshari Nath Tripathi: Governor of West Bengal
Balramji Dass Tandon: Governor of Chhattisgarh
Padmanabha Balakrishna Acharya: Governor of both Nagaland and Tripura
Ram Naik: Governor of Uttar Pradesh
Om Prakash Kohli: Governor of Gujarat

6.President Pranab Mukherjee presented Gandhi Peace Prize for 2013 to noted environmentalist and pioneer of the Chipko movement Chandi Prasad Bhatt for his contribution towards the environment and society through Gandhian philosophy.

7.The Union government is establishing a National Centre for Research & Development in Bulk Drug (NCRDBD) at National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER), Hyderabad, to fill the significant void in R&D in bulk drugs. The government has approved the project which will cost over Rs 52 crore and require an operating cost of over Rs 37 crore for 5 years.

8. The Haryana Sikh Gurdwaras (Management) Bill, 2014, passed by the state assembly, has received Haryana Governor Jagannath Pahadia’s assent. The Bill seeks to set up a separate management committee for Sikh shrines in Haryana. The Bill empowers the Haryana government to create an ad hoc committee to manage the affairs of the state’s gurdwaras till members to the Haryana Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (HSGPC) are elected.

9. Encouraged by the Reserve Bank .of India (RBI), banks are working on setting up ‘Rural ATMs’ for dispensing currency notes of smaller denominations. Banks have been encouraged to find a solution for introducing rural ATMs.

10. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has flown to Brazil to participate in the sixth annual BRICS summit.
The BRICS summit – a multilateral forum comprising of the upcoming economies of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – will be the first occasion that the Prime Minister will be interacting with world leaders after assuming office in May 2014.
The 2-day summit will be held in the cities of Fortaleza and Brasilia in Brazil.
India’s key agendas for this summit:
BRICS BANK: The key agenda will be establishing a new development bank on the lines of the World Bank and Asian Development Bank. The idea was first talked about at the BRICS meet in New Delhi in 2012.
CONTINGENT FUNDS: With a corpus of $100 billion the proposed bank will finance projects for infrastructure projects in emerging, developing nations and will compete with the west dominated IMF and World Bank.
Who will host BRICS BANK: With both India and China vying to host the headquarters for the proposed bank, the contentious issue will be discussed.
INDIA-CHINA on security: India is likely to take up the matter of security of India’s Northern and Eastern borders that it shares with China. PM Modi, who will have bilateral meetings with all BRICS leaders, will meet Chinese President, Xi Jinping.

11.Expressing concerns over the empty coffers of the Green Climate Fund (GCF), India urged rich countries to give their consent to a road-map for its capitalization by 2015 – the year the world will have a universal global climate treaty.
Speaking at the ‘Major Economies Forum’ (MEF) in Paris, India’s Environment minister Prakash Javadekar also suggested that part of GCF, which was launched in 2009-10, should be used for funding critical technologies and buying Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) so that it can be made available to developing nations free of cost.
He referred to the annual Budget to inform that India had had taken a number of measures to fight climate change including earmarking Rs 100 crore for National Adaptation Fund, launching of mission for Himalayan region, Clean Ganga mission and hike in cess on coal from Rs 50 a tonne to Rs 100 a tonne.
Green Climate Fund (GCF)
GCF is a fund within the framework of the UNFCCC set up as a mechanism to transfer money from the developed nations to the developing countries, in order to help the developing nations in adaptation and mitigation practices to tackle climate change. The GCF is based in the new Songdo district of Incheon, South Korea. It is managed by a Board of 24 members.
The GCF will support projects, programmes, policies and other activities in developing nations. It intends to be the fulcrum of efforts to increase Climate Finance of $100 billion a year by 2020.

12. Indian Government has asked United Nations Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) to vacate its Government accommodations in New Delhi.
Reacting to this, Pakistan said that such steps would not change the legal status of the Kashmir dispute and that it never accepted Kashmir’s accession to India. It said that as long as the Kashmir dispute is not resolved, the UN Security Council mandate remains.

13. From 2016-17 FY, it will be mandatory for Indian corporate sector to migrate to International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) from the current indigenous Indian Accounting Standards. The new system has been necessitated by the need to be consistent with global practices.
IFRS is essential to facilitate the foreign firms make accurate interpretation of the balance sheets of Indian companies in order to make a correct assessment of their performance which mirrors the state of the economy.

14.As per the direction of the Supreme Court, Government must implement its February 2014 notification fixing higher average daily wages to workers of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS).
The order came a day after the proposed Budget announcement by the Government, which while reviving the MGNREGS allocated Rs34,000 crore, a hike of Rs1,000 crore over year 2013. The Centre had, in its February 13, 2014 notification, announced higher wage scale for MGNREGA workers in the range of Rs118 to Rs181, varying from State to State. With the Court direction, the financial load on the Centre is likely to increase by more than Rs1,000 crore.

15.Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers Ltd (GRSE) delivered to the Indian Navy country’s first indigenously built warship INS Kamorta. The highly sophisticated Anti-Submarine Warship (ASW), the first in its class of four corvettes being built by GGRSE for the Navy was built with indigenous steel produced by SAIL’s Bhilai Steel Plant.

16.Veteran actor Zohra Sehgal (102), who acted in Bollywood classics and Doctor Who adventures, passed away. Sehgal, for her contribution to the Indian cinema is dubbed “the grand old lady of Bollywood”. A Padma Shri awardee, she also received the Padma Vibhshan in 2010.

17. Margaret Alva, the current Governor of Rajasthan, was sworn-in as the Governor of Goa. She was administered oath of office by Chief Justice of Bombay high court Mohit Shah. Rajasthan governor Alva has been given additional charge of Goa after previous governor B V Wanchoo resigned on July 4, 2014, a day after CBI interrogated him in the VVIP chopper deal scam.

18.The World Population Day was observed across the world on July 11. The theme for year 2014 is “Invest in Young People today, to ensure a Bright Future“.

19. Highlights of Economic survey 2013-14
GDP growth seen at 5.4-5.9 pc in 2014/15
Growth rate of 7-8 pc can occur after 2015/16
Poor monsoon, external factors pose risk to growth
Need subsidy reforms for fiscal consolidation
Raise tax-to-GDP ratio for fiscal consolidation
CAD to be contained at 2.1 pc of GDP in 2014-15
Wholesale inflation expected to moderate by end-2014
Retail inflation showing signs of moderation
Reduce spillovers from food to non-food inflation by putting in place a formal monetary policy framework
Contain revenue shortfall via better mobilisation, reforms
Move towards simple tax regime, fewer exemptions, GST rate
Need DTC as clean modern replacement for existing I-T laws
Cutting capital expenditure not good for economy
Changes in tax administration required
Need sharp fiscal correction, new FRBM Act with 'teeth'
Government needs to move towards low and stable inflation through fiscal consolidation
RBI intervention in forex market behind accumulation of reserves "generally"
Rupee has stabilised, reflecting an overall sense of confidence in forex and capital markets
Time over-runs in infra project main cause of under achievement in the sector
Exports still fragile; Iraq crisis a risk
Industrial growth expected to revive gradually over 2-yr
Indian legislation governing business need thorough revamp
Improve business environment by shifting important decision making from inspectors to higher officers
Re-examine laws that empower govt to interfere in markets
Capital controls under FEMA do not support rapidly globalising economy.
Banking sector impacted by global and domestic slowdown
State APMC laws hurdle to modernisation of good economy; have created cartels of buyers who possess market power
Foodgrains production to go up to 264.4 MT in 2013/14
Need to review nutrient-based fertiliser subsidy
Plan to add 88,537 MW power capacity over next 5 yrs
Allow private companies to mine coal commercially
Gold & silver imports dropped 40 pc to $33.4 bn in 2013/14
Improvement in fiscal deficit and CAD to feed higher growth
India's increase in share in world services exports from 0.6 pc in 1990 to 3.3 pc in 2013 faster than goods exports
Despite deceleration, services GDP growth at 6.8 pc was above the 4.7 pc overall GDP in 2013/14
3 milestones of 2013/14: passage of PFRDA Act, shift of commodity futures trading into FinMin & presentation of FSLRC report
Poverty ratio declined from 37.2 pc in 2004/05 to 21.9 pc in 2011/12.
Setting up public finances by tax & expenditure reform
Creating legal & regulatory framework for well-functioning market economy
CAD at USD 32.4 billion (1.7% of GDP) 2013-14 as against USD 88.2 billion (4.7% of GDP) in 2012-13
Foreign exchange reserves up from USD 292 bn at end March 2013 to USD 304.2 bn at end March 2014
Exports up 4.1% in 2013-14, compared to previous year’s negative growth of 1.8%