05 Septmeber 2015

Home

 

 

RBI crisis fund short of target  –   (Economics)

  • Contingency funds with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), used in case of unforeseen shocks, have fallen to 8.4 per cent of total assets, against a target of 12 per cent, as shown in its Annual Report for 2014-15 released on August 27.
  • For the last two years, the RBI has made no transfers to its Contingency Fund or its Asset Development Fund. The balance in these funds, therefore, has barely changed since 2013, when they made up 10.1 per cent of total assets.

 

Women to get permanent commission in the Navy  –   (Social Issues)

  • In a landmark judgment, the Delhi High Court on Friday allowed women to be granted permanent commission in the Navy, ensuring that women naval officers enjoyed rights similar to their counterparts in the Army and the Air Force.
  • The court said it would not allow “sexist bias” to block women’s progress.

 

MHA lists out reasons for cancelling Greenpeace licence  –   (Governance)

  • The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has cited nine reasons for cancelling the registration of Greenpeace India under the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA).
  • The MHA order of September 2 said: “Greenpeace India Society has wilfully suppressed and not disclosed the payment of salary Euro 56,951.16 per annum by Greenpeace International to Greg Muttitt, a foreign Greenpeace activist, who worked on secondment with Greenpeace India Society in India for 5 months…… and violated Section 33 of FCRA, 2010, by not reporting the details thereof in the returns filed to the government.”

 

HAL seeks to lighten LCA burden  –   (Defence)

  • Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd, which manufactures the Light Combat Aircraft for the Air Force, plans to offload to industry larger chunks of the fighter plane to produce than is being done now.
  • It is working on a process to rope in eight to 12 large industry partners as tier-1 or tier-2 suppliers of bigger ‘modules’ or structures, according to HAL Chairman and Managing Director T. Suvarna Raju. He said an industry partner may gear up to the task over a couple of years.

 

Pulling vultures back from the brink  –   (Environment)

  • Protecting the last six long-billed vultures in inland south India has become a challenge for the Forest Department even in a protected vulture sanctuary in Ramanagaram.
  • Long-billed vultures made Ramadevara Betta their home as the crevices of the tall granite hills — which are among the world’s oldest granite outcrops — are suitable for their mating and breeding activities.

 

Rajan urges global economies to hike rates, but not in one go  –   (Economics)

  • Under pressure back home to cut rates, RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan on Friday said global economies witnessing sustainable growth needed to hike rates although not in a “one go, big bang” manner. Market volatility concerns, he added, should not come in the way of central bank decisions.
  • Mr. Rajan, who is attending a meeting of the B20 on the sidelines of the G20 Meeting of Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors, said the economies returning to a sustainable growth path should start unprecedented monetary policies that they had resorted to after the financial crisis of 2007-08.
  • Markets should not be scared of volatility as it would be transient in nature, he observed.

 

Bhopal gas tragedy victims press on with appeal arguments in U.S.  –   (Environment)

  • Victims of the 1984 Bhopal poison gas disaster refused to let the embers die on their U.S. lawsuit against alleged water polluters Union Carbide Company (UCC) when their lawyers this week filed arguments with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit that the company behind the deadly leak of methyl isocyanate was continuing to foul local wells from its plant located in the area.

 

Maharashtra curbs criticism of politicians  –   (Indian Polity)

  • Criticism of a politician or a public servant, in the form of words, signs or representations, can attract sedition charges under Section 124 A of the Indian Penal Code if it shows them as representatives of the Union or the State governments, say the guidelines issued by the Maharashtra Home Department.
  • The guidelines say criticism in this form, which may cause disaffection with, or enmity and disloyalty to, the Centre or the State government will be treated as sedition.

 

The Patidar idea of reservation  –   (Indian Polity)

  • In market-friendly India, the art of the possible has been seen as the balancing of the ‘gush up’ for big corporates with the ‘trickle down’ for the electorally indispensable poor and lower castes. Groups like the Patidars may upset the balance because, now, they want to drink from both streams.
  • The constitutional view of reservation requires evidence of discrimination or backwardness, but the dominant view today seems to be that any caste can get reservation if it can bend the state to its will.

 

Seventh Pay Commission is no ogre  –   (Economics)

  • The notion that private sector pay is always linked to productivity is a myth, as pointed out by economist Thomas Piketty in his book Capital in the 21st Century.
  • Its recommendations’ impact need not give us jitters because the rise in government wages will amount to only 0.8 per cent of GDP.

 

A case for the Net’s Ctrl+Alt+Del  –   (Security)

  • Governments curb information flow by targeting the content, medium or device. While defensible during emergency, these are largely ineffective
  • Governments typically curb flow of information through Internet can do in three ways: by targeting the content, medium or device. While defensible during emergency, these methods are largely ineffective.

 

Friendly signal  –   (Economics)

  • The Union government’s decision to waive, through an amendment to the Income Tax Act, minimum alternate tax (MAT) liability on capital gains made by foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) and Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) is a welcome move.
  •  The announcement and the subsequent instructions issued to the tax department to keep in abeyance, till the appropriate amendment is carried out, pending proceedings and to not pursue the recovery of outstanding demands in such cases is a big relief to FIIs.

 

 

Accept more refugees: U.N. tells EU  –   (International  Relation)

  • As the EU prepares for emergency meetings, U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres has called the present juncture a “defining moment” for the EU.
  • Terming the influx a “refugee crisis, not only a migration phenomenon”, he has urged the EU and its member states to “be ready, with the consent and in support of the concerned governments – mainly Greece and Hungary, but also Italy – to put in place immediate and adequate emergency reception, assistance and registration capacity….and increase relocation opportunities to as many as 200,000.”

 

OVL buys 15% stake in Rosneft’s Vankor oil field  –    (Economics)

  • NGC Videsh Ltd., (OVL), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Oil and Natual Gas Corporaration (ONGC) signed an agreement on Friday to buy a 15 per cent stake in CSJC Vankorneft, a company organised under the law of the Russian Federation, and the owner of the Vankor field and North Vankor license.
  • Rosneft Oil Company of Russia wholly-owns Vankorneft.