Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 08 October 2016

:: National ::

Amid rising tensions between India and Pakistan following the surgical strikes, Union Home Minister said the entire stretch of 3,323 km border would be “completely sealed” by December 2018, for which a time-bound action plan would be formulated.
Mr. Singh said the procedure for sealing the international border would be developed in a planned manner.
A mechanism would be put in place for periodic monitoring “by Home Secretary at the Central level, BSF from the security forces perspective and Chief Secretaries at the State level.”
Mr. Singh said the government would apply technological solutions for sealing the border in difficult terrains. A border security grid would also be formed, with guidelines to be framed with suggestions from all stakeholders in the border areas.
A notification would be issued after inputs from the Chief Ministers, Home Secretaries and Directors-General of Police, he added.

Eighty percent of the 240 million new bank accounts created under the Narendra Modi government’s Jan Dhan Yojana now have balance in them, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has said.
Mr. Jaitley was participating in a panel discussion at the World Bank on financial inclusion and de-risking or measures to prevent the illicit use of the banking system.
The Ministers of India, Indonesia, treasury secretary of the U.S. and the Governor of the People’s Bank of China who were part of the panel along with World Bank President represented 43 per cent of the world population and 40 per cent of unbanked adults.
Mr. Kim said the progress made by India in financial inclusion is a model that is inspiring for the rest of the world. Other speakers also lauded India’s progress in financial inclusion.

The Supreme Court stayed the commercial release of Genetically Modified (GM) mustard crop till October 17, and asked the Centre to seek public opinion before releasing the variety for cultivation purpose.
A Bench of Chief Justice T.S. Thakur and Justice A.M. Khanwilkar was assured by the Centre that there would be no commercial release of the GM seeds till October 17 until the views of the public were collected and placed before the appraisal committee.
Mustard is one of India’s most important winter crops sown between mid-October and late November.
Advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for Aruna Rodrigues, alleged that the Centre was sowing the seeds in various fields and said the entire bio-safety dossier had not been published.
plea urged the court to prohibit open field trials and the commercial release of Herbicide Tolerant (HT) crops, including HT Mustard DMH 11 and its parent lines/variants, as recommended by the Technical Expert Committee (TEC) report.
The plea also said the contamination caused by the mustard HT DMH 11 and its HT parents would be “irremediable and irreversible damage.”

The National Green Tribunal warned of halting State transport in four northern States if they did not introduce CNG, saying most particulate matters in the air inhaled by Delhiites emanated from there.
“I am being told that over 50 per cent of pollution in Delhi is caused by fine particulate matter which originates from neighbouring States.
The air quality in Delhi is getting worse. You should take every measure to introduce CNG stations in your States. If you don’t introduce CNG in your State, we will stop your State transport,” a Bench headed by NGT Chairperson Justice Swatanter Kumar said.
The Tribunal directed senior officials from Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, besides officers of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board, to appear before it on October 19, the next date of hearing.
The NGT in September had asked Uttar Pradesh and Haryana governments to mull over the possibility of installing CNG stations in NCR while refusing to grant permission to over 10-year-old diesel vehicles to ply in these areas.
On July 18, the green panel directed authorities in Delhi-NCR to cancel the registration of all diesel-powered vehicles which are more than 10 years old.
After de-registration, the authorities will issue public notice in this regard and supply the list of such vehicles to the traffic police to take appropriate steps in consonance with directions of the tribunal, it had said.

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos won the Nobel Peace Prize for his “resolute” efforts to end more than five decades of war in his country, despite voters’ shock rejection of a historic peace deal.
The award was unexpected after voters rejected the terms of the landmark accord Mr. Santos clinched last month with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) leader Rodrigo Londono.
The Norwegian Nobel committee rewarded Mr. Santos for his resolute efforts to bring the country’s more than 50-year-long civil war to an end.
The deal, signed on September 26 after nearly four years of talks, was supposed to be ratified following an October 2 referendum but voters shot down the agreement, leaving the country teetering between war and peace.
The Colombia conflict has claimed more than 260,000 lives and left 45,000 missing over five decades, drawing in several Leftist guerilla groups, right-wing paramilitaries and drug gangs.

India’s foreign exchange reserves scaled a new high of $371.99 billion, up $1.223 billion for the week to September 30, as per the Reserve Bank data.
The increase was on account of a $1.468-billion surge in the foreign currency assets. In the previous week, the reserves had risen by $1.166 billion to $370.766 billion.
Previously, they had touched a high of $371.279 billion in the week to September 9. Foreign currency assets which are a major component of the overall reserves surged by $1.468 billion to $346.71 billion, the Reserve Bank said.

With the government expected to receive about Rs.32,000 crore in the current fiscal as upfront payment for the spectrum sold in the recently concluded auctions, Telecom Secretary said the Telecom Ministry is on course to meet its budgetary target.
As per the Budget documents, the revenue target from the telecom sector this fiscal is Rs.98,994.93 crore. Mr. Deepak said the figure agreed to between the two ministries was Rs.70,000 crore, which they will be able to meet.
Experts had pointed out that the ministry is unlikely to meet its budget target as premium 700 MHz band saw no demand, leading to revenues of Rs.65,789 crore for the government as against spectrum worth Rs 5.6 lakh crore put on sale.
The 700 MHz spectrum was alone worth about Rs.4 lakh crore.
As per the Union Budget 2016-17, the government is expected to raise at least Rs.64,000 crore from the auction of about 2,354.55 megahertz (MHz) of spectrum and a total of Rs.98,995 crore from various levies and services in the telecom sector in the current financial year.
The spectrum auction started on October 1 and ended on October 6, wherein about 965 megahertz (MHz) was sold out of 2,300MHz on offer.
The government will only collect about Rs.32,000 crore in the current financial year as the rest will be spread over a period of 10 years after a 2-year-moratorium.