Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 8 September 2017

::National::

In Rajiv Gandhi International Airport opens Amazon’s biggest India facility

• The multinational e-commerce giant Amazon opened its biggest facility in the country at the Shamshabad International Airport.

• The 4 lakh sq.ft ‘fulfilment centre’ providing 2.1 million cubic feet of storage space will be fifth such centre in TS, said Akhil Saxena, vice-president, India Customer Fulfilment.

In Mumbai blasts case TADA gives life term

• Trial ends after 24 years; TADA court gives life term to two, including Abu Salem, and 10-year jail to one.

• Twenty-four years after 12 bombs exploded across various locations in Mumbai on March 12, 1993, killing 257 people and injuring 713 others, the trial came to a conclusion with the special Terrorist and Disruptive

• Activities (Prevention) Act court awarding capital punishment to Firoz Khan and Taher Merchant alias Taklya.

• The court sentenced underworld gangster Abu Salem and Karimullah Khan to life imprisonment. Riyaz Siddiqui was sentenced to imprisonment for 10 years.

• Mustafa Dossa, who was among the seven men to stand trial, died of a heart attack on June 28 after he was convicted. The only person who was not found guilty was Abdul Qayoom Karim Shaikh.

• On May 16, 2017, the court held that all those convicted wanted to avenge the Babri Masjid demolition and the Bombay riots, and hence conspired to kill Hindus and Hindu leaders.

• While sentencing marks an end to the trial, 33 key conspirators like Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar, Ibrahim Mustaq Memon alias Tiger Memon and Javed Dawood Tailor alias Javed Chikna are still absconding and believed to have taken refuge in Pakistan.

• The entire investigation got a boost when Imtiaz Ghavate was arrested in Bandra soon after the blasts. Ghavate named Dawood Ibrahim and Tiger Memon which led to the arrest of 123 persons.

21st meeting of GST Council

• The year-long meetings of Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council which commenced in September last year will enter a crucial phase at the 21st meeting of the Council when it will constitute a Standing Committee and State-level screening committees for National Anti-Profiteering Authority.

• The first day of the meeting will be confined to officers level consultations to finalise the agenda for the second day deliberations to be chaired by Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.

• The Finance Ministers of all States are members of the Council. About 160 delegates from States, including Ministers, and Central government officials will be present at HICC meeting venue.

• The National Anti-Profiteering Authority under GST was tasked with ensuring that the full benefits of a reduction in tax after the new regime came into force on July 1 reached the consumers.

• The Council has already formed a selection committee headed by the Cabinet Secretary to identify and recommend eligible persons for appointment as chairman and members of the authority.

• The agenda for the Council meeting in Hyderabad is likely to include mechanism of anti-profiteering, including constitution of a Standing committee which will be empowered to refer cases requiring detailed inquiry to

• Director General of Safeguards of the Central Board of Excise and Customs who will give his recommendations to the authority. It will comprise officers of State and Central governments. State-level screening committees for each State will also be constituted.

• The Council will also deliberate tax rates for about 70 goods and commodities. The Telangana government will raise the issue of tax concession for government projects which was brought down from 18 per cent to 12 per cent with input tax credit at the last meeting in August.

• Tax concessions to beedi industry and granite will also top the agenda of Telangana.

National Consumer Helpline got a flood of calls related to GST alone

• Notwithstanding the Government’s mega awareness campaign on Goods and Services Tax, the National Consumer Helpline, run by Ministry of Consumer Affairs, got almost 4500 calls in first month of the new tax regime.

• A review of the National Consumer Helpline, chaired by minister Ram Vilas Paswan, revealed that between July 31 to August 31, 4,426 calls were received on GST alone.

• Out of these 2,546 were general queries about how the new tax will impact prices and how it will be implemented.

• Both consumers and the traders were equally perplexed. As per the statistics, 593 calls were from traders enquiring about registration and filing return for GST. Nearly 350 calls were from consumers complaining about traders who were selling more than the MRP in the name of GST.

• The confusion on GST prevailed even though multiple government agencies went all out to raise awareness on the issue. The government came up with a full-page advertisement in leading dailies.

• Central Board of Excise and Customs had issued a set of 50 FAQs on various provisions of GST in the form of full-page advertisements in newspapers. To top it, actor Amitabh Bachchan starred in GST advertorials.

• The latest statistics of the National Consumer Helpline also throw up an interesting trend. The highest number of complaints pertain to online purchases. From January to August 31 this year, 41,210 complaints have been lodged.

• The helpline claims that 77 % of these complaints were suitably settled.

• In the last few months, to address complaints effectively, the Consumer Affairs Ministry has got 289 firms on board. A complaint is directed to these firms too.

Where an university in Kerala becomes home for birds

• Not just forests, even a university campus could be a haven of biodiversity, if the example of the Kerala Agricultural University (KAU) is anything to go by.

• A four-year survey conducted on the KAU campus at Vellanikkara in Thrissur district has found that it is home to a third of the State’s 509 bird species, suggesting that such areas could be important refugia for biodiversity. A refugium is an area where species can survive through a period of unfavourable conditions.

• The KAU campus, spread across 391 hectares, contains gardens (including a botanical one), plantations (coconut, rubber, cocoa and plantain) and fruit orchards (guava, jackfruit, mango).

• Scientists and students of forestry science conducted bird surveys in these habitats from 2011 to 2014, for two hours each in the morning and in the evening. The results, published in the Journal of Threatened Taxa on August 26, showed the presence of 172 bird species on the campus.

• These included the secretive Watercock, the threatened Oriental darter, and the migratory Common sandpiper. Two species endemic to the Western Ghats, the Malabar grey hornbill and the Crimson-backed sunbird, occur here. The campus also supports 11 species (including the Hill myna and the Indian peafowl) listed under Schedule I of the Wildlife Protection Act.

• The KAU is only about five km from the Peechi-Vazhani Wildlife Sanctuary.

• Researchers got measures of bird abundances by counting the individuals of each species they sighted. Feeding this information into e-Bird, an open-access forum for bird sightings, the team came up with seasonality charts showing how common each species is during different parts of the year.

A colonial era building demolished

• A colonial-era 130-year-old building that once housed Odisha’s second oldest educational institution for girl students, was razed leading to protest by heritage lovers.

• The Fraser Girls’ School located at Old Bus Stand locality was a heritage building. With the demolition of the building, a rich and glorious history has been erased, said Mohammad Mustaque.

• The Fraser School had come up in 1887 during colonial rule.

Viveck Goenka the new Chairman of Press Trust of India

• Viveck Goenka, Chairman and Managing Director of the Express Group, and N. Ravi, former Editor-in-Chief of The Hindu , were unanimously elected Chairman and Vice-Chairman respectively of Press Trust of India.

• Mr. Goenka, 60, succeeds Riyad Mathew.

• Mr. Ravi, 69, succeeds Mr. Goenka as Vice-Chairman.

• The election took place at a meeting of the Board of Directors, following the Company’s 69th annual general meeting here.

• Mr. Mathew said that the company posted a revenue of Rs. 172.76 crore during 2016-17.

Vacancies in CIC is leading to growing backlogs

• There were a whopping 24,302 cases related to information appeals pending with the Central Information Commission, according to the CIC website. This backlog is in spite of the fact that the Commission is returning a majority of appeals coming to it, citing lack of documentation, premature appeals or forwarding of cases to the relevant State Information Commissions.

• As per data available on the CIC website, in 2017 alone, of the 18,518 cases registered as appeals, the CIC returned 13,796 cases to appellants citing one reason or the other.

• Sources in the CIC blame the lack of sufficient staff strength as among the reasons why their backlog is increasing. Last year on September 2, the Department of Personnel & Training (DoPT) had advertised for the post of two Information Commissioners that fell vacant after M.A. Khan Yusfi and Basant Seth retired as information commissioners on December 31, 2016 and February 17, 2017 respectively. While the applications were invited well before the vacancies arose, no appointments have been made till date.

• Right to Information (RTI) activists have been protesting the lack of appointments and speedy clearance of information appeals at the Commission. In a letter addressed to Jitendra Singh, Minister of State (PMO and

• Public Grievances) recently, activist and Commodore (Retd.) Lokesh Batra has highlighted that “the Government has failed to select and fill these posts while an RTI revealed that 225 persons have applied for these two posts.”

• There is an understanding that every Information Commissioner handles approximately 270 cases a month, that is 3,240 cases per year. So, when two ICs are not available, it adds a burden of up to 6,000 cases per year.

• In a letter addressed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, members of the National Campaign for People’s Right to Information (NCPRI) highlighted the lack of transparency in the process of appointment of information commissioners.

• The details of the progress with regards to proposed amendments to the RTI Act were also not being revealed to the public. In response to an RTI request, the CIC had told the activist that public comments received on the proposed amendments via email were “not diarised”.

• As per the CIC’s response, of the 789 persons who commented on the draft of the proposed amendments, only 30 persons had responded by postal mail. By not maintaining records of communication received, the public authority (DoPT) is not only flouting the office procedure of record maintenance but also violating the section 4(1)(a) of the RTI Act.

::India and World::

As a show of solidarity India keeps off ‘Bali Declaration’

• In a show of solidarity with Myanmar, India refused to be a part of a declaration adopted at an international conference in Indonesia as it carried “inappropriate” reference to the violence in Rakhine State from where 1,25,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh.

• An Indian Parliamentary delegation, led by Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan, dissociated itself from the ‘Bali Declaration’ adopted at the ‘World Parliamentary Forum on Sustainable Development’.

• This was in view of the fact that the declaration, which was to be adopted at the conclusion of the Forum, was not in line with the agreed global principles of ‘sustainable development.

• India reiterated its stance that the purpose of convening the Parliamentary forum was to arrive at a mutual consensus for implementation of SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) which required inclusive and broad-based development processes.

• Therefore, the proposed reference to the violence in Rakhine State in the declaration was considered as not consensus-based and inappropriate

• The part of the declaration to which India objected spoke of the forum expressing “deep concern on the ongoing violence in the Rakhine State of Myanmar, amongst others...”

• The declaration went on to “call on all parties to contribute to the restoration of stability and security, exercise maximum self-restraint from using violent means, respect the human rights of all people in Rakhine State regardless of their faith and ethnicity, as well as facilitate safe access for humanitarian assistance.”

PM pay a visit to Bahadur Shah’s grave in Myanmar

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi wrapped up his Myanmar trip, visiting the ‘mazar’ of the last Mughal Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar and the 2,500-year-old Shwedagon pagoda and performing puja at the Kalibari Temple.

• On the last day of his three-day visit to the Buddhist-majority country, Mr. Modi visited the pagoda, considered the pinnacle of Myanmar’s cultural heritage. He planted a Bodhi tree sapling in the complex.

• The 2,500-year-old pagoda enshrines strands of Buddha’s hair and other holy relics. It is covered with hundreds of gold plates. The top of the stupa is encrusted with 4,531 diamonds, the largest of which is a 72-carat diamond.

• Mr. Modi also visited the Bogyoke Aung San Museum where he was accompanied by State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi.

• He also visited the grave of Bahadur Shah Zafar and paid floral tributes. He tweeted a picture of himself at the Mughal Emperor’s grave.

• Bahadur Shah Zafar, also a prolific Urdu poet and calligrapher, died aged 87 in the then Rangoon, where he was exiled by the British after the 1857 revolt.

Debt, project delays worry Bhutan

• While the Doklam standoff brought a spotlight on India-Bhutan ties, other issues like hydropower project construction need greater focus, said senior Bhutanese experts and officials, flagging concerns during a two-day conference here.

• Hydropower projects are critical for the Bhutanese economy, and are at the core of Bhutan’s plans for self-reliance ever since the first five-year plans in 1961.

• It is necessary that the issues that have come up due to debt and delay are addressed at the earliest.

• In particular, officials involved in the “hydropower committee” set up by the Bhutanese government in May this year spoke about the emerging challenges from the growing debt burden Bhutan carries due to delays in the major hydropower projects.

• As of July 2017, Bhutan’s debt to India for the three major ongoing projects: Mangdechhu, Punatsangchhu 1 and 2 is approximately 12,300 crore which accounts for 77% of the country’s total debt, and is 87% of its GDP.

• While the cost of the 720 MW Mangdechhu project has nearly doubled in the past two years, both Punatsangchhu 1 and 2, each of 1200 MW capacity have trebled in cost and been delayed more than five years over the original completion schedule.

• Another issue, the officials said, has been the fact that India is now a power-surplus country, while demand growth has been slower than expected. Added to this is the government’s push for other renewable energies like wind and solar power.

• Meanwhile the interest repayments on projects, that are being financed by India as 30% grant and 70% loan at 10% annual interest, are piling up.

• The government is looking at the proposals of the hydropower committee, but accepted that it would be difficult to meet many of them, given India’s own power sector needs to compete in the same area.

Hurricane Irma batters Caribbean islands

• Powerful Hurricane Irma cut a swathe of deadly destruction as it roared through the Caribbean, claiming at least nine lives and turning the tropical islands of St. Martin and Barbuda into mountains of rubble.

• One of the most powerful Atlantic storms on record, the rare Category 5 hurricane churned westward off the northern coast of Puerto Rico on a potential collision course with south Florida, where at-risk areas were evacuated.

• St. Martin, a pristine island resort which is divided between France and the Netherlands, suffered the full fury of the storm, with rescuers on the French side saying eight people had died and 21 were injured.

• As the storm raged westwards, it left scenes of widespread devastation on the islands with the roofs wrenched off many buildings, dozens of huge shipping containers tossed aside like matchsticks and debris flung far and wide, aerial footage from a Dutch naval helicopter showed.

• With Irma raging for more than 33 hours, packing winds of up to 295 km per hour, French weather experts said it was longest-lasting superstorm on record.

• With around 80,000 people living on St. Martin, French and Dutch officials were racing to activate a rescue plan to help their citizens.

• U.S. President Donald Trump has already declared a state of emergency for Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Florida.

• The storm will have a “truly devastating” impact when it makes landfall on U.S. coastal areas, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) chief Brock Long told CNN on Thursday.

• Irma was hitting the Caribbean even as two other tropical storms, Jose in the Atlantic Ocean and Katia in the Gulf of Mexico, were upgraded to the status of a hurricane.

::Economy::

‘Entrenched managements not allowed to continue if they cannot pay their debts’

• Provisions of State enactments which hinder the country’s new bankruptcy law, the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), meant to protect the interests of shareholders, creditors and workmen against entrenched managements unable to dig their way out of their debts, will be declared void, the Supreme Court held.

• In a judgment heralding the IBC as an effective legal framework aimed at improving ‘Ease of Doing Business’, a Bench of Justices Rohinton Nariman and Sanjay Kishan Kaul held that the erstwhile management of a company cannot represent it in court once insolvency resolution process has been admitted in the National Company Law Tribunal and the management transferred to an insolvency professional.

• Entrenched managements are no longer allowed to continue in management if they cannot pay their debts.

• The judgment dismissed an appeal by Innoventive Industries, represented by senior advocate A.M. Singhvi and advocate Shikhil Suri, against insolvency proceedings under the IBC by lender ICICI Bank.

• The company invoked the Maharashtra Relief Undertakings (Special Provisions Act) of 1958 against the insolvency resolution process under Section 7 of the IBC.

• Mr. Singhvi said the 1958 Act allowed temporary suspension of any debt recovery against the company and allowed the State to run the company as a measure to mitigate the hardship caused to workers who may be thrown out of employment by its closure.

• In January, the National Company Law Tribunal had already dismissed the plea, saying the Code, a parliamentary statute, would prevail against the Maharashtra Act.

• The appellate tribunal, National Company Law Appellate Tribunal, had held that Innoventive Industries’ management cannot derive any advantage from the Maharashtra Act to stall proceedings under the Code.

• Appearing for the bank, senior advocate Harish Salve argued that the “old notion of a sick management which cannot pay its financial debts continuing nevertheless in the management seat has been debunked by the Code”.

• He added that the erstwhile management of the company cannot represent its interests once the management was handed over to the insolvency professional.

Click Here for Daily Current Affairs Archive

Click Here for Study Material for SSC CGL Exam

Click Here to Join Online Course for SSC CGL Exam