Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 03 March 2017

:: National ::

India to attend the next meeting of the Permanent Indus Commission

• Signalling a major shift in its position on talks with Pakistan on the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT), India has accepted an invitation to attend the next meeting of the Permanent Indus Commission (PIC) to be held in Lahore in March.

• According to officials privy to the development, the move came after two months of diplomatic negotiations, with World Bank officials playing mediator in encouraging Pakistan to extend the invitation and for India to accept.

• Officials acknowledged that the holding of the next annual round of the PIC, which was last held in July 2016 was a “positive” sign, given that India had announced it was “suspending” the talks after the Uri attacks in September.

• At the time, tensions with Pakistan were high, as the government considered all retaliatory measures after the Army camp attack in which 19 soldiers were killed.

President said “universities must engage in reasoned discussion and debate

• Asserting that there should be “no room in India for the intolerant Indian”, President Pranab Mukherjee said it was tragic to see universities across the country “caught in the vortex of violence and disquiet”.

• Delivering the K.S. Rajamony memorial lecture, Mr. Mukherjee said “universities must engage in reasoned discussion and debate rather than propagate a culture of unrest”.

• The President’s suggestion comes in the wake of a raging debate on the freedom of expression following the violent clashes at Ramjas College of Delhi University.

• Mr. Mukherjee said these temples of learning must resound with intellectual exercises, free thinking and free exchanges and creativity and that there should be space for legitimate criticism and dissent in the country.

• The President pointed out that “India was a world leader in the field of education when our universities like Nalanda and Takshshila were at the height of their glory.

• Nalanda and Takshshila are not mere geographical expressions but representations of the idea for free thought which flourished in these great universities of the past.

• Our premier institutions of higher education are the vehicles on which India has to propel itself into a knowledge society,” he said.

• India, said Mr. Mukherjee, has been since ancient times a bastion of free thought, speech and expression.

Half of the 4,096-km border India shares with Bangladesh has been fenced

• Half of the 4,096-km border India shares with Bangladesh has been fenced. Land acquisition is a major challenge to completing the work by the 2019 deadline.

• The border runs along West Bengal for 2,216.7 km, Assam 263 km, Meghalaya 443 km, Tripura 856 km and Mizoram 318 km.

• The aim of the project is to curb infiltration and smuggling of cattle and fake Indian currency notes.

• Asked whether the State governments were not cooperating in land acquisition, he said the West Bengal government formed a committee for acquiring land.

• Another important issue in West Bengal is that a large part of the border is riverine: rivers running along the border serve as the border. For instance, 70 km of the south Bengal frontier — from South 24 Parganas to Malda — is riverine.

• BSF officers said that 13 of the 17 security features of the Rs. 2,000 note had so far been compromised. In February, fake currency notes with a face value of Rs. 2.96 lakh were intercepted by the BSF. One person was held.

NGT prohibited all camping activity on beaches along the Ganga (Register and Login to read Full News)

Railways will soon move towards Aadhaar-based online ticketing system (Register and Login to read Full News)

• The new business plan also envisages launching of new tourist trains connecting hill stations.

:: International ::

Sri Lanka to co-sponsor Human Rights Council session

• Even as Sri Lanka prepares to co-sponsor a UN resolution at the ongoing Human Rights Council session, seeking more time to fulfil its obligations, the country’s Tamil leadership has called for a time-table and strict monitoring of government initiatives.

• Currently working on a draft with the U.S., the U.K. and Montenegro, Sri Lanka will soon submit a resolution that, it hopes, will give an extended deadline for the war-battered country to implement promises it made in 2015.

• However, the country’s main Tamil political alliance has expressed disappointment over the government’s failure to fulfil its obligations in the last 18 months.

• In October 2015, the UN Human Rights Council adopted a resolution that Sri Lanka co-sponsored, calling for a credible judicial process to probe the island’s civil war excesses.

• Sri Lanka assured the international community of a “four-pillar approach” to address truth, reconciliation, accountability and non-recurrence.

• While the government’s apparently slow-paced efforts have made minority Tamils anxious, its attempt to draft a new Constitution has hit a roadblock without adequate consensus among various political actors.

:: Business and Economy ::

BASF will invest €3 billion between 2017-2021 in the Asia Pacific Region

• Germany-based global chemicals major BASF will invest €3 billion (Rs. 21,000 crore) between 2017-2021 in the Asia Pacific Region to build new capacities.

• Over the past four years, BASF has invested around €300 million in manufacturing and research and development activities in India. Asia is the biggest chemicals market in the world at present with more than 50% of the global chemicals demand generated in the region.

• The company’s target in the mid-term and long-term is to exceed the chemicals market growth in Asia.

• The global chemicals market will be growing at about 3.4% next year as per the company’s estimation and a majority of that growth is expected to be from Asia.

• Meanwhile, BASF Catalysts India Pvt. Ltd. announced that it had doubled production capacity of its mobile emissions catalysts unit at Mahindra World City, near Chennai, to serve the fast growing automotive market in India.

• Mr. Gandhi inaugurated the 47,000 sq. metre plant, which will produce a full range of catalyst solutions including light duty, heavy duty and motorcycle emissions catalysts to meet the growing demand for customers’ technology needs.

Finance Ministry has advised state-owned banks to prepare a list of their non-core assets

• As part of capital raising exercise, the Finance Ministry has advised state-owned banks to prepare a list of their non-core assets and look at disposing them at opportune time.

• They have been asked to move forward on the idea based on deliberations at the Gyan Sangam last year.

• Some of the banks have started the process while others are gearing up, the sources said, adding that the move will not only help them raise the much needed capital for growth but also sharpen their focus on the core business.

• Most public sector banks (PSBs) have insurance ventures or capital advisory firms, besides holding stake in financial institutions such as stock exchanges.

• For instance, State Bank of India holds stake in various companies including National Stock Exchange, UTI, ARCIL and so on.SBI has expressed intention pare its stake in some of the subsidiaries including life insurance firm.

• Last month, the board of IDBI Bank also approved dilution of stake in some non-core businesses to shore up capital base.

• The board of the bank has approved in-principle the proposal for disinvestment of some of its non-core investments.

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