Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 13 July 2017

::National::

Govt believes militancy is about to die in India

• Two Union Ministers, Jitendra Singh and Hansraj Gangaram Ahir, who praised the Kashmir civil society for condemning the attack on Amarnath pilgrims, said that “India is in the last phase of militancy.”
• He said the unanimous condemnation “clearly indicates that there is no place for such acts in the Valley”. “I hail and appreciate the widespread condemnation. Earlier there used to be a selective condemnation,” Dr. Singh said.
• Refusing to name the group behind the attack, which left seven pilgrims dead, Dr. Singh said, “No one should jump to any conclusion. Let’s wait for definite inputs from the security agencies.”
• A number of tour and travel bodies condemned the attack, with tourist hotspot Pahalgam witnessing a shutdown over the incident.
• Meanwhile, three Hizbul Mujahideen militants were killed in an encounter at Budgam. Two of them belonged to Srinagar, which was a militancy-free zone for 12 years. 

Trade talks between India and China remained deadlocked

• Trade talks between India and China remained deadlocked with neither side willing to offer concessions to end the impasse.
• Recent bilateral talks on issues relating to farm products, which took place in the backdrop of the military standoff in the Doklam area of the India-Bhutan-China tri-junction, failed to make any headway. 
• China deferred taking a decision on grant of market access to Indian rice, pomegranate, okra and bovine meat, while India opted to stick to its ban on imports of apple, pear, milk and milk products from China.
• The discussions were held with visiting officials from the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine of China (AQSIQ) – the body “in charge of national quality, metrology.
• And entry-exit commodity inspection, entry-exit health quarantine, entry-exit animal and plant quarantine, import-export food safety, certification and accreditation, standardisation, as well as administrative law-enforcement.

Regulatory mechanism to come for Bitcoin

• The government is considering the introduction of a regulatory regime for virtual or crypto currencies, such as Bitcoin, that would enable the levy of the Goods and Services Tax on their sale.
• The new regime may possibly bring their trading under the oversight of the stock market regulator, Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI).
• The idea is to treat such currency in a manner similar to gold sold digitally, so that it can be traded on registered exchanges in a bid to “promote” a formal tax base, while keeping a tab on their use for illegal activities such as money laundering, terror funding and drug trafficking.

China signalled its intent to end the stand-off

• China signalled its intent to end the stand-off between Indian and Chinese troops in the Doklam area at an early date, if Indian forces withdraw to what it called the “Indian side of the boundary”.
• Adopting a less harsh tone than in the recent past, when it had characterised India’s alleged intrusion into Chinese territory as a “betrayal” and insisted that the withdrawal of Indian forces was a “precondition” for talks.
• The Chinese Foreign Ministry said: “We once again require India to withdraw the border troops to the Indian side of the boundary and properly settle this dispute at an early date.”
• According to the 1890 convention, the boundary has been defined and both Chinese and Indian governments have recognised this. And this convention is effective for both countries.
• The stand-off is happening near the western tri-junction of India, Bhutan and China.
• Significantly, he also highlighted the Kashmir dispute outside its bilateral context, by pointing out that it had attracted the attention of the “international community”. Besides.
• Both India and Pakistan are important countries in South Asia. The conflicts occurred near the Line of Control, Kashmir. This will not only harm the peace and stability of the two countries but also the peace and tranquillity of the region.

SC questioned the EC’s silence on a plea for a permanent ban

• The Supreme Court questioned the Election Commission’s silence on a plea for a permanent ban on convicted lawmakers, in place of the prevalent six-year bar.
• A Bench led by Justice Ranjan Gogoi wondered why a constitutional authority should feel constrained to present its views on the issue before the Supreme Court.
• The Bench compared the politician to a civil servant. A civil servant could be banished from service for life, but a politician was allowed to make a comeback after serving his sentence and the subsequent six-year ban period prescribed under the Representation of the People Act.
• Counsel for the Commission said it was not within its powers to legislate. That was in the Parliament’s domain. “We are not competent authority,” he said.

::International::

China is looking to reduce the size of its Army

• China will downsize its 2.3 million-strong People’s Liberation Army to under one million as the world’s largest military effected its biggest troop reduction in history to bolster its navy and strategic missile forces.
• The massive troop reduction is part of the restructuring of the PLA and evenly proportion the army and other services, the PLA Daily. The PLA will increase the numbers of other services, including navy and missile forces.
• The reform is based on China’s strategic goals and security requirements. In the past, the PLA focused on ground battle and homeland defence, which will undergo fundamental changes.
• This is the first time that active PLA army personnel would be reduced to below one million.

::Business and Economy:: 

Inflation slows down to 1.54%

• Inflation measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI) slipped below the central bank’s lower tolerance level to 1.54% in June and industrial output growth decelerated to 1.72% in May.
• It prompted Chief Economic Advisor (CEA) Arvind Subramanian to hint at the need to reboot monetary policy assumptions including ‘systematic inflation forecast errors’ he had red-flagged earlier.
• “The number of 1.54% is historically low and reflects the firm and ongoing consolidation of macro-economic stability,” Mr. Subramanian said soon after the data was released. 
• The last time we saw such inflation — according to a slightly different CPI series (IW) — was in 1999 and before that in August 1978.
• Retail inflation slowed for the third straight month, largely driven by a 1.17% contraction in food prices. 
• Growth in the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) slowed for the second consecutive month, with consumer durables’ production contracting by 4.55% in May, following April’s 6.05% contraction.

India’s New Telecom Policy, expected to be unveiled next year

• India’s New Telecom Policy, which is expected to be unveiled next year, will be application-driven as compared to the National Telecom Policy 2012 which was connectivity-driven, Minister of Communications Manoj Sinha said.
• The policy has to focus on the end users and look at newer opportunities for expanding the availability of telecom services, he said.
• He pointed out that the advent of high-speed data services and enhanced user expectation of getting real time on-demand bandwidth to run live applications had set the tone for a new policy. 
• The ministry, he said, had decided for the first time to involve a large pool of experts from outside the department to get more inputs from citizens and stakeholders for the new policy.

India and Bangladesh gave its approval for the Joint Interpretative Note

• In a bid to boost bilateral investments between India and Bangladesh, the Cabinet gave its approval for the Joint Interpretative Notes (JIN) on the Agreement between both the nations for the Promotion and Protection of Investments.
• The JIN would impart clarity to the interpretation of the existing agreement between India and Bangladesh for the Promotion and Protection of Investments.
• The JIN includes interpretative notes to be jointly adopted for many clauses, including, the definition of investor, definition of investment, exclusion of taxation measures.
• Fair and Equitable Treatment, National Treatment and Most Favoured Nation treatment, expropriation, essential security interests and Settlement of Disputes between an Investor-and a Contracting Party.
• Joint Interpretative Statements, in general, play an important supplementary role in strengthening the investment treaty regime.
• With increasing Bilateral Investment Treaty disputes, issuance of such statements is likely to have strong persuasive value before tribunals, the statement said, adding that such pro-active approach by States can foster a more predictable and coherent reading of treaty terms by arbitration tribunals.

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