Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 28 February 2017

:: National ::

Despite several difference India and China to find solutions

• Despite differences on a number of issues, India and China have begun to look for a “common ground” on Afghanistan during Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar’s visit to Beijing.

• Officials even discussed the possibility of “joint development projects” that could be undertaken despite economic rivalries between the two countries in other parts of the subcontinent.

• The Foreign Secretary’s visit, which saw a restructured “Strategic Dialogue” with Chinese official, also witnessed an effort by both sides to “stabilise India-China relations” at a time the world is experiencing a new “volatility.

• The overarching concern during the talks seemed to be that China had grown economically, and India has been growing because of a predictable international system so far.

• There was still little movement on issues that have been most highlighted in the past year, mainly over Masood Azhar, where China has put a technical hold at the U.N. that will lapse in July, and the NSG, where India’s membership will be taken up again at the plenary session in June.

• While talks on Azhar and the NSG failed to see any breakthrough, the fact that both the Indian and Chinese delegations included officials dealing with Pakistan and Afghanistan as well as the U.N. and multilateral ties showed that China was “open to finding solutions,”.

• On Afghanistan, it is learnt that the Chinese government, which proposed a separate discussion, had expressed its “admiration” for India’s work on developmental projects, including the Salma Dam in Herat.

Moonlight movie won the top prize in academy awards

• In an epic flub that drew gasps of horror — and joy — at the Dolby Theater here, Faye Dunaway mistakenly named La La Land the best picture at the 89th Academy Awards, but in reality Moonlight won the top prize.

• The producers of La La Land were still thanking their families and fellow artists when the interjection came that Moonlight had in fact won, as everyone wondered if it was a joke.

• But it wasn’t, and the La La Land people quickly exited the stage as producers and stars of Moonlight , just as stunned as everyone else, walked on.

• Warren Beatty and Dunaway had presented the best picture award. When Beatty opened the envelope, he took an extended pause before showing the card to Dunaway, who then announced La La Land as the winner.

• Moonlight , the story of a young, gay, black man, won three statuettes in total, including the best adapted screenplay and the best supporting actor.

The Central Pollution Control Board says international studies are flawed

• The Central Pollution Control Board — an Environment Ministry organisation that sets guidelines for monitoring and controlling pollution — says international studies linking air quality in India to disease and death are flawed.

• Bodies such as the World Health Organization (WHO) used “arbitrary conversion factors " to rank cities for air quality, the CPCB alleged in an internal newsletter published in November 2016 but not made public.

• The publication, called Matter-Fine Particulate: An Environmental Challenge, is a guide to understanding the genesis, prevalence, sources and health effect of extremely small particles of dust.

• The size of these particles determines the ease with which they can be lodged within the body. Those smaller than 2.5 micron (PM2.5) are generally implicated for respiratory and cardiovascular ailments.

• While acknowledging that PM2.5 pollution was a problem, no Indian agency has quantified death and disease due to air pollution in India.

• On the other hand, other than disavowing mortality figures, the government has also never officially disputed any international report on how they measured pollution numbers for Indian cities.

• In its most recent update in 2016, the WHO said that 10 of the 20 most polluted cities in the world were in India, whose air quality standards require that the daily PM 2.5 averages not exceed 60 mg/cubic metre and 40 mg/cubic metre annually.

• WHO arrived at its figures by collecting 24-hour and annual average of PM 10 and PM 2.5 of cities from government websites and, when it didn’t have figures for PM 2.5, used a constant number to convert from PM 10 measurements.

• Of the 124 Indian cities, whose pollution figures are available in the WHO database, only 8 had direct PM 2.5 measurements.

• According to publication — by far the only available government critique of this methodology — this conversion is problematic as air quality monitoring machines varied widely in their measurements even within the same city.

• In some cases PM2.5 was only 8% of PM 10 and other cases 86%, according to a 2014 assessment of air quality parameters in Delhi by the CPCB.

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:: International ::

US President for substantial increase in defence budget

• U.S. President Donald Trump teased a budget plan that includes a substantial increase in defence spending and cuts in foreign aid.

• Previewing a plan that will attempt to translate campaign promises into dollars and cents, Mr. Trump promised a “public safety and national security budget”.

• An administration official said that Mr. Trump’s plan would include a $54 billion increase in defence spending and a corresponding decrease in non-military programmes.

• The proposal, which will be picked over and must ultimately be approved by Congress, would increase defence spending — already the largest in the world — by almost 10%.

• Meanwhile, officials said the Pentagon has finished plans to intensify the fight against the Islamic State (IS). Mr. Trump had demanded that top brass find additional ways to defeat jihadists.

• That review is now complete, and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis was to present the findings to Mr. Trump’s top national security advisors.

:: Business and Economy ::

SEBI plans to further tighten the regulations for algorithmic trading

• SEBI plans to further tighten the regulations for algorithmic trading to minimise instances of misuse of such systems that can be used to execute complex trading strategies at a very high speed.

• SEBI chairman said that while India was one of the few countries in the world to regulate algorithmic trading, the market watchdog is looking to further strengthen the norms so that instances of flash crashes could be minimised.

• India is one of the very few countries in the world which have some mechanism for controlling the misuse of algo. SEBI has been able to come out with some minimal regulations on algos.

• For instance, we have provided for high order to trade ratio penalty system. We are reviewing whether that penalty should be enhanced further,” the outgoing SEBI chief, whose tenure ends.

• Algorithmic trading refers to the use of software programmes to execute trading strategies at a much faster pace. On the National Stock Exchange (NSE), algo trades accounted for close to 16% of all trades. On the BSE, it was 8.56% in January.

• The SEBI chairman also said that while many countries and regulators, including the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO), have been debating on this issue for many years, only India had been able to come out with proper regulations.

• He said that the one regret he has is that not one Infrastructure Investment Trust (InvIT) or Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) was launched while he was the chairman.

World Bank CEO described India as a “laboratory”, for the world to learn

• World Bank Chief Executive Officer Kristalina Georgieva has described India as a “laboratory”, for the world to learn about what works in development and to find new ways to collaborate.

• Ms. Georgieva, who is in India , said in a statement: “India is our biggest middle income client. Its economic growth influences global growth. Its achievements in health and education contribute to the world achieving the SDGs.”

• While on a visit to Pakistan in January, Ms. Georgieva said she had “constructive discussions” with that country’s leadership on the Indus Waters Treaty.

• India, Pakistan and the World Bank are signatories to the Treaty and are in discussions on resolving disagreements the two countries have over India’s construction of two hydroelectric power plants.

• Maintaining its neutrality as a signatory, the Bank had announced a pause in the separate processes initiated by India and Pakistan under the Treaty to allow the two nations to resolve their disagreements amicably.

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