Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 28 February 2018

::NATIONAL::

Singareni mines will not be privatized: CM

Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao rubbished reports of the Singareni coal mines being privatised by the Union government.
He said there was no scope for it as the State government held the majority share of 51% and, if need be, it would purchase the Centre’s share of 49%.
The Chief Minister was addressing Singareni workers at Pragati stadium in Srirampur area, after laying the foundation stone for opening six new underground coal mines.
He had earlier moved in the miners’ residential colony and interacted with their families.
Mr. Rao said the imbroglio related to employment to dependants of miners would be solved by changing the name to compassionate appointment.
He also announced constitution of a new medical board for the benefit of miners.
The miners would get free electricity and water starting February 28, for which the Chief Minister issued orders.
This was a demand being made by all trade unions.
By another order, Mr. Rao directed the Singareni management to sanction Rs. 400 crore for housing for the miners.
He said 10,000 houses would be built in a phased manner in the Singareni Collieries.
With regard to waiver of Income Tax for Singareni workers, the Chief Minister said a resolution in this regard would be passed in the State Assembly during the coming budget session and would be sent to the Union government for its approval.

Vizag metro

Five infrastructure companies — Adani Enterprises, Tata’s TRIL Urban Transport, Shapoorji Pallonji and Company, Essel Infraprojects and IL&FS Rail — have evinced interest in developing the Visakhapatnam Metro Rail project in the public-private partnership (PPP) mode.
Minister for Municipal Administration and Urban Development P. Narayana in a release said that the Urban Mass Transit Company (UMTC), appointed as transaction adviser for the project by the Amaravati Metro Rail Corporation.
It opened the proposals submitted by the five companies to the request for proposals called in September last year.
“Participation of such reputed companies in the bid is a clear indication that the PPP model adopted by the government is a viable one for the project and it will succeed,” Mr. Narayana said.
In another 15 to 20 days, the proposals would be examined to shortlist eligible bidders and with the approval of the A.P. government, shortlisted companies would be announced after a month, the release said.
It would take another five months for the UMTC to select a suitable developer for the project.
The rail project, worth Rs. 8,800 crore, is initially designed with three corridors of 42.5 km length.
Under the PPP, the government proposed to fund civil infrastructure expenditure and the private developer is expected to develop non-civil infrastructure, operate and maintain for 35 years.

Defence Production Corridor in Tamil Nadu

The Ministry of Defence has initiated work for preparing a Detailed Project Report (DPR) to set up a defence production corridor in Tamil Nadu.
The Department of Defence Production, part of the Defence Ministry, will engage a top consultancy firm to draw up the DPR for the ‘Tamil Nadu Defence Quad’.
The defence quad or quadrilateral is one of the two defence production corridors announced Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in the 2018-19 budget.
“The corridor, which is organised as a quadrilateral will extend from Chennai, Hosur, Coimbatore, Salem and Tiruchi,” a press release from the Defence Ministry said.
The release said that the corridor will provide a major opportunity to the manufacturing sector in Tamil Nadu to participate in production for the defence sector.
To take this forward, the Ministry has initiated an exercise with the industry and MSMEs, at the five nodal points.
“These interactions will involve senior officers from MoD, representatives of Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd., Bharat Electronics Ltd., Bharat Earth Movers Ltd. and Ordnance Factories,” the release said.
The first interaction was completed at Hosur.
The other interactions will be held at Coimbatore on March 5, Salem on March 7, and Chennai on March 10. The dates for Tiruchi will be announced separately, the release said.

Alarming trends of lifestyle diseases in School children

The world over, surveys have pointed to a prevalence of obesity among children, and Bengaluru is no exception.
A school-based screening of 1.04 lakh children in 138 private schools in Bengaluru has revealed some alarming trends among students aged between three and 16.
The survey, conducted by a private provider of health services in schools, found about10% of the children to be obese and 13.8% at risk of contracting lifestyle diseases in adulthood with waistlines which are more than half their height.
The survey data — compiled from June 2017 to January 2018 by AddressHealth — revealed a significant degree of malnutrition (both over and under nutrition) among children.
While 9.2% of children were found to be obese, 13.7% fell in the overweight category (overnutrition). About 8.5% were found to be too thin for their age (undernutrition).
On the rise
Corroborating the findings, Asha Benekappa, director of the State-run Indira Gandhi Institute of Child Health, said obesity is seen across income groups but is rising rapidly in schools catering to higher income groups and among primary and secondary students.

Annual Science Day

Satyapal Singh, the junior Union Minister for Education, will be the chief guest at the annual Science Day event.
It is being organised by two of India’s top science academies, the Indian National Science Academy (INSA) and the Indian Academy of Sciences (IAS).
Last month Mr. Singh said that Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution deserved to be binned.
His remarks sparked considerable concern among the scientist fraternity with suggestions that there were attempts to polarise science along communal lines.
Some scientists even floated a petition condemning his statement and saying that it “harmed India's reputation.”
Later on his senior in the Ministry, Prakash Javadekar said that he had told Mr. Singh to refrain from such comments.
A.K. Sood, president, INSA, told The Hindu that Mr. Singh’s presence was “an opportunity to interact” and his choice as chief guest was not due to his comments on evolution.
“We’d issued a statement when he made those comments. As science academies it’s our duty to interact with various people and this is going to be just a simple interaction,” he added.
Science Day is annually celebrated to mark the birth anniversary of Sir C.V. Raman and usually has the science academies organise public lectures on science.
Professor Amitabh Joshi of the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR) will lecture on ‘Why evolution is central to both biology and our lives.’
Post-Singh’s comments, the Pune-based Indian Institute of Science Education and Research included a question, worth two marks, in an examination asking students to argue why
Mr. Singh’s statement was wrong.

Maldives rejects India’s Naval exercise invite

Maldives has declined an invitation to join the MILAN series of multilateral exercises to be hosted by the Indian Navy in March off the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
The Maldives Ambassador clarified that it was due to the state of emergency in his country.
“We have invited Maldives, but they declined it. They did not give any reason, but I think it is due to the current situation,” Navy chief Admiral Sunil Lanba said.
He was speaking on the sidelines of the Indo-Pacific Maritime Dialogue, organised by the Navy and the National Maritime Foundation.
MILAN is a congregation of littoral navies conducted biennially by the Navy under the aegis of the Andaman and Nicobar Command, which began in 1995.
MILAN 2018 will be held from March 6-11. This year 23 countries have been invited, of which 16 have confirmed so far.
Admiral Lanba dismissed concerns over the presence of Chinese ships near Maldives.
He said China had been conducting anti-piracy patrols in Indian Ocean since 2008 and India had been monitoring their movements.
“They have a standard pattern of operating. There has been no change in it,” he said.

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::INTERNATIONAL::

India-Vietnam-South China Sea

Vietnam will take up South China Sea-related issues during the March 2-4 visit by President Tran Dai Quang.
The Ambassador of Vietnam said that Hanoi wished to fully utilise the comprehensive strategic partnership with India and was likely to sign a civil nuclear agreement during the visit.
“South China Sea issue will be discussed between leaders as the situation in the South China Sea is complicated. Some positive developments have taken place but the ground reality remains problematic,” said Ambassador Ton Sinh Thanh.
Beijing’s claims over most of the South China Sea is a major issue between the two countries, and Hanoi has been one of the more vocal countries in the 10-member ASEAN grouping to find a solution to China’s expansionist policy in the crucial water body.
The Ambassador however assured that his country remained committed to maintaining cordial ties with Beijing.
He clarified that Vietnam had not yet firmed up its position on the ‘One Belt, One Road’ initiative of China and said, “OBOR is a big project, we need to look into it whether it is good for the country or not, will then take a position on this.”
The visit, he said, would provide India and Vietnam an opportunity to build on the areas of convergence in the strategic domain.
The envoy acknowledged India’s support in capacity building by the Vietnamese naval forces and said that the Vietnamese army and the air force are in the process of considering some hardware purchase from India.
The presidential visit will begin with a stopover at Bodhgaya where Mr. Tran will reach on March 2.
The delegation will reach New Delhi later on the same day and both sides will hold official talks on March 3.

Northern Sri Lanka Debt crisis

Months after Sri Lanka’s Central Bank vowed action on mounting household debt in the war-affected north, thousands gathered in Jaffna, protesting against the government’s inaction.
‘Our home and country are indebted, what is the solution?; ‘Stop loans, give employment’ and ‘Strengthen people’s organisations’, read the banners held by participants, who marched from the iconic VeerasinghamHall.
Participants included members and employees of cooperative societies across the Northern Province and thousands of women, who are among the worst-affected by the high-interest, unregulated loans.
After the civil war ended in 2009, a host of microfinance companies made credit easily available to those struggling to rebuild their lives.
In its petition to the GA on Tuesday, the Jaffna District Co-operative Council sought a ban on unethical microfinance companies, an interest cap on “predatory loan schemes”, a two-year moratorium and the expansion of low-interest government credit schemes.
Many families in Jaffna receive financial support from a member earning abroad, it is the economically most vulnerable who are aggressively targeted by the companies.
The interest rate is 28% on paper, but the actual interest paid adds up to 70.
With no option of repaying the high-interest loans, many women take multiple loans to survive.
Amid growing calls for government intervention to address the problem, Sri Lanka’s Central Bank said in October last year that it was considering measures, including a moratorium and an interest rate cap.
Asked about the progress made, the apex bank’s Governor Indrajit Coomaraswamy said an awareness campaign was being undertaken.
A six-month moratorium came into effect a couple of months ago, but more people needed to be made aware of the option, he said.
The central government has made a budgetary allocation of LKR 500 million for debt relief in 2018.

::ECONOMY::

GST revenue low in January

The Centre collected Rs. 86,318 crore in revenue from the Goods and Services Tax in January, according to official data released.
“The last date for filing of GSTR 3B return for the month of January 2018 was February 20, 2018,” the government said in a release.
“The total revenue received under GST for January (received in January/February up to February 25) [is] Rs. 86,318 crore. About 1.03 crore taxpayers have been registered under GST so far till February 25, 2018.”
The government had collected Rs. 86,703 crore in December from GST.
While the GST revenues and number of return filers are gradually increasing or are same as compared to the last month, the tax base and revenue numbers have certainly not reached expected levels.
This could lead to more enquiries and scrutiny from the tax authorities.
The government added that while 17.65 lakh dealers have so far been registered under the Composition Scheme, 1.23 lakh of these have opted out of the Scheme and have become regular taxpayers.
Of the total collected, Rs. 14,233 crore came as as Central GST, Rs. 19,961 crore as State GST, Rs. 43,794 crore as Integrated GST and Rs. 8,331 crore as compensation cess.

Korean companies should invest more: PM

Assuring Korean firms that their investments in India would be protected, Prime Minister Narendra Modi called upon Korean companies to invest more in India.
Speaking at the India Korea Business Summit, organised by the DIPP and CII, Mr. Modi said, “India offers a lot of potential for the Korean investors with its huge market and enabling policy environment.”
FDI inflows
Korea ranks 16th in terms of FDI equity inflows to India with investments of $2.26 billion between March 2000 and April 2017.
Mr. Modi added that the bilateral trade between India and Korea crossed $20 billion last year – for the first time in six years.
More than 500 Korean companies, including Samsung, LG and Hyundai, have operations in India.
Speaking at the same summit later in the day, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said Indian economy had the potential to achieve a growth rate of more than 7-8%.
Responding to a query, the Minister further said it was not possible to have one GST rate as the country had vast disparities.
However, he assured investors that the government would undertake further reforms after improvement in tax compliance standards.
The next stage of reforms would start once India became a significant tax compliant society, he said.
“For example, we have two standard rates and in the long run I do see them merging into one. For that to happen, it will take some reasonable time that is when the compliance levels start moving up,” the Minister said.