Current Affairs for IAS Exams – 21 February 2016

:: NATIONAL :

Violence triggered by the Jat agitation for reser- vation spread to more areas in Haryana on Saturday, with reports saying protesters set fire to vehicles and public and private property and blocked roads and the rail- way track. Four persons were reportedly killed and several injured in the State as security forces opened fire.
Security personnel resort- ed to firing after protests erupted in Rohtak and Jhaj- jar districts, taking the death toll to five. A hospital oicial in Rohtak said two persons were brought dead to the Pandit Bhagwat Dayal Sharma Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences (PGIMS) in Rohtak and one critically injured patient died after an operation.
Curfew has been clamped in more towns, including Jind, Hisar, Hansi, Sonipat and Gohana.

British Prime Minister David Cameron called a June 23 referendum on member- ship of the European Union as he sought to rally his divided Conservative Party behind a deal which he said would guarantee Britain’s prosperity and security in the bloc.
After spelling out details of the deal -- clinched at an EU summit in Brussels -- to his senior Ministers, Mr. Cameron said he had secured the Cabinet’s backing to recommend to voters that Britain stay in the bloc it joined in 1973.
The agreement granted Britain an explicit exemption from the founding goal of an “ever closer union”, offered concessions on the welfare rights of migrant workers andsafeguards for the City of London.

A British exit from the European Union would rock the Union — already shaken by differences over migration and the future of the euro zone — by ripping away its second-largest economy, one of its top two military powers and by far its richest financial centre.
Pro-Europeans warn an exit could also trigger the break-up of the United King- dom by prompting another Scottish independence vote.
The $2.9-trillion British economy would face years of uncertain negotiations over the terms of a divorce.
Prime Minister David Cameron is due to make a statement to Parliament on Monday, triggering the start of the campaign for the referendum on EU membership he called after striking a deal with the Union.
Opponents of EU membership say Britain would pros- per outside what they say is a doomed Germany-dominated bloc that punches way below its weight on the world stage.
The issue of Europe has divided the Conservatives for three decades and played a major part in the downfall of Cameron’s two Conservative predecessors, Margaret Thatcher and John Major.

India and Nepal signed seven agreements at a summit meeting of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Nepal counterpart K.P. Sharma Oli, even as leaders of the Madhesi people in Nepal threatened one more blockade.
Addressing the press after the signing ceremony at the Hyderabad House, Mr.Oli said that both sides were determined to avoid the disruption of Nepal’s transit facilities as experienced over the past five months.
Referring to Nepal’s dependence on India for receiving essential commodities, Mr.Oli said without naming Madhesi protesters, “Unscrupulous elements should not be allowed to abuse the open borders between Nepal and India”.
Though both the sides tried to address the grievances of the pro-blockade agitators by agreeing to build a road network in the Madhesregion, the leaders of the Madhesis are planning more agitation.

Members of the XIV Finance Commission have questioned the government’s failure to act on its recommendation to constitute an Independent Fiscal Council that objectively evaluates budget announcements and forecasts, stressing that such an institution was critical to improve the government’s credibility on fiscal management.
The Centre opts for creative accounting, pauses or simply doesn’t follow the targets it has submitted toParliament under the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) Act of 2003.
States have constraints in managing their finances as the RBI controls their defi- cit and cannot float a bond on a state’s behalf without the Centre’s approval. Since the 2003 FRBM law came into effect, there have been four pauses in the def- icit targets enshrined in it and a few occasions where the targets have been flout- ed.
The Commission had recommended a sharp in- crease in allocations to state governments in its re- port released last February, which the government accepted.
It had also mootedan Independent Fiscal Council as an oversight body over the finance ministry.
The council would report to the Parliament on how realistic government projections are, citing similar independent budget and fiscal management monitoring offices in 35 countries.

IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde said that G20 finance ministers and central bank governors should focus on global economic spillovers from their policy decisions when they meet in Shanghai.
The G20, is going to have to focus on spillovers, on spillbacks and on the combination of various policies in play at the moment.
Lagarde said that at the moment, the “asynchronicity” of U.S., Japanese and European monetary policies needed to be reviewed and practices better coordinated.
She also said that G20 ministers should examine the interactions of their countries' fiscal policies and structural reform moves.