Current affairs- April 6,2016
‘Fast radio burst ‘afterglow’ came from black hole’
Scientists have found that a radio emission believed to be an afterglow from a mysterious event called fast radio burst, actually originated from a supermassive black hole in the core
of a distant galaxy.
What are FRBs?
As their name suggests, fast radio bursts (or FRBs) are brief yet
powerful spurts of radio energy lasting only a few milliseconds.
Background:
The first ones were only identified in 2007. Their source has
remained a mystery. Most FRBs have been identified in archival data, making
immediate follow-up impossible. The new event is only the second one to be
identified in real time.
Key takeaways from RBI’s first monetary policy
review of FY17
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI), in its latest monetary policy
review, has slashed key lending rate by 25 basis points.
Key facts:
- Repo rate was reduced by 25 basis points from 6.75% to 6.5%.
- The cash reserve ratio (CRR), which is the quantum of liquid funds against deposits which commercial banks have to hold, has been left unchanged at 4%.
- The minimum daily maintenance of CRR has been cut to 90% from 95%.
- Reverse repo rate has been increased to 6% from 5.75%.
- GDP growth is projected to improve gradually to 7.6% in 2016-17.
- Retail inflation is projected to moderate in 2016-17 to around 5%.
- The marginal standing facility (MSF) rate stands at 7%.
- The bank rate which is aligned to the MSF rate stands at 7%.
- The policy rate corridor narrowed from 100 basis points (bps) to 50 bps.
- The statutory liquidity ratio, or the value of specified securities which commercial banks have to subscribe to, is at 21.25%, effective from April 2.
Glossary:
Basis Point: It is one hundredth of one percent. 1 basis point means 0.01%.
Used for measuring change in interest rate/yield.
MSF: Marginal standing facility is a
window for banks to borrow from Reserve Bank of India in emergency situation
when inter-bank liquidity dries up completely. Banks borrow from the central
bank by pledging government securities at a rate higher than the repo rate
under liquidity adjustment facility or LAF in short.
Repo rate: is the rate at which the RBI
lends shot-term money to the banks against securities.
Reverse Repo rate: is the rate at which banks park their short-term excess liquidity
with the RBI. The banks use this tool when they feel that they are stuck with
excess funds and are not able to invest anywhere for reasonable
returns.
SLR: Every bank is required to
maintain at the close of business every day, a minimum proportion of their Net
Demand and Time Liabilities as liquid assets in the form of cash, gold and
un-encumbered approved securities. The ratio of liquid assets to demand and time
liabilities is known as Statutory Liquidity Ratio (SLR). An increase in SLR
restricts the bank’s leverage position to pump more money into the economy.
CRR: Banks in India are required to
hold a certain proportion of their deposits in the form of cash. However, Banks
don’t hold these as cash with themselves, but deposit such case with Reserve
Bank of India (RBI) / currency chests, which is considered as equivlanet to
holding cash with RBI. This minimum ratio (that is the part of the total
deposits to be held as cash) is stipulated by the RBI and is known as the CRR
or Cash Reserve Ratio. It is a tool used by RBI to control liquidity in the
banking system.
Government Issues New Rules On Management Of
Hazardous Waste
Government has released new rules for management of hazardous
wastes which for the first time include a separate category of items like tyre,
metal scrap, paper and certain electronic goods that can be recycled and
reused.
- The Hazardous and Other Wastes (Management and Transboundary Movement) Rules, 2016 notified by the Union environment ministry replaces its older version made in 2008.
New rules:
- The new rules distinguish hazardous waste from others such as waste tyre, paper waste, metal scrap and used electronic items. The rules recognise the latter as a resource for recycling and reuse supplementing industrial processes, thereby reducing the load on the country’s resources.
- Among other items banned for import are waste edible fats and oil of animals, household waste, tyres for direct re-use purpose, solid plastic wastes, including PET bottles, waste electrical and electronic assemblies scrap and other chemical wastes especially in solvent form.
- Metal scrap, paper waste and various categories of electrical and electronic equipment for re-use purpose, however, can be imported without permission from the environment ministry.
- Hazardous waste includes material like lead acid battery scrap, used oil, waste oil and spent catalysts.
- The rules make state governments responsible for environmentally sound management of hazardous and other wastes and mandate them to set up industrial space or sheds for recycling, pre-processing and other utilization of hazardous or other waste.
- The state authorities have also been asked to register the workers involved in recycling, undertake industrial skill development activities and ensure safety and health of workers.
- States must also submit annual reports regarding implementation of these rules to environment ministry. This is because workers employed in unscientific hazardous waste management practices suffer from neurological disorders, skin diseases, genetic defects and cancer.
- The rules also mandates state pollution control boards to prepare an annual inventory of the waste generated, recycled, recovered, utilised including co-processed, waste re-exported and waste disposed.
- The ambit of the rules has been expanded by including ‘Other Waste’.
Significance of new rules:
The new hazardous waste rules will ensure resource recovery and
disposal of hazardous waste in an environmentally sound manner. The rules are
environment and industry-friendly. The provisions of the new rules are in line
with this government’s priority for Ease of Doing Business and Make in India,
but with responsible concerns for sustainable development.
Modi unveils scheme to make Dalits entrepreneurs
Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently launched the “Stand up India scheme” to enable Scheduled Castes,
Scheduled Tribes and women entrepreneurs to access loans, setting a target of
creating 2.5 lakh such entrepreneurs across the country.
Key features:
- Under the scheme 1.25 lakh bank branches will provide loans up to Rs 1 crore. Each branch will be required to provide two such loans ranging from Rs 10 lakh to Rs 1 crore without collateral for setting up a new enterprise.
- Under the scheme people from Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, and women entrepreneurs, will get support such as pre-loan training, facilitating loan, factoring and marketing.
- ·There will be a Rs 10,000 crore refinance window through Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) and the National Credit Guarantee Trustee Company Ltd (NCGTC) will create a corpus of Rs 5,000 crore.
- SIDBI will engage with the Dalit Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and various other institutions to take the scheme forward.
- The offices of SIDBI and National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development will be designated ‘Stand Up Connect Centres‘.
- Debit Card (RuPay) will be used for withdrawing working capital and history of borrowers will be developed.
‘Capital punishment rose by 54% in 2015’
Amnesty International (AI), in its latest Death Penalty Report
2015-16, has said that at least 1,634 people were executed by 25 countries last
year alone.
Highlights of the latest report:
- The report notes that these numbers show an alarming 54% increase over the previous year. Significantly, the rise also represents the maximum number the group has recorded in a single year since 1989.
- Most executions take place in China, where such data remains a state secret. Barring information from Beijing, the Asia-Pacific region saw 367 people subjected to the death penalty — more than a ten-fold rise from 2014. Pakistan alone accounted for 326 of them.
- West Asia and North Africa saw a 26% rise in executions, even if there was no addition to the eight countries that resorted to the punishment in 2014. While Iran accounted for 82% of executions in the region, for Saudi Arabia, the total rose by 76% over 2014.
- For the seventh year running, the U.S. remained the lone country in the Americas to have executed convicts. But the numbers were the lowest since 1991.
- Four more countries abolished the death penalty for all crimes in 2015, taking the tally of abolitionist states to 102.
India launches skill standards
With an aim to align skill standards which are recognized
globally, the government has launched Transnational Skill Standards in India.
Details:
- The Transnational Standards will highlight the gaps in Indian Standards against the UK standards. To cover the gaps, those intending to migrate, will undergo ‘bridge training’.
- These standards in skill development are benchmarked to United Kingdom across 82 identified job roles. The Ministry has chosen UK standards to benchmark Indian Skills standards since all the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries recognize UK skill certification.
- The Further Education Colleges (FE) of the United Kingdom will partner with Indian Training Providers to impart training on bridge courses. These Colleges will set up Skill Academies of Excellences in the identified sectors in India.
- The training will be provided in several economic activities including agriculture, life science, healthcare, capital goods, textiles, hospitality, information technology, etc.
Benefits of these standards:
- Transnational Skill Standards will support international mobility of Indian workforce and also prepare them to work in international companies having their operations in the country.
- These standards are expected to bring more quality in vocational education which will open more avenues for employment across countries for the youth.
Google now offers ‘health card’ for disease search
For health-related searches in India, Google will now present
results for over 400 diseases in an easy-to-read graphic or “card”. Running a
Google search for a disease will now return the usual results along with a
panel, which Google calls “card”.
- India is the third country to get this feature after the US and Brazil.
About the Health Card:
- Health cards were rolled out in the US last year and in Brazil two weeks ago.
- It carries an illustration, major symptoms, need for lab tests for diagnosis, most commonly affected age groups and indicates whether a disease is contagious, among other kinds of information.
- In India, the cards are available in Hindi and English.
- Google has worked with AIIMS, Apollo hospitals and Columbia Asia hospitals for this feature in India.
- Globally, according to Google, one in 20 searches on its platform are related to health.
Facts
Ban on Alcohol in Bihar
The Nitish Kumar government has declared Bihar a dry State by
imposing total prohibition on the sale and consumption of liquor, both
country-made and Indian-Made Foreign Liquor, with immediate effect. Earlier,
following an excise amendment law, the ban on country-made liquor had become
effective across the State from April 1. The government will stick to the 1991
guidelines on the sale and consumption of toddy. No new liquor licences will be
issued to for sale and consumption of alcohol in places like hotels, bars and
clubs, in towns and cities too. However, Army cantonment areas would be exempt
as they regulate sale and consumption of alcohol in their own way.
Use of pig hearts
Scientists from the United States and Germany have succeeded in
keeping transplanted pig hearts alive in baboons, primate cousins of humans,
for a record 2.5 years. This is very significant because it brings scientists
one step closer to using these organs in humans. Xenotransplants — organ transplants between different species — could potentially
save thousands of lives each year that are lost due to a shortage of human
organs for transplantation. Given the dire shortage of organ donors, the use of
animal hearts, lungs or livers to save human lives has long been a holy grail
of medical science.
President of India presents National Geoscience
Awards 2014
The President of India, Shri Pranab Mukherjee recently presented
the National Geoscience Awards – 2014.
About the award:
The National Geoscience Awards, previously known as the National
Mineral Awards, was instituted by the Ministry of Mines in 1966, to honour
individuals and teams of scientists for their extraordinary achievements and
outstanding contributions in fundamental and applied geosciences and mining and
allied fields.
MHA constitutes Committee to strengthen border
protection
The Ministry of Home Affairs has constituted a Committee under the
Chairmanship of Shri Madhukar Gupta, in order to strengthen border protection
and address the issue of gaps and vulnerability in border fencing along
Indo-Pakistan border. The mandate of the Committee will be to study all types
of gaps in fencing and all other vulnerabilities in the International Border on
Indo-Pakistan Border and to suggest comprehensive approach to fix these gaps in
fencing and other vulnerabilities on interim and permanent basis. The Committee
will submit its report in 3 months.
Ranthambore opens for full day safari
Ranthambore has, with immediate effect, opened the forest for full
day safari from sunrise to sunset. The full day safari has been introduced at
Ranthambore on the lines of Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh governments.
Key facts:
- Ranthambore National Park is located in the Sawai Madhopur district of southeastern Rajasthan.
- Park lies at the edge of a plateau and is bounded to the north by the Banas River and to the south by theChambal River.
- It is named after the historic Ranthambhore fortress, which lies within the park.
- Ranthambhore was established as the Sawai Madhopur Game Sanctuary in 1955 by the Government of India and was declared one of the Project Tiger reserves in 1973.
- Ranthambore became a national park in 1980. In 1984, the adjacent forests were declared the Sawai Man Singh Sanctuary and Keladevi Sanctuary, and in 1991 the tiger reserve was enlarged to include the Sawai Man Singh and Keladevi sanctuaries.
India’s first aadhaar based ATM
In a first for any domestic bank, small-sized lender DCB Bank has
started an Aadhaar-based ATM usage facility in Mumbai wherein a customer can
transact using his biometric details instead of the PIN. The user can key-in
the 12-digit Aadhaar number or swipe the card at an automated teller machine
(ATM) to start a transaction, but at the stage of confirming the identity, it
requires biometric details rather than the PIN.
