Current affairs : January 24, 2017 for all competitive exams
A committee under N K Singh constituted by the government last year to set
a new fiscal consolidation roadmap has submitted its report. The panel has
submitted its report on revising the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget
Management Act to the finance minister.
- The five-member committee was
constituted in May 2016 following Mr. Jaitley’s announcement, in Budget
2016-17, of the creation of a panel to review the Fiscal Responsibility
and Budget Management Act.
- The committee has recommended
major changes in the 13-year-old Fiscal Responsibility and Budget
Management (FRBM) Act and suggested ways to ensure responsible and higher
growth
- There is also a suggestion that fiscal expansion or contraction should be aligned with credit contraction or expansion respectively in the economy.
Graft probe against babus must conclude in 90 days:
Government
The Ministry of Personnel has come out with fresh rules for enquiries
against officers of all India services– Indian Administrative Service (IAS),
Indian Police Service (IPS) and Indian Forest Service (IFoS)– to provide for
stage-wise specific time-lines for completion of the enquiries.
- The rules have been amended to
bring in more accountability and time-bound completion of every exercise
in the course of governance.
- As per the new rules, all
departmental enquiries against IAS and IPS officers to probe corruption
charges and other irregularities need to be concluded within a maximum
period of 90 days.
Supreme Court suggests invoking Art 224-A to resolve
Tripura HC problem
Faced with a unique problem of recusal by judges at the Tripura High Court,
the Supreme Court has asked the Centre to explore the possibility of using an
article of the Constitution on appointment of judges of other High Courts as
sitting judges to address the issue of recusal.
- The issue came up after Tripura
High Court Chief Justice T Vaiphei wrote a letter to Chief Justice of
India J S Khehar that due to shortage of judges, it became difficult to
set up a separate bench if a judge recused himself from hearing a
particular case on grounds of conflict of interest.
World
record for Lavani dance
An event that saw over 600
participants performing the ‘Lavani’ dance here on Sunday, boasted of having
beaten a previous held world record where 573 girls performed the dance at
Kolhapur in Maharashtra.
- High Range Book of World Records
brand ambassador M. Jayanth Reddy announced that Sunday’s ‘Lavani’ dance,
that involved a combination of traditional song and dance to the beats of
the ‘dholki,’ was the new record
SC for daily
drug dosage regimen for TB patients
The Supreme Court on Monday
gave the government nine months to replace the thrice-a-week dosage norm of
tuberculosis drugs with a daily dosage regimen recently approved by the World
Health Organisation to curb relapse and deaths during treatment.
- A Bench headed by Chief Justice of
India J.S. Khehar directed the government to ensure that efforts are made
so that the patients across the country are administered the new dosage
regimen.
- The Bench, while passing the
directions, disposed of a PIL plea filed by doctor and TB specialist Raman
Kakkar seeking change in the protocol for treatment of TB.
India rejects attempts by EU, Canada for global
investment agreement
India, along with Brazil, Argentina and some other nations, has rejected an
informal attempt by the European Union (EU) and Canada to work towards a global
investment agreement at the World Trade Organisation (WTO)-level that would
incorporate a contentious Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) mechanism.
- The ISDS mechanism has become
contentious as it permits companies to drag governments to international
arbitration without exhausting the local remedies and claim huge amounts
as compensation citing losses they suffered due to reasons, including
policy changes.
Trump moves to
pull U.S. out of TPP
U.S. President Donald Trump
moved on Monday to pull the United States out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership
(TPP), making good on a pledge to scrap a deal he denounced as a “job killer”.
- Embarking on his first full week
in office, the 45th U.S. President began rolling out his policy agenda
after a tumultuous first weekend for his administration by signing a
series of executive orders.
- Among the first was a memo on
withdrawing from the vast TPP trade pact, which aimed to set trade rules
for the 21st century and bind U.S. allies against growing Chinese economic
clout.
- Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP),
Promoted by Washington and signed by 12 countries in 2015, the TPP had yet
to go into effect and U.S. withdrawal is likely to sound its death knell.
Its signatories together represent 40% of the world economy.
Jaishankar gets
one year extension
Foreign Secretary S.
Jaishankar, whose tenure is to end on January 28, on Jan 23 got a one year
extension.
- The nod for the extension of his
tenure till January 28, 2018 was given by the Appointments Committee of
the Cabinet.
- A 1977 IFS batch officer, Mr. Jaishankar was appointed Foreign Secretary on January 29, 2015 just few days before his retirement, replacing Sujata Singh, whose term was abruptly curtailed by the government.
DEA
Secretary Shaktikanta Das gets 3-month extension
The Appointments Committee
of the Cabinet has approved the proposal for extension in service in respect of
Shaktikanta Das, IAS, Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs, for a period
of three months with effect from March 1, 2017 to May 31, 2017
- Mr. Shaktikanta Das is an IAS
officer of the 1980 batch from the Tamil Nadu cadre. He was to retire in
March.
Suryoday,
Utkarsh enter banking fray
Microlenders Suryoday and
Utkarsh, which started small finance banks (SFBs) on January 23,2017, are
offering interest rates of more than 6% in a bid to compete with commercial
lenders for savings bank deposits. Most commercial banks offer 4% on savings accounts,
barring a few such as Kotak Mahindra Bank, YES Bank and IndusInd Bank.
- The marginal cost of funds based
lending rate (MCLR) for Suryoday would be 17.5%, while for Utkarsh it
would be 14.5%. The MCLR for most commercial banks is about 8.5-9.5%.
Australian
Cricket awards
Prolific Australian opener
David Warner fought off a strong challenge from his captain Steve Smith to
become just the fourth player to win back-to-back Allan Border Medal.
- Only Ricky Ponting, Shane Watson
and Michael Clarke have previously won consecutive medals in Australian
cricket’s prestigious annual awards.
The awardees:
Allan Border Medal: David
Warner;
Belinda Clark Award: Meg
Lanning;
Test Player-of-the-Year: Mitchell
Starc;
ODI Player-of-the-Year: David Warner;
T20I Player-of-the-Year: Shane
Watson;
Hall of Fame inductees: Betty
Wilson, Matthew Hayden, and David Boon.
