Current Affairs Update – 3rd November, 2016

• The GST Council on Thursday
  decided to have four slabs under the GST regime with some changes from what
  union finance ministry proposed and a cess over the peak rate of 28% on luxury
  and sin goods for five years to compensate states for any revenue loss.
• A four-tier GST rate structure
  would be 5%, 12%, 18%, 28%, finance minister Arun Jaitley told reporters after
  the meeting. The finance ministry had earlier proposed to have 6%, 12%,18% and
  26%.
• Most of the food items would
  attract zero% rate. As much as 50% of consumer price index would be zero rated.
• 5% rate would be on other
  necessary goods such as soaps and others needed for daily uses.
• Earlier proposal of the finance
  ministry to have 26% would be hiked to 28% but many items that were to attract
  26% earlier would be brought down to 18%. These would include some white goods.
• Above 28% would be a cess to be
  imposed on luxury cars, aerated  drinks
  and tobacco.
• Kerala finance minister Thomas
  Isaac instead had pitched for GST rate of 40% above 28% on these items. 
• The proposal of cess was made by
  the union finance ministry.
• This cess, coupled with one on
  clearn energy, would yield the government Rs 50,000 crore, which is expected to
  be revenue loss for states in a year. However, cess would be reviewed every
  year on the basis of revenue loss 
  to  states.
• The earlier proposal of levying
  2% rate on gold was put on hold. The duty on gold would be decided later after
  assessing impact of these GST rates.
• The council  would now take up the issue of administrative
  control on assessees on Friday.

• The Reserve Bank of India (RBI)
  on Thursday allowed banks to issue rupee denominated bonds, or masala bonds, in
  the overseas market to shore up their capital base as well as for financing
  infrastructure and affordable housing.
• To strengthen their capital base,
  banks can raise perpetual debt instruments, which can be considered for
  calculating a bank’s additional tier 1 capital, or debt capital instrument that
  can go into calculating a bank’s tier-2 capital. These bonds will be issued as
  per the Basel III norms and therefore, will have loss absorption clause. Under
  this clause a bank can chose not to honur the coupon payment in case of
  financial stress.
• For financing infrastructure and
  affordable housing, the banks can issue long term bonds, which doesn’t have the
  loss absorption clause.
• The central bank had first
  announced its intention for letting banks tap the overseas market with rupee
  bonds on August 25 when RBI announced a slew of measures to develop the bond
  and currencies market. Companies were already allowed to raise money through
  masala bonds and a few issuances totaling Rs 7,472 crore have been done.

• Indian automobile manufacturer
  Tata Motors has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Indonesian
  state-owned enterprise specializing in military and commercial products – PT
  Pindad, to effectively explore market potential of Tata Armoured Vehicles in
  Indonesia and other agreed regions of ASEAN.
• The MoU further includes a study
  to check the feasibility of locally assembling Tata Armoured Vehicles at PT
  Pindad’s facility, in Bandung in West Java province of Indonesia.
• Tata Motors has created a focused
  division to design and develop defence technologies and products at its facilities
  in Jamshedpur and Pune.

• The Internet Corporation of
  Assigned Names and Numbers(ICANN), which is a private non-profit organisation
  managing internet protocol numbers and domain name system roots, began its 57th
  annual general meeting on Thursday in Hyderabad.
• The seven-day-long meeting, which
  is the first gathering after the United States relinquished its stewardship
  over internet governance, focuses on enhancing its outreach and engagement with
  a global audience, besides improving capacity building measures.
• The conference, scheduled to take
  place between November 3 and 9, would discuss the transition of internet
  governance into a multi-stakeholder community model, besides speaking about
  issues related to domain name system.
• This is the second time India is
  hosting the meeting. The first time when an ICANN meeting was held in India was
  in 2008. The Union Ministry of Electronics and Communication, which has been
  hosting the annual meeting, is pursuing some of the issues with the company
  that involve establishing a root server that handles domain name functions.

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 1
  November 2016 launched the Saur Sujala Yojana in Chhattisgarh. The scheme aims
  at providing solar powered irrigation pumps to farmers at a subsidized price.
• With the launch of the scheme,
  Chhattisgarh becomes the first state to implement the scheme.

• Under the scheme, solar powered
  irrigation pumps of 3HP and 5HP capacity worth 3.5 lakh rupees and 4.5 lakh
  rupees respectively will be distributed to the farmers by 31 March 2019.
• The beneficiaries will also get
  the pumps at the subsidised price.
• Around 51000 farmers will be
  benefitted in the state with the launch of the scheme in next two years. The
  selection of the farmers will be done by the State Government’s organization,
  which looks after the development of renewable sources of energy.
• Priority will be given in those
  areas where electricity connection has not reached yet.
• The Chhattisgarh State Renewable
  Energy Development Agency (CREDA) will be responsible authority for the
  installation as well as maintenance of the solar pumping devices to the
  eligible farmers.

• The Supreme Court (SC) on 2
  November 2016 granted pension to the fake freedom fighters on humanitarian
  grounds. However, on the other hand, the court ordered inquiry into alleged
  forging of freedom fighter certificates to claim pension.
• In August 2005, SC appointed
  Justice A B Palkar Commission to examine the case of a large number of people
  claiming pension as freedom fighters by allegedly forging certificates in Beed
  district of Maharashtra.
• The court said that those falsely
  claiming to have participated in the freedom struggle should be dealt sternly
  as they were traitors. It directed the Palkar panel to complete the inquiry
  into claims of 354 people for freedom fighter pension and submit a report to
  the Maharashtra government.

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• Russia in November 2016 invited
  India to join in developing next-generation nuclear reactors and participate in
  its fast reactor research project, known as MBIR (Russian acronym).
• The information was given by
  ROSATOM’s project manager, Alexander Zagornov, who was in India for the opening
  of the company’s south Asia regional centre. ROSATOM is the nuclear corporation
  of Russia.
• This multipurpose reactor is a
  type of reactor in which nuclear fission chain reaction is sustained by fast
  neutrons. This project is coming up at the International Research Center in
  Dimitrovgrad, located in the Ulyanovsk region.

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 3
  November 2016 inaugurated the Asian Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk
  Reduction (AMCDRR) in New Delhi. Aim of the 3-day conference is to find ways
  for better management of disaster risk.
• The conference will come out with
  a declaration consolidating the political commitment of governments towards
  preventing and reducing risk as well as strengthening resilience by
  accelerating implementation.
• Inaugurating the Conference on
  Disaster Risk Reduction Modi  outlined a
  ten-point agenda for renewing efforts towards disaster risk reduction.

• Kristalina Georgieva was on 2
  November 2016 appointed as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the
  International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and the
  International Development Association (IDA) of the World Bank Group with effect
  from January 2017.
• Her appointment was confirmed by
  the World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim. IBRD and IDA are the lending arms
  of the World Bank.

• Ministry of Railways on 2
  November 2016 appointed Dr. Bindeshwar Pathak, the founder of Sulabh
  International, as a Brand Ambassador for Swachh Rail Mission. Minister of
  Railway Suresh Prabhu felicitated Pathak at a function in New Delhi.
• As part of the mission, Sulabh
  International has been assigned the task to clean some important railway
  stations across the country. Sulabh International is an India-based social
  service organization which works to promote human rights, environmental
  sanitation, non-conventional sources of energy, waste management and social
  reforms through education.
• Bindeshwar Pathak is an Indian
  sociologist and the founder of Sulabh International.

• Kolkata-born Sarabjit Singh Marwah
  on 2 November 2016 became the first Sikh to be appointed to the Canadian
  Senate.
• Toronto-based Marwah is among six
  people from Ontario who have been appointed to the Senate by Prime Minister
  Justin Trudeau.

• Mariano Rajoy on 29 October 2016
  was re-elected as the Prime Minister of Spain after winning a parliamentary
  vote. 170 lawmakers voted for him, 111 against and 68 abstained.
• With this, Spain has its first
  fully functioning government since December 2015, when a general election left
  no party with a majority.

• Freedom House, a non-government
  watchdog, on 2 November 2015 released the Freedom of the Press 2016 report. The
  report was released with theme, The Battle for the Dominant Message.
• As per the annual report, press
  freedom declined to its lowest point in 12 years in 2015. It happened because
  the political, criminal, and terrorist forces sought to co-opt or silence the
  media in their broader struggle for power.
• With respect to India, the report
  found that freedom to the press is partly free with a total score of 41 on a 0
  to 100 scale with 0 representing the best level of freedom on the net progress
  and 100 the worst.

• In terms of stories related to
  environment and land development, the report highlighted the story of two
  Indian journalists, namely Sandeep Kothari and Jagendra Singh, who were killed.
  Kothari who covered illegal mining and land grabs was killed in June 2015 and
  his body was found burned and heavily bruised. Jagendra Singh also died from
  burns allegedly inflicted by local police.

• Indian shuttler Pratul Joshi on
  30 October 2016 won the men’s singles title of the Bahrain International
  Challenge badminton tournament. This was his maiden international title.
• In the summit clash played at
  Segayya in Bahrain, Pratul defeated Aditya Joshi 21-17, 12-21, 21-15.
• On the other hand, the women’s
  singles title went to Sri fatmawati of Indonesia. In the final clash, she
  defeated compatriot Asty Dwi Widyaningru.
• Indians to reach the finals in
  the tournament were
• Men’s doubles: Indian pair of
  Vighnesh Devlekar and Rohan Kapoor lost 18-21 17-21 to Russian pair of Evgenij
  Dremin and Denis Grachev.
• Women’s doubles: Indian pair of
  Farha Mather and Ashna Roy lost the finals 12-21 18-21 to Bahrain’s Tanisha
  Crasto and Aprilsasi Lejarsar Variella of Indonesia.

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 2
  November 2016 presented the Ramnath Goenka Awards for Excellence in Journalism
  at a function in New Delhi.
• The honour acknowledges
  exceptional work across 28 categories in print, broadcast and online journalism
  in English, Hindi and regional languages.
• Ramnath Goenka was an Indian
  newspaper publisher. He launched The Indian Express and created the Indian
  Express Group with various English and regional language publications.

• Aditi Vatsa (The Indian Express)

• Saikat Kumar Bose (The Indian
  Express)

• Christin Mathew Philip (The Times
  of India)

• Print: Ashwaq Masoodi (Mint)
• Broadcast: Sarada Lahangir (Kalinga TV)

• The National Aeronautics and
  Space Administration (NASA) on 2 November 2016 completed the construction of
  the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) after more than 20 years of hard work.
• This largest-ever space telescope
  is expected to launch in 2018 following the in-depth testing.
• The telescope has 18 large
  mirrors that will collect infrared light, sheltered behind a tennis-court-size
  sun shield.
• It is considered as the successor
  to NASA’s iconic Hubble Space Telescope.
• It is a 8.8 billion US dollars
  worth space observatory built to observe the infrared universe like never
  before.
• Earth’s atmosphere glows in the
  infrared, so such measurements can’t be made from the ground. Hubble emits its
  own heat, which would obscure infrared readings.