“Daily Current Affairs – 06/09/2017” | KingMakers IAS Academy

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International News:-

1)Political Transition Begins in Cuba:-

Cuba began a five-month political transition, expected to end with Raul Castro’s departure from the presidency, capping his family’s near-total dominance of the country’s political system for nearly 60 years. Over the rest of this month, Cubans will meet in small groups to nominate municipal representatives.
Cuban officials said 12,515 block-level districts will nominate candidates for city council elections on October 22.
In the second electoral stage, a commission dominated by government-linked organisations will pick all the candidates for elections to provincial assemblies and Cuba’s national assembly.
The congress is expected to pick the President and members of the powerful Council of State by February. Castro has said he will leave the presidency by that date, though he is expected to remain head of the Communist Party.

2)First Diesel Consignment from India to Myanmar Dispatched:-

Symbolising the growing hydrocarbon engagement between India and Myanmar, the first consignment of 30 MT of High Speed Diesel was sent from India to Myanmar by land route.
Numaligarh Refinery Ltd. (NRL), which has been supplying HSD to Bangladesh, despatched the first diesel consignment through NH 37 across the Moreh Custom Check Point on the Indian side and Tamu Custom Check Point on the Myanmar side.
Supply of diesel consignment to Myanmar is another step in realizing the vision of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi to enhance hydrocarbon synergy with neighbouring countries as well as promoting India’s Act East Policy.
NRL has entered into an agreement with Parami Energy Group of Companies for the supply of diesel and collaboration in the retail petroleum sector of Myanmar. NRL refinery, situated at 420 km from the India-Myanmar border, is ideally suited to supply diesel to Northern Myanmar where connectivity is a challenge, particularly in the rainy season.

3)BRICS Leaders’ Xiamen Declaration:-

9th BRICS summit was recently held in Xiamen, China. This is the second time the China has hosted the summit after the 2011 summit. At the end of the summit, Xiamen declaration was adopted by the leaders of the five countries.
BRICS countries will strive towards broad partnerships with emerging markets and developing countries, and pursue equal-footed and flexible practices and initiatives for dialogue and cooperation with non-BRICS countries, including through BRICS Plus cooperation.
BRICS countries have resolved to promote the development of BRICS local currency bond markets and to jointly establish a BRICS local currency bond fund and also to facilitate financial market integration.
They will also encourage explorations toward the establishment of the BRICS Institute of Future Networks. Besides, partner countries will enhance joint BRICS research, development and innovation in information and communications technology, including the internet of things, cloud computing, big data, data analytics, nanotechnology, artificial intelligence, 5G and their innovative applications.
Importance of people-to-people exchanges in promoting development and enhancing mutual understanding, friendship and cooperation among BRICS peoples was also emphasized.
Countries also resolved to work together to promote most effective use of fossil fuels and wider use of gas, hydro and nuclear power.
They have also committed to strengthen BRICS cooperation on energy and work to foster open, flexible and transparent markets for energy commodities and technologies.
BRICS Agriculture Research Platform is proposed to be established in India.
They also called upon the international community to establish a genuinely broad counterterrorism coalition and support the UN’s central coordinating role in this regard.

4)Surya Kiran- Joint India-Nepal army exercise:-

India and Nepal have begun their joint military exercise in Nepal. This is the 12th edition of Nepal-India joint military exercise. The exercise – Surya Kiran –is being participated by around 300 troops each side.
The battalion-level joint training between the two armies will focus on counter-terror operations in mountainous terrain by facilitating interoperability. Disaster management and joint operations for disaster relief will also be a part of the exercise.
The 11th edition of the joint exercise was held in Pithoragarh in Uttarakhand.

About Surya Kiran:-
The Surya Kiran series of Exercises are being conducted annually, alternatively in Nepal and India. Notably in the series of military training exercises undertaken by India with various countries, Surya Kiran series with Nepal is the largest in terms of troop’s participation.
The aim of this exercise is to conduct battalion level joint training with emphasis on Counter Terrorism in mountainous terrain.

National News:-

1)Lucknow Metro Becomes Operational:-

The first commercial run of Lucknow Metro starts today. The Metro train has been flagged off by Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and governer Ram Naik.
Metro trains will be available from tomorrow morning to the general public. Each train comprises four-coaches and has a capacity to accommodate nearly 1,100 passengers at a time, with a seating capacity for 200 people. The coaches have been equipped with LED lights and CCTV cameras.
The metro will run from Transport Nagar to Charbagh, which is part of the Phase 1 of the project, and has 8 stations in between will be operational for the public from 6 am to 10 pm everyday.
Cost of this phase is around Rs. 2600 crores and it took almost 3 years to complete.

2)‘Saurashtra Narmada Avataran Irrigation Yojana’ (SAUNI):-

The President of India, Shri Ram Nath Kovind recently laid the foundation stone of ‘Saurashtra Narmada Avataran Irrigation Yojana’ (SAUNI) Phase-II Link-4 in Rajkot, Gujarat.

What is the SAUNI Yojna?

SAUNI stands for Saurashtra Narmada Avtaran Irrigation, a project launched in September 2012.
SAUNI envisages filling 115 major dams of the arid Saurashtra region by diverting floodwaters overflowing from the Sardar Sarovar Dam across the Narmada in south Gujarat.
It involves laying a 1,125-km network of pipelines at a cost of Rs 12,166 crore to carry Narmada water to these dams, and irrigate 4.13 lakh hectares (ha) land.
Parts of Saurashtra are prone to drought, and irrigation water is also a politically sensitive issue in this region.

3)Social media campaign to promote Geographical Indications:-

The Cell for IPR Promotions & Management (CIPAM) under the aegis of Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), Ministry of Commerce and Industry, has launched a social media campaign to promote Indian Geographical Indications (GIs) with #LetsTalkIP which is an ongoing movement initiated by CIPAM to make more people aware about the importance of Intellectual Property Rights.

What is GI?

A Geographical Indication or a GI is a sign used on products that have a specific geographical origin and possess qualities or a reputation that are due to that origin. Such a name conveys an assurance of quality and distinctiveness which is essentially attributable to its origin in that defined geographical locality. Darjeeling Tea, Mahabaleshwar Strawberry, Blue Pottery of Jaipur, Banarasi Sarees and Tirupati Laddus are some of the GIs.

About CIPAM:

Cell for IPR Promotion and Management (CIPAM) has been created as a professional body under the aegis of DIPP to take forward the implementation of the National IPR Policy that was approved by the Government in May 2016, with the slogan – “Creative India; Innovative India”.
CIPAM is working towards creating public awareness about IPRs in the country, promoting the filing of IPRs through facilitation, providing inventors with a platform.

Economic News:-

1)Banking Operations started by Fincare Small Finance Bank:-

Fincare Small Finance Bank has started its functioning with 25 operational branches in four states of Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.
Earlier it was known as Disha Microfin Limited.
RBI has granted small finance bank license to this bank in May 2017.
CEO: Rajeev Yadav
Headquarter: Bengaluru.

2)Advance Pricing Agreements (APAs):-

The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has entered into 4 more Advance Pricing Agreements (APAs) during August, 2017. Out of these 4 Agreements, 3 are Unilateral and 1 is a Bilateral.
With the signing of these 4 Agreements, the total number of APAs entered into by CBDT has reached 175. This includes 162 Unilateral APAs and 13 Bilateral APAs. In the current financial year, a total of 23 APAs (2 Bilateral and 21 Unilateral) have been signed till date.
The 4 APAs entered into during August, 2017 pertain to various sectors of the economy like Telecom, Banking, Manufacturing and Education.
To provide certainty to taxpayers in the domain of transfer pricing by specifying the methods of pricing and setting the prices of international transactions in advance.

3)RBI includes HDFC Bank in the ‘too big to fail’ list:-

After adding the State Bank of India and private lender ICICI, the Reserve Bank of India has listed HDFC to systemically important banks list.
The addition means that HDFC has now being considered as too big to fail bank. Since 2015, the central bank has been identifying banks whose failure would impact the whole financial system. These banks are subject to more rigorous regulation and capital requirement.

Systematically Important Banks (D- SIBs):-
A few banks assume systemic importance due to their size, cross-jurisdictional activities, complexity, lack of substitutability and interconnectedness.
The disorderly failure of these banks has the propensity to cause significant disruption to the essential services provided by the banking system, and in turn, to the overall economic activity.
These banks are considered Systemically Important Banks (SIBs) as their continued functioning is critical for the uninterrupted availability of essential banking services to the real economy.

Science and Technology:-

1)CERT-In issues alert on ‘Locky Ransomware’

The Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) has issued an alert about spread of a new malicious software ‘Locky’, which is being circulated through spam messages that can potentially lock computers and demand ransom for restoring access to users.
Locky Ransomware is learnt to be demanding ransom of half bitcoin, which at present rate is equivalent to over Rs 1.5 lakh. To target users spam e-mails showing links to fake websites is being used to spread Locky variants.

About CERT-In:-

CERT-In (the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team) is a government-mandated information technology (IT) security organization. CERT-In was created by the Indian Department of Information Technology in 2004 and operates under the auspices of that department.
The purpose of CERT-In is to respond to computer security incidents, report on vulnerabilities and promote effective IT security practices throughout the country.
According to the provisions of the Information Technology Amendment Act 2008, CERT-In is responsible for overseeing administration of the Act.

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