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Daily GK 25 MAY 2017

National

Modi to be on four-nation tour from May 29 to June 3

·         Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Germany, Spain, Russia and France between May 29 and June 3.

·         The External Affairs Ministry has announced that he will hold bilateral talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Spanish Prime MinisterMariano Rajoy and French President Emmanuel Macron.

Fresh move to impeach Justice Nagarjuna Reddy

• Over 60 members of the Rajya Sabha, cutting across party lines, have submitted a motion seeking initiation of impeachment proceedings against Justice C.V. Nagarjuna Reddy of the High Court for Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.
• This is the second attempt by members of the upper house of Parliament to remove Justice Nagarjuna Reddy after the first one made by 61 MPs on December 5 last year failed after 19 signatories withdrew.
• Allegations against the judge include interfering in the judicial process in several cases; and caste slurs including death threats against a Dalit Junior Civil Judge Sanku Rama Krishna at the courts in Rayachoti, a town in Andhra Pradesh’s Kadapa district. Rayachoti is also Justice Nagarjuna Reddy’s home town.

Swachh Bharat App Launched in National Museum

·         “Swachh Bharat App” has been launched in National Museum under Ministry of Culture by the Minister of State (I/C) for Culture & Tourism Dr. Mahesh Sharma. The main focus of this “Swachh Bharat App” is to basically involve people actively to become part of Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (Clean India Movement).

·          At present, this App is available for Android Mobile phones which can be downloaded from Google Play Store. In this App the concept of Physical web is implemented. When you are in the monument or Museum it will deliver you the message about Swachh Bharat Abhiyan and ask you to report the garbage around you.

·          All you need is to enable the Bluetooth of your mobile device. Even if you did not have the App installed then also you will be delivered the message by Google about the Swachh Bharat Abiyan and which will give you the link to install the App. Once you start the App it will ask to take photograph of the garbage and write the comment and just submit. It will be reported to the authority on the backend.

·         
The App will be monitored by the Ministry of Culture and will play an important role in cultivating the significance of cleanliness to the citizens.

Over 30,000 Indians overstayed in U.S. in 2016: report

·         Over 30,000 Indians overstayed in the U.S. last year, according to a new report which said that a total of 1.4 million people from India travelled to the U.S. on various visas in 2016.

·         The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) submitted an annual official report on departures and overstays to the Congress on foreign visitors who entered the U.S. on various visas, including business, tourists, students and visitors exchange, as non-immigrant visitors.

·         The report covered about 96% of the total non-immigrant visitors.

·         As per the report, more than 50 million non-immigrants were expected to depart from the U.S. in 2016. Of these, 7,39,478 overstayed their admission, resulting in a total overstay rate of 1.47%.

·         Of the more than 739,000 overstays, DHS said 628,799 were suspected “in-country” overstays, which means that there is no record of these foreign nationals leaving the U.S.

An Abe-Modi plan for Africa

·         The Indian and Japanese governments unveiled a vision document for the Asia Africa Growth Corridor, proposed by the two countries’ Prime Ministers last November, and more details are likely to be firmed up by September in time for Japan PM Shinzo Abe’s visit to New Delhi.

·         Unlike China’s One Belt One Road (OBOR) project, about which India has raised several concerns, the Asia Africa Growth Corridor is conceived as a more open and inclusive programme that will be based on more consultations and keep people as the centre piece rather than just trade and economic ties, said officials who worked on the vision document.

·         The document presented to the board of the African Development Bank’s governors at their annual meeting here, proposes four key elements that leverage the strengths of India and Japan – enhancing capacity and skills; building quality infrastructure and connecting institutions; development and cooperation projects in health, farming, manufacturing and disaster management; and people-to-people partnerships.

International

'Prachanda' resigns from PM post as per pact with Deuba

·         Nepal Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ resigned from his post after a brief stint of nine months, honouring a power sharing understanding reached between his party and the ruling partner Nepali Congress on August 3, 2016.

·         The pact was to run the government on a rotational basis until elections to Parliament are held in February 2018.

·         Mr. Dahal, 62, announced his resignation while addressing the nation in a live telecast. It was his second stint as the Prime Minister.

·         Mr. Dahal, who is the the Chairman of CPN (Maoist Centre), was elected the 39th Prime Minister after reaching an understanding with Nepali Congress president Sher Bahadur Deuba.

Taiwan's high court paves the way for same-sex marriage, a first in Asia

·         Taiwan’s highest court paved the way for Asia’s first law allowing same-sex marriage, a reflection of widespread support for LGBTQ causes that has sprung from three decades of democracy.

·         The Constitutional Court ruled that it is illegal to ban marriages between two people of the same sex and ordered parliament to change the civil code within two years to bring it in line with the constitution, a court official said.

·         About 200 jubilant supporters of same-sex marriage gathered outside parliament as the announcement was broadcast live from a news conference.

US, six Gulf nations join hands to curb terror financing

·         The US and six Gulf countries have joined hands to curb financing of dreaded terror groups such as Islamic State, Lashkar-e-Taiba, the Haqqani network and Taliban.

·         A memorandum of understanding (MoU) in this regard was signed by the US and six members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) in Riyadh on the sidelines of the historic visit of President Donald Trump, US Department of Treasury said.

·         The six countries along with the US are Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

·         With this the US and six GCC countries “are confronting new and evolving terrorist networks including ISIS, al-Qaeda, Hizballah, Lashkar-e-Taiba, the Taliban, and the Haqqani Network,” the Department of Treasury said after the agreement was signed to establish Terrorist Financing Targeting Center (TFTC).

Contemporary Economic Developments

Govt approves phasing out of 25-year-old Foreign Investment Promotion Board

·         The Union Cabinet approved phasing out of the 25-year-old Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB). The FIPB is the inter-ministerial body — or a single window clearance mechanism for applications on foreign direct investment (FDI) in India in sectors under the government approval route.

·         The move to phase out the FIPB is aimed at making India a more attractive FDI destination and increasing FDI inflows by providing greater ease of doing business and promoting the ‘Maximum Governance and Minimum Government’ principle.  

·         The proposal entails abolishing the FIPB and allowing administrative Ministries/Departments to process applications for FDI requiring government approval, an official statement said.

GST rollout deadline will not be extended, says top official

·         The government is not considering extending the rollout date for the Goods and Services Tax (GST) past July 1, and the GST Network is almost ready for that deadline, GST Network CEO Prakash Kumar said.

·         Mr. Kumar also added that the GST Network, the company behind the IT backbone of the new tax regime, had received registrations from 60.5 lakh out of the 83 lakh tax payers eligible to be on the network.

·         “The date for GST is firmed up, and there should not be any confusion anywhere about that,” Mr. Kumar said while speaking at a GST Readiness Session. “There is no chance of it being extended past July 1. Out of a scale of 10, I would say our readiness right now is 8-9,” he said.

TRAI defends decision to impose penalty on 3 firms

·         Incumbent operators were “intentionally denying and delaying” providing adequate points of interconnection to the new entrant Reliance Jio, TRAI said, defending its recommendation to impose a penalty on Bharti Airtel, Idea and Vodafone.

·         TRAI said it was within its powers to impose a penalty for violation of licence norms. TRAI in a reply to over a dozen queries raised by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), said that “…millions of consumers were suffering due to blatant and wilful violation of the licence terms and TRAI’s regulations by” the top three telecos.

·         TRAI had recommended a fine of Rs 1,050 crore each for Airtel and Vodafone and of Rs 950 crore for Idea for violating their agreement and denial of interconnection to Reliance Jio. DoT had sought clarifications on several points, including the provision of law under which the amount was recommended.

·         “Non-compliance of terms and conditions of the license under the TRAI Act, 1997 warrants recommendations for the revocation of the license. Clearly, penalty to a TSP amounts much less in severity than revocation of its license. It is well-established that a penal action which is lower than the stipulated action is intra-vires.”

Google shortlists six start-ups for support

·         Google announced the names of six Indian start-ups which have been shortlisted for the fourth class of the company’s Google Accelerator Program.

·         The company said the six start-ups would be joining a group of young ventures from all over Asia, Latin America, Africa and Europe at the Google Developers Launchpad Space in San Francisco. With this batch, a total of 26 Indian companies had so far joined the launchpad accelerator programme from India.

Moody’s cuts China’s rating on debt concerns

·         Moody’s ratings agency downgraded China’s credit score, warning that economy-wide debt is expected to rise as potential economic growth slows over the coming years.

·         The agency lowered China’s long-term local currency and foreign currency issuer ratings to A1 from Aa3, but said its outlook changed from “negative” to “stable“.

·         “The downgrade reflects Moody’s expectation that China’s financial strength will erode somewhat over the coming years, with economy-wide debt continuing to rise as potential growth slows,” the agency said.

 

Govt. to widen coverage under UDAN

·         The Central government has proposed widening the scope of its UDAN scheme for regional connectivity by making more flight operations eligible for a host of concessions, including viability gap funding. Soon, all routes which do not have flight services at present may become part of the Scheme.

Sports

Ashwin presented CEAT International Cricketer of the Year award

• Ravichandran Ashwin who had a remarkable international season — he took 99 wickets in 17 Tests and scored 699 runs with two centuries and four half-centuries — was presented the CEAT Cricket Ratings’s International Cricketer of the Year award by Sunil Gavaskar and Harsh Goenka, chairman, RPG Enterprises at the Cricket Club of India. He received a trophy and cheque for Rs 5 lakh.
• Punjab’s Shubman Gill was declared the CEAT Young Player of the Year for scoring 603 runs in nine games against the touring England under-19 team. He received a cash award of Rs 1 lakh. 
• The off-spinner was one of the key performers in India’s 2013 ICC Champions Trophy campaign in England and Wales, taking eight wickets in five matches at 22.62, but he has played only five ODIs (two in Australia and three in India) since January 2016.

PV Sindhu elected as member of BWF Athletes' commission

• Olympic silver medallist PV Sindhu became one of the members of the BWF Athletes' Commission after the end of voting for the four places on the representative body. 
  
  The 21-year-old Indian topped the ballot with 129 votes as she led a trio of women onto the BWF Athletes' Commission.
• Apart from Sindhu, Kirsty Gilmour of Scotland was placed third overall with 103 votes and Lithuania's Akvile Stapusaityte (25 votes) was the third woman elected to the Commission.
• Source CL