Current Affairs for 26th August to 1st September 2017

Current Affairs for 26^th August to 1^st September 2017

The Government has approved enhanced pay scales for medical officers and specialists in the Army. In a tweet, the Army said, medical and dental officers will get 75 thousand rupees per month. All specialists working in Ex-servicemen Contributory Health Scheme-ECHS polyclinics will receive 87 thousand and 500 rupees per month for the first year and One lakh rupees per month for the second year with effect from 16^th of this month.
Tightening regulations, telecom regulator TRAI has raised the penalty on telecom operators to 5 lakh rupees for poor mobile service quality, including call drops. The regulator will also now measure call drops on the basis of data collected on the performance of telecom towers and not from area offices of telecom companies. Penalty amount will be imposed if operators are unable to meet the benchmark set for the quality of services in two quarters. The penalty will kick-in if call drops in a quarter average more than 2 per cent of the total traffic in a telecom circle. The penalty will go up to 10 lakh rupees if violation continues for more than two quarters.
India has said, it has not received any communication from Pakistan about the launch of a consultation process by it to nominate an ad-hoc judge for the Kulbhushan Jadhav case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ). External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar told reporters in New Delhi that India has not been informed officially about the process by relevant authorities. Pakistani media reports said, Islamabad has begun consultations over the nomination of an ad-hoc judge for the Jadhav case and that and ex-attorney general and a former Jordanian premier have emerged as the top contenders. India had moved the ICJ against the death penalty handed to Jadhav by a Pakistani military court. ICJ had, in May, restrained Pakistan from executing the death sentence. On the Doklam stand-off, the External Affairs Ministry spokesperson said, India will continue to engage with China to find a mutually acceptable solution.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has written to state Chief Ministers urging to reduce burden of Value Added Tax, VAT on Petroleum Products used as inputs in making of goods after the introduction of GST. The highlights concerns being raised by the manufacturing sector in the country regarding the rise in input costs of petroleum products on account of transition to GST regime. In the pre-GST regime, because the petroleum products as well as the final goods produced both attracted VAT, input tax credit of petroleum products used as inputs by manufacturers was allowed to varying extent by different States, however, in the post-GST scenario, the manufactured goods attract GST while the inputs of petroleum products used in the manufacturing attract VAT and, therefore, it would lead to cascading of taxes.
Reserve Bank of India has called for recapitalization of state-run banks to help them resolve the NPAs issue in a time-bound manner as bad loans at nine point six per cent of the system is not acceptable. RBI Governor Urjit Patel said this addressing a National Conference on Insolvency and Bankruptcy: Changing Paradigm, held in Mumbai. Mr. Patel said that gross NPA ratio of the banking system at 9.6 per cent and stressed advances ratio at 12 per cent as of March 2017 is indeed a matter of concern. Saying that the balance sheet of most state-run banks are not healthy enough to take large haircuts, which is a corollary of any bad loan resolution, he called for their recapitalization. He said the Government and the RBI are in dialogue to prepare a set of measures to enable state-run banks to shore up the requisite capital in a time bound manner.
Spanish police killed five suspected terrorists in the town of Cambrils to stop a vehicle attach, after an earlier one in Barcelona. Seven people, including a police officer, were wounded when a car was driven into them earlier in Cambrils. Police said the men, wearing explosive belts, were linked to the first attack. 13 people died and 100 were injured when a van hit crowds in the Las Ramblas area of Barcelona.
In the United States, seven lawmakers have expressed concern over human rights violations in Pakistan’s Sindh province and urged the State Department to place it on priority during interactions with the country. Expressing concerns about it the congressmen led by Brad Sherman, Chair of the Congressional Sindh Causus wrote a letter to the Assistant Secretary for South and Central Asia Alice G Wells and US ambassador to Pakistan David Hale. The lawmakers urged them to place a priority on human rights and democracy in its interactions with the government of Pakistan.
India captain Virat Kohli continued to be the world’s top-ranked One-day batsman in the latest ICC ODI rankings, released in Dubai. Having 873 points in his kitty, Kohli will have a chance to increase the 12-point lead over second-placed Australian David Warner at the five-match ODI series against Sri Lanka, in Dambulla. Other Indian batsmen in the top-15 are former skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni 12^th, Shikhar Dhawan 13^th and vice-captain Rohit Sharma 14^th. However, no Indian bowler figure in the top-10 list. Pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar 13^th is the lone Indian in the top 15. As for the ICC ODI Team Rankings, India are currently at number three and they would have to win the upcoming series at least by a 4-1 margin to ensure that they stay at that position, ahead of England.
The Indian challenge at the Cincinnati Masters has ended with Rohan Bopanna and Sania Mirza crashing out from the tournament in their respective doubles categories. Bopanna with his Croatian partner Ivan Dodig lost the quarterfinal to the Wimbledon winner duo Marcelo Melo and Lukasz Kubot, 6-1, 7-6, 10-7 in the men’s doubles. Sania Mirza with her Chinese partner Shuai Peng lost to Taiwanese Romanian pair of Su-Wei Hsieh and Monica Niculescu 6-4, 7-6.
The Sports Minister has dropped para-sports coach Satyanarayana from the list of this year’s Dronacharya awardees due to a criminal case pending against him. A Spoets Ministry official said in New Delhi that the Ministry have chucked off the name of Satyanarayana since he has a case pending against him. Satyanarayana has coached Mariyappan Thangavelu, who won a gold in Rio Paralympics and who is one among those recommended for the Arjuna Award this year. The selection panel appointed by the Ministry had recommended 17 names, including two para-athletes, for Arjuna Awards and nominated former hockey player Sardar Singh and Rio Paralympics gold medalist Devendra Jhajharia for Khel Ratna, the highest sporting honour in the country.