CLICK HERE TO SEE DATE WISE CURRENT AFFAIRS 

General Studies-02

 

Japan keen on friendship with northeast

News:

• At the fourth Northeast Connectivity Summit in Kohima from September 22 to 23, a representative of the Embassy of Japan said Tokyo would invest in the region’s infrastructure, education and people-to-people sectors.

Beyond News:

• The next edition of the summit will be held in Tawang, Arunachal Pradesh, which borders China.
• The northeastern region is located at a strategically and economically important juncture between India and Southeast Asia as well as within the Bimstec (Bay of Bengal) community.
• Therefore, Japan has placed a particular importance on the cooperation in the northeastern region,said a press note by the Nagaland government on the summit.

Afghan overture

• President Donald Trump’s policy announcement on Afghanistan has clearly set the stage for diverse moves on the geopolitical chessboard.

India’s Role in Afghan politics:

• India’s plans to expand its security assistance to Afghanistan by training police officers in India as part of a UNDP project must be assessed in this light.
• A welcome step in itself and one that could have a significant impact on the security situation in Afghanistan, it also sends out a loud geopolitical signal.
• By training police officers and hundreds of army cadets and officers, India is taking an important role in capacity building for Afghan security.
• India has also announced this month 116 smaller “new development projects” across Afghanistan, and police forces will be crucial in protecting irrigation, housing and school projects from the Taliban and other terror groups.
• The decision to enhance security training comes coupled with an India-Afghanistan trade fair sponsored by USAID, that will welcome Afghanistan’s Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah and other ministers to Delhi this week.
• India and Afghanistan have lost too much time on each of these plans.

General Studies-03

ISRO working on substitute spacecraft

 

• Work has begun in Bengaluru to assemble the alternative substitute navigation spacecraft, which became essential after the main back-up was lost in a failed launch on August 31.
• IRNSS-1I was earlier approved as a ground spare, to be sent to space in an emergency.
• The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has been training a team from an industry consortium to assemble this spacecraft and its lost fellow satellite, 1H.
• Should a new back-up be sought and approved, it may be part of another model of outsourcing of its satellites to Indian industry.
• Until now all Indian spacecraft have been assembled at ISAC by its engineers.

The faltering economy

News:

• Finance Minister Arun Jaitley last week promised appropriate action to revive the economy without going too much into the details of what could be in store.

Beyond News:

• This comes after the expansion in gross domestic product slowed to a multi-year low of 5.7% in the first quarter of 2017-18, and industrial output growth dropped to 1.2% in July, compared to 4.5% a year earlier.
• In addition, retail price inflation jumped to a five-month high of 3.36% in August from 2.36% in July, further dimming the prospects of a monetary stimulus from the Reserve Bank of India to help boost the economy.
• But, as many have pointed out over the last few months, the economy has been decelerating for the last five quarters. In such a case, demonetization and GST have merely brought to the fore a more fundamental weakness in the economy.
• India’s major macroeconomic numbers, despite the recent worsening of the current account deficit, are still quite stable compared to a few years ago.
• The government must rise to the challenge and enact tough structural reforms, instead of finding an easy way out through the fiscal door.

Graded Surveillance Measure

• SEBI may put shares of companies under the measure for suspected price rigging or under the ambit of ‘shell companies’.
• The measure would provide a heads up to market participants that they need to be extra cautious and diligent while dealing in such securities put under surveillance.

What if detected a firm identified for surveillance?

• It goes through six stages with corresponding surveillance actions and the restrictions on trading in those securities gets higher progressively.
• In the first stage the securities are put in the trade-to-trade segment (meaning no speculative trading is allowed and delivery of shares and payment of consideration amount are mandatory). A maximum of 5% movement in share price is allowed.
• In the second stage, in addition to the trade-to-trade segment, the buyer of the security has to put 100% of trade value as additional surveillance deposit. The deposit would be retained by the exchanges for a period of five months and refunded in a phased manner.
• In the third stage, trading is permitted only once a week ie every Monday, apart from the buyer putting 100% of the trade value as additional surveillance deposit.
• In the fourth stage, trading would be allowed once a week and the surveillance deposit increases to 200% of the trade value.
• In the fifth stage, trading would be permitted only once a month (first Monday of the month) with additional deposit of 200%.
• In the sixth and final stage, there are maximum restrictions.

Trading is permitted only once a month at this stage, with no upward movement allowed in price. Also, the additional surveillance deposit would be 200%.

[sociallocker id=”2087″] [/sociallocker]

CLICK HERE TO SEE DATE WISE HINDU NOTES