Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 19 January 2017
:: National ::
Urjit Patel told more than 9 lakh crore came back to circulation
Reserve Bank of India Governor Urjit Patel told the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance that about Rs. 9.2 lakh crore had been put back in circulation since the demonetisation on November 8.
Prime Minister’s announcement that Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000 notes would cease to be legal tender from the midnight of November 8 had sucked out 86% — amounting to Rs. 15.44 lakh crore — of currency notes in circulation till then.
Dr. Patel, however, did not offer any answer to questions on how much of the demonetised currency had been deposited back in banks, saying calculations were still on.
He maintained that counting of the notes was continuing, a panel member said, making it appear that this itself was a mammoth task.
A member said that when Dr. Patel was asked the date on which the RBI would withdraw the Rs. 24,000 cap on weekly withdrawals, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said the central bank governor need not go into that.
The central bank’s argument is that “figures would need to be reconciled with the physical cash balances to eliminate accounting errors/possible double counts, etc,” without which estimates may not indicate actual numbers.
The figures pertaining to money deposited back are crucial as the Opposition is reading the reported return of almost all the money as a sign that black money has been converted into white.
The government, however, claims that once the money has passed through the system, it will be scrutinised in order to catch the wrongdoers.
Pro-Jallikattu protests turned into mass movement
With the pro-jallikattu (bull-taming sport) protests turning into a mass movement in Tamil Nadu, Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam held talks with representatives of the protesters in Chennai and flew to New Delhi.
Separately, AIADMK general secretary V.K. Sasikala backed the demand to ban the global NGO, People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), originally raised by DMK leader M.K. Stalin two days ago.
However, the representatives refused to call off their agitation, which spawned overnight at the Marina in Chennai, Alanganallur in Madurai, VOC Grounds in Coimbatore and other districts.
Initiated on social media platforms, the protests which were initially confined to the college student community and rural folk, overnight turned into a mass movement of sorts. They also sought a ban on PETA.
Tamil Nadu has maximum centrally approved houses for urban poor (Register and Login to read Full News)
:: International ::
New United States Ambassador to UN criticises UN
Nikki Haley, tapped by Donald Trump to be the UN Ambassador and the highest-ranking Indian-American to have been nominated in any presidential administration, believes that the world body is doing “more harm than good”.
Ms. Haley was expected to rap the UN for its treatment of Israel and question whether the U.S.’s 22 per cent contribution to the world body’s annual budget is worth it, in her opening testimony at her Senate confirmation hearing.
She describes the UN “an institution that is often at odds with American national interests and American taxpayers”.
“Nowhere has the UN’s failure been more consistent and more outrageous than in its bias against our close ally Israel,” she adds.