Current Affairs for IAS Exams

Current Affairs for IAS Exams – 21 June 2016

The Modi government announced radical liberalisation of the FDI regime by easing norms for a host of important sectors, including defence, civil aviation and pharmaceuticals, opening them up for complete foreign ownership.
The move assumes significance as it comes soon after Raghuram Rajan’s announcement that he would not seek another term as the Reserve Bank of India Governor.
The governor’s announcement, days before Britain decides whether to stay in the European Union, had triggered fears that India’s growth narrative could unravel.
Commerce and Industry Minister stressed that the announcement had nothing to do with the RBI governor's decision. “We have been working on this for quite some time. We could not have done all this in one or two days,” she said.
The decision on FDI reforms was taken at a high-level meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
In November last, the government announced FDI reforms across several sectors, two days after the BJP-led NDA suffered a resounding defeat in the Assembly elections in Bihar.

The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) has unearthed structures resembling a Buddhist monastery in Vadnagar city of Gujarat.
The latest excavation revealed structures resembling monastic cells. However, only further excavation at the site would help establish whether the structures were part of a monastery or were secular in nature.
To establish Vadnagar’s claim as a thriving Buddhist centre, this could be an important discovery, but for that govt need to get land so it can carry out further excavation.
The ASI carried out excavation at Vadnagar in two phases between January, 2015, and May, 2016.

British Prime Minister David Cameron invoked increasing trade with India as part of his plea to the public to vote to remain in the European Union (EU), saying cutting off from the main EU market would be “economic madness”.
Mr. Cameron said, “The rise of countries like India and China... [means we have] big economies that we need to trade with more.”.
He said Britain could “do more with India” but not by cutting itself off from the EU.
Mr. Cameron also said that about 80 per cent of Britain’s economy consists of services like insurance and banking and architecture and sales and advertising.
About 45 per cent of the U.K.’s exports go to the EU at £227 billion, while imports accounts for £288 billion, according to 2014 data.
The debate for Britain’s future with the 28-member economic bloc has entered its final stage with just three days to go before the crucial referendum.
With opinion polls reflecting a very close contest between the ‘Remain’ and ‘Leave’ camps, some of the U.K.’s senior-most entrepreneurs and professionals spoke out in favour of the country remaining in the Union.
Virgin Group boss Richard Branson, one of the country’s most respected business tycoons, also warned that a British exit from the EU would be “devastating” for the U.K.’s long-term prosperity.

India’s membership of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) is not yet on the agenda of the Seoul Plenary this week, China said.
“We understand that non-NPT countriesare very concerned about their entry into the NSG but since the NSG is still divided on this issue it is still not mature to talk about it at the annual conference in Seoul,” China said.
The statement from Beijing came a day after External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said India hoped to convince China to support its application.
China and a few other NSG countries have called for a criteria-based process for entry of countries like India and Pakistan, who are not signatories to the NPT, into the 48-member nuclear club.

The same asteroid that killed the dinosaurs in the Cretaceous period 66 million years ago also wiped out over 90 per cent of mammal species, significantly more than previously thought, new research has found.
Following the asteroid hit, most of the plants and animals would have died, so the survivors probably fed on insects eating dead plants and animals.
With so little food, only small species survived. The biggest animals to survive on land would have been no larger than a cat, the study said.
For the study, the researchers reviewed all mammal species known from the end of the Cretaceous period in North America.