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All India Radio News Summary: 05 APRIL 2018

All India Radio News Summary: 05 APRIL 2018

  1. Union Cabinet has approved the Protection of Human Rights (Amendments) Bill, 2018.
  • The Bill proposes to include a woman representative as a deemed Member of the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights.
  • The Bill also proposes to incorporate a mechanism to look after the cases of human rights violation in the Union Territories.
  • The Amendment will strengthen the Human Rights Institutions in the country for effective discharge of responsibilities.

 

  1. Supreme Court  asks Centre to file its response to a PIL seeking to restrict a candidate to contest from only one constituency.

The Supreme Court has asked the Centre to file its response to a PIL seeking to restrict a candidate from contesting from more than one constituency in a general election.

  • The Election Commission had quoted its 2004 proposals on electoral reforms and said, the law should be amended to ensure that a person cannot contest from more than one seat.
  • The poll panel had also said, its proposal was rejected by a parliamentary standing committee way back in 1998, which had taken note of the view of an all-party meeting favouring to retain the provision.

 

  1. Defence Minister says, terrorism remains a primary international security challenge.
  • At Seventh Moscow Conference on International Security, Defence minister expressed concern over the continuing patronage of some irresponsible states to terrorist groups.
  • Efforts by states to continue training, funding or ideological support to terrorists for their narrow objectives should be repulsed effectively, using forceful methods where necessary.
  • The Defence Minister asserted that terrorists are reinventing themselves in newer and more dangerous manifestations.
  • Radicalisation of young minds using new technologies and social media networks need to be addressed in a comprehensive manner.

 

 

  1. External Affairs Minister attends the Mid-Term Ministerial Meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) at Baku in Azerbaijan
  • The theme of the two-day meeting is ‘Promoting international peace and security for sustainable development‘.
  • India has appealed to the countries, which are not part of the International Solar alliance to join it to protect the environment.
  • External Affairs Minister said that protecting the environment is our moral responsibility.
  • Global action on the basis of principle of common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities is now even greater imperative.
  • India along with France launched the International Solar Alliance through which more than 60 countries have joined to promote greater use of Solar energy.
  • Earlier, India and Azerbaijan inked two documents for visa waiver for diplomatic, official and service passports holders and cooperation between diplomatic training institutes.

 

  1. The RBI has kept all its key rates unchanged in the first bi-monthly policy review for the financial year 2018-19 for the fourth time in a row.
  • The Monetary Policy Committee, MPC, headed by RBI Governor kept the repo rate at which the central bank lends short-term money to other banks at 6 per cent.
  • The reverse repo rate, at which it borrows from banks and absorbs excess liquidity, will remain at 5.75 per cent.
  • The status quo policy of RBI will be neutral to the EMIs for housing and vehicle loan borrowers, but banks are free to tinker with both deposit and lending rate depending on their asset liability position. 
  • The RBI said, GDP growth is likely to strengthen from 6.6 per cent in 2017-18 to 7.4 per cent in 2018-19 as there are clear signs of revival in investment activity and improvement in global demand.
  • Maintaining a neutral policy stance, RBI reiterated its commitment to achieve a medium term target of 4 percent headline inflation on a durable basis.
  • RBI said growth is likely to improve with clear signs of revival in investment activity and improvement in global demand.
  • On inflation, RBI said food inflation is likely to remain under check on assumption of a normal monsoon but upside risks remain due to volatility in international crude prices and fiscal slippage at state level.

 

  1. Facebook enhances security measures to protect integrity of upcoming elections in several countries, including India.

Facebook has said, personal data on as many as 87 million of its users was improperly shared with British political consultancy, Cambridge Analytica.

  • The Social Media giant’s Chief Technology Officer made the announcement for the implementation of new privacy tools for users of the huge social network.
  • The new figure is far greater than the 50 million previously estimated.
  • This could deepen the crisis for Facebook, which has been pressured by the disclosures on hijacking of private data by the consulting group working for US President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign.
  • Facebook has deployed technology tools and thousands of people to work on security to protect the integrity of upcoming elections in several countries, including India.
  • Facebook head Zuckerberg said, this is going to be a big year for elections in view of US mid-terms and polls in India, Brazil, Mexico, Pakistan, Hungary and other countries.

 

  1. President stresses the need to ensure safe conditions in society and at work places to increase percentage of working women.

Highlights of President’s speech

  • If more women become part of the workforce, both household incomes and GDP will rise. We will become a more prosperous nation, much greater than that we will become a more equal society.
  • Under MUDRA scheme, about 117 million loans have been sanctioned and close to 88 million of these loans have gone to women entrepreneurs.
  • The President expressed happiness that the number of NPAs in the MUDRA scheme is less than eight per cent of the loans sanctioned.
  • The corporate sector to take determined steps towards creating women-friendly and gender-sensitive supply chains to empower women in the economy.

 

  1. Blackbuck