Comprehensive News Analysis - 10 November 2016

Table of Contents:

A. GS1 Related:
B. GS2 Related:

1. Donald Trump wins U.S. Presidential elections

2. Currency recall version 3.0

C. GS3 Related:

1. Demonetisation to hit terror financing hard

2. Navy vessel with all-woman crew flagged off from Panaji

3. According to a research Uttarakhand accounts for one-third of tigers outside reserves

4. Goa hosts International bird festival

D. GS4 Related
E. Important Editorials : A Quick Glance

The Hindu

1. Understanding Trumpocalypse

2. A method in the shock therapy

F. Concepts-in-News: Related Concepts to Revise/Learn:

1. Concepts-in-News: Related Concepts to Revise/Learn

2. BILLS/ACTS/SCHEMES/ORGS IN NEWS

G. Fun with Practice Questions 🙂
H. Archives

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Useful News Articles

A. GS1 Related

Nothing here today folks!

B. GS2 Related
  1. Donald Trump wins U.S. Presidential elections

Category: International

Topic: U.S. Presidential election

Key Points:

    • Republican Donald J. Trump, the 70-year-old real estate mogul-turned-politician was elected the 45th President of the United States, succeeding President Barack Obama. He is now the oldest person to be elected President.

Mr. Trump defeated Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton by garnering about 300 votes in the Electoral College. He did so by winning most of the swing states, despite losing the popular vote marginally to Ms. Clinton.

  • Working-class whites made the difference –

Donald Trump won the presidency by riding an enormous wave of support among white working-class voters. It was always a possibility, but it had looked highly unlikely.

Hillary Clinton led in nearly every national poll and in other surveys in the states worth the requisite 270 electoral votes. The traditional view of recent U.S. elections gave even more reason to think Ms. Clinton was safe. National exit polls suggested that President Barack Obama won the 2012 presidential election despite faring worse among white voters than any Democrat since Walter Mondale. The polls showed that white voters without a degree were now just one-third of the electorate.

The truth was that Democrats were far more dependent on white working-class voters than many believed. In the end, the bastions of industrial-era Democratic strength among white working-class voters fell to Mr. Trump. So did many of the areas where Mr. Obama fared best in 2008 and 2012. In the end, the linchpin of Mr. Obama’s winning coalition broke hard to the Republicans.

Note – Pramila Jayapal becomes first Indian-American woman to be elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. She won the Washington State Senate seat. India-born Ms. Jayapal made a mark with her progressive agenda in the Washington State Senate.

Five Indian-Americans in U.S. Congress –

  • Indian Americans have the largest ever presence in the U.S Congress now and the community has got its first Senator in Kamala Harris, who won from California.

Besides Senator-elect Harris, Indian American community now has 4 members of the U.S House of Representatives. Ami Bera, the lone member of the outgoing House has won his California seat narrowly while Raja Krishnamurthi from Chicago, Pramila Jayapal from Washington and Ro Khanna from California will be fresh Indian Americans faces in the U.S legislature.

 

  1. Currency recall version 3.0

Category: Centre’s programs and policies

Topic: Demonetization

Key Points:

  • Years and years have gone by since the country witnessed the first and the second demonetisation of high denomination currency notes. But, the primary reason behind the move remains the same. The country’s first demonetisation took place in January 1946 and the second, thirty two years later (January 1978).

On both the occasions, as is being pointed out now, the elimination of black money was cited as one of the major reasons.

 

C. GS3 Related
  1. Demonetisation to hit terror financing hard

Category: Indian Economy

Topic: Demonetization

Key Points:

  • The government has said one of the reasons to demonetise currency notes of Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000 was to curb the circulation of fake currency notes, but there seems to be no definite account of the amount of such notes in circulation.
  • Different agencies have their own estimates based on the recoveries made by them –
  • As per a study done by the Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata, in 2015, the only concrete work done on the subject, at any given point of time 400 crore worth of fake currency notes were in circulation in the economy. This is merely 0.025 per cent of the total budget outlay of Rs. 19.7 lakh crore as announced this fiscal.
  • According to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), in 2015, various law enforcement agencies seized 1,78,022 pieces of fake Rs. 1,000 currency notes. This means 17 crore fake notes which were in circulation could be calculated as they could be seized.

A Big step toward cashless economy –

  • Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said the demonetisation move is a big step to maintain international credibility. It is also a big step towards a cashless economy. The move will also give a significant setback to the parallel black economy because it will force money outside the system to enter the system.

Those who have lawful money have nothing to fear, and those with unlawful money will be treated as per the Income Tax Act.

 

 

  1. According to a research Uttarakhand accounts for one-third of tigers outside reserves

Category: Bio-diversity

Topic: Conservation of tigers

Key Points:

  • While tiger reserves contain the majority of the country’s tiger population, a new research – ‘Status of Tiger, Habitats and Corridors in Western Circle, Uttarakhand’, undertaken in an area of 2,573.6 sq.km spread across Uttarakhand’s Shivalik, Bhabar and Terai regions reveals that Uttarakhand forest department’s western circle has 119 tigers, which is 1/3rd of the total tiger population found outside the 49 tiger reserves across the country.

The study was carried out as ‘Phase IV monitoring’, which, according to the National Tiger Conservation Authority – NTCA guidelines, involves monitoring of tiger and its prey on an annual basis, while Phase I to III monitoring are done at every 4-year interval at the national level.

  • The survey found that the State’s western circle has more tigers than states such as Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Arunachal Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, all of which have less than 119 tigers each. A similar study on tiger population is currently being undertaken in the Corbett Tiger Reserve.

 

  1. Goa hosts International bird festival

Category: Bio-diversity

Topic: International bird festival

Key Points:

  • Goa will host a 3-day bird festival from November 11 to 13, targeting audiences from both within the country as also internationally. Goa’s state bird Bulbul has been chosen as the logo for the festival.

Environment & Forest minister of Goa said, the Western Ghats constitute one of the 25 mega bio-diversity hot spots in the world and by virtue of its location; the State represents a unique confluence of two diverse eco-systems, one influenced by marine environment and the other by terrestrial forest resulting in an astonishing diversity of species with high endemism, habitats and diversity. He said that of the 1224 bird species recorded in India, out of 10293 in the world, tiny Goa has recorded 432 species.

  • During the festival, bird watching will take place in Bondla and Mollem wildlife sanctuaries and Salim Ali Bird Sanctuary, Chorao.
D. GS4 Related

Nothing here today folks!

E. Important Editorials: A Quick Glance
The Hindu
  1. Understanding Trumpocalypse

Key Points:

  • Donald Trump will be the 45th President of the United States. These words will echo in the hearts of 324 million Americans today, some shell-shocked and downcast, others delirious with joy. The sheer divergence of emotions over the surprise result is a poignant signal of how deeply divided the nation is, after a polarising two-year election campaign.
  • Bigotry, patriarchy and racist rancour, which reared their ugly heads throughout this season of incivility, may find no welcome catharsis with the apotheosis of Mr. Trump. According to the exit polls, 58 per cent of whites and 21 per cent of non-whites voted for Mr. Trump, whereas 37 per cent of whites and 74 per cent of non-whites voted for his Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton. He also scored higher with men than women, and with those voters who did not have a college degree. In other words, blue-collared white men and women thronged to Mr. Trump in droves, angry about their perceived impoverishment and disenfranchisement inflicted by the country’s political and financial elites. It had left them with only one option: to throw a metaphorical grenade at these power centres.
  • At the heart of the shock result is the shock itself, which stemmed from what most analysts have been calling the vote of the silent majority. Why did the U.S. media and pollsters fail to see which way the wind was blowing? They apparently did not suspect, when poll results suggested that Ms. Clinton was the more acceptable candidate, that some of the respondents to these polls may have been unwilling to admit to being supporters of Mr. Trump.

It is likely for instance that women, 42 per cent of whom voted for Mr. Trump, were reluctant to reveal their preference after Mr. Trump was exposed for boasting about sexual assault and faced allegations of the same. What was not taken proper note of was that in almost every swing State, there were between 11 and 18 per cent undecided voters in late October – a significant number of people that tilted the election in favour of Mr. Trump. Insofar as this election reflected expressions of frustration that went against the grain of political correctness, the Trump victory resembles Brexit. However, in his victory speech Mr. Trump has appeared to quickly move past campaign recrimination, the conciliatory tone of which may go a little way in calming nerves at home as well as of anxious world leaders watching the election from afar. If indeed he presents a softer, more collaborative face at home and abroad, the Divided States of America may yet hold firm and lend strength to the global order, as it has done in the past.

 

  1. A method in the shock therapy

Key Points:

  • Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s move to curb unaccounted cash, or black money, circulating in the Indian economy by withdrawing the highest-value currency notes of Rs.500 and Rs.1,000 as legal tender within three-odd hours of the announcement, is a bold one.

He invoked provocative imagery to explain the measure of corrupt officials stashing kilos of ill-gained cash under their mattresses, and such illicit black money fuelling inflation as well as terrorism. He pointed out how difficult it is for honest taxpayers to buy a house as the real estate sector seldom operates without a cash component, some of which finds its way to political funding.

  • The increase in the circulation of these notes in the past five years has been disproportionate to the economy’s growth. The introduction of new Rs.500 and Rs.2,000 notes, the government argues, would not only check counterfeit currency, a problem that has assumed serious dimensions, but also purge India’s economy of the black wealth amassed in the form of high-value notes.

 Any decision like this needs to be sudden, and it is not surprising that it has caused hardship as people scramble to get notes of smaller denomination for daily expenditure. The only defence for this is that the larger public purpose outweighs the immediate difficulties.

  • Having promised during the 2014 election campaign to bring back black money worth lakhs of crores supposedly stashed abroad, the NDA government has been under pressure to do something dramatic.
  • The two amnesty schemes it launched over the past year, including one for foreign assets, didn’t yield anything near the 2 per cent of GDP that the World Bank had estimated India’s shadow economy to be in 2007.
  • Today that would be nearly $479 billion in unaccounted wealth, according to rating agency Crisil. While there will be pain and confusion in the short term for common people and the economy, a disruptive measure was perhaps the only way to shake up the system to a new compliance normal. But the Centre must ensure that no poor person is saddled with old, useless notes due to the lack of official identity documents or a bank account, and avoid putting to disadvantage older citizens unable to visit a bank repeatedly to exchange high-value notes.

It should find ways to check black money parked in benami properties (possibly through a digital land and realty inventory) and gold. There must also be administrative and electoral reforms to advance digital payments and eliminate the prospect of the new currency regime spawning the ghost economy afresh.

F. Concepts-in-News: Related Concepts to Revise/Learn:

 

 

 

G. Fun with Practice Questions 🙂
Question 1.	The India Navy vessel with all-woman crew was flagged off from Panaji. The name of the vessel is
a) INSV Mhadei b) ICGS Rani Abbakka c) INS Laxmi d) INS Astradharani
Question 2.	Which of the following Indian state hosted the International bird festival-2016?
a) Kerala b) Maharashtra c) Meghalaya d) Goa
Question 3.	Which of the following statements are correct regarding the National Tiger Conservation Authority - NTCA?
  1. It works under the Union ministry of Environment and forests
  2. It is a statutory body
  3. It is responsible for conducting the tiger census, implementing project tiger in different tiger reserves of the country

a) (i) only b) (i) and (ii) only c) (ii) and (iii) only d) All 3

Question 4.	Which of the following is not a Bio-diversity hotspot?
a) Indo-Malaya region b) Eastern Himalayas c) Sunderbans d) Western Ghats
Question 5.	‘Parallel - economy’ is used to indicate
a) Black Money b) Money Laundering c) Hawala transactions d) Inflation

Check Your Answers

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