Important Current Affairs 19th October 2017

Important Current Affairs 19th October 2017

Current Affairs 19th October 2017: NATIONAL NEWS

ONGC ready to increase production from old oilfields

Government Oil and Natural Gas Corporation is preparing to increase production from some of its old oilfields. The company will soon bid for oilfield service providers for this.
●    Company officials said that long-term contracts will be given for this and the oilfield service provider will be given pre-decided fees to increase the production.
●    For this project, the Executive Committee of ONGC will prepare a policy by the end of this month.
●    After this, the company will tender for bid Mangani within the next two months.
●    ONGC signed agreements with Slumberger and Helibartan for its aging field in Assam and the increase in production from Kalol Field in Gujarat.
●    But these agreements were canceled due to not being legally strong. After this, ONGC had decided to run on the competitive bidding model.
●    Under this proposed model, the service provider will receive the fee to maintain the 'Baseline' production of each increased unit of oil or gas production and field.

Carry oxygen cylinders on all trains: SC to Railways

The Supreme Court has made it mandatory for the railways to keep oxygen cylinders in all trains to ensure that the life-saving gas could be provided to travellers suffering from respiratory problems in case of emergency.
●    A bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud also directed the railways to take assistance of doctors from AIIMS to explore ways to put in place a system in moving trains to provide medical treatment to travellers if they take ill.
●    "The railways shall keep oxygen cylinders in trains so that anyone suffering from any respiratory problem can be given aid. 
●    If any passenger or his/her companion complains to the ticket collector or the attendant that he has some medical problem and immediate attention is required, it shall be the duty of the said officials to intimate the next railway station so that he/she can be given necessary medical assistance at the next railway station where the hospital is situated," the bench said.
●    The court passed the order on an appeal filed by the Centre challenging the Rajasthan high court's order directing the railways to provide a team of one medical officer, one nurse and one attendant in all long-distance trains to cater to the medical needs of passengers.
●    The government contended that it was not feasible to deploy doctors in trains and it was also not possible to install machines for medical check-up of sick passengers. 
●    It contended that it had launched a pilot project for providing medical treatment to passengers on moving trains, but it failed.

Supreme Court counters push for Aadhaar

Countering the government push to make Aadhaar compulsory for access to social welfare schemes, the Supreme Court on Tuesday said obtaining the 12-digit Unique Identification number, which requires the holder to part with his personal bio-metric data, and using it to avail himself of government subsidy was a voluntary exercise.
●    The court’s observations follows a series of recent government circulars making Aadhaar mandatory to access welfare schemes like Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme and Employees Pension Scheme. 
●    The government has made Aadhaar compulsory for beneficiaries, many of them the poorest of the poor, despite a Constitution Bench of the court directing the government in October 2015 that a citizen cannot be compelled to have Aadhaar as a pre-condition to access Centrally sponsored welfare schemes. 
●    In short, the court had made it clear that the government was not free to discriminate between a person who has the Aadhaar card and one who does not.
●    However, a Bench led by Chief Justice of India J.S. Khehar on Tuesday found no fault with the government’s choice to make Aadhaar mandatory for “non-welfare” activities like opening a bank account or filing Income Tax returns.

DIPP approved FDI for Madame Tussauds   single-brand retail

The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) has approved three foreign direct investment (FDI) proposals, including that of Merlin Entertainment-owned Madame Tussauds to undertake single-brand retail. 
●    Mountain Trail Foods, which operates the Chai Point outlets, has got approval for food retailing, bringing in FDI inflows of $10 million (Rs 65 crore). 
●    Kohler India Corp's proposal for single-brand retail has also been approved. 
●    The information is available on the foreign investment promotion and facilitation website. 
●    Madame Tussauds is expected to open its first museum in India in Delhi. 
●    The department has, so far, approved 20 single-brand retail proposals worth nearly Rs 4,900 crore for food product and single-brand retail trading, including those of Amazon, Grofers and Urban Ladder. 
●    Single brand trading applications that got the approval also include those of Acer, Fossil India and Bally International.
●    The department received more than 48 pending applications related to single brand retail and food retail after the abolition of the Foreign Investment Promotion Board. 

Tata Teleservices to raise Rs 20,000 crore

Tata Teleservices said it will be raising Rs 20,000 crore. 
●    This will be done via redeemable preference shares, non convertible debentures in one or more tranches or through loan from promoter group - Tata Sons and others
●    The company stated this decision will be finalized in its Board meeting scheduled on October 18, in its statement on the Bombay Stock Exchange. 
●    The telco has Tata Maharashtra unit (TTML) as its listed entity.
●    Last week, the telecom arm of Tata Sons announced its plans to sell its wireless business to Bharti Airtel in an cash free, debt free deal, making an exit from the mobility business where it was struggling for years.
●    The firm has a loan of around Rs 30,000 crore. 
●    On Thursday, Tata Communications Thursday said that it is holding 'exploratory talks' to buy the enterprise business of Tata Teleservices and its listed entity Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra).
●    In August, TTSL said it had not been able to satisfy may recall loans of Rs 1,911 crore as the telecom firm has not been able to satisfy them with its financial performance.

Mahindra Lifespace, HDFC to jointly invest in affordable housing projects

Mahindra Lifespace Developers Ltd, the real estate arm of Mahindra Group, has partnered with HDFC Capital Advisors Ltd to jointly invest Rs500 crore over the next three years to develop affordable housing projects across cities.
●    HDFC Capital, a unit of Housing Development Finance Corp. Ltd, will invest through its HDFC Capital Affordable Real Estate Fund-1.
●    The projects will be undertaken through a new entity called Mahindra Happinest Developers Ltd (MHDL), with a 51:49 equity shareholding between Mahindra Lifespace and HDFC Capital. 
●    The first development under the joint venture is ‘Happiest, Palghar’, a project which is expected to be launched in the latter half of 2017-18.
●    Mahindra Lifespace ventured into the affordable housing segment in 2014, through the brand, Happinest. 
●    It has since launched two projects—in Boisar near Mumbai and Avadi, Chennai—and has launched 1,600 units in these two projects and handed over close to 1,000 homes thus far. 
●    Homes under the Happiest brand are currently priced between Rs17-27 lakh.

OMC gets clearance for new bauxite mine in Odisha

Government has given final forest clearance to develop a new bauxite mine in Odisha.
●    Vedanta's Lanjigarh refinery, which is facing the shortage of bauxite from this mine, can get increased relief.
●    Right now the raw material is being imported for this refinery.
●    Environment Ministry has given forest clearance to mine in the Kodinagmal plateau of Odisha state-owned company Odisha Mining Corp.
●    This mine has a reserve of 8.1 million tonnes and it can produce 3 million tons annually.
●    On September 25, the ministry had allowed OMC to divert 435 hectares of forest land through a note.
●    However, environmental activists and some villagers are opposing it.