Important Current Affairs 29th October 2017

Important Current Affairs 29th October 2017

Current Affairs 29th October 2017: NATIONAL NEWS

Railways to invest $150 billion

The Railways is looking to invest over $150 billion over the next five years which would help create one million additional jobs, minister Piyush Goyal has said.
●    Goyal, who took over as the rail minister after a Cabinet reshuffle in August, said he was trying to give the national transporter a "new direction".
●    "During the next five years, the Railways alone will be looking at an investment of upwards of $150 billion. 
●    And when I translate that into jobs, I see a million jobs being created only through investments in the railway sector," he said.
●    The Railways can play an important role in "aggressively pursuing" government agenda to provide safe, secure, comfortable travel, he said addressing an awards function organised by the business daily Economic Times late last night.
●    A focus on infrastructure could also help increase local manufacturing, he said.
●    Goyal said his ministry was also compressing the time taken for complete electrification of rail lines to four years from the earlier plan of 10 years, which would help cut costs by around 30 per cent for the loss-making Railways.
●    This electrification initiative would help save the national transporter around Rs 10,000 crore per annum on fuel bill, he said.
●    Earlier this month, Goyal had said the Railways would create one million jobs within the next 12 months.
●    In 2015, his predecessor Suresh Prabhu had said the Railways needed investments of Rs 8.5 trillion over the next five years, and invited overseas investors for the same.
●    Prabhu had also secured a debt funding worth Rs 1.5 trillion from Life Insurance Corporation to fund various projects.
●    It is not clear whether Goyal's $150 billion is part of Prabhu's Rs 8.5 trillion investments.

Air Deccan, Air Odisha to get 10 slots at Delhi airport

Air Deccan and Air Odisha will get a total of 10 slots at the Delhi airport for their flights under the regional connectivity scheme, according to officials. 
●    Both airlines bagged a significant number of routes in the first round of bidding under the ambitious RCS, which seeks to connect unserved and underserved airports.
●    Together, Air Deccan and Air Odisha were looking for 16 slots for their proposed RCS flights from the airport here. 
●    After extensive stakeholder discussions, DIAL has agreed to provide a total of 10 slots to the two airlines.
●    When contacted, a DIAL spokesperson said, “DIAL has agreed to 10 slots for Air Deccan and Air Odisha under the regional connectivity scheme.” 
●    One of the officials said Air Deccan and Air Odisha would get six and four slots, respectively. 
●    Air Deccan was seeking 10 slots while Air Odisha’s requirement was for six. 
●    Since the number of slots being offered is less than required, both airlines would have to reduce the number of flights they plan to operate from the national capital, the official added.
●    Each airline would get one night parking slot. 

Essar Group, Tatas, ArcelorMittal eye Essar Steel

Top global players including Tata Steel, Essar Group and ArcelorMittal are learnt to have submitted bids to acquire debt-laden Essar Steel which is going through the insolvency resolution process.
●    Essar Steel India Ltd, an integrated steel producer with an installed capacity of 10 million tonne per annum (MTPA) is undergoing Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CIRP) under the provisions of Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code.
●    The expression of interest (EoI) for the company was invited by October 23.
●    "Essar Group has submitted EoI for Essar Steel. 
●    A resolution plan will be submitted to IRP within the scheduled time frame," an Essar Group Spokesperson said.
●    Asked about the rationale for bidding, the spokesperson said IBC allows promoters to bid for their company at the NCLT and there are no limitations.
●    He added that the entire process is on purely commercial basis and the final selection is done based on the highest bid offered for the NCLT company.
●    "This practice of promoters being permitted to bid in bankruptcy/insolvency cases is prevalent in the US, UK and many developed and developing countries," the spokesperson said.

Govt. has asked coal India to enhance its production

Keeping in mind the strong demand of coal, Central government company coal India Ltd CIL has decided to increase the coal production.
●    coal distribution of 16 million tons per day is going to be increased to 20 million tons per day. 
●    The government has given this directive to Coal India at a time when power plants in the country are battling coal crisis.
●    Coal Secretary Sushil Kumar said, "The demand for coal is strong ... we have asked Coal to produce and distribute 2 million tonne of coal per day."
●    At present, Coal India distributes nearly 1.6 million tonnes of coal.
●    Therefore, Coal India has been targeted to produce and distribute 2 million tonne of coal per day.
●    Kumar has expressed confidence that in view of the monsoon, Coal India will be able to achieve the target.
●    He said that the power sector, which was done in the month of August, is 14.4 per cent higher than the corresponding month of last year, and in September it was 22 per cent more than the same period last year.

Telangana govt prepares draft policy on electric vehicles

The Telangana government has prepared a draft policy on electric vehicles which proposes benefits for manufacturers and to put in place the necessary support system towards embracing the new mode of transport.
●    The policy has three components -- for manufacturers, users and support mechanisms, an official said.
●    The second component in the draft policy is about the support for users who want to shift to electric vehicles from regular vehicles, Ranjan said.
●    "Suppose I am using a regular car. If I want to shift to an electric vehicle, what kind of support I will get," he said.
●    "The third component is about infrastructure. Because, to sustain electric vehicles, you require charging infrastructure. 
●    Who will build that charging infrastructure; if some private sector person is coming to build it up, what kind of support they will get. That will also be covered in the policy," the official said.
●    The draft policy has guidelines on facilitating the public transport to shift to the electric mode, Ranjan said.
●    "Finally, there will be something on public transport. What has been seen the world over is that moving a city into electric vehicle has to come from the leadership of the public transport providers," he said.

Niti Aayog to finalise National Energy Policy soon

Government think-tank Niti Aayog will soon finalise the National Energy Policy (NEP) and take it to the Union Cabinet, a top official said. 
●    The Aayog had released the draft National Energy Policy in June this year. 
●    “We will finalise the National Energy Policy in the next 10 days and will send it to the Cabinet,” the Niti Aayog official said.
●    In its draft report, the government think tank has said that India’s energy demand is likely to soar around three times by 2040, leading to increase in overall primary energy imports. 
●    It had also made a case for a single regulator to govern India’s energy market to make ‘India’s economy energy ready’ by the year 2040.
●    Another senior Niti Aayog official said the Aayog has finalised National Medical Commission Bill (NMC), 2016 and has sent it to the Cabinet.
●    Last year, a high-level committee, headed by the then Niti Aayog Vice-Chairman Arvind Panagariya, looked into the issue of poor regulation of medical education by Medical Council of India (MCI) and had proposed replacing MCI with NMC.

Centre approves Rs 40,000 crore for Army to directly buy weapons for ‘short and intense war’

Amid tension on borders with Pakistan and China, the Centre has allowed the Army to make ‘emergency procurements,’ without going through the red-tape, to be prepared for a ‘short and intense war’.
●    A notification issued by the government last week empowered Vice Chief of the Army to make hardware procurements up to Rs 40 thousand crore to meet critical deficiencies. 
●    Army has identified critical deficiencies in 46 types of ammunition and certain spares for 10 types of weapon platforms.
●    According to Defence Ministry sources, after the Uri attack, an internal audit was conducted to review Army’s preparedness.
●    Though the Special Forces carried out ‘surgical strikes’ 10 days later, the audit exposed several lapses in Army’s critical procurement in order to fight a ‘short and intense war’— that would last 15 days.

ONGC holds board meeting

State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) has become India’s first company to hold a meeting of its board of directors at high sea when its top officials assembled at an oil installation in the Arabian Sea to approve second quarter earnings.
●    ONGC’s new Chairman Shashi Shanker convened the company’s 299th board meeting at a platform on the Mumbai High field yesterday to approve the second quarter earnings among other things, officials said.
●    “The idea was to familiarise the independent directors, most of whom are new to the unique oil and gas exploration and production business, to offshore operations,” an official said.
●    ONGC produces more than 80 per cent of its oil and gas from offshore fields with Mumbai High, off the coast of Maharashtra, being the biggest.
●    The company is betting big on quickly putting to production untapped discoveries as well as rejuvenating ageing fields offshore to raise crude oil production by 4 million tonnes and almost double natural gas output by 2021-22 to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s target of cutting India’s import dependence by 10 per cent.
●    The state-owned firm plans to raise crude oil production from 22.6 million tonnes in 2017-18 to 26.42 million tonnes in 2021-22.