Important Current Affairs 3rd August

NATIONAL:

CRISIL cuts India s GDP growth to for FY on weak monsoon rains muted corporate results.

• Credit rating agency CRISIL lowered Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth forecast for India by 20 basis points to 6.9 percent for this fiscal citing weak monsoon and slowing global growth.

The GDP data for the first quarter taken into account for powering India's growth estimates. 

The development came days after the International Monetary Fund (IMF) cut India's growth by 30 basis points for the calendar years 2019 and 2020 to 7 per cent and 7.2 per cent respectively.

The global analytical firm, in its latest report on the outlook for India in the financial year 2019 titled 'Uphill trek', the slowdown would be pronounced in the first half.

The agricultural terms of trade are also expected to improve with a pick-up in food inflation, adding that farmers would benefit from income transfer of Rs 6,000 per year announced by the Centre.

The sops announced so far might not be enough to pitchfork growth in this fiscal to, or above, the past 14-year average of 7 percent per annum.

CRISIL

It is a global analytical company providing ratings, research, and risk and policy advisory services. The majority shareholder is Standard & Poor's, a division of McGraw Hill Financial and provider of financial market intelligence.

Founded: 1987

Headquarters: Mumbai, Maharashtra

LS passed the Dam Safety Bill.

• The Lok Sabha passed the Dam Safety Bill, 2019. The Bill aims to provide an uniform safety procedures for the specified 5,600 dams in the country. It will also enhance the security of citizens. The introduction of the Bill will not take away the rights of the States.

The Bill was introduced in 2010. It was opposed in various edition in the State and has never been successfully passed until now.

Provisions of the Bill:

The bill stressed the establishment of the National Dam Safety Authority as a regulatory body. The regulator will implement the policy, guidelines, and standards on dam safety in the country.

It also entails the setting up of State committee on dam safety and State Dam Safety Organisation. It will be manned by officers from the field dam safety.

The Bill will set up a national committee on dam safety. It will be set up to introduce safety policies and recommend necessary regulations.

Steps taken by Centre for Dam safety:

As several dams does not have the emergency action plan, the government has provide safety measures to around 180 dams.

For example, Centre has alloted Rs.600 crore to repair the gates of Hirakud dam. Centre has also taken efforts to change the gates of Farakka barrage. 80% of the work had been completed so far.

West Bengal launches awareness campaign Save Green Stay Clean.

• West Bengal government launched an awareness campaign named ‘Save Green, Stay Clean’ for preserving the greenery and keeping the environment clean in the state. The campaign launched State Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in Kolkata. The campaign was launched on August 1, 2019. The state will also observe this day every year. It also plans to distribute more than 1 lakhs saplings throughout the state for spreading of greenery.

West Government

Government of West Bengal known as the State Government of West Bengal. It is the supreme governing authority of the Indian state of West Bengal and its 23 districts. It consists of an executive, led by the Governor of West Bengal, a judiciary and a legislative.

INTERNATIONAL:

US officially withdraws from INF treaty.

• The US has officially withdrawn from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) treaty with Russia. The withdrawal has ended a Cold war-era missile treaty with Russia. This could start an arms race between the US and Russia, the world’s top two nuclear powers.

Reason:

The US accused Russia of violating the INF treaty's agreement in recent years. The withdrawal announcement was made by the US President Donald Trump. Both the countries signed a deal to put  a way to improve relations toward the end of the Cold War.

During the Obama administration in 2014, Russia was accused of violating the agreement by testing a cruise missile in direct violation of the accord. In turn, Russia also said that the US has violated the agreement too. The US has denied the accusation.

Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF):

INF treaty is a Nuclear disarmament type of agreement. It was signed on December 1987 in Washington D.C. The agreements was signed by the U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev, the Soviet General Secretary with an Unlimited duration.The agreement prohibits both the countries from fielding ground-launched cruise missiles that could fly between 310 and 3,400 miles. The treaty has been extremely successful in the destruction of a total of 2,692 missiles.