GK and Current Affairs Updates

India, the US and Afghanistan have reaffirmed their shared interests in combating terrorism and advancing peace and security in the region as they explored ways to “coordinate and align” assistance in the war-torn country with priorities of the Afghan government.
•    Indian Ambassador to Afghanistan Manpreet Vohra, Afghan Deputy Foreign Minister Hekmat Karzai and US Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Olson met in New York.
•    It added that the meeting provided a forum for the governments of India and the US to explore ways to coordinate and align their assistance with the priorities of the Afghan government.
•    US Secretary of State John Kerry had said late last month during his visit to New Delhi that Washington would launch trilateral talks, which had stopped in 2013, with New Delhi and Kabul at the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.
 

The Union Government has extended support to certain new products and the rate of incentives for certain other specified products under the Merchandise Exports from India Scheme (MEIS). 
•    The total government support extended under the scheme has been enhanced to Rs. 23,500 crore per annum from the present Rs. 22,000 crore. 
•    Besides, products that will get incentives include engineering goods, garments, fabrics, chemicals, glass products, ceramics, leather goods, periodicals, newspapers, silk items, wool products, made ups, tubes and pipes. 
•    MEIS was launched under Foreign Trade Policy of India (FTP) 2015-20. 
•    It is one of the two schemes introduced in FP 2015-20, as a part of Exports from India Scheme. 
•    The other scheme is Service Exports from India Scheme (SEIS). 
•    It seeks to enhance India’s export competitiveness of these goods and products having high export intensity, employment potential.
 

Visaranai, the Tamil docu-drama crime thriller, has been chosen India’s official entry to Best Foreign Language Film category at the 89th Academy Awards to be held in 2017.
•    The national award-winning film, directed by Vetrimaran, and produced by actor Dhanush’s Wunderbar Films, documents four migrant workers who suffer police brutality and corruption after being jailed on false charges.
•    Part of the film is based on true events recorded in novel Lock Up, written by M. Chandrakumar, an autorickshaw driver from Coimbatore.
•    Dhanush said it was a proud and joyous moment for his production house and director Vetrimaran. 
•    The last Tamil movie that made it to the list as official entry to the Oscars was Hey Ram, directed by, and starring Kamal Haasan.
•    The film was simultaneously made in Hindi in 2000.
 

India's High Commissioner to Britain Navtej Sarna was today appointed as the next Ambassador to the US as that country prepares for a presidential transition.
•    He takes charge after Arun Kumar Singh retired at the end of last month. 
•    Both Mr Sarna and Mr Singh are former Indian ambassadors to Israel, underlying the importance of a posting in Tel Aviv which is one of Washington's closest allies.
•    Before moving to London, Mr Sarna was Secretary (West) in the Ministry of External Affairs where he oversaw the successful hosting of the India-Africa Forum Summit last October. 
•    The summit was attended by a record number of 53 African countries. 
•    Mr Sarna was among the longest-serving spokespersons of the ministry between 2002 and 2008. 
•    He has also had postings in Moscow, Warsaw, Tehran, Geneva and Thimphu.
•    Mr Sarna is also a prolific author of many fiction and non-fiction books, the most recent being 'Second Thoughts: On Books, Authors and the Writerly Life' that was released last year. 

The goods and services tax (GST) will be rolled out on 1 April, members at the first meeting of the GST council decided by consensus on Thursday.
•    They also charted the steps to be taken over the next few months to meet the deadline.
•    Some key issues like sharing of administrative control between the centre and states and the mechanism for deciding on the compensation mechanism, law and formula for states will be taken up in the meeting.
•    The GST council agreed on a compounding scheme for small traders with revenues of up to Rs50 lakh wherein they can pay a flat tax to be decided at a future date. 
•    The meeting also finalized the rules of business and conduct of the GST council. In the absence of a state finance minister, state government officials will be able to represent the state but won’t be able to vote. 
•    Issues like tax rates, the threshold level and selection of a vice-chairman have been put off for later.
 

The Appointments Committee of Cabinet (ACC) has appointed three economists as the external appointees on the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC). 
•    They are Pami Dua, Chetan Ghate and Ravindra Dholakia. 
•    Pami Dua is an expert on econometrics and forecasting, has a Ph.D. from the London School of Economics. 
•    Chetan Ghate is a macroeconomist and a professor at the Indian Statistical Institute (ISI), Delhi. 
•    Ravindra Dholakia is a faculty member of Economics at the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Ahmedabad. 
•    With this, MPC consists of three Reserve Bank of India (RBI) representatives and three external appointees. 
•    They will work to decide interest rates. 
•    MPC under the RBI will decide monetary policy by setting interest rates.
•    It aims to bring significant changes in the power the RBI governor while deciding interest rates. 

Two Indian forest officials, Sanjay Dutta and Ritesh Sarothiya, have been selected for the 2016 Clark R. Bavin Wildlife Law Enforcement Awards. 
•    Clark R. Bavin Wildlife Law Enforcement Awards honours individuals engaging in exemplary law enforcement actions to protect wildlife.
•    Sanjay Dutta is the range officer of Belakoba Forest Range Jalpaiguri in West Bengal and Ritesh Sarothiya is the assistant conservator of Madhya Pradesh State Forest.
•    The award ceremony will be held on 3 October 2016.
•    The Clark R. Bavin Wildlife Law Enforcement Awards are named in memory of the late Chief of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service's Division of Law Enforcement, who pioneered the Division's highly effective use of covert investigations and "sting" operations to uncover illegal wildlife trade. 
•    The awards have traditionally been presented by the Secretary-General of CITES during meetings of the Conference of the Parties.
 

The Union Cabinet on 21 September 2016 approved merger of Rail budget with Union Budget. 
•    It also decided to advance the date of presentation of the annual budget from the last day of February to start of February.
•    It also decided to merge the Plan and the Non-Plan classification in the Budget and Accounts. 
•    All these changes will be put into effect simultaneously from the Budget 2017-18.
•    The Railways will continue to maintain its distinct entity -as a departmentally run commercial undertaking as at present
•    Railways will retain their functional autonomy and delegation of financial powers etc. as per the existing guidelines
•    The existing financial arrangements will continue wherein Railways will meet all their revenue expenditure, including ordinary working expenses, pay and allowances and pensions etc. from their revenue receipts;
•    The Capital at charge of the Railways estimated at 2.27 lakh crore rupees on which annual dividend is paid by the Railways will be wiped off. 

Former wicket keeper MSK Prasad has been chosen to succeed Sandeep Patil as the chairman of India's selection panel. 
•    The decision was taken at the BCCI's 87th annual general meeting in Mumbai, after the board had invited applicants for the selection job for the first time.
•    Prasad had been part of the previous selection panel headed by Patil since November last year. 
•    Former off spinner Sarandeep Singh, and former batsmen Gagan Khoda, Devang Gandhi and Jatin Paranjpe were the other four selectors named in the five-member panel.
•    Former India seamer Venkatesh Prasad was retained as chairman of the junior selection committee, which has Amit Sharma, Gyanendra Pandey and Ashish Kapoor as new members.
•    Ajay Shirke was unanimously elected BCCI secretary after being the only nominee for the post
•    Anurag Thakur will continue as BCCI's representative at the ICC and Asian Cricket Council, while Sharad Pawar will also continue as the alternate director at ICC meetings
•    The BCCI has approved possession of lands in Dharamasala and Bangalore as additional facilities for the NCA
 

The Union Cabinet has approved advancing the date for presenting the Union Budget by a month.
•    The Cabinet has also decided to merge the Railway Budget with the Union Budget, a reform sought by many experts for long. 
•    A decision has also been taken to remove the classifications for expenditure to make the exercise simpler.
•    The proposals were cleared by a meeting of the union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
•    The move is aimed at getting all the legislative approvals for the annual spending and tax proposals before the beginning of the new financial year on April 1. 
•    Accordingly, the beginning of budget preparation will be advanced to early October. 
•    The government is likely to convene the Budget Session of Parliament before 25 January 2017, a month ahead of the current practice. 
•    The pre-Budget Economic Survey will also be advanced.