Table of Contents
Sinking rupee
• An all-time low: lost almost 8% in value since January 1
• Worst-performing currency in Asia this year.
• Reason 1: rise in international crude oil prices as importers have had to shell out more dollars to fund their purchases.
• Reason 2: most important reason behind the fall in the rupee and other emerging market currencies is the tightening of U.S. monetary policy.
• Effects: CURRENT ACCOUNT DEFICIT, which jumped to 1.9% of GDP in the fourth quarter of 2017-18 from just 0.6% a year earlier, is now expected to widen to 2.5% in FY 2019.
• Traditionally caused the turning of the global credit cycle.
The deepening disconnect
• ‘DISCONNECT’: U.S.’s decision to put off the first ‘2+2’ dialogue with India
• 2+2 was an outcome of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and U.S. President Donald Trump’s first meeting last June in Washington.
A. Countering America’s Adversaries through Sanctions Act: Russia and Iran
B. Iran nuclear deal.
• Modi advocating a course of “strategic autonomy”.
• Strategic relationship upgraded to a ‘major defence partnership’ but the two governments have failed to make progress on signing foundation agreements.
• India was to be central to the U.S.’s efforts in Afghanistan while Pakistan would be ‘put on notice’ for its support to terror groups, including those that target India.
• The year began with Mr. Trump’s tweet lashing out at Pakistan, followed by suspension of U.S. military aid.
• The U.S. also sought to “grey list” Pakistan at the Financial Action Task Force on terror financing.
• However, there are enough indications that Mr. Trump’s South Asia policy is veering towards the U.S.’s Af-Pak policy of the past with the U.S. engaging Pakistan to help with Afghanistan, and India consigned a more supplementary role.
• Washington, Kabul and Islamabad-Rawalpindi.
• American forces carried out more than 100 air and drone strikes in Afghanistan in 2017, and more than 40 till date in 2018. The corresponding figures for strikes in Pakistan are five and one, respectively.
• LeT chief Hafiz Saeed, the mastermind of the Mumbai 26/11 attacks, is now addressing political rallies in Lahore for parliamentary elections in which his son and son-in-law are candidates, and JeM chief Masood Azhar lives undisturbed in his Bahawalpur home.
Target incomes, not prices
• Our farm policy is so bad, the proverb ‘you reap what you sow’ isn’t true any longer.
• Good rains, excessive sowing and the bumper harvest last year produced gluts in the market that sent the prices of many crops, and therefore farm incomes, crashing.
• Quick and precise adjustments to the export and import rules could have arrested the price fall by diverting the excess supplies to overseas markets.
• Budget promised that the Minimum Support Prices (MSPs) would be at least 150% of production costs.
• Farmers looking at this menu of MSPs would be to sow more of that crop/s in the next season.
• Telangana has announced such payments for farmers at the rate of ₹10,000/ha (₹4,000/acre) per season.
Listening in
• Union government has proposed to set up a network of social media communication hubs to monitor the digital chatter of citizens.
• To be implemented by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting
• This proposal raises serious questions about the surveillance state, right to privacy and data protection.
• George Orwell’s famous words in 1984: “Big Brother is watching you.”
• Big data analytical tools and machine learning can map user behavior and predict trends.
• The first casualty of this new regime will be the citizens’ right to privacy.
• ensure a balance between individual rights and legitimate concerns of the state like national security or investigation of crime.
Important News
• CS assault case: CM Kejriwal may face conspiracy charge
• Indian money in Swiss banks surges
• Revise relations with Iran, Haley tells India
• Kharif sowing on, but no word on MSPs
• Farmers may be hit as NITI Aayog proposal on shifting burden to States delays
decision
• The monsoon has arrived in northern India and is expected to cover the whole
country in the next few days, but farmers are still waiting for the announcement
of the minimum support prices (MSP) for major crops.
• ‘Migration issue can make or break EU’
• Trump-Putin summit to unfold in Helsinki on July 16
• RBI steps in as rupee hits record low
• “It is estimated to have sold dollars about $700-800 million through state-owned
banks. We expect the RBI to intervene aggressively at 69.0 levels to support the
rupee,” it added.
• Gabon’s orange crocodiles: a species intriguing scientists
1. The United Nations Development Programme would be setting up a
skill development centre in which city?
• Hyderabad
• Ranchi
• Chennai
• Bengaluru
2. The Supreme Court upheld the order passed by which court while ruling
that women can file complaint against ex-husband for cruelty even
after divorce?
• Bombay High Court
• Delhi High Court
• Madras High Court
• Rajasthan High Court
Answers-
1. Which country cut off funding for a system that monitored
the flow of greenhouse gases?
• Germany
• Russia
• United States
• North Korea
2. Which was the world’s largest remittance-receiving country
in 2017, as per ‘RemitSCOPE – Remittance markets and
opportunities – Asia and the Pacific’?
• India
• USA
• China
• Japan
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