Daily PIB Analysis For UPSC/IAS/Civil Services

Table of Contents

Ministry of Statistics and Program Implementation

•Indian economy grew at five-quarter high of 7.2 per cent in the October-December period.
• This reflects overall recovery due to good show by agriculture, manufacturing, construction and certain services.
• Central Statistics Office: second advanced estimates
• economy is expected to grow at 6.6%
• earlier estimate was 6.5%
• 2016-17: 7.1%
Ministry of Statistics and Program Implementation-
• The eight core sectors -coal, crude oil, natural gas, refinery products, fertilisers, steel, cement
and electricity grew at a faster pace of 6.7 per cent in January as against 3.4 per cent in the
corresponding month last year.
• December: 4.2
• November: 7.4
•Dr Bibek Debroy said, the economy is on the right track to accelerate.

Cabinet

• Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, CCEA, today approved continuation of Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Programme for three more years till 2020.
• Total outlay of Five Thousand Five Hundred crore rupees.
• Scheme will create sustainable estimated employment opportunities for 15 lakh persons in three financial years.
Cabinet-
• The CCEA also approved doubling of Government guarantee from 9,500 crore rupees to 19 thousand crore rupees for procurement of pulses and oilseeds at Minimum Support Price under price support scheme by NAFED.
•It will be provided for a period for five years till 2021-22 by the Centre with
• The Cabinet today approved Trafficking of Persons (Prevention, Protection and Rehabilitation) Bill, 2018 for introduction in Parliament.
• The Bill broadly addresses the issue of trafficking from the point of view of prevention, rescue and rehabilitation.
•No law addresses the protection of victims after the rescue, this bill does so.
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• It covers new forms of aggravated trafficking.
• It gives stringent punishment 7 to 10 years imprisonment.
• It creates an institutional mechanism from district to national level.
• It emphasizes on the non disclosure of identity, a time bound trial and repatriation and the immediate protection and rehabilitation to victims.

PMO

• Twenty-fourth interaction through ICT-based, multimodal platform PRAGATI
• Prime Minister reviewed the progress in the implementation of the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana and the Pradhan Mantri Matri Vandana Yojana.
• Reviewed the progress of the Kedarnath reconstruction work in Uttarakhand.
• State Government presented the progress of works through drone imagery.
PMO-
• Mr Modi also reviewed the progress of ten infrastructure projects in railways, road, power, petroleum and coal sectors, spread over several states.
• These projects are cumulatively worth over 40,000 crore rupees.
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• Union Cabinet today approved Fugitive Economic Offenders Bill – 2018 to deal with those escaping overseas to avoid getting caught.
• The Bill will help in laying down measures to deter economic offenders from evading the process of Indian law by remaining outside the jurisdiction of Indian Courts.
• Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said, the legislation will allow the government to confiscate all the assets in India, including Benami properties, after the economic offenders are declared fugitives.
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• Economic offences worth 100 crore rupees or more will come under the purview of the Bill.
•New Bill defines category of fugitive economic offenders against whom an arrest warrant has been issued and who have left India to avoid criminal prosecution and refuse to return to face the law.

Sridevi

• The last rites of legendary Cine actor Sridevi, who passed away in Dubai on Saturday, were performed at Vile Parle crematorium in Mumbai with full state honours this evening.
• Thousands of people attended the funeral procession.
• Earlier, the body of the actress that arrived in the city late last night was kept at Celebrations Sports Club at Lokhandwala in Andheri.

PMO

•’Islamic Heritage: Promoting Understanding and Moderation’
• Fight against terrorism and radicalisation is not against any religion, but against a mindset that misguides the youth.
• Challenges like violence and terrorism can be tackled through strengths of the heritage and values, message of the religion and their principles.
PMO-
•No religion teaches people to be intolerant and violent and those who carry barbaric attacks against innocent people can never belong to any religion.
• The soul of religion can never be inhuman as every tradition and sects are meant for promoting human values.
• The most urgent need is that the youth should be linked to humanitarian Islam on the one hand and on the other hand, can use modern science for progress.

MEA

• King of Jordan Abdullah II said, India and Jordan have shared responsibility to bring peace in the world.
•He said, there is a need to give the youth a future with prosperity and security.
•He stressed on the need to fight against hatred and violence.
•He lauded India’s religious plurality in success against extremism.
MEA-
•India will provide five million Dollar assistance to Jordan in the form of vaccines and medicines this year.
• Secretary (Economic Relations) T S Tirumurti said, last year, India had given an assistance of two million Dollar to Jordan.
• Mr Tirumurti said, both the leaders renewed their support and commitment to the Palestine cause.

Lending rates gone up

• The State Bank today raised its lending rates by 20 basis points to 8.15 per cent, with immediate effect, setting the tone for the industry to follow suit. This is likely to make home and car loans costlier. This is the first lending revision by the bank since April 2016 and comes a day after it massively raised the retail and bulk deposit rates.
• Prior to this, the one year Marginal Cost of funds based Lending Rate, MCLR, on which most of the lending is based now, was at 7.95 per cent.
Lending rates gone up-
• The Congress today decided to boycott the meeting of the Lokpal Selection Committee, with leader of the party in Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge refusing the government’s offer to attend it as a special invitee.
• In a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Mr Kharge said that a special invitee invitation is a concerted effort to exclude the voice of the opposition in Lokpal selection.
• As per the Lokpal and Lokayukta Act, 2013, only the leader of the opposition in Lok Sabha is a member of the Selection Committee and since Kharge does not have that status, he is not part of the panel. The Government had invited him for today’s meeting of Selection Committee as a
special invitee.