17-August-2018 : TOD

General

1. LIGO to come up at Hingoli,MH

• The Environment Ministry has allowed scientists to test the suitability of land in Maharashtra’s Hingoli district to host the India wing of the ambitious Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory (LIGO) project.
• The LIGO project operates three gravitational-wave (GW) detectors. Two are at Hanford in the State of Washington, north-western USA, and one is at Livingston in Louisiana, south-eastern USA.
• The proposed LIGO-India project aims to move one Advanced LIGO detector from Hanford to India.

2. Indian oil import jump by $26bn

• India’s crude oil import bill is likely to jump by about $26 billion in 2018-19 as the rupee’s drop to a record low has made buying of oil from overseas costlier.
• India, which imports more than 80% of its oil needs, spent $87.7 billion (Rs. 5.65 lakh crore) on importing 220.43 million tonnes (MT) of crude oil in 2017-18. For 2018-19, the imports are pegged at almost 227 MT.

3. Turkey’s crisis ,an emerging market phenomena

• Financial experts worry that the turmoil in Turkey, which for the better part of a year has been contained, will spread, following the path of other emerging market meltdowns like those in Mexico in 1994 and Asia in 1997.
• The crisis in Turkey has been made worse by a diplomatic dispute with the U.S. and the mercurial moods and questionable policy positions of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, but the combination of heavy international borrowing and a fall in the national currency is the same scenario that could undermine other emerging economies.

4. Creamy layer cannot apply to SC/ST

• The government wants a larger Bench of the Supreme Court to set aside its 2006 judgment in the Nagaraj case.
• This verdict mandates that the government cannot introduce quota in promotion for SC/ST persons in public employment unless they prove that the particular Dalit community is backward, is inadequately represented and such a reservation in promotion would not affect the overall efficiency of public administration.
• The government has argued that the judgment was a roadblock to its authority to introduce quota in promotions in favour of SC/ST communities as per Article 16 (4A) of the Constitution.
• The government wanted a total of 22.5% (15% for Scheduled Castes +7% for Scheduled Tribes) posts reserved for promotion for SC/ST in public employment.