DAILY CURRENT
AFFAIRS: 2ND FEB 2017
(Daily News India)
1. UNION
BUDGET 2017
i. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley
presented the Union budget 2017-2018 in Lok Sabha on 01 February 2017.
ii. This is the 4th budget by the
Narendra Modi government. It was broadly focused on 10 issues rural population,
farming sector, infrastructure, youth, poor and health care for the
underprivileged, financial sector for stronger institutions, public services, speedy
accountability, tax administration for the honest and prudent fiscal
management.
2. FISCAL
DEFICIT REACHES 94% OF THE BUDGET ESTIMATE
i. Fiscal deficit in the first 9 months
of 2016-17 touched 93.9 % of the Budget estimate. The fiscal deficit had stood
at 87.9% in the corresponding 9 months a year ago. The fiscal deficit is the
gap between revenue and expenditure.
ii. According to data released by the
Controller General of Accounts, tax revenue was 71.4% of the full-year budget
estimate. Total expenditure, Plan and Non-Plan, was 74.3% of the government's
full-year estimate.
3.
RAJASTHAN, TELANGANA BAG EGOV AWARDS
i. This year, under the State category,
Telangana and Rajasthan emerged Winners of Excellence while the Award of
Recognition went to Nagaland and Odisha.
ii. Instituted by the Computer Society
of India’s Special Interest Group with sponsorship from Nihilent Technologies,
these awards help recognize the efforts of eGovernance practitioners from
across central and state departments, projects and in district administrative
units as well.
4. RAILWAY MINISTRY REQUESTS SEPARATE FUND FOR
RASHTRIYA RAIL SAFETY FUND
i. The Ministry of Railway has proposed
the Finance Ministry to create a non-lapsable safety fund named ‘Rashtriya Rail
Sanraksha Kosh’ over 5 years with initial corpus of Rs. 20000 cr and contribute
a portion to fund it in the Budget 2017.
ii. The decision to set up the safety
fund is based on the recommendation of a high-level safety review committee
under the chairmanship of Dr. Anil Kakodkar, former chairman of Atomic Energy
Commission.
5. SAARC
PROGRAMMING COMMITTEE MEETING BEGINS IN KATHMANDU
i. The programming committee meeting of
South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation has began at Kathmandu. Senior
officials of all 8 member countries are participating in the meeting.
ii. Indian delegation is lead by Shri
Prashant Agarwal, Joint Secretary. During the 2 day meeting number of issues
including budget of SAARC secretariat and its 5 regional centres and regular
activities of the Associtation will be discussed.
iii. This is the 1st senior level
meeting of Association since postponement of 19th SAARC Summit in November last
year. Nepal, the current chair of SAARC had postponed the summit after
Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan and India had decided to boycott SAARC summit
scheduled in Islamabad last year.
6. ALOK
VERMA TAKES CHARGE AS NEW CBI DIRECTOR
i. Former Delhi Police Commissioner
Alok Verma took charge as the new CBI Director.
ii. A 1979-batch IPS officer, Mr Verma
was selected by a 3-member committee comprising PM Narendra Modi, Chief Justice
J S Khehar and Senior Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge.
7. USD
3.3 BILLION ASSISTANCE LAUNCHED BY UNICEF
i. The UN Children’s Fund launched an
appeal for the year 2017 for USD 3.3 billion to help over 48 million children
across the globe who are driven from their homes due to disasters, conflict,
and climate change.
ii. The appeal was made with regards to
the fear that US may cut down its funding which is the top donor contributing
about 40 % to the international organizations.
iii. Among the UNICEF appeal for 2017,
nearly 42 %, USD 1.4 billion would be used to support children from Syria
living as refugees across the borders in neighboring states. Besides, the
assistance would also focus on countries like Yemen, South Sudan and Nigeria
which heavily affected children due to wars.
iv. The appeal for 2017 is 18 % more
than the previous year. The Top donor countries include Germany, United States,
Britain and European Commission.
v. UNICEF is continuously trying to
ensure that children have access to school to avoid lost of generation of youth
in future.
8.
VENKAIAH NAIDU INAUGURATES DIGITAL RADIO ROUND TABLE CONFERENCE
i. Union Minister for Information &
Broadcasting M Venkaiah Naidu was inaugurated All Round Table Conference or the
Digital Radio in New Delhi.
ii. It is jointly Organized by Digital Radio Mondiale and Broadcast
Engineering Consultants India Limited.
iii. Its aim is to stimulate the
interests of the key Indian stakeholders in the public phase launch of the
project to digitise radio in India, following the successful installation of
DRM digital radio transmitters by All India Radio.
iv. The Digital Radio Mondiale
broadcasting system is specifically designed to allow the new digital
transmission system to co-exist with the current analogue broadcasts.
OBJECTIVE QUESTIONS BASED
ON TODAY’S NEWS
Q1. WHAT
IS THE TOTAL PROPOSED BUDGET OF THE RAIL SAFETY FUND RASHTRIYA RAIL SANRAKSHA
KOSH?
a)
Rs. 25000 crore
b)
Rs. 17000 crore
c)
Rs. 20000 crore
d)
Rs. 12000 crore
Q2. THE
RATING AGENCY ICRA HAS PREDICTED THAT THE BANK CREDIT GROWTH RATE FOR THE
CURRENT FISCAL
YEAR WOULD FLOAT BETWEEN--------- PERCENT.
a)
5-6 Percent
b)
4-5 Percent
c)
7-8 Percent
d)
6-7 Percent
Q3. WHO
IS APPOINTED AS THE NEW CBI DIRECTOR?
a)
Sushil Chandra
b)
Alok Verma
c)
Vineet kandpal
d)
Vinod rai
ANSWERS:
1 - C 2 - A 3 - B
