Are there default permissions granted for applications on Android?

I have noticed in an a开发者_开发问答pplication I wrote, in-spite of me not specifying any permission in the manifest file, the application throws up permissions granted, such as

android.permission.WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE android.permission.READ_PHONE_STATE

What is all that about? I was not even aware my application needs to write into external store, and I am pretty sure it doesn't need to. So why are these permission being granted when I never requested for them?

Thoose two were default in earlier API versions. Read more about it: here.