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Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 11 July 2017
Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 11 July 2017
::National::
Terrorists attack Amarnath yatri's
- Seven Amarnath pilgrims, including six women, were killed and 32 injured when terrorists opened fire at a patrol vehicle on the Srinagar-Jammu Highway.
- The patrol vehicle came under fire at Anantnag’s Batengo area around 8.30 p.m. The attack took place after quick response teams of the Army had withdrawn from the highway around sunset, making the vehicle vulnerable.
- Six pilgrims were killed in the attack and later one died of injuries in hospital. Three of those injured were in a critical state. The deceased pilgrims belonged to Gujarat and were returning after visiting the cave shrine.
- Bus was not registered with the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board and was travelling against the advisory not to ply after sunset.
- The police had asked all vehicles carrying pilgrims to cross the Jawahar Tunnel in daylight and avoid travelling in the Valley after sundown.
- Meanwhile, political parties have condemned the attack. Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti said it was an attack on Kashmir’s culture and value system.
- The CRPF is one of the main security forces deployed along the 40-day annual yatra route.
SC lifted its stay on admissions to the prestigious IIT
- Spelling relief to over 50,000 aspirants, the Supreme Court lifted its stay on admissions to the prestigious Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) across the country.
- On July 7, the court had ordered a freeze on the process, taking prima facie exception to the grant of bonus marks to all candidates who had appeared in the IIT JEE (Advanced) 2017 examination.
- These extra marks were given to compensate for wrong questions in two of the papers, irrespective of whether a candidate had given answers to them or not.
- However, a Bench led by Justice Dipak Misra said the court was not inclined to interfere, while vacating the stay order, which had affected students who were in the middle of counselling sessions.
- Asking the High Courts not to entertain petitions regarding this issue to “avoid any confusion” in future, the court issued a warning to the IIT authorities that such “kinds of errors in printing and framing of questions should not happen again”.
::International::
Men only Island of Japan declared as a UNESCO World Heritage site
- A men-only island in Japan where women are banned and male visitors must bathe naked in the sea before visiting its shrine, has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage site.
- The tiny landmass of Okinoshima is permanently manned by a Shinto priest who prays to the island’s goddess, in a tradition that has been kept up for centuries.
- Limited numbers are permitted to land on the island in the Sea of Japan (East Sea) — this year it was 200 — for a yearly festival that lasts just two hours, but they must adhere to strict rules.
- Most importantly, they must be men, but they must also strip off and take a purifying dip in the ocean before they are allowed to set foot on the sacred ground of the shrine.
- Despite its inscription on the UNESCO’s World Heritage list — often the prelude to a leap in tourist numbers — shrine officials say they are now considering banning future travel for anyone apart from priests, partly out of fears the island could be “destroyed” by too many visitors.
- The island, which sits off the north-west coast of Kyushu, the southernmost of Japan’s four main islands, was an important window for foreign trade in Japan since ancient times, forming part of a trade route that linked the archipelago to the Korean peninsula and China.
- Thousands of gold rings and other valuable items have been found there.
- UNESCO’s heritage committee considered 33 sites for the prestigious status at its annual gathering in Poland.
::Business and Economy::
GST negatively impacted passenger vehicle sales
- Passenger vehicle sales declined 11% in June as dealers tried to sell existing stocks while avoiding picking up new stocks from carmakers ahead of the roll-out of GST.
- According to data released by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), domestic passenger vehicle sales fell by 11.2% to 1,98,399 units from 2,23,454 a year earlier.
- While car sales dropped 11.24% to 136,895 units, utility vehicle sales fell 11.25% to 49,547 units and sales of vans slid 10.7% to 11,957.
- Mr. Sen said the industry, however, expects it to be just a one-month phenomenon. “Next month onwards things will move as dealers will have to replenish their stocks.”
- In two-wheelers, both scooters and motorcycles posted gains. “With good monsoon, hopes are that the trend will continue,” Mr. Sen said.
- While motorcycle sales rose 2.18% to 9,64,269 units, scooter sales jumped 10.6% to 4,97,478 units. Overall, two wheeler sales increased 4% to 15,27,049 units.
PM asked States to learn from each others’ best practices
- Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked States to learn from each others’ best practices to overcome problems and challenges faced by them.
- Addressing Chief Secretaries of States and Union Territories, Mr. Modi stressed that improvement in “ease of doing business” would bring in greater investment in the States.
- He said a team of young officers from across States should learn from best practices by visiting each State.
- While top government officials, he said, had the vision and capabilities to overcome challenges, sharing of experience was very important. He urged the States to come out of silos and work cohesively.
- Mr. Modi said that junior officers in States must spend adequate time in field visits so that they are aware first hand of ground realities.
- The PM emphasised the importance of preserving institutional memory, NITI Aayog Vice Chairman Arvind Panagariya said. The PM also stressed maximum use of Aadhaar to improve governance.
NSE trading operations halted for more than three hours
- On a day when the benchmark Sensex gained 355 points to close at a new high of 31,715.64, the National Stock Exchange saw a technical glitch halt trading operations for more than three hours.
- The country’s largest stock exchange was able to resume trading in the third attempt at about 12:30pm.
- NSE, which accounts for the majority share in both equity and equity derivatives segments, attributed the failure to a technical issue that occurred during the pre-open session at 9 am.
- Incidentally, the glitch comes at a time when the exchange is in the midst of a regulatory probe related to co-location and algorithmic trading.
- It said that while the equity and currency derivatives segments were trading normally, those were also shut after informing market participants. At the end of the trading session, the Nifty closed 105.25 points higher at a new peak of 9,771.05.
- The exchange saw a 70% dip in its cash market turnover while the equity derivatives volume fell more than Rs. 2 lakh crore when compared with figures for the recent days.
- Rival BSE gained at NSE’s expense on Monday as the former saw total trading worth Rs. 9,919.37, which is much more than numbers for most of the recent days when volumes were a little over Rs. 3,000 crore.
