Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 27 January 2017

:: National ::

According to new proposal provident fund for housing purposes

EPFO has mooted a group housing scheme which will enable members to form cooperative housing societies and use their entire provident fund savings towards buying land, constructing homes or paying housing loan instalments.
In its recent proposal to the Labour Ministry, EPFO has proposed addition of a “new paragraph 68BD as a group housing scheme so that Employees’ Provident Fund members forming a cooperative society of 10 or more employees may be given not only a one time Employees’ Provident Fund withdrawal.
It also has an option to pay loan instalments towards housing loan to banks from the monthly contributions received in Employees’ Provident Fund Scheme, 1952.
Employees with at least 3 years’ subscription to Employees Provident Fund scheme will be allowed to withdraw their savings for housing purposes, including repayment of loans from their monthly contributions.
There will be no cap on the amount of Employees’ Provident Fund savings that can be drawn for purchasing land, constructing a house or repaying housing loans, under the proposed scheme.
Members of an existing cooperative society formed under any present law can avail this scheme, provided at least 10 members of the housing society were subscribers to the Employees’ Provident Fund scheme.
At present, an employee who has completed five years of service is allowed to withdraw Provident Fund savings equivalent to 36 months of the member’s salary for construction of a flat or 24 months of the salary for purchasing land.

Facing serious charges Meghalaya Governor quits

Facing sexual harassment charges, Meghalaya Governor resigned after a section of Raj Bhavan employees demanded his removal for “seriously compromising” the dignity of the gubernatorial office.
Chief Minister Mukul Sangma had said earlier that he was waiting for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Home Ministry to take a call.
Nearly 100 Raj Bhavan staff petitioned President, the Prime Minister and Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh seeking their intervention to remove the Governor and restore the ‘dignity’ of the Raj Bhavan.

Poll app launched for upcoming Manipur assembly

To go the digital way in upcoming Manipur assembly polls, the State government unveiled a new mobile application called “e-Manipur election”.
The app will provide key information to voters and has four key features: voter slip, location of nearest booth, way to booth, and filing of complaint through WhatsApp.
Chief Secretary launched the app on the occasion of the 7th National Voters’ Day at City Convention Centre Hall here.
The app project head, Ramayan, who was in charge of developing it, said that some of the features have been introduced for the first time in the State and the country.

Havaldar Hangpan Dada gets Ashoka Chakra

President Pranab Mukerjee posthumously conferred Ashok Chakra, the highest peacetime gallantry award, on Havaldar Hangpan Dada at the 68th Republic Day parade. It was received by his wife Chasan Lowang Dada.
Havaldar Hangpan Dada laid down his life last year while fighting terrorists in Kupwara district of Jammu and Kashmir.
He was from the Assam Regiment and posted to Rashtriya Rifles. On May 26, 2016, his unit was pinned down in a gunfight with fleeing terrorists in the Naugam sector.
In utter disregard to his own safety, he closed in on the terrorists, thus helping to save the lives of his comrades.

:: International ::

Trump to suspend U.S. refugee programme

President Donald Trump was poised to suspend the U.S. refugee programme for four months and to halt visas for travellers from seven Muslim countries, according to U.S. media.
A draft executive order said refugees from war-torn Syria will be indefinitely banned, while the broader U.S. refugee admissions programme will be suspended for 120 days as officials draw up a list of low risk countries.
Meanwhile, all visa applications from countries deemed a terrorist threat Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia and Yemen will be halted for 30 days.

Alongside this, the Pentagon will be given 90 days to draw up a plan to set up “safe zones” in or near Syria where refugees from its civil war can shelter.
It is unclear whether the published draft is the final version, or when Mr. Trump will sign it, but it would make good on his campaign promises.
Banning the admission of Syrian refugees contradicts American values, undermines American leadership and threatens American security by making the ISIS case that we are at war with Islam,” he argued.

:: Science and Technology ::

New glasses will auto focus

New ‘smart glasses’ developed by scientists, including one of Indian origin, that can automatically adjust the focus on what a person is seeing, whether it is far away or close.
The glasses developed by researchers at University of Utah in the U.S. contain lenses made of glycerin, a thick colourless liquid enclosed by flexible rubber-like membranes in the front and back.
The rear membrane in each lens is connected to a series of three mechanical actuators that push the membrane back and forth like a transparent piston, changing the curvature of the liquid lens and the focal length between the lens and the eye.
When the wearer looks at an object, the meter instantly measures the distance and tells the actuators how to curve the lenses.
If the user then sees another object that is closer, the distance meter readjusts and tells the actuators to reshape the lens for farsightedness. The lenses can change focus from one object to another in 14 milliseconds.
A rechargeable battery in the frames could last more than 24 hours per charge, he added.
The human eye has a lens inside that adjusts the focal depth depending on what you look at.
However, as people age, the lens loses its ability to change focus, which is why many people ultimately require reading glasses or bifocals to see objects up close and regular eyeglasses to see far away.

:: Business and Economy ::

All curbs on cash withdrawl to end by feb end

With the cash crunch situation easing, Reserve Bank of India may do away with the weekly withdrawal limits from banks as well as ATMs by the end of February.
The RBI had recently raised the ATM withdrawal limit to Rs. 10,000 a day but maintained the weekly cap at Rs. 24,000 for savings account and Rs. 1 lakh for current account holders.
According to SBI’s research report Ecowrap, “By the end of February, 78-88% of the currency could be back in the system under the best case scenario in terms of an optimal currency distribution (more small denomination notes),”.
Urjit Patel could not set a time frame before the Standing Committee on Finance for return of normalcy in the banking system even as the central bank asserted that Rs. 9.2 lakh crore or 60% of demonetised currency had been replaced.

India to be fastest oil consuming country by 2035

Having pipped Japan to become world’s third-largest oil consumer, India’s oil consumption growth will be the fastest among all major economies by 2035, BP Statistical Review of World Energy.
India, Asia’s second-biggest energy consumer since 2008, had in 2015 overtaken Japan as the world’s third-largest oil consuming country behind US and China.
India’s energy consumption grows the fastest among all major economies by 2035. As a result, the country remains import dependent despite increases in production.
While energy consumption will grow by 4.2 per cent per annum faster than all major economies in the world India’s consumption growth of fossil fuels would be the largest in the world.
India, will overtake China as the largest growth market for energy in volume terms by 2030.
Oil consumption will rise beom 4.1 million barrels per day in 2015 to 9.2 million bpd in 2035.
Natural gas consumption would jump from 4.9 billion cubic feet per day to 12.8 bcfd while coal consumption is project to more than double to 833 million tons.
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India’s energy demand growth at “129 per cent is more than double the non OECD average of 52 per cent and also outpaces each of the BRIC countries as China (47 %), Brazil (41 %), and Russia (2 %), all expand slower.
Its share of global energy demand increases to 9 per cent by 2035, accounting for the second largest share among the BRIC countries with China at 26 per cent, Russia at 4 per cent and Brazil at 2 per cent.