Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 30 MAY 2019
::NATIONAL::
Cities submit their plans under NCAP to centre
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Eighty-four out of the 102 cities that have been tasked with
reducing toxic particulate matter levels by 20%-30% by 2024 have submitted
proposals, C.K. Mishra, Secretary, Union Environment Ministry, said at a
press conference.
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“We haven’t set any annual targets for the cities but are
looking at a periodic review,” Mr. Mishra said at a function to announce the
government’s plans to celebrate World Environment Day on June 5. One hundred and
two cities, considered India’s most polluted, have been tasked with reducing PM
(particulate matter) 10 and PM 2.5 levels by 2024, as part of the National Clean
Air Programme (NCAP). This was made public in January this year.
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The NCAP requires cities to implement specific measures such as
“ensuring roads are pothole-free to improve traffic flow and thereby reduce
dust” (within 60 days) or “ensuring strict action against unauthorised brick
kilns” (within 30 days). It doesn’t specify an exact date for when these
obligations kick in.\
Supreme court clarifies on benami transactions
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Mere financial assistance provided to purchase property for
the welfare of family members cannot be classified as a benami transaction,
the Supreme Court held in a recent judgment.
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A Bench led by Justice L. NageswaraRao upheld a Karnataka High
Court order, which dismissed a plea that the financial help given by G.
VenkataRao to his family members to purchase property was a benami transaction.
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Financial assistance or source of money cannot be sole
determinative factor or circumstance to hold that a purchase of property is
benami.
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The court reiterated its own precedents while considering the
nature of benami transactions. “The source of money had never been the sole
consideration. It is merely one of the relevant considerations but not
determinative in character,” Justice Rao wrote in the verdict.
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It referred to the Supreme Court’s judgment in the Thakur Bhim
Singh case, in which it held that “while considering a particular transaction as
benami, the intention of the person who contributed the purchase money is
determinative of the nature of transaction.”
::ECONOMY::
SC to consider authoritative power in GST evasion cases
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The Supreme Court on Wednesday decided to consider the
question of power of authorities to make arrests for Goods and Services Tax
(GST) evasion.
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A Vacation Bench led by Chief Justice of India RanjanGogoi and
Justice Aniruddha Bose asked the government to address the court on the issue,
particularly in the backdrop of varying decisions on the question by several
High Courts.
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On April 18, the High Court said it was not inclined to grant
relief against arrest to petitioners who had approached it challenging the
summons issued by the Superintendent (Anti-Evasion) of the Hyderabad GST
Commissionerate under the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 and
invocation of penal provisions under the law.
RBI constitutes task force on corporate loans
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The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Wednesday constituted a
task force to suggest policy and regulatory interventions required for
development of secondary market in corporate loans, including loan
transaction platform for stressed assets.
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The six-member body, headed by Canara Bank chairman T. N.
Manoharan, has been set up to review the existing state of the market for loan
sale/transfer in India as well as international experience in loan trading, the
central bank said.
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Secondary loan market in India is largely restricted to asset
reconstruction companies (ARCs)and ad hoc sale to other lenders, including
banks, and no formalised mechanism has been developed to deepen the market.
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The task force has also been asked by the central bank to make
recommendations for the creation of a loan contract registry to remove
information asymmetries between buyers and sellers, its ownership structure and
related protocols such as standardisation of loan information, independent
validation and data access.
::INTERNATIONAL::
India removed from U.S currency monitoring list
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The Trump administration removed India from its currency
monitoring list of major trading partners. It cited certain developments and
steps being taken by New Delhi which address some of its major concerns.
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Switzerland is the other nation that has been removed by the US
from its currency monitoring list. The list includes other countries like China,
Japan and Germany.
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India has been removed from the monitoring list in the latest
semi-annual report on macroeconomic and foreign exchange policies of major
trading partners of the US. The Treasury Department reasoned that India had met
only one out of three criteria - a significant bilateral surplus with the US -
for two consecutive reports.
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After purchasing foreign exchange on net in 2017, the central
bank steadily sold reserves for most of 2018, with net sales of foreign exchange
reaching 1.7 per cent of GDP over the year.
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The report added that India maintains ample reserves according
to the IMF metrics for reserve adequacy.
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In both Switzerland and India, there was a notable decline in
2018 in the scale and frequency of foreign exchange purchases, the report
observed.
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India for the first time was placed by the US in its currency
monitoring list of countries with potentially questionable foreign exchange
policies in May 2018 along with five other countries - China, Germany, Japan,
South Korea and Switzerland.
U.S-UAE defence pact comes to force
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The United States and the United Arab Emirates have
announced that mutual defence cooperation agreement (DCA) has come into
force, amid increasing tensions between Washington and Tehran.
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A joint statement said yesterday that the DCA will enhance
military coordination between the United States and the United Arab Emirates,
further advancing an already robust military, political, and economic
partnership at a critical time.
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It said the United States and the United Arab Emirates share a
deep interest in promoting prosperity and stability in the region.
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The DCA will advance that interest by fostering closer
collaboration on defence and security matters and supporting efforts by both
nations to maintain security in the Gulf region. US national security advisor
John Bolton was in Abu Dhabi yesterday, meeting his Emirati counterpart, Sheikh
Tahnoun bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
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This came on the eve of emergency Arab and Gulf summits called
by Saudi Arabia to discuss the stand-off and ways to isolate Tehran.
::SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY::
WHO gives a sigh of relief for transgenders
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The World Health Organization (WHO) will no longer
categorise being transgender as a “mental disorder”.The change was brought
in after a major resolution to amend the WHO health guidelines was approved
earlier this week on May 25.
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The global health organisation said, “Evidence is now clear that
gender incongruence is not a mental disorder, and indeed classifying it as such
can cause enormous stigma for people who are transgender. Also there remain
significant health care needs that can best be met if the condition is coded
under the ICD (International Classification of Diseases).”
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The WHO added that a “significant change in the mental disorders
section of ICD-11 is the attempt of statisticians to simplify the codes as much
as possible to allow for coding of mental health conditions by primary health
care providers rather than by mental health specialists.
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“In India, psychiatrists at an individual level have stopped
treating transgender as a mental health condition. With this move, the Indian
government will have to make the changes in the medical systems and laws that
require this now officially outdated diagnosis,” said Dr.ZakirhusainShaikh,
assistant professor, Department of Community Medicine, Hamdard Institute of
Medical Sciences and Research.
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AkkaiPadmashali, social activist, said, “The Indian government
now has to ensure that this is implemented in totality. This may be a milestone,
but there is still quite a way to go.”
::SPORTS::
ICC cricket world cup to begin today at England
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The ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 will begin today. England
will open the tournament at The Oval in London when they will take on South
Africa. The match will begin at 3 PM Indian Time.
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Australia will launch their title defence on June 1 against the
ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier champions Afghanistan in a day/night match in
Bristol.
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India, the 1983 and 2011 world champions, will play their first
match on June 5 against South Africa at the Hampshire Bowl in Southampton.
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The World Cup will span 48 matches in all, of which 45 will make
up the group stage. Each team will play nine group stage matches, and the top
four will progress to the semifinals, similar to how the 1992 World Cup was
held.
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