Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 01 October 2017
::National::

Sugar mills in Uttar Pradesh have requested government not to increase the prices

• Sugar mills in Uttar Pradesh have requested the State government not to increase the prices at which sugarcane is purchased from farmers this year.
• In a letter written to the Chief Secretary UPSMA said that any increase in cane prices would hit them hard “as the cane industry has been going through losses for last three consecutive years”
• The request comes days after distressed farmers of the State alleged that the present rate of Rs. 305 per quintal of cane was much lower than the total input cost that goes into the farming of cane in U.P.
• Farmers have waged a campaign to increase the State Advised Price (SAP) to Rs. 400 per quintal.Uttar Pradesh became the highest producer of sugar last year, contributing close to 42% of the total sugar production in India.
• To push forth its request, the UPSMA reminded the Chief Secretary that CM had, on several occasions, said that increasing the procurement rate for sugarcane was not the solution to the problems of the industry.
• Last year, the Samajwadi Party (SP) government increased the SAP of sugarcane by Rs. 25 and fixed it at Rs. 305 per quintal.
  The UPSMA also urged the government to give the mills the option of paying sugarcane prices in two installments, and decreasing the commission paid to cooperative societies to Rs. 2 per quintal from the present Rs. 7.65.
• The cane crushing season is expected to start from October.The letter said that “sugarcane prices in U.P. are undoubtedly higher as compared to other major sugar-producing States”.

Chinese envoy said time for India and China to start a new chapter

• Chinese envoy to India Luo Zhaohui has said it was time for India and China to turn the old page and start a new chapter, stressing that the countries have made a lot of progress at the bilateral level.
• Chinese President Xi Jinping met Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the BRICS Summit in Xiamen earlier this month, and the two leaders sent a clear message of “reconciliation” and “cooperation”, he said.
• The Chinese envoy was speaking on the 68th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China.
• The Chinese envoy added that the speed of Chinese high-speed trains from Beijing to Shanghai was increased from 300 kmph to 350 kmph two weeks ago.
• “We have started the feasibility study of hyperloop trains at the speed of 1,000 to 4,000 kmph,” he said.He said the high-speed trains were one of the four latest innovations made by China.

Indian Railways decided to amend “a 150-year old convention”

• The Indian Railways decided to amend “a 150-year old convention” to treat expenditure on foot over bridges as a “highest priority” safety item with no budget restriction and not as a passenger amenity.
• Earlier only the first foot over bridge at a station was considered essential. The subsequent ones were seen as passenger amenities.
• General Managers of all railway zones have been delegated powers to decide expenditure on safety-related issues.
• “They shall intimate Financial Commissioner (FC) within a week of sanction for provision, and FC shall confirm the same within 15 days,” the Railway Ministry said in a statement.
• Adding that in case of any disagreement over spending, the FC will put up the matter before the Railway Board.
• The Railways will finalise the plan for additional escalators at Mumbai sub-urban railway stations with 15 days and the same exercise will be conducted at a pan-India level for all high traffic stations.

::International::

Israel’s growing Temple movement

• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reacted by installing metal detectors at the entrance to the Temple Mount, which houses some of the holiest sites to the three big Abrahamic religions.
• This caused Palestinians in east Jerusalem to boycott the sacred compound and in the ensuing violence, three Israelis and three Palestinians were killed in the West Bank.
• The increasing volatility, instability and violence, according to Jerusalem Institute for Policy Research senior researcher Yitzhak Reiter, is a result of the erosion of the status quo, which has existed at Temple Mount (Muslims call it Haram al-Sharif) since 1967.
• The status quo allows Muslims to worship in al-Aqsa and the Dome of the Rock, while the Jews worship at the Western Wall.
• Israeli advocacy group Ir Amim has also warned against the growing activity of the Temple Movement, an umbrella term for about 30 Jewish groups that want to overturn the status quo and re-establish Jewish sovereignty over the site.
• Particularly noteworthy is the role of the Ministry of Education, which not only funds Temple organisations but aids them in disseminating their ideas through the educational system.”
• One of the movement’s prominent supporters is Uri Ariel, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development. Mr. Ariel, who has ascended the Temple Mount a number of times since 2006, has in the past made the controversial call for the Third Temple to be built at the Temple Mount.
• Ir Amim, however, fears that implementing this model at the Temple Mount will “constitute a flagrant breach of the status quo and all but guarantee an eruption of violence in Jerusalem”.

Business and Economy

Cost is a major problem in Electric vehicle

• Add BHP Billiton and vacuum-cleaner maker Dyson to the list of converts to the electric-vehicle revolution. Arnoud Balhuizen, chief commercial officer at the world’s largest miner, told Reuters that battery-powered cars will reach a tipping point this year.
• With Tesla, Volvo, General Motors, Volkswagen and others all launching or announcing new electric vehicles, it may sound like the internal combustion engine is heading straight for the scrap yard.
• There’s certainly willingness to switch to electric vehicles. Deutsche Post, Unilever and IKEA were among 10 large enterprises that committed recently to ditch gas guzzlers for battery- powered ones — but only by 2030.
• Even BHP’s Mr. Balhuizen reckons it’ll take until 2035 to have 140 million electric autos on the roads compared to at most 2 million today. And they’d account for less than a tenth of the global fleet.
• Cost is a major problem. Cars powered solely by batteries are up to $20,000 more expensive than gas-propelled ones, according to Evercore ISI. A driver of the GM Bolt could save $300 a year on fuel.
• That means it’d take at least 30 years to cover the extra outlay, estimate the bank’s analysts — almost three times longer than the average American car stays in service.
• Over time, those costs will come down, though increased demand is already pushing up the price of key raw materials like lithium and copper. The rise of autonomous driving may change the economics.
• Trouble is, that remains years off. And there are other challenges. Access to some metals is far from secure: around half of the current supply and estimated reserves of cobalt are in the DRC, a country plagued by conflict, drought and child labour.
• Add up the various prognostications and electric-only-powered cars, with most driving themselves, will almost certainly become the norm by mid-century. That’s still plenty of time for the internal combustion engine to ride off into the sunset.

::Science and Tech::

Forest trees are good, not just for the environment but for your coffee too

• Forest trees are good, not just for the environment but for your coffee too: having more forest trees in coffee plantations maintains tree diversity and also increases coffee production and quality, shows a study.
• This could be vital information as native trees are being replaced with exotics in coffee-growing landscapes to increase coffee production.
• India, the world's sixth largest coffee-producer, grows 'shade' coffee, under the canopies of naturally occurring native trees such as jackfruit, Black dammar (dhup) and Magnolia (champa) which are legally-protected.
• However, some planters now replace dead native trees with exotics like Silver oaks which are not protected and can be felled for timber. Silver oaks also serve well as pepper stands, and cultivating pepper on them supplements planters’ incomes.
• This 'intensification' – reducing and replacing native shade tree cover – contributes to forest loss in the tropics, where coffee is cultivated.
• Scientists at ETH Zurich (Switzerland) and the College of Forestry (Kodagu) examined whether this intensification affects native tree biodiversity and coffee productivity in Karnataka's Kodagu district, which produces more than one-third of India's coffee.
• They studied tree species diversity in 25 coffee plantations varying in native shade tree cover, with some having only non-native Silver oaks as canopies.
• Their results, published in the journal Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment , show that 95 native tree species offer shade for coffee in Kodagu; and intensification decreases this tree diversity.
• Some plantations, which still retained native trees, even had red-listed tree species (designated as threatened by the IUCN), and some of them in high numbers.
• The team found that such plantations produced more coffee, which was also of better quality . Silver oak-dominated plantations showed more single-seeded fruits and attacks by the Coffee berry borer, a major pest.

Convergence and divergence of water vapour govern Indian monsoon rainfall

• In2014, India recorded a 12% seasonal rain deficit with a record drought in the month of June.
• Scientists from the Department of Meteorology and Oceanography atAndhra University studied the climate data and found that divergence of water vapour was one of the main reasons for the drought.
• The analysis of the moisture transport patterns revealed that convergence and divergence of water vapour are important factors governing the Indian summer monsoon rainfall. The results were recently published in Climate Dynamics .
• Data from June 1 to September 30 for the period 2000-2014 were collected from the Climate Forecasting System model at the Pune’s IITM and National Centre for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) final analysis from the U.S.
• The data showed that all parts of the country had received scanty monthly rainfall at least once during the four months in 2014. The overall seasonal rainfall over India was 775.5 mm which is a 12% less than the normal.
• The researchers examined the water vapour transport as earlier studies by others had shown it could affect rainfall.
• The divergence of moisture flux could have caused the low rainfall in June which was only 57.5 % of the average. In August 2014, there was a break in monsoon with rainfall only over northeastern and central parts of India.
• The regions with rainfall showed convergence of moisture and in the areas with no rainfall there was divergence. In September, the rainfall over many parts of India showed significant increase and also excess in some parts.
• The overall rainfall was 108.1% of the average. These values support the contention that over the land, moisture flux has a major influence on rainfall.
• The other physical processes that cause drought were analysed. The El Nino effect on 2014 monsoon rainfall was very small as the air-sea coupling weakened the effect, resulting in ENSO neutral conditions.
• Thus the results of this study suggest that the process of water vapour transport is an important physical process influencing the monsoons. The magnitude of convergence agreed with the rainfall in quantity and divergence caused drought.
• The study emphasises that moisture flux should be taken into consideration for accurate prediction of future climate.

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