Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 02 June 2020

::NATIONAL::

The options of the RajyaSabha and the LokSabha meeting on alternate days to decongest the Parliament complex and each moving into a larger space to ensure social distancing were discussed by Upper House Chairman M. Venkaiah Naidu and Speaker Om Birla at a meeting on Monday, sources said.
The presiding officers’ meeting to discuss the conduct of the monsoon session of Parliament comes amid demands by Opposition parties to hold parliamentary standing committee meetings through videoconference and to resume the functioning of Parliament itself. The budget session ended abruptly on March 23 due to the pandemic.
They noted that since there was no requirement of maintaining confidentiality of the proceedings of the Houses, which were open to the general public besides being telecast live, virtual Parliament was an option to be explored.

Following a report by security researchers alleging leak of personal data of millions of users of the BHIM payment application due to a website breach, the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) on Monday denied the claim, asking “everyone to not fall prey to such speculation”.
The report by vpnMentor alleged that 409-gigabyte of data, comprising 7.26 million records, were leaked, and the trove included personal identifiable information such as Aadhaar details, residence proof, bank records and complete profiles.
The vpn Mentor’s website claims it is the world’s largest VPN review website and its research lab is a pro bono service that strives to help the online community defend itself against cyberthreats while educating organisations on protecting their users’ data.
“We have come across some news reports which suggest data breach at BHIM app. We would like to clarify that there has been no data compromise at BHIM App and request everyone not fall prey to such speculation. NPCI follows high level of security and an integrated approach to protect its infrastructure and continue to provide a robust payments ecosystem,” NPCI said in a statement.

An estimated Rs 20,000 crore worth of bad loans from state-run banks are up for sale to asset reconstruction companies as banks prepare for a fire sale due to suspension of the bankruptcy law which has blurred the recovery horizon, said bankers familiar with the development.
Banks are looking to sell these loans to avoid higher provisioning requirements on NCLT accounts as resolution dates get longer due to the government’s decision to suspend the bankruptcy law. These banks are yet to come out with a formal list of loans on sale as back channel talks with asset reconstruction companies are ongoing.
Indian banks have been saddled with bad loans of over Rs 9 lakh crore, nearly 9.5% of the banking system loans. This is estimated to rise to 11.5% due to shutdown of businesses. The Covid-19 pandemic has also worsened the backlog of cases at bankruptcy tribunals across the country.
At the end of March, the National Company Law Tribunal had admitted 3,774 companies to be tried under the bankruptcy law. Of them, 738 cases had exceeded the 270-day resolution timeline while another 494 cases were being heard for more than 180 days.

A working group constituted by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) on social stock exchanges has recommended allowing non-profit organisations to directly list on such platforms while allowing certain tax incentives to encourage participation on the platform.
The idea of a social stock exchange (SSE) for listing of social enterprise and voluntary organisations was mooted by Finance Minister NirmalaSitharaman while presenting the Union Budget 2019-20.
According to a release issued by the capital markets regulator, the group has recommended allowing non-profit organisations to directly list through issuance of bonds while recommending a range of funding avenues, including some of the existing mechanisms such as Social Venture Funds (SVFs) under Alternative Investment Funds (AIFs).

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) on Thursday signed a USD 177 million loan to upgrade 450 km of state highways and major district roads in Maharashtra.
Under the Maharashtra state road improvement project, two major district roads and 11 state highways, with combined length of 450 km will be upgraded to two-lane standard across seven districts.
The projects would improve connectivity to national highways, interstate roads, seaports, airports, rail hubs, district headquarters, industrial areas, enterprise clusters and agricultural areas.
The project will also focus on training the Maharashtra Public Works Department project staff to build their capacity in climate change adaptation and disaster resilient features in road design, road maintenance planning and road safety, the release said.

Astronauts have recently discovered a rare space object. The object looks like both asteroid and comet. The new space object is called Active Asteroid.
The asteroid has been named 2019 LD2. It has an orbit like an asteroid and a tail like a comet. The 2019 LD2 shares the orbit of Jupiter and is a partof the asteroid swarm called Jupiter Trojans.
The space object found is the first that emits gas just like a comet. The asteroid was discovered by the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS).
The discovery has also provided evidence that the Jupiter Trojans have large amounts of ice beneath their surfaces. So far, there was no evidence for presence of ice beneath their surface.
The unique tail that makes the asteroid look like comet, according to the researchers is probably because of collision.The collision should have led to gas leak from the ice cracking and forming the tail.
Active Asteroids are celestial bodies that look like comet and have asteroid like orbit. The first active asteroid discovered was Elst Pizarro.

The Boxing Federation of India (BFI) on Monday recommended names of World championships silver medallist AmitPanghal and former Worlds bronze medallist VikasKrishan for the Rajiv Gandhi KhelRatna Award.
The BFI recommended three other Worlds medallists — LovlinaBorgohain, SimranjitKaur and Manish Kaushik — for the Arjuna Award.