Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 04 June 2020

::NATIONAL::

The Union Cabinet today approved a historic amendment to Essential Commodities Act. This is a visionary step towards transformation of agriculture and raising farmers’ income.
Briefing media after the Cabinet meeting, Information and Broadcasting Minister PrakashJavadekar said, with the amendment to Essential Commodities Act, commodities like cereals, pulses, oilseeds, edible oils, onion and potatoes have been removed from list of essential commodities.
Mr Javadekar said, while India has become surplus in most agri-commodities and farmers are unable to get better prices due to lack of investment in cold storage, processing and export as the entrepreneurial spirit gets dampened due to hanging sword of Essential Commodities Act.

To ramp up infrastructure along the China border, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has decided to spend 10% funds of a Centrally sponsored scheme only on projects in Ladakh, Arunachal Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Sikkim.
The Border Area Development Programme (BADP) has been allocated ₹784 crore in the 2020-21 fiscal and the money is distributed to the border States and Union Territories depending on various criteria such as the length of the international border and population. In 2019-20, ₹825 crore was granted for the scheme.
The creation of infrastructure “would help integrate these areas with the hinterland, create a positive perception of care by the country and encourage people to stay on in the border areas leading to safe and secure borders”, the MHA said.
The BADP, which was started in 1980 for the western border, has over the years expanded to cover 396 blocks of 111 border districts in 16 States and two UTs.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) informed the Supreme Court on Wednesday that it considers neither prudent nor appropriate to go for a “forced waiver of interest” on loans by risking the financial viability of banks it is mandated to regulate and putting the interests of the depositors in jeopardy.”
The RBI was responding to a petition challenging the charging of interest rate on loans even during the three-month moratorium period declared amid the COVID-19 pandemic and national lockdown. The RBI had recently extended the moratorium till August 31.
The central bank said its regulatory package introduced amid the pandemic lockdown was “in its essence in the nature of a moratorium deferment and cannot be construed to be a waiver.”
A Bench led by Justice Ashok Bhushan had earlier issued a formal notice to the central bank and the Centre on a petition by Gajendra Sharma, who said though there was a moratorium on loans, there was also accrual of interest, which had to be paid in bulk or monthly after the lifting of the embargo.

The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved the setting up of an empowered group of secretaries (EGoS) and project development cells (PDCs) in Ministries and departments for attracting investments to India, said Information and Broadcasting Minister PrakashJavadekar.
He added that the two decisions would help domestic industries and lead to direct and indirect employment.
The government said the decisions taken at the Cabinet meeting, chaired by Prime Minister NarendraModi, would “reinforce India’s vision of becoming a $5 trillion economy by 2024-25”.
The EGoS would be chaired by the Cabinet Secretary and would include the Secretary of the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade as member convener and the NITI Aayog CEO, the Commerce Secretary, the Revenue Secretary and the Economic Affairs Secretary as members. The Secretary of the Department concerned would be co-opted, depending on the project.

The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Bhutan for cooperation in the field of environment protection and management of natural resources.
The MoU, signed at a meeting chaired by Prime Minister NarendraModi, “will enable establishment and promotion of closer and long-term cooperation in environment protection and management of natural resources on the basis of equity, reciprocity and mutual benefits” the government said.
It will cover air, waste, chemical management, climate change and other areas and will remain in force for 10 years from the date of signing.

A fresh instance of Indians’ data being leaked on the dark net has come to light, with a massive data packet — nearly 100 gigabytes in size — being put up for sale in the dark web market.
The data comprises scanned identity documents of over 1 lakh Indians, including passports, PAN cards, Aadhaar cards, voter IDs and driver’s licenses.
The data was found by Cyble, a global cyber intelligence agency founded by cyber expert BeenuArora, which has also found several other such instances in the recent past, including a massive packet of data of Indian job seekers from across the country.
Cyble researchers, in a post on their official blog on Tuesday night, said that they came across a relatively non-reputable threat actor offering over 1 lakh identity documents for sale.
Samples of the data indicate that the documents are scanned copies of a wide variety of government-issued identity documents that prima facie seem to be legitimate.
Cyble researchers have till now not found any indications of this data having leaked from a government system, and believe that it came from a third party.
Central and State cyber crime agencies have also taken note of the incident and have initiated their own inquiries.

VikramMalhotra has been nominated for the PSA squash Challenger Tour men’s player of the year award.
The 30-year-old, ranked 47th in the world, clinched three titles last season — the HCL SRFI Indian Tour Delhi leg, Florida Open and Oregon Open and was a runner-up in the Nash Cup.