Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 05 October 2018

SSC CGL Current Affairs

Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 05 October 2018

::NATIONAL::

Centre affirms supreme court that rohingyan deportation was legal

  •  The Centre told the Supreme Court on Thursday that the action to repatriate the seven Rohingya Muslims was taken in due course of law and in the interest of the country. The Assam government had made the arrangements for their repatriation through an immigration check point in Manipur.

  •  Seven Rohingya Muslim men, arrested in 2012 for illegally entering Assam, were on Thursday officially handed over to Myanmar authorities at Manipur’s border town Moreh. The deportation from the immigration point at Moreh Gate No 2 took place at 1 p.m. soon after the SC rejected the plea to intervene in the case.

  •  Immigration officials from Tamu, the Myanmar town nearest Moreh, took custody of the seven men after completing the formalities with their Indian counterparts and police officials from Assam and Manipur.

New CJI to keep tight grip upon PIL petitions

  •  The new subject-wise roster, introduced by Chief Justice of India RanjanGogoi as the master of roster, continues the legacy of his immediate predecessor DipakMisra, keeping a tight grip on public interest litigation petitions.

  •  Among the Supreme Court’s 11 Benches, Chief Justice Gogoi’s court is dominantly in charge of fresh PIL petitions. Justice Misra, too, had kept the entire PIL jurisdiction with him.

  •  However, Chief Justice Gogoi makes a slight exception. The new roster, which came into existence on October 3, allows certain PIL petitions, “allocated by the CJI,” to go to the number two judge, Justice Madan B. Lokur. This means no fresh PIL petitions will make their way to any other Bench.

  •  The past months have witnessed three back-to-back judgments, reinforcing the authority of the Chief Justice of India as the undisputed ‘master of roster.’ The first came on November 10 last year when a five-judge Constitution Bench, led by the then Chief Justice Misra, declared his dominance as the master of roster in order to protect the court from “anarchy.”

::ECONOMY::

Direct tax collection for first 6 months rose by 16.7%

  •  Gross direct tax collection during the first six months of the financial year rose 16.7% to Rs. 5.47 lakh crore, the Finance Ministry said on Thursday.

  •  “The provisional figures of direct tax collections up to September 2018 (half-yearly figures) show that gross collections are at Rs. 5.47 lakh crore which is 16.7% higher than the gross collections for the corresponding period of last year,” the Finance Ministry said.

  •  “It is pertinent to mention that gross collections of the corresponding period of financial year 2017-18 also included extraordinary collections under the Income Declaration Scheme (IDS)-2016 amounting to Rs. 10,254 crore… which does not form a part of the current year’s collection.”

  •  Net collections (after adjusting for refunds) increased by 14% to Rs. 4.44 lakh crore during the April-September 2018 period, which represents 38.6% of the total Budget Estimates of direct taxes for financial year 2018-19.

  •  “While the overall growth in direct tax collections for H1 FY19 is encouraging, what is particularly inspiring is the steep increase in the growth rate in corporate advance tax collections compared to last year,” PranavSayta, partner and transaction tax leader, EY India wrote in a note.

Civil Aviation ministry launches policy on DigiYatra platform

  •  The Union Minister of Commerce and Industry and Civil Aviation, Shri Suresh Prabhu today released the policy on biometric based digital processing of passengers at airports called “DigiYatra” at a press-conference here.

  •  Addressing the media, he said that the Ministry has taken the initiative to develop standards for digital processing of passengers at airport to ensure uniform implementation and passenger experience across Indian airports through a connected ecosystem.

  •  DigiYatra will provide a pan-India powerful platform for future, adding that Airports will have the possibility of providing innovative services and consent based targeted services in future. “Any service provider involved in facilitating travel of passenger from door to door will be able to use this platform in future through innovative solutions” he said.

  •  The Minister asserted that the ultimate beneficiary will be the passengers, who will have all the travel related options available to them.

  •  DigiYatra will bring benefits to passengers and all stakeholders involved in the process, as Airport operator will have travel information in advance for better resource planning and the real-time data of passengers within the terminal will enable the operator to take proactive action to avoid congestion.

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::INTERNATIONAL::

India and Kazakhstan enhances Defence and Military Technical Cooperation

  •  Defence minister SmtNirmalaSitharaman was on a three-day visit to Astana, Kazakhstan from October 02, 2018 at the invitation of Minister of Defence of the Republic of Kazakhstan Mr.NurlanYermekbayev.

  •  During the visit they discussed a wide range of issues relating to defence and military technical cooperation and took stock of the progress that this bilateral relationship has made since the renewal of the MoU on defence cooperation in January 2017.

  •  She inspected a Tri-Services Guard of Honour at the Ministry of Defence and also visited the National Defence University where she was shown the Indian Military Art Room (IMAR), which has been established with Indian assistance.

  •  India and Kazakhstan Defence Cooperation includes military-technical cooperation, military education and training, joint military exercises, bilateral exchange of visits and cadet youth exchange programs. Over 200 Kazakh Defence Forces Personnel have undergone military training in India till date. Both countries successfully conducted a company level joint military exercise ‘KAZIND-2018’ in South Kazakhstan, last month.

Saudi Arabia to invest in Gwadar Port

  •  Saudi Arabia will invest in a new oil refinery in Pakistan’s growing deep-sea port of Gwadar, Islamabad announced on Thursday.

  •  The agreement follows a visit last month by Pakistan’s new Prime Minister Imran Khan to the Gulf kingdom as he seeks to attract foreign investment.

  •  The Saudis “have shown interest that they want to immediately invest in (the) refinery”, Petroleum Minister Sarwar Khan said.“This has been agreed from both sides.”

  •  The agreement is set to be signed between Pakistan State Sil and Riyadh’s State oil giant Saudi Aramco.Details of the refinery's costs and capacity are to be worked out later, once a formal memorandum of understanding that was approved by Pakistan's cabinet on Thursday is finalised, he added.

  •  Gwadar’s port is being developed as part of the $60 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), an ambitious plan to build energy and transport links connecting the western Chinese region of Xinjiang with the Arabian Sea via Pakistan, as part of Beijing’s broader Belt and Road initiative.

::SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY::

Department of science & technology to boost solar cooking

  •  The Department of Science and Technology (DST) is commemorating the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi with a project to give a fillip to solar cooking.

  •  As the first of many activities taken up by the government to uphold Gandhi’s ideals, DST has instituted Grand Challenge Awards for the design of solar cooking solutions at both household and community levels to empower rural people.

  •  Explaining the rationale for the competitive invitation, Prof. Ashutosh Sharma, Secretary, DST, said, “The basic solar cooking design has not changed for a long time. Unlike in the case of the solar water heater, which has seen wider acceptance and uptake, we don’t see the same for solar cooking. The challenge is to make solar cooking more user-friendly, functional and cheap,” said.

Health ministry confirms polio vaccines as safe & secure

  •  Recently there are rumors being spread stating not to give polio drops to children upto 5 years as some virus has been found in them.

  •  This rumour was spread in response to some reports in sections of media that bivalent Oral Polio Vaccine supplied by a particular company were found “not of standard quality”.

  •  Use of bivalent Oral Polio Vaccine manufactured by this particular manufacturer has been stopped in the programme. All the stocks of the said manufacturer have been withdrawn.

  •  Procurement from other manufacturers has already started, the ministry said. There was panic after traces of polio II virus eliminated in 1999 were found in the stools of children in Uttar Pradesh. This followed reports that more than one lakh vials of bivalent polio vaccine had been found to be contaminated by polio II virus.

  •  Polio vaccines are absolutely safe and have saved millions of children from disabling effects of polio. All parents must get their children vaccinated against polio to provide protection against polio. Government of India in consultation with WHO has taken all measures to ensure that all vaccines used under the programme are totally safe and effective.

::SPORTS::

Asian games gold medallist wants athletes to be trained like Kenyans

  •  Manjit Singh’s life changed for the better over two laps on the track at Jakarta’s Gelora Bung Karno Stadium. Winning the men’s 800m gold medal at Asian Games 2018, edging out training partner Jinson Johnson to second place, also lifted India’s reputation.

  •  Forty-two nations took part in athletics programme and competition was not only from traditional Asian powers, former Soviet republics competing as independent nations and also from naturalised Africans representing Gulf nations Bahrain and Qatar.

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