Current Affairs For SSC CGL Exam - 06 March, 2014

Current Affairs For SSC CGL Exam

The offshore areas of Kerala hold enough sand resources to meet the requirements of the construction industry in the State for about 50 years,according to a study by the Geological Survey of India.
The authors, including A.C. Dinesh, P. Praveen Kumar, N.M. Shareef and C. Jayaprakash of the Marine and Coastal Survey division, GSI, have identified five sectors in the offshore waters of Kerala, namely Ponnani, Chavakkad, Alappuzha, Kollam North, and Kollam South, with an estimated resource of 2,030 million tonnes of sand suitable for construction industry.
The study came in the wake of resistance by fisherfolk to a proposal by the State government to exploit sea sand resources as a substitute for river sand to feed the construction industry.

India is looking for an undersea route to source gas from Iran, bypassing Pakistan in the process, that is called “Peace Pipeline”. This pipeline, was now technically feasible after the success of the North Sea undersea pipeline.
If Iran was looking at the cheapest way to get gas to customers, it would prefer European customers. But what Iran had in mind was providing spillover benefits of the surface pipeline to the region it passes through,
especially the Makran Plateau common to both Pakistan and Iran and where poverty has fuelled subversive tendencies.
And, the sources suggested that the future of the IPI pipeline was entwined with the Chah-bahar port as Iran was keen to ensure that this town and the surrounding region of Sistan-Baluchistan Province also gained from the availability of gas.
Just 72 km from the Pakistani port of Gwadar being built with Chinese help, the first phase of developing the Chah-bahar port is nearly over.
India and Iran have held several rounds of talks on sharing operations and developing the port.
The biggest problem is despite deep energy and civilisational links, India and Iran are unfamiliar with each other’s processes and systems of doing business in other areas.

Olympic bronze medallist Saina Nehwal emerged as the lone survivor at the $400,000 All England Championship, thrashing Scotland’s Kirsty Gilmour in straight-games to reach the second round even as compatriot P.V. Sindhu fell by the wayside.
The 23-year-old notched up an easy 21-15 21-6 win over Gilmour in a women’s singles match to bring some smiles back to the Indian camp after men’s singles players Parupalli Kashyap, Kidambi Srikanth and mixed doubles pair of Tarun Kona and Ashwini Ponnappa lost in the opening round.
World No. 10, Sindhu too found the going tough and her debut at the All England was spoilt by Sun Yu of China in another women’s singles match.

Sports minister Jitendra Singh inaugurated the National Cycling Academy at the Indira Gandhi Sports Complex and launched a project to create swimming pools at three separate stadiums in the capital.
At an estimated cost of `907.50 lakhs, the project of creating swimming pools will come up at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, Indira Gandhi Sports Complex and Karni Singh Shooting Range.
On the occasion, Singh also launched a Community Connect Scheme to include sports and recreational facilities in the JNS, IGSC and the SP Mukherjee Swimming Complex.
The academy will be financed by the Union government, and the sports ministry through SAI with a long-term perspective of making it a top notch institution, which is financially independent and a self-sustaining venture.

The recent NATO airstrike in Afghanistan’s central Logar province killed 5 Afghan National Army soldiers and wounded another 17.
If it turns out that a NATO strike killed ANA troops, it is likely to set Afghan President Hamid Karzai on another attack against U.S. and NATO soldiers in his country. The President has been deeply critical of civilian deaths by international forces.