Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 06 MAY 2019
::NATIONAL::
SC denies meeting of senior judges with Bobde committee
- The Supreme Court today denied a media report that said justices
RF Nariman and DY Chandrachud met Justice SA Bobde who is heading an
in-house committee inquiring into the sexual harassment allegations against
Chief Justice of India RanjanGogoi.
- The apex court, in a statement, termed the report that the two
judges met Justice Bobde on Friday evening as wholly incorrect. The
statement, has been issued from the office of the Supreme Court's Secretary
General.
- The statement further said, the in-house committee which is
deliberating on the issue concerning the CJI deliberates on its own without
any input from any other judge of the apex court.
- A newspaper report today claimed that justices Nariman and
Chandrachud had met Justice Bobde and expressed their view that the
three-member committee should not go ahead with the proceeding ex parte.
Cyclone FANI destroys portions of historic Puri temple
- Parts of the 12th century Shree Jagannath temple in Puri were
damaged as Cyclone Fani ripped through the holy town on Friday, officials
said on Sunday.
- “The main structure remains unaffected. We will request the ASI to
inspect the shrine,” P.K. Mohapatra, the chief administrator of Shree
Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA), said
- Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, who visited Puri twice since the
cyclone struck on May 3, on Sunday visited Penthakata, the fishermen’s
colony along the coast.
- Announcing a relief package, he said all families in Puri and in
parts of Khurda that had been “extremely severely affected” in the storm
will get 50 kg of rice, Rs. 2,000 in cash and polythene sheets, if covered
under the Food Security Act (FSA).
::ECONOMY::
Whatsapp payment only to be launched after complying with RBI guidelines
- Instant messaging app WhatsApp on Friday told the Supreme Court
that it is conducting a trial run of its payment service and will comply
with RBI norms on data localisation before launching the full service.
- A bench of Justices R.F. Nariman and Vineet Saran was hearing a
plea filed by an NGO, Centre for Accountability and Systemic Change (CASC),
which has claimed that WhatsApp has not fully complied with RBI’s circular
which prescribed data localisation norms.
- Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre, said
that WhatsApp was not complying with data localisation norms which is
evident from the affidavit filed by the RBI.
- WhatsApp reportedly has over 200 million users in India and almost
one million people are “testing” its payments service. India is one of the
largest bases for the Facebook-owned company that has over 1.5 billion users
globally.
- The petition also alleged that the social media giant does not
comply with tax and other laws of India, but its reach was such that it is
used by everyone, be it a commoner or even the judges of the apex court.
U.S, Canada are the most favoured tourist destinations this summer
- The U.S., Canada and Australia are the most favoured destinations
for educational and family-friendly vacations for Indian tourists this
summer, according to a survey.
- As per the data revealed by leading travel search engine KAYAK
this year, Houston topped the list as the most trending international
family-friendly destination, recording the highest year-on-year search
growth of 151% on its platforms.
- Boston bagged the second spot with a significant increase in
year-on-year search growth at 103%, while Los Angeles was trending at third
position with 87% year-on-year growth.
- Melbourne was at fourth position with 51% year-on-year search
growth and Toronto at fifth position with 44% rise.
- “This summer, KAYAK looked through its data and identified the top
trending destinations that are family-friendly, such as Houston, Boston, Los
Angeles, Melbourne and Toronto,” said Abhijit Mishra, regional director,
APAC of KAYAK.
- As a leading travel search engine, KAYAK searches other sites to
show travellers the information they need to find the right flights, hotels,
rental cars, and holiday packages. KAYAK is an independently managed
subsidiary of Booking Holdings Inc.
::INTERNATIONAL::
India-Australia expands counter terrorism cooperation
- India and Australia have agreed to further deepen
counter-terrorism co-operation through regular exchange of information and
sharing of best practices on countering extremism and radicalization.
- The two countries held the 11th Meeting of Joint Working Group on
Counter-Terrorism at Canberra yesterday. In a release, the External Affairs
Ministry said, the two sides discussed contemporary counter terrorism
challenges such as financing of terrorism, the use of the internet for
terror purposes, radicalization and Foreign Terrorist Fighters.
- Both sides welcomed the listing of Masood Azhar, leader of the
Jaish-e-Mohammad, as a Global Terrorist by the UNSC 1267 Sanctions
Committee.
::SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY::
Scientists identify reasons for drying up of north eastern part of India
- Northeast India, one of the wettest places on the Earth has been
experiencing rapid drying, especially in the last 30 years. Some places
which used to get as high as 3,000 mm of rain during the monsoon season have
seen a drop of about 25-30%.
- A team of researchers from the Indian Institute of Tropical
Meteorology, Pune, and Assam University set out to understand whether this
decline is caused by anthropogenic activity or is it part of natural
changes.
- Just like El Nino/La Nina in the tropical Pacific, PDO has a
signature for a longer time (on the decadal scale) in the sea surface
temperatures and its interaction with the atmosphere, which in turn affects
the northeast Indian summer monsoon.
- The team used observed rainfall and sea surface temperature data
for the period 1901-2014 for the study. The results show out that the
reduction in rainfall during a major part of the last 114 years may be
associated with global man-made factors, while the trend during the last 36
years is associated with natural phenomena.
- “Only about 7% of the rainfall in this region is associated with
local moisture recycling, which means that anthropogenic activities can
affect only this small percentage. So we concluded that the recent rapid
drying is a part of interdecadal variability of monsoonal rainfall which is
strongly associated with the PDO,” says Subodh Kumar Saha from IITM, Pune.
- The researchers note that this study can be used to predict the
monsoon rainfall over the northeast region on a decadal time scale using
Pacific Ocean region data.
