Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 08 April 2021

SSC CGL Current Affairs

::NATIONAL::

Electrification of West Central Railway zone completed on 30th March, becomes Indian railway zone to be completed electrified.
Inspection and commissioning of Kota-Chittaurgarh rail line was carried out by respective CCRS (Chief Commissioner of Railway Safety) official, last line to be electrified in west central railway zone.
West central railway zone, head quartered in Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh is 3012 Km length, it is first of 18 railway zones to achieve 100 per cent electrification, while other railway zones are also picking up their electrification rates.
Recently, Eastern Railway achieved complete electrification of Nimmita – New Farakka railway section in the state of West Bengal, like wise South Western railway completed electrification of 162 Km across various locations in Karnataka and Goa.
In this year alone, 5,900 Kms of railway line has been electrified, highest ever done by Indian railways, Minister PiyushGoyal said in a Board member review meeting, last week.

Diplomats from major powers met separately on Wednesday with Iran and the United States to discuss how to bring both back into compliance with the 2015 nuclear deal that Washington abandoned three years ago.
Neither the United States nor Iran expect fast breakthroughs in the talks that began in Vienna on Tuesday, with European and other diplomats acting as intermediaries because Tehran rejects face-to-face talks for now.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew from the deal, which lifted economic sanctions on Iran in return for curbs to its nuclear program. He reimposed U.S. sanctions, prompting Iran in turn to violate the accord’s atomic limits.
The deal’s remaining parties - Iran, Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia - agreed on Tuesday to form two expert-level groups whose job is to marry lists of sanctions that the United States could lift with nuclear obligations Iran should meet.
Diplomats said the working groups, which are chaired by the European Union and exclude the United States, met on Wednesday and suggested they would know in a matter of weeks whether they might bear fruit before Iran’s June 18 presidential elections.
U.S. officials said they had been briefed on the meetings.
“The team on the ground in Vienna has had consultations with our European allies as well as with our Russian and Chinese partners. They in turn have met with the Iranian delegation,” U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price said in Washington.

The cabinet approved 10,738 crore production-linked incentive (PLI) schemes for solar modules and white goods as part of the overall 1.97 lakh crore PLI series under the government’s plan to make India a global manufacturing hub.
While 4,500 crore was allocated for manufacturing of high-efficiency solar modules, a 6,238 crore outlay was approved for white goods -- air conditioners and LED lights. The Union budget on February 1 committed 1.97 lakh crore under PLI schemes for 13 key sectors.
The PLI series is an effort of the NarendraModi government to synergise India’s resources to make it an international manufacturing destination and an important part of the global supply chain, commerce and industry minister PiyushGoyal said after the cabinet meeting.
Goyal said the seven PLI schemes already approved had received an encouraging response from investors. Scheme for electronic components and mobile manufacturing received 16 applications and 35,000 crore was already sanctioned.
The PLI scheme for white goods shall extend an incentive of 4-6% on incremental sales of goods manufactured in India for a period of five years to companies engaged in manufacturing of air conditioners and LED lights, a second statement said. “Selection of companies for the scheme shall be done so as to incentivise manufacturing of components or sub-assemblies which are not manufactured in India presently with sufficient capacity.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) confirms the possibility of transmission of Covid-19 from humans to cats, dogs, minks, raccoon dogs, lions and tigers, WHO representative to Russia MelitaVujnovic.
"The Covid-19 virus spreads mainly through human-to-human transmission, but there is evidence of human-to-animal transmission as it is a zoonotic virus," Vujnovic said in an interview to Sputnik.
The WHO representative also said that an "intermediate host" has not yet been identified.
"Several animals -- minks, dogs, domestic cats, lions, tigers and raccoon dogs -- who have come into contact with infected people, have tested positive for Covid-19. The process of studying the effect of the virus on other species of animals is underway," Vujnovic added.
In addition, the health expert said that it is important to understand which animals are most "susceptible to the virus in order to find other potential animal reservoirs and avoid future outbreaks".

India will compete in more than one sailing event in an Olympics for the first time after Vishnu Saravanan on Thursday qualified for the Tokyo Games in Laser STD Class after finishing second in the Asian Qualifier in Oman.
NethraKumanan on Wednesday became the first Indian woman sailor to qualify for the Games in Tokyo in the laser radial event in the Mussanah Open Championship, which is an Asian Olympic qualifying event.
Saravanan, who was third till the penultimate day on Wednesday, won the medal race on Thursday to jump to second place overall and book a Tokyo Olympics quota.