Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 08 March 2019

::NATIONAL::

The Parliamentary Panel on Information and Technology has directed the social media platforms Facebook, Whatsapp and Instagram to ensure that their platforms are not used to incite violence or to meddle in the LokSabha election.
Importantly we told them to ensure that there should not be any foreign interference in our election,” Anurag Thakur, Chairman of Parliamentary committee of IT told The Hindu .Mr. Thakur added that the Facebook has agreed to have regular meetings with the Election Commission.
According to sources, the panel members grilled officials of Facebook. “The question is Facebook a technology company advertising firm, a media firm or marketing firm? They were not able to give us any clear answer to this fundamental question,” a member told. The Facebook according to sources said that they are a “hybrid company”.

The government has plugged a loophole that allowed the import of plastic waste into India for processing.
“Solid plastic waste has been prohibited from import into the country including in Special Economic Zones (SEZ) and by Export Oriented Units (EOU),” the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) Environment Ministry said in an order made public on Wednesday.
The change in law was part of the Hazardous and Other Wastes (Management &Transboundary Movement) Amendment Rules, 2019.
In spite of having a significant plastic pollution load of its own, and a ban on plastic waste imports, imported PET bottles from abroad for processing in Special Economic Zones (SEZ).
“Indian firms are importing plastic scrap from China, Italy, Japan and Malawi for recycling and the imports of PET bottle scrap & flakes has increased from 12,000 tonnes in FY 16-17 to 48,000 tonnes in FY 17-18 growing @ 290%. India has already imported 25,000 MT in the first 3 months of FY 18-19,” a note by the organisation revealed.
India consumes about 13 million tonnes of plastic and recycles only about 4 million tonnes. To incentivise domestic plastic recycling units, the government had banned the import of plastic waste, particularly PET bottles, in 2015. In 2016, an amendment allowed such imports as long as they were carried out by agencies situated in SEZs.

Capacity addition in the wind energy sector will slow down over fiscal 2019 to 2023, with only 14-16 GW being added due to a decline in bid responses and profitability of original equipment manufacturers, according to a report by Crisil.
“The shift to a competitive bidding mechanism has slowed industry growth due to a significant fall in tariffs, triggering a decline in both bid response and profitability for original equipment manufacturers (OEMs).”
The shift to a competitive bidding mechanism in the wind energy sector has resulted in tariffs falling to Rs. 2.4-2.6 per unit, from Rs. 4-4.5 per unit under the feed-in tariff regime.
“Crisil Research expects capacity addition of 14-16 GW over fiscal 2019 to 2023, entailing investments of about Rs. 1,10,000 crore,” Crisil said in the report.
“Capacity additions will primarily be driven by central government allocations with relatively stronger counterparties such as Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) and PTC India, reducing risk compared with direct exposure to state discoms.”
State auctioning, on the other hand, has slowed as several States have signed power supply agreements (PSAs) with PTC and SECI to procure wind power under the schemes auctioned by them, to help fulfill their non-solar renewable purchase obligations (RPO) targets, according to Crisil Research.

China has stepped up its diplomacy to ease tensions between India and Pakistan following the Pulwama attack by sending its special envoy to Islamabad.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang said on Wednesday that Vice-Foreign Minister Kong Xuanyou was already in Islamabad to establish an “enabling atmosphere” that would help Pakistan to cooperate with “other parties”.
Mr. Lu said Mr. Kong’s mission was to “promote dialogue” between India and Pakistan by persuading both sides to exercise flexibility. “I hope the two sides can show some goodwill, embrace each other halfway, properly resolve their differences through dialogue. China will play a constructive role to promote dialogue between them.”
India has made it plain that it would start a dialogue only if Pakistan takes visible and verifiable steps to eliminate terrorism that targets India from its soil. “In fact, Pakistan has been making efforts and exercised policies to combat terrorism. We think we should encourage this,” Mr. Lu said.

The European Union will continue to cooperate with Iran toward peace and stability in the Middle East region and the entire world.
The European Commission Secretary-General Martin Selmayr said in Washington yesterday that Iran's cooperation is a must in ensuring peace and stability in the Middle East.
Last month, EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad JavadZarif at a meeting expressed their commitment to cooperate for further implementation of the Instrument in Support of Trade Exchanges (INSTEX) with Iran, which allows bypassing US sanctions.
US sanctions against Tehran were reinstated in 2018 after the United States withdrew from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which provided for the relief of economic sanctions against Tehran in return for Iran's pledge to keep its nuclear program peacefull.