Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 09 JULY 2019

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::NATIONAL::

The UN Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR) on Monday said India and Pakistan had failed to improve the situation in Kashmir and not taken any concrete steps to address the numerous concerns raised in its earlier report.
The update made wide ranging recommendations to the governments of India and Pakistan, and urged the Human Rights Council (HRC) to explore possibilities of setting up an international commission of inquiry into the allegations of human rights abuse in Kashmir.
India said the report had extended legitimacy to cross-border terrorism emanating from Pakistan. “It is a matter of deep concern that this update seems to accord a legitimacy to terrorism that is in complete variance with UN Security Council positions,” said External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar. He described the report as part of the continued “motivated narrative” against Indian sovereignty and integrity.
Mr. Kumar said the update referred to terror outfits such as Jaish-e-Mohammed as “armed groups”, and reminded that the UN Security Council had blamed the group for the February 14, 2019 Pulwama terror attack that led to a deterioration in India-Pakistan ties.
India also said the update had distorted its policy on the Kashmir issue and failed to recognise that the Indian state ensured justice through a strong judiciary and a national human rights mechanism.

National Green Tribunal, NGT has asked states of Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh as to how they intend to tackle the problem of crop burning, a major contributor to air pollution in Delhi, this year.
A bench headed by NGT Chairperson Justice AK Goel asked the three states to file progress reports indicating the strategies and proposed action plan to tackle the problem.
The direction by the tribunal came following news reports on deaths caused in the national capital due to air pollution, and crop burning being one of the reasons for the poor air quality.
The bench said the issue for consideration before it was the remedial action needed to tackle air pollution caused by crop burning.
The tribunal referred to the news reports while hearing a plea by Ganga Lalwani seeking direction to provide machinery to poor and marginal farmers to avoid crop residue burning.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) board, which met in New Delhi, finalised a three- year roadmap to improve regulation and supervision, among other functions of the central bank.
This medium term strategy — named Utkarsh 2022 is in line with the global central banks’ plan to strengthen the regulatory and supervisory mechanism, sources aware of the board meeting told.
An internal committee was formed, which was anchored by outgoing Deputy Governor Viral Acharya, to identify issues that needed to be addressed over the next three years.
While around a dozen areas were identified by the committee, some board members felt that areas could be filtered and lesser number of areas can be identified for implementation in the next three years.
In a statement after the board meeting, the RBI said the board finalised the three -year medium-term strategy document of the Reserve Bank, ‘which covered, inter-alia, its mission and vision statement.’
The board also approved the RBI’s budget for the July 2019—June 2020 period. Other matters discussed by the board included issues relating to currency management and payment systems, the statement added.

International Monetary Fund has said, Pakistan is facing significant economic challenges due to a weak and unbalanced growth adding that it needs an ambitious and bold set of reforms.
Cash-strapped Pakistan had approached the Washington-based International Monetary Fund (IMF) in August last year for a bailout package after the Imran Khan government took over. Currently, it has a currency reserve of less than 8 billion US Dollars, enough to cover only 1.7 months of imports.
The global lender last week formally approved the 6 billion US Dollar loan to Pakistan, the 13th since the late 1980s.In an accompanying report, the IMF said that Pakistan's economy is at a critical juncture.
Pakistan has so far received billions in financial aid packages from friendly countries like China, Saudi Arabia and the UAE during the current fiscal year.

To reduce air pollution in Delhi, the Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority (EPCA) requested the Supreme Court to intervene in the “grossly inadequate” public transport infrastructure of the city.
In a ‘special report’ submitted to the SC on July 1, the EPCA urged it to intervene for the approval of Phase IV of Delhi Metro, which is stuck between the Central and Delhi governments. It also requested the SC to ask the government to speed up the process to purchase more buses.
“Cities like Beijing have 107 buses per lakh people while Delhi has 17 buses per lakh people,” the report stated. The proposal for phase IV of Delhi Metro was submitted in 2014 and work was to begin by 2016 and “further delay will cost the city enormously”, the report said.
The EPCA said there are four issues between the governments — taxes, sharing of land cost, bearing operational cost and repayment of JICA loan.
Two of these are “notional”, the report stated, adding that the Centre says operational cost should be borne by the Delhi government while the latter demands a 50:50 share. The DMRC stated that the costs involved in the project costs would increase with delay.
Delhi Dialogue and Development Commission vice-chairperson Jasmine Shah said, “We are in the process of procurement of 4,000 buses and 1,000-1,500 buses will hit the roads by December 2019 and the rest in 2020.”

In Badminton, former Commonwealth Games champion Parupalli Kashyap's impressive run at the Canada Open Super 100 tournament came to an end after he lost a three-game thriller to China's Li Shi Feng in the men's singles summit clash in Calgary.
Sixth-seed Kashyap, who has produced some gritty performances this week, fell short against Feng, going down 22-20 14-21 17-21 in the finals that clocked an hour and 16 minutes.
Kashyap had reached the semifinals of the India Open early this year and the final finish at Canada Open is his best performance of the season.