Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 10 AUGUST 2019

SSC CGL Current Affairs

::NATIONAL::

The Supreme Court on Friday upheld a central law which empowered harassed home buyers to initiate bankruptcy proceedings against errant real estate builders.
The Act had brought the home buyers on par with the creditor banks of the property builder. Prior to the law, the home buyers were often left in the lurch. With their dreams of owning a home shattered, they were made to wait blindly for a solution to come up, either in the form of a completed apartment or a refund.
Before the Amendment Act of 2018 came into existence, the assets of the bankrupt builder were divided among his employees, creditor banks and other operational creditors. Home buyers had hardly figured, though their hard-earned savings may have provided a major chunk of the housing project.
The Amendment Act allowed home buyers, as financial creditors, to trigger bankruptcy proceedings under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code of 2016 and have their “rightful place” on the Committee of Creditors (CoC). The CoC, by voting, makes important decisions on the future of the bankrupt builder. These calls include what to do with his assets and who should finish the pending housing projects.

“The Health Ministry has drawn an ambitious plan under the 100 days agenda of the newly elected government, wherein it has been decided to provide Rotavirus vaccine to every child across all States and Union Territories by September, 2019,” Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said on Friday.
He said diarrhoea was one of the biggest killers in children and Rotavirus was one of the most common causes of severe diarrhoea in children less than 2 years of age.
“Rotavirus vaccine along with proper sanitation, hand washing practices, ORS and zinc supplementation will go a long way in reducing the mortality and morbidity due to diarrhoea in children,” the Minister said. The government was also committed to increasing the full immunisation coverage and ensuring that the benefit of the life-saving vaccines was provided to every child.
In India, every year, 37 out of every 1,000 children born are unable to celebrate their 5th birthday, and one of the major reasons for this is diarrhoeal deaths. Out of all the causes of diarrhoea, Rotavirus is a leading cause of diarrhoea in children less than 5 years of age.

The government could risk missing its record Rs. 1.05 lakh crore divestment target that has been set for the current financial year as foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) could stay away from such share sales if the ongoing tax concerns are not resolved soon, according to capital market participants.
The participants, who met Finance Minister NirmalaSitharaman on Friday, also urged her to address the liquidity concerns of non-banking finance companies (NBFCs) — especially those focussed on consumer spending — before the festive season begins, to spur overall consumption growth in the country.
According to persons familiar with the deliberations, the government has taken the suggestions ‘positively’ and has hinted that it would take all possible steps to revive overseas investor interest in the Indian capital markets.
In the Union Budget 2019-20, the Finance Minister introduced a surcharge for individuals earning more than Rs. 2 crore. However, FPIs became the collateral damage of the proposal as bulk of such investors structure themselves as trusts or a Limited Liability Partnership (LLP) that are not recognised as a corporate entity by the Income Tax Act and hence are taxed as per the individual tax slabs based on their earnings.

India and Bangladesh have agreed to set up a Joint Technical committee for optimum utilisation of Ganges water as being received by Bangladesh under the Ganga Water Sharing Treaty 1996.
After the Secretary-level meeting in Dhaka yesterday, both the countries also agreed to prepare a framework for interim water-sharing agreement for eight rivers including Feni, Gumti and Teesta. Both the countries also discussed issues related to pollution of trans boundary rivers.
The Secretary-level meeting was held after a gap of more than 8 years. It is an important step in enhancing bilateral cooperation in the water resources sector between India and Bangladesh.

International Monetary Fund, IMF, has warned that increasing United States tariffs could cut China's growth sharply. China's economy is slowing already due to the trade conflict with the United States.
The IMF trimmed its growth forecast for China to 6.2 percent this year, assuming no new tariffs are imposed. But in the past week US President Donald Trump announced a new round of punitive tariffs on Chinese goods, despite a truce agreed with Chinese President Xi Jinping in May, and Beijing responded by halting all purchases of US agricultural goods.
Trump has accused Beijing of trying to keep its currency weaker to gain a trade advantage against the United States.

In the wake of an unprecedented flood-like situation and record rainfall this season, the State government will constitute a task force comprising local and global experts to study impact of climate change on Mumbai.
The task force will study measures taken against flooding and unplanned reclamation in cities such as Venice, Geneva and London, and coordinate with the European Climate Change Programme of the European Union to prepare a blueprint. The task force will be set up by the environment department in coordination with Mumbai First, a not-for-profit, policy-influencing think tank, officials said.
NarinderNayar, chairman, Mumbai First, said the proposal for the task force has been sent to the government while only the last-minute modalities are remaining.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) today agreed to come under the ambit of the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA). This landmark decision makes Indian Cricket's governing body a sports federation as per government norms despite being financially autonomous.
The implication of this development is expected to be massive as BCCI now becomes a designated National Sports Federation and will face more pressure to come under the government's Right to Information Act.