Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 11 MARCH 2019
::NATIONAL::
Loksabha elections announced, to be held in 7 phases
- The largest festival of democracy in the world will begin from
11th of next month when India goes to polls to elect the 17th LokSabha
of the country. Ninety crore electorates of 29 states and 7 Union
territories will elect 543 LokSabha members in seven phases from 11th
April to 19th May.
- Simultaneously, Assembly elections in Andhra Pradesh, Odisha,
Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh will also take place. The Model Code of
Conduct has come into force in the entire country with the announcement
of the polls.
- Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora announced the poll
schedule in New Delhi last evening. He said the counting will be held on
the 23rd of May. Twenty-two states and Union Territories will have
single phase elections, while 4 states will go to polls in two phases.
- States undergoing three phases are Assam and Chhattisgarh, and
Jharkhand while Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Odisha will have four
phase polling. Jammu and Kashmir will have five phases and West Bengal,
Bihar and Uttar Pradesh will have seven phases.
- In the first phase, 91 Parliamentary constituencies in 20
states and in the 2nd phase 97 Parliamentary constituencies in 13 states
will go to polls. 115 constituencies in 14 states will go to polls in
the third phase while 71 constituencies in 9 states will go to polls in
4th phase.
- Chief Election Commissioner said assembly elections in Jammu
and Kashmir will not be held with the LokSabha elections. Election
Commission has decided to appoint three special observers for effective
monitoring of LokSabha polls in Jammu and Kashmir. Chief Election
Commissioner said extensive preparations have been made for the polls.
PM lauds CISF personnel on their golden jubilee
- Prime Minister NarendraModi has said, the role of security
forces like Central Industrial Security Forces, CISF becomes very
significant when the country faces a hostile neighbour.
- He said, the country's security becomes very challenging when
the neighbour is hostile and incapable of fighting a war.
- The Prime Minister made it very clear that terrorism shows its
face in different forms when the conspiracies to hit the nation
internally find a safe haven.
- Mr Modi was addressing the 50th Raising Day ceremony of CISF
at Indirapuram in Ghaziabad district of Uttar Pradesh on Sunday.
- The Prime Minister said, the CISF personnel are protecting the
country's developmental growth by maintaining round the clock vigil. He
recalled the services rendered by the CISF personnel not only in the
country but also abroad in times of humanitarian crisis.
- Hailing the role of CISF in securing the critical
infrastructure of the country, Prime Minister said that the force is
also involved in disaster response, ensuring safety of women and many
other activities. In this context, Prime Minister spoke about the
disaster relief operations of CISF during Kerala floods and also during
Nepal and Haiti earthquake
- The Prime Minister said that his government is committed
towards ensuring the safety of its security forces. In this context he
mentioned about the initiatives of the Government to modernize the
forces and the actions taken for their welfare.
- Stating that duty is the festival for the armed forces, Prime
Minister said that the role of CISF has increased, due to the challenges
posted by terrorism. He added that his government is committed towards
eliminating terrorism.
::ECONOMY::
RBI says it does not have data on use of demonetised notes at petrol
pumps
- The RBI in reply to an RTI query said it has no data on the
old 500 and 1,000 rupee notes used to pay for utility bills such as fuel
at petrol pumps, which are believed to have formed a good part of the
demonetised currency that returned to the banking system.
- After the November 8, 2016 shock decision to ban the use of
old 500 and 1,000 rupee notes, the government had allowed the exchange
of the junked notes as well as they being used for payment of utility
bills for 23 services.
- On November 25, 2016, the exchange of old notes was stopped
and the government allowed the use of only old 500 rupee notes at these
utilities till December 15, 2016. The government, however, stopped the
use of even this currency at petrol pumps and for the purchase of air
tickets at airports abruptly with effect from December 2, 2016, after
reports that they are becoming fronts for laundering of old currency
notes.
- As much as 99.3% of the junked ₹500 and ₹1,000 notes have
returned to the banking system, the RBI had stated in August last year,
indicating that just a minuscule percentage of currency was left out of
the system after the government’s unprecedented note ban aimed at
curbing black money and corruption.
- “The facility of exchange of Specified Bank Notes at banks’
counter was available up to November 24, 2016,” it said. Specified Bank
Notes or SBN is the term used to denote the demonetised currency which
was allowed to be deposited in bank accounts till December 30, 2016.
IRDAI issues draft (Conflict of Interest) Guidelines, 2019
- A set of guidelines to address conflicts of interest arising
from appointment of common directors in the insurance sector is on the
cards with the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India
issuing an exposure draft.
- The draft IRDAI (Conflict of Interest) Guidelines, 2019
prescribes do’s and don’ts in the event of there being common directors
between insurance firms, insurance company and insurance intermediaries
and common promoters of health and general insurers.
- Where a promoter of a general insurance company wants to be a
promoter of a health insurance company or vice versa, the application
for issuance of requisition of registration certificate filed by such
promoter needs to be accompanied by a note approved by the board of
directors. The note should detail the manner in which segregation of
business between the general insurer and the standalone health insurer
would take place.
- In cases where the insurer becomes aware of the conflict of
interest situation, “immediate steps shall be taken by the insurer to
ensure the powers/authority delegated to such a director or officer is
ceased and he/she is not allowed to participate in the day-to-day
activities.” An enquiry, headed by an independent director, is also to
be conducted and if found guilty, the director or officer would no
longer be “fit and proper” to continue.
- Common directorships among insurance firms; an insurance
company and its promoter company; and insurance firms and insurance
intermediaries will be subject to conditions.
- No permission, would, however, be needed when the common
director is an independent director in both the companies under the same
group and where the annual remuneration is below ₹10 lakh.
::INTERNATIONAL::
Palestinian authority names new Prime minister
- Mohammad Shtayyeh has been named as Palestinian Prime Minister
by President of Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas. A member of the
West Bank's dominant Fatah party is a long time ally of Abbas.
- The announcement comes six weeks after Rami al-Hamdallah
tendered his resignation from the post and of his unity government to
President Mahmoud Abbas, underscoring the failure of Hamas and Fatah to
implement a power-sharing deal.
- Quoting Presidential spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh, Palestinian
news agency, Wafa, has said, Abbas received Shtayyeh, a member of the
central committee of the president's Fatah party, at his office
yesterday and asked him to form a new government.
- Some analysts view the appointment of 61-year-old Shtayyeh as
part of Abbas's efforts to further isolate Hamas, a rival political
group that runs the besieged Gaza Strip.
- Shtayyeh, a former government minister, has been part of a
number of Palestinian negotiating teams in the United States-brokered
talks with Israel and is a former Minister.
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
High quality single layered graphene produced
- Researchers at Delhi’s National Physical Laboratory (CSIR-NPL)
have designed a low-pressure chemical vapour deposition (LPCVD) device
that allows high quality, single-layer graphene measuring 4 inches in
length and 2 inches in width to be grown. The quality of the
single-layer graphene is metrology-grade, and can be used in
next-generation quantum devices.
- The LPCVD device developed indigenously costs about
Rs.5,00,000, which is one-tenth of the imported ones. More importantly,
the quality of the single-layer graphene grown using this device is
superior than the ones reported in the literature.
- By growing single-layer graphene of high quality repeatedly
for up to 30 times, the team led by Dr.Bipin Kumar Gupta from the
Advanced Materials and Devices Metrology Division at NPL has
demonstrated reproducibility. Results of the study were published in ACS
Omega.
- “It is possible to grow single-layer graphene measuring 6x4
square-inches but the quality will not be as good as when we grow
graphene of smaller dimensions,” says Dr. Gupta.
- This is because when attempts are made to grow larger graphene
single layers, it is difficult to control the diffusion of carbon atoms
which get deposited on the copper substrate. This compromises the
quality of graphene single layer produced.
- Generally, LPCVD devices have three mass flow meters through
which hydrogen, argon and hydrocarbon gases are supplied to grow the
graphene. Since the mass flow meters are expensive, Dr. Gupta’s team
replaced two such meters that supply argon and hydrocarbon with
calibrated rotameters.
::SPORTS::
Kavindersingh wins gold in Finland boxing
- Kavinder Singh Bisht in the 56kg-category struck gold while
Shiva Thapa in the 60kg category and three others claimed silver medals
to end a fine Indian campaign at the 38th GeeBee Boxing Tournament in
Helsinki, Finland on Sunday.
- Signing off with silver medals were three-time Asian medallist
Shiva Thapa, GovindSahani, Commonwealth Games bronze-medallist Mohammed
Hussamuddin and Dinesh Dagar.
- In a rare all-Indian final, a gritty Bisht was up against
Commonwealth Games bronze-medallist Hussamuddin in the 56kg summit
clash. Both the boxers are from the Services Sports Control Board.
