Current Affairs For SSC CGL Exam - 12 December, 2013

Current Affairs For SSC CGL Exam

The Food Ministry is making efforts to seek before Christmas the Union Cabinet’s nod for the bailout package for the sugar industry that includes a Rs. 7200-crore interest-free loan.
An informal Group of Ministers (GoM), headed by Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, proposed the package last week to enable the millers to clear the cane arrears and tide over the present financial crisis.
“The proposal is likely to be sent to the Cabinet before Christmas. Our department is preparing a note, which will be discussed in the GoM before being taken to the Cabinet,’’ Minister of State (Independent) K.V.
Thomas told journalists on the sidelines of the Indian Sugar Mills Association’s 79th Annual General Meeting.

G8 members will work together to find a cure or modifying therapy for dementia by 2025, British Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said Wednesday, after a summit of Health Ministers and experts in London.
A dementia envoy is also to be appointed, he said, to be responsible for bringing together international expertise and attracting research funding, including from private companies.
Dementia, which impairs cognitive ability, affects 36 million people around the world and the WHO expects this number to almost double every two decades as the population ages.

With sounds of reggae beats coming from the streets where thousands of people waved rainbow flags, the Uruguayan Senate passed a law on Tuesday night allowing the citizens of this South American country to grow, sell and smoke marijuana.
The bill, passed after 11 hours of heated debate, is aimed at wresting the business from criminals. This experiment is being watched by several countries, which are getting tired of the U.S.-led “war on drugs” and working on drug liberalisation policies.
Though consumption of marijuana is allowed in some countries, Uruguay has become the first country in the world to allow its citizens to grow and sell it. “We begin a new experience in April.
The government-sponsored bill, approved by 16-13 votes in the Senate, would allow cannabis consumers to buy 40 grams each month from state-regulated pharmacies as long as they are 18 years and registered on a government database.
The law would also allow Uruguayan citizens to grow up to six plants of marijuana in their homes a year and set up smoking clubs of 15 to 45 members that could grow up to 99 plants every year.

Pope Francis has been named Person of the Year 2013 by Time magazine for changing the perception of the Catholic Church within just nine months.
Time said the first non-European Pope in 1,200 years is poised to transform a place that measures change by the century.
“For pulling the papacy out of the palace and into the streets and for balancing judgement with mercy, Pope Francis is TIME’s 2013 Person of the Year,” the magazine’s Managing Editor Nancy Gibbs said.