Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 12 July 2015

:: National ::

India stands second on trust in national government, says survey

India has secured second position amongst 40 countries in a survey of trust in national governments for 2014 conducted by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Switzerland has emerged at the top with Norway coming in third.
An impressive 73 per cent of Indians polled in the survey answered ‘yes’ to the question ‘Do you have confidence in the national government?’
For the purpose of the survey, trust represents the confidence of citizens and businesses in government to do what is right and perceived as fair, according to the OECD ‘Government at a Glance 2015’ report.
However, the survey findings could also be an indicator of the popularity of Prime Minister Narendra Modi – as also reflected in his decisive electoral victory during 2014 – relative to the leaders in other countries as the report mentions that there is preliminary evidence to suggest that citizens’ trust in government reflects primarily their approval of their country’s leadership.
The report goes on to say that evidence also shows that trust in government is negatively correlated with the perceived levels of corruption in Government.
This is the only survey that collects data on the issue of trust in governments. It is a sampling survey of 1,000 citizens in each country conducted by World Poll, which has been doing it since 2005.
Between the two selected survey years of 2007 — the year before the financial and economic crisis started — and 2014, trust levels in India dropped by 9 percentage points.
The average confidence in national governments across OECD countries between the two years declined by 3.3 percentage points. It was 41.8 per cent in 2014 compared with 45.2 per cent in 2007.
The steepest declines took place in Slovenia (30 percentage points), Finland (29 percentage points) and Spain (27 percentage points).
Changes in trust levels could be affected by many factors, including the economic outlook, political changes such as elections or other major events such as disasters or major scandals including corruption cases. Moreover, expectations of citizens could grow at a faster pace than government responses.
However, India scored less than the OECD average and came 24th out of 35 countries in the comparison on protection of fundamental rights.

India’s population crosses 127-crore mark

On the World Population Day on Saturday, India recorded a population of 127,42,39,769, which is growing at a rate of 1.6 per cent a year, and could make the country the most populous in the world by 2050.
At 5 p.m. on Saturday, the number of Indians hit 127,42,39,769, and is 17.25 per cent of the global population, as per Jansankhya Sthirata Kosh or National Population Stabilisation Fund (NPSF), an autonomous body under the Union Health Ministry which has raised concerns about over-population related problems, if the rate persists.
Noting that India’s population was growing at a faster rate than China, which is now the world’s most populous country at around 1.39 billion, an official of the Fund said that the country could become the most populated one by 2050.
At a function on Saturday, Health Minister J.P. Nadda stressed on the involvement of development partners and NGOs in assisting government to achieve population stabilisation goals.

Decline in fertility rate

According to data from NPSF, the total fertility rate (TFR) in India has seen a decline and stood at 2.3 in 2013 although the decline is not consistent.
The data suggests that a high percentage of female (21-26 per cent) are married below 18 years of age in States like Rajasthan, Jharkhand and Bihar.
The population of India, at 1.21 billion as per the 2011 Census, is almost equal to the combined population of the U.S., Indonesia, Brazil, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Japan put together.
The population of several States match, and in some cases, exceed that of several large countries. For example, the population of U.P. is almost that of Brazil, the fifth most populous country in the world.

Indian women’s team for Volvo International

After an impressive outing with the senior side during the recent Hockey World League semifinals, prolific striker Rani Rampal will lead the Indian junior women’s team at the Volvo International six-nation tournament at Breda, the Netherlands.
The squad for the under-21 tournament, to be played from July 18 to 26, was named by Hockey India on Saturday. Besides Rani, six other players in the 18-member squad were also part of the senior side that finished fifth at Antwerp.

:: Miscellaneous ::

PSLV C-28 launches five U.K. satellites

In the heaviest commercial launch since its inception, the Indian Space Research Organisation’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) on Friday launched five satellites, weighing 1,440 kg for a United Kingdom-based company.
Lifting off from the First Launch Pad of Satish Dhawan Space Centre here at 9.58 pm, PSLV C-28 launched three identical mini satellites of the Disaster Monitoring Constellation (DMC), besides two technology demonstrators — CBNT-1 and De-OrbitSail— for Surrey Space Technology Limited into the intended orbits, some 19.21 minutes later.

Successful mission

ISRO chairman A.S. Kiran Kumar termed it an “extremely successful mission.” Since it was a “challenge” for the ISRO to accommodate 3-metre high satellites into the existing payload structure of PSLV, the national space agency had specially designed a circular launch adapter and a triangular deck for Friday’s launch. The DMC satellites would eventually be fine tuned into the 647-km Sun Synchronous Orbit.
The launch marked the 30{+t}{+h} successful mission of PSLV, also known as ISRO’s ‘workhorse.’ The national space agency had used the XL version for the ninth time.
The three mini DMC satellites have been designed for providing simultaneous spatial resolution and high temporal resolution for earth observation.
To be positioned with a separation of 120 degree between them, all the three satellites, each weighing 447 kg, are aimed at capturing any target on the Earth’s surface every day and are expected to help in surveying resources, environment and urban infrastructure, besides its primary aim of monitoring disasters.
While the 91-kg CNBT-1 is an optical earth observation technology demonstration micro satellite built by SSTL, the seven-kg De-OrbitSail from the Surrey Space Centre is an experimental nano satellite for demonstration of large thin membrane sail and drag deorbiting using this sail.
The PSLV had earlier launched 40 satellites for 19 countries.

:: Sports ::

Lodha panel verdict on July 14

The Supreme Court-appointed committee headed by former Chief Justice of India R.M. Lodha will deliver on July 14 its verdict on the quantum of punishment against Gurunath Meiyappan and Raj Kundra and their franchisees in the IPL betting and match-fixing controversy