Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 13 May 2019

Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 13 MAY 2019

Election Commission said, it has found no violation of the poll code in NitiAayog sharing data with the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) on places where Prime Minister NarendraModi was set to campaign for the ongoingLokSabha elections.
Talking to media in New Delhi, Senior Deputy Election Commissioner SandeepSaxena said, the poll body has disposed off the complaint as the Prime Minister is exempted from the provision that bars ministers from combining official visits with campaigning.
Mr Saxena said, the exemption to the Prime Minister was given in October 2014 and it was not a one-time exemption but a standing instruction.
In another event Heads and Representatives of 20 Election Management Bodies from across the World have arrived in New Delhi to witness the ongoingLokSabha elections.
Addressing the participants, Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora reiterated that the Commission is firmly committed to ensuring free, fair and robust elections in the country.
He added that the objective and intention of the Commission is to always keep learning from the experiences of the past for necessary course corrections for the future.

Senior advocate PrashantBhushan has sent a legal notice to Union Environment Minister Harsh Vardhan asking for a freeze on all genetically modified organisms, including field trials.
Though growing Btbrinjal is illegal in India, Mr.Bhushan’s letter comes in the aftermath of activist groups recently proffering evidence of BtBrinjal, a GM crop, being grown in a farmer’s field in Haryana.
Developed by the Maharashtra-based seed company, Mahyco, Btbrinjal was the first food crop made to contain an insecticidal protein, called cry1 ac, sourced from the genes of the soil bacterium, Bacillus thuringienesis.
Though this was cleared for commercial cultivation it was put in deep-freeze, by former Union Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh in 2010 on the grounds that there was scientific and public disagreement on its safety.
Mr.Bhushan’s Sunday letter also contains a lab report, prepared by a private biotechnology firm, that confirmed the presence of the Bt-derived protein in brinjal samples from Fatehabad, Haryana, in April. The GEAC was apprised of this but no action had been forthcoming so far, the letter claims

After some years of a dry drive, Indian tech firms now seem to have turned the corner and established themselves firmly as digital transformation agents in the global market, international IT experts have affirmed.
Growth is picking up for the Indian IT sector and the good news is that most players have a strong hiring plan in place.
Last fiscal’s performance numbers posted by the country’s leading players reflect a clear upswing in the market. All the digital pilot projects that were under way over the last couple of years are now going mainstream and are being scaled into enterprises.
Indian IT vendors continue to rely heavily on the U.S. and U.K. markets for a large portion of revenues. Though this is changing, any protectionist measures in the U.S. (including due to the presidential election next year) and uncertainty around Brexit may impact revenues in the short term.

The Indian telecom industry, which has been grappling with declining revenues following a long and bitter tariff war triggered by fierce competition in the market, is likely to see signs of recovery in the current financial year (2019-20).
The forecast of green shoots appearing are hinged on expectations that marginal rise in tariffs, combined with higher data usage, will drive upwards the average revenue per user (ARPU) – seen as the only tool to boost the industry revenues, as subscriber growth is anticipated to remain muted.
Besides, telecom operators are undertaking a massive non-core asset monetisation drive, which makes it imperative for investors to repose confidence in the telecom industry’s long-term health.
The report added that even in terms of market structure, the industry had come down to three private players and a public sector firm which “is the optimum level of competition.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has said the political will to fight climate change has faded at the same time as it is getting worse for those feeling its effects.
Guterres made the comments after arriving in New Zealand yesterday where he addressed the media alongside Prime Minister JacindaArdern in Auckland. Guterres plans to spend three days there as part of a trip to the South Pacific to highlight climate change's global threat.
He said that the countries are not following commitments under the 2016 Paris Agreement which expects them to keep the global temperature rise to below two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
Reports in the state of the planet show the need for concrete steps to tackle climate change and environmental catastrophe.
During his visit, he praised Prime Minister JacindaArdern for introducing a bill that aims to make New Zealand mostly carbon neutral by 2050.

Around 180 governments on Friday agreed on a new UN accord to regulate the export of plastic waste, some eight million tonnes of which ends up in the oceans each year, organisers said.
The 1,400 representatives, meeting in Geneva reached the agreement after 12 days’ discussion on what RolphPayet, Executive Secretary of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) called “one of the world’s most pressing environmental issues”.
The Geneva meeting amended the 1989 Basel Convention on the control of hazardous wastes to include plastic waste in a legally-binding framework.
The IPEN umbrella group seeking to eliminate hazardous and toxic chemicals said the new amendment would empower developing countries to refuse “dumping plastic waste” by others.
“For far too long, developed countries like the U.S. and Canada have been exporting their mixed toxic plastic wastes to developing Asian countries claiming it would be recycled in the receiving country
“Instead, much of this contaminated mixed waste cannot be recycled and is instead dumped or burned, or finds its way into the ocean,” said IPEN science adviser Sara Brosche. Plastic waste pollution has reached “epidemic proportions” with an estimated 100 million tonnes of plastic now found in the oceans.

Mumbai Indians became IPL champions for the fourth time after defeating Chennai Super Kings by one run in a thrilling final in Hyderabad last night.
Last ball dismissal of Shardul Thakur by paceman Lasith Malinga registered final win for Mumbai over Chennai.Chasing a victory target of 150 set by Mumbai, Chennai Super Kings were restricted to 148 for 7 in stipulated 20 overs.