Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 13 MAY 2020

::NATIONAL::

Prime Minister NarendraModi has announced a special economic package worth 20 lakh crore rupees for an 'Atma-Nirbhar Bharat' or self-reliant India, saying that self reliance is the only way to ensure that 21st Century belongs to India.
Addressing the nation yesterday, the Prime Minister noted that this package, together with earlier announcements by the government during COVID crisis and decisions taken by RBI, is to the tune of 20 lakh crore rupees. This is equivalent to almost 10 percent of India’s GDP.
The Prime Minister said several bold reforms are needed to make the country self-reliant, so that the impact of crisis such as COVID, can be negated in future. These reforms include supply chain reforms for agriculture, rational tax system, simple and clear laws, capable human resource and a strong financial system. These reforms will promote business, attract investment, and further strengthen Make in India.
Mr Modi clarified that when India talks about self-reliance, it is different from being self-centred. He said that India considers the world as one family, and progress in India has always contributed to progress in the whole world.

India is among 88 countries that are likely to miss global nutrition targets by 2025, according to the Global Nutrition Report 2020 released on Tuesday. It also identified the country as one with the highest rates of domestic inequalities in malnutrition.
According to the Global Nutrition Report 2020, India will miss targets for all four nutritional indicators for which there is data available — stunting among under-five children, anaemia among women of reproductive age, childhood overweight and exclusive breastfeeding.
Between 2000 and 2016, underweight rates have decreased from 66.0% to 58.1% for boys and 54.2% to 50.1% in girls. However, this is still high compared with the average of 35.6% for boys and 31.8% for girls in Asia.
India is identified as among the three worst countries, along with Nigeria and Indonesia, for steep within-country disparities on stunting, where the levels varied four-fold across communities.

Listed companies can conduct their annual general meetings (AGMs) through video conferencing while banks and insurance companies have been given the option of submitting only the standalone numbers instead of consolidated financials.
Further, norms related to sending physical copies of annual reports or publishing certain statutory advertisements have also been relaxed due to COVID-19 pandemic.
Meanwhile, the regulator has received representation from listed companies that banks or insurance companies as well as those that have banks and insurance companies as subsidiaries are facing challenges in preparing consolidated financial results.
The exemptions related to publishing certain statutory advertisements in newspapers till May 15 have been extended until June 30.
No increase in rent for SEZ’s in current financial year,claims government
Union Government has said that there will be no increase in lease rent for the Special Economic Zone, SEZ units for financial year 2020-21.
The decision has been taken in order to provide interim relief to SEZ units in lease rent on account of COVID-19 pandemic.
Commerce and Industry Ministry said, payment of lease rent of 1st quarter is to be deferred up to 31st of July for all SEZ units. The deferment will not invite any interest.

Helicopters of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) came close to the border during the face-off with the Indian Army near PangongTsolake in Eastern Ladakh last week, but there was no air space violation on either side, Indian Air Force (IAF) sources said on Tuesday.
Separately, Army spokesperson Col. AmanAnand said there was no ongoing face-off at the PangongTsolake or any “build-up of armed troops in the area”.
Stating that incidents of face-off and aggressive behaviour occur on the Line of Actual Control (LAC), Col. Anand said patrols disengaged after local-level interaction and dialogue.
As per existing agreements between India and China, operation of fighter aircraft and armed helicopters is restricted to a distance from the LAC.

Expanding the ambit of the AarogyaSetu app, the Union Health Ministry on Tuesday directed that downloading it be made compulsory for all returnees (migrant labourers and those coming from abroad) for better contact surveillance and suitable medical intervention.
It also asked the States to ramp up surveillance for Severe Acute Respiratory Infections (SARI) or Influenza-like illnesses (ILI) to detect any possible hidden infection at an early stage to ensure timely containment.
In addition to making the AarogyaSetu app mandatory, the Health Ministry also directed the States to focus on more effective surveillance, contact tracing, adequate testing and timely treatment of all the returnees, including testing at the point of disembarking, quarantining and offering further treatment.
The direction comes with an announcement by the ICMR on Tuesday on undertaking a community based sero-survey to estimate the prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 infection in Indian population.
“Sera from these individuals will be tested for presence of IgG antibodies using ELISA test developed by ICMR-National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune. The results of the survey will provide information about spread of SARS-CoV-2 infection in different parts of the country. Besides this community-based survey, Health Ministry is also initiating hospital-based surveillance to monitor the trend of infection in all districts,’’ added the ICMR release.

The FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup, originally scheduled to be held later this year, has now been rescheduled to February 17-March 7, 2021.
However, the age eligibility for players is the same, making even those turning 18 in this period eligible for participation since the organisers have decided to treat the tournament as the 2020 edition only.
The 2020 U-20 Women’s World Cup, in Costa Rica / Panama, has also been rescheduled to January 20-February 6, 2021 while the 2020 Futsal World Cup would be held from September 12-October 3, 2021 in Lithuania. The tournaments, though, remain conditional subject to further monitoring of the pandemic.