Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 13 November 2018

::NATIONAL::

India says nuclear power important to meet energy demand

India said nuclear power remains an important option to meet the challenges of increased energy demand, address concerns about climate change and ensure energy supply security.
Addressing a U.N. General Assembly session on ‘Report of the International Atomic Energy Agency’ Friday, First Secretary in India’s Permanent Mission to the U.N. Sandeep Kumar Bayyapu said India attaches importance to the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA‘s) work in different fields of nuclear science and supports its programme on nuclear fusion.
In this context, the IAEA’s recent International Ministerial Conference on nuclear power in Abu Dhabi played a significant role in bringing policy makers, scientists, technologists and environmentalists together to examine the prospects of nuclear power.
The IAEA’s programmes and achievements under nuclear applications in food and agriculture, human health and nutrition, water resources management, protection of the environment are helpful in meeting the needs of developing countries.

India’s first multi-modal terminal onVaranasi inland waterway inaugurated

Prime Minister NarendraModi on Monday inaugurated India’s first multi-modal terminal on the Ganga river in his parliamentary constituency here and received the country’s first container cargo transported on inland waterways from Kolkata.
This is the first of the four multi-modal terminals being constructed on the National Waterway-1 (river Ganga) as part of the World Bank-aided JalMargVikas project of the Inland Waterways Authority of India.
The total estimated cost of the project is ₹5,369.18 crore, which will be equally shared between the Government of India and the World Bank.

Earlier, upon his arrival here, the Prime Minister was given a detailed presentation of the waterways and watched a short film on the viability of the waterways between Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh and Haldia in West Bengal.
According to an official statement, the Centre’s JalMargVikas Project aims at developing the stretch of the river between Varanasi and Haldia for navigation of large vessels weighing up to 1,500 tonnes to 2,000 tonnes.
Its objective is to promote inland waterways as a cheap and environment-friendly means of transportation, especially for cargo movement. The Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) is the project implementing agency.
The project entails construction of three multi-modal terminals (Varanasi, Sahibganj and Haldia), two inter-modal terminals, five roll-on-roll-off (Ro-Ro) terminal pairs, new navigation lock at Farakka in West Bengal, assured depth dredging, integrated vessel repair and maintenance facility, differential global positioning system (DGPS), river information system (RIS), river training.

::ECONOMY::

Global Wealth Report 2018 says India’s inequality on the rise

While Indians have grown wealthier in recent years, the wealthiest are miniscule in number, a wealth report has shown. Despite this, India has a relatively high inequality compared to the rest of the world.
The Global Wealth Report 2018 by Credit Suisse analyses the wealth of 5 billion adults using financial balance sheets and country-specific household surveys.
Just one of every 10 Indians has wealth of over $10,000. Though there are 3.4 dollar millionaires in the country, their proportion is negligible compared to counterparts in the rest of the world.
The average personal wealth per capita has been on the rise over the years, but the rate of growth has fallen.
India's median wealth per adult is $1,289. This is much less than the global median of $4,209. India also has a high Gini coefficient, which means it is among poorer countries with high inequality.
The Gini coefficient is a measure of inequality. A Gini of 0 indicates total equality in the population and 100 denotes full inequality.

As crude oil rebounds,rupee declines over dollar

The rupee on Monday dropped by 39 paise to settle at 72.89 against the U.S. currency as oil prices rebounded after Saudi Arabia announced plans to cut production and the dollar strengthened in global markets.
Increased dollar demand from importers amid firming global crude oil prices and a strong dollar weighed on the rupee sentiment, a currency dealer said. International benchmark Brent crude was trading higher by 2.04 per cent at USD 71.61 per barrel.
Saudi Arabia announced plans to cut production by 500,000 barrels per day from December and called for a global output cut of one million barrels per day to support oil price.
The dollar also rose to an 18-month high against its global peers after the British pound tumbled nearly 1 per cent due to growing worries about the Brexit deal with EU.

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::INTERNATIONAL::

Defence minister aims for better India – China relationships

Defence Minister NirmalaSitharaman on Sunday pitched for dialogues between India and China on various issues, saying differences between the two nations should not be allowed to become disputes.
Both India and China should respect each other and resolve issues through dialogues and join hands together for peace and prosperity, Ms.Sitharaman said.
There are various issues such as defence, border disputes, border trades and presence of Indian and Chinese defence forces in the Indian Ocean which can be resolved through continuous dialogues, the minister said.
Ms.Sitharaman was delivering the seventh memorial lecture of former RSS activist from Arunachal Pradesh, RutumKamgo, on the theme: ‘Towards Bridging the Indo-China Relationship for an Emerging Asia’
On a proposal of Chief Minister PemaKhandu for opening up border trade with China through Bum La Pass, Ms.Sitharaman said trade was possible with the border villages of both the countries, like the current border haats at Nathu La in Sikkim and Moreh in Manipur.

“Quad” meeting to be held in Singapore next week

Officials from Australia, India, Japan and the United States will hold the third "Quadrilateral" or Quad meeting in Singapore on November 14th, government and diplomatic sources confirmed.
The meet, that comes exactly a year after the format was revived, will be held on the sidelines of the East Asia Summit, that Prime Minister NarendraModi will attend, and is expected to focus on infrastructure projects, maritime security cooperation and discuss regional challenges including development.
India and Japan have recently announced a series of joint projects along what they have called the "Asia-Africa growth corridor" in the Indo-Pacific region. Among the projects that they will work together on are the Jamuna Railway bridge in Bangladesh and other bridges in North Eastern states; housing, school and electricity projects in Rohingya areas in Myanmar, an LNG plant in Sri Lanka and a cancer hospital in Kenya.
However, officials from all four nations of the Quad conceded that while the Quad has made some progress over the year, many areas of divergence remain. To begin with, India has yet to agree to Australia’s request to join the Malabar, and the officials said it was still "too early" to discuss "militarising" the Quad.
PM Modi’s speech at the Shangri-La dialogue this year where he said that "India doesn’t see the Indo-Pacific Region as a strategy or as a club of limited members" as clearly distinguishing the Quad from the Indo-Pacific, and India has also resisted raising the level of the Quad from the current assistant secretary/ joint secretary level to that of Foreign Secretary/Foreign Minister level as the US and Japan have been pushing for.

::SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY::

Scientists develop sensitive diagnostic test for TB

A highly sensitive diagnostic test for pulmonary TB and pleural TB has been developed by a multi-institutional team led by Jaya SivaswamiTyagi from the Department of Biotechnology at AIIMS.
The diagnostic test makes use of a DNA aptamer (a small single-stranded DNA molecule that binds to a specific target molecule) that shows high binding affinity to a TB antigen. Sputum samples were used for diagnosing pulmonary TB while pleural fluid was used for diagnosing pleural TB.
The sensitivity of the diagnostic test for pulmonary TB and pleural TB was 94% and 93%, respectively. Specificity was 100% for pulmonary TB and 98% for pleural TB.
The laboratory-based aptamer test for diagnosing pulmonary TB takes about five hours to turn in the results while the portable, rapid test takes just 30 minutes.
The sensitivity of the lab-based and portable aptamer-based test for pulmonary TB is far superior compared with smear microscopy, X-ray and even ELISA.

::SPORTS::

Lewis Hamilton wins Brazilian Grand Prix

New five-time World champion Lewis Hamilton steered his Mercedes to a nail-biting victory in Sunday’s Brazilian Grand Prix, a triumph that clinched the constructors’ championship for a fifth consecutive season for the team.
The 33-year-old Briton took advantage of a collision that cost Max Verstappen the lead in the closing stages to regain the initiative and then hung on with worn tyres as the Red Bull came home second.
KimiRaikkonen finished third on his 150th start for Ferrari ahead of Daniel Ricciardo in the second Red Bull, ValtteriBottas in the second Mercedes and Sebastian Vettel who came home sixth for Ferrari.
The result ended Ferrari’s hopes of stopping Mercedes’ title triumph, brought Hamilton his 10th win of the year and the 72nd of his career.