Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 13 October 2018

SSC CGL Current Affairs


Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 13 October 2018


::NATIONAL::

Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs Notifies Modified Land Pooling Policy

  •  The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs has notified the modified land policy. The policy would be applicable in the urbanizable areas of urban extensions in 95 villages of Delhi. The policy replaces the earlier policy notified in the year 2013.

  •  It aims at developing smart and sustainable neighborhoods, sectors and zones, planned and executed as per the availability of water, power and other infrastructure.

  •  The core of the policy is active role of private sector and farmers also involved in assembling land and developing physical and social infrastructure. Owners or group of owners can pool land parcels for development as per prescribed norms.

  •  Land Parcels of any size can participate under the policy. However, the minimum land to be pooled is 2 hectares to ensure adequate return of land for development and form a Developer Entity

  •  For smooth planning and development of infrastructure, integrated Sector-based planning approach shall be followed. A minimum of 70% contiguous land of the developable area within a sector, free of encumbrances is required to be pooled to make the sectors eligible for development under the Policy.

::ECONOMY::

CPI inflation rises along with slow industrial output

  •  Consumer price inflation accelerated marginally in September to 3.77%, from 3.69% in August. Inflation in the food and beverages segment quickened to 1.08% from 0.78% over the same period, according to official data released on Friday.

  •  The clothing and footwear segment saw inflation slowing to 4.64% from 4.88% over the same period. Similarly, inflation in the housing segment slowed to 7.07% in September from 7.59% in August.

  •  Industrial production slowed to a 10-month low of 4.3% in August, due in large part to a drastic deceleration in the manufacturing, mining, and consumer durables sectors, the data showed.

  •  The starkest slowdown, however, was in the consumer durables sector, which saw growth come down to 5.2% in August from 14.36% in the previous month.

New Industrial Policy to Transform India as Global Leader in Fourth IR Technologies

  •  The New Industrial Policy framed by the Ministry of Commerce in consultation with all Ministries of Government of India, State Governments, Industry and all stakeholders embodies the Government’s intention to align India with the emerging technologies of drones, artificial intelligence and block chain.

  •  This was stated by the Union Minister of Commerce & Industry and Civil Aviation, Suresh Prabhu, at the launch of the Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution, India, by the Geneva-based World Economic Forum (WEF) yesterday in New Delhi.

  •  The Minister further said that the policy is in sync with the challenges and opportunities for India with the fourth industrial revolution technologies and will place the country firmly in the global supply and value chains

  •  Suresh Prabhu went on to state that the fourth Industrial revolution is driven by digital technology and India is on track to adopt digital technology in every aspect of governance.

  •  This will help the country to leap frog into the global supply chain. Minister gave the example of the recently launched Digiyatra by the Ministry of Civil Aviation as an example of India’s vision to transform the country into a digitally empowered society.

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::INTERNATIONAL::

External affairs ministry mentions global terror threat

  •  Terrorism is an overwhelming threat to the international order and countries should cooperate with each other in dealing with this threat, External Affairs Minister SushmaSwaraj said in her statement at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) ministerial meeting in Tajikistan.

  •  Dwelling on the Indian point of view on regional affairs, the Minister said India would like to host the next round of SCO-Afghanistan discussions.

  •  “Terrorism remains the most overwhelming threat to our common goals of development and prosperity. As the footprint of terrorism expands, governments must assume their national responsibility and cooperate with each other,” Ms.Swaraj said in Dushanbe on Friday.

  • India-Azerbaijan sign protocol on trade economic ,science& technology

  •  The 5th meeting of India-Azerbaijan Inter-Governmental Commission on Trade and Economic, Science and Technology Cooperation (IA-IGC) was held on 11-12 October, 2018 in New Delhi.

  •  The two sides exchanged views on current economic situation and reviewed the current status of bilateral trade, investment and their cooperation in the fields of trade, economy, science and technology.

  •  They emphasised to further strengthen and expand their cooperation in trade and investment, transportation, energy and hydro-carbons, SMEs, agriculture, food safety and environmental protection, tourism, culture, health and pharmaceuticals, space technology, education and scientific research, chemicals and petrochemicals and mining.

  •  Trade turnover between India and Azerbaijan in January-August 2018 was USD 657.9 million. Both sides felt that bilateral trade was far below the potential and there was a need to step up the cooperation to enlarge the trade basket and increase bilateral trade and investment. Both sides agreed to take measures to enhance trade relations and expand business relations between the two countries.

::SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY::

Mission to sequence genome of large group of Indians

  •  India is planning a major mission to sequence the genes of a “large” group of Indians — akin to projects in the U.K., China, Japan and Australia — and use this to improve health and buck a global trend of designing “personalised medicine”.

  •  This was among the key decisions taken by the Prime Minister’s Science, Technology and Innovation Advisory Council (STIAC) at its first meeting on Tuesday.

  •  Ever since the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research in 2009 announced that it had sequenced the genome of an Indian, then making India one of six countries to achieve such a feat, several research labs have analysed genes from Indians for disease susceptibility. However, no compendium of genes that differentiate Indian populations from, say, Caucasian or African genomes exist.

  •  A group of Indian scientists and companies are involved with a 100k GenomeAsia project, led by the National Technological University (NTU), Singapore, to sequence the whole genomes of 100,000 Asians, including 50,000 Indians.

  •  Sequencing genomes and linking to human health and disease as a research initiative, and doing this on a much larger scale, so it has a direct impact on public health. As the first level starts, the second will be put in place, speedily.”

::SPORTS::

India wins more gold at Asian Para Games

  •  Gold medals in athletics, chess and badminton ensured India continued its impressive performance at the Asian Para Games on Friday.

  •  K. JennithaAnto clinched the gold in women’s individual rapid P1 chess event after beating ManurungRoslinda of Indonesia 1-0 in the final round, while KishanGangolli got the better of MajidBagheri in the men’s individual rapid VI-B2/B3 event to claim the top spot.

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