Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 14 JUNE 2019

::NATIONAL::

Prime Minister NarendraModi will chair the fifth Governing Council Meeting of NITI Aayog on 15th of this month at RashtrapatiBhawan.
An official release said, the meeting will be attended by Defence Minister, Home Minister, Finance and Corporate Affairs Minister, Agriculture Minister, Rural Development and Panchayati Raj Minister as ex-officio members.
The agenda before the Meeting include rain-water harvesting, drought situation and relief measures, aspirational districts programme, transforming agriculture, and security-related issues with a specific focus on Left Wing Extremism districts.
The Governing Council reviews the action taken on the agenda items of the previous meeting and deliberates upon the future developmental priorities. So far, four meetings of the Governing Council have been held under the Chairmanship of Prime Minister with the Chief Ministers and Lt. Governors of the states and union territories and other members of NITI Aayog.

Human Resources Development Minister Ramesh PokhriyalNishank has stressed on creation of at least two Sanskrit speaking villages near the Sanskrit Institutions in the country.
Chairing meeting with heads of Central Language Institutions under his Ministry in New Delhi yesterday, he said the focus of his ministry is to promote all Indian languages for which all vacancies need to be filled. The Minister directed the officials of the Ministry to meet the heads of these institutions on a regular basis.
The Minister urged to discover innovative ways to promote these languages. He added there is a strong need to do research in Indian languages. The Minister added that the literature in each Indian language must be translated into other languages so that all can avail the best of literature.

Credit rating agencies will now have to disclose the probability of default for the instruments they rate and also clearly state the sensitive factors that could impact the credit worthiness of the entity.
Further, rating agencies will have to adopt a standardised terminology to disclose liquidity indicators like liquid investments, access to credit and cash flows among other factors while rating an instrument.
This assumes significance as the current calendar year has seen a record number of downgrades amidst a fall in the corresponding number of upgrades when compared to the previous calendar year.
Further, such uniform and standardised PD benchmarks will have to be disclosed on the website of each CRA on a consolidated basis for all financial instruments rated by a CRA by December 31.

The government has reduced the rate of the contribution made by employees and employers under the Employees' State Insurance (ESI) Act from 6.5 per cent to 4 per cent.
In a release, the Ministry of Labour and Employment said, the government has taken a historic decision to reduce the rate of contribution under the ESI act. The new rate will be effective from the 1st of next month. It will benefit 3.6 crore employees and 12.85 lakh, employers.
It said, similarly, reduction in the share of contribution of employers will reduce the financial liability of the establishments leading to improved viability of these establishments. It will also lead to enhanced Ease of Doing Business, the statement added.
The ESI Act provides for medical, cash, maternity, disability and dependent benefits to the Insured Persons under the Act. Benefits provided under the ESI Act are funded by the contributions made by the employers and the employees.

U.S. Secretary of State Michael Pompeo hinted that it was possible to reinstate the Generalised System of Preferences (GSP), a program for preferential access to certain goods markets in the U.S., for India.
The administration official is expected to discuss the issue as well as 5G network technology and data localization while in New Delhi later this month on a visit.
In addition to the GSP, data localisation regulations and proposed policies have been a source of friction between the two countries.
In a speech that went to some lengths to stress that Washington understood India’s post-Independence economic history and current geopolitical realities, Mr Pompeo touched on a common theme — a India-U.S. partnership based on values.
“We get it. We realise it’s different to deal with the likes of China and Pakistan from across the ocean than it is when they are on your borders. That's why in this room and not so many months ago, I elaborated on President Trump's vision for a free and open Indo-Pacific,” Mr.Pompeo said.

India is planning to launch its own space station. Addressing a press conference in New Delhi today, ISRO chief K Sivan said, the ambitious project which will enable the agency to send more humans to space when executed.
He said, India will not join the International Space Station. Mr Sivan said, the mission will also be an extension of the Gaganyaan project implying that there will be several phases to the human space mission project.
Currently, there is only one fully functioning space station in Earth's lower orbit, the International Space Station and astronauts conduct different experiments in it.
Union Minister of State for Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh today said, Chandrayaan-2 will be launched on 15th of July. He said, it will land in September and will carry a rover. It will be an extension of Chandrayaan-1.
Chandrayaan-2 will contain three components, Orbiter, Lander and Rover and the total composite module will weight 3.8 tonnes. Dr Singh lauded the commitment and hard work of scientific community and highlighted the benefits of usage of space technology in improving the lives of common people.