Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 15 October 2016

:: National ::

Govt asked AIMPLB to reconsider their decision to boycott consultation on UCC

The government asked the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) and certain other Muslim organisations to reconsider their decision to boycott the Law Commission’s consultation on triple talaq and the Uniform Civil Code (UCC).
At the same time it sharply criticised the AIMPLB for “targeting” Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the issue.
Mr. Naidu asked that the case against triple talaq now under way in the Supreme Court not be mixed up with the efforts of the Law Commission for a UCC.
The AIMPLB, while announcing the decision to boycott the Law Commission’s consultation, had criticised the Modi government for allegedly trying to distract attention from its “failures” by raising the issue of UCC.
Minister for Minority Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said the question of a UCC or even invalidation of triple talaq were not matters pertaining to faith but rituals and customs.

Pakistan Army confirmed sepoy Chandu Chavan is in its custody

The Pakistan Army confirmed for the first time that sepoy Chandu Babulal Chavan, who went missing near the Line of Control (LoC) on September 29, is in its custody.
Though India said the sepoy “inadvertently” crossed the LoC, Pakistan had so far refused to acknowledge his presence.
The Pakistani side accepted it during a conversation between the Directors-General of Military Operations over the established hotline.
The 22-year-old sepoy crossed the LoC by accident after the surgical strikes by the Indian Army.
He was posted in Mendhar district of Jammu and Kashmir near the LoC and had strayed across the border at Jhandroot, west of Mankote village in Poonch district, and was captured by the Pakistan Army.

PM said country should not be found “sleeping” when it should be awake

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the Army would never “forgive” the country if it was found “sleeping” when it should be awake, in comments that come against the backdrop of the recent surgical strikes.
He asserted that the Army did not believe in speaking but in displaying its valour.
“Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty. We have to keep alert always. It will be injustice to the Army if we sleep away when we have to be awake,” he said without elaborating.
Addressing ex-servicemen and their families at the inauguration of the ‘Shaurya Smarak’ (memorial to valour) here, he hailed the role of the armed forces and their spirit of sacrifice in adverse situations.
Mr. Modi said the country had never waged a war to capture another country. “But if it comes to fighting for values and ideals, India is never found wanting,” he said.
Lauding the valour and humanity of the armed forces, he referred to their relief and rescue operations in Srinagar during the floods two years ago despite the violence they faced from the stone-pelting mobs.

:: International ::

Israel suspended its cooperation with Unesco

Israel suspended cooperation with Unesco, a day after the U.N. cultural agency adopted a draft resolution that Israel says denies the deep, historic Jewish connection to holy sites in Jerusalem.
Unesco’s draft resolution, uses only the Islamic name for a hilltop compound sacred to both Jews and Muslims, which includes the Western Wall, a remnant of the biblical temple and the holiest site where Jews can pray.
The validated resolution is expected early next week, but the wording is unlikely to change.
Israelis and many Jews around the world viewed it as the latest example of an ingrained anti-Israel bias at the UN, where Israel and its allies are far outnumbered by Arab countries and their supporters.
Israel captured East Jerusalem, with sites holy to Jews, Christians and Muslims, in the 1967 war. Palestinians claim the territory as part of their future state, and its fate is a central dispute
Jews refer to the hilltop compound in Jerusalem’s Old City as the Temple Mount, site of the two Jewish biblical temples.
Muslims refer to it as the Noble Sanctuary, and it is home to the Al-Aqsa mosque and the golden Dome of the Rock. It is the holiest site in Judaism and the third holiest in Islam, after Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia.

:: India and World ::

India likely to ink a deal on the S-400 Triumf long range air defence system

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will raise India’s “concerns” regarding Russian cooperation with Pakistan during the bilateral summit meeting.
Diplomats said the recent Russia-Pakistan military exercise was an isolated “episode” but expressed the hope that as a “special privileged partner” Russia will address India’s Pakistan-related concerns.
Mr. Putin said Russia was moving towards having a “regional" approach to deal with threats from South Asia.
India and Russia are likely to ink a deal on the S-400 Triumf long range air defence system estimated to be worth Rs. 39,000.
The S-400 is considered one of the most advanced long range defence systems in the world and can tackle all incoming airborne targets at ranges of up to 400 km.
The second deal likely to be signed is for a Joint Venture to be set up by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited of India and Rostec State Corporation of Russia to manufacture Kamov-226T utility helicopters in India.
It is understood that under the agreement, at least 200 helicopters would be produced to replace the ageing Cheetah and Chetak fleets of the armed forces.
In addition, the FGFA, Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft is also expected to be taken up during the summit.

:: Science and Technology ::

There are a dizzying two trillion galaxies in the universe

There are a dizzying two trillion galaxies in the universe, up to twenty times more than previously thought, astronomers have found.
The surprising find, based on 3D modelling of images collected over 20 years by the Hubble Space Telescope, has been published in the Astronomical Journal .
Even in the era of modern astronomy, getting an accurate tally of the number of galaxies in the universe has proved difficult.
To begin with, there is only part of the cosmos where light given off by distant objects has had time to reach Earth. The rest is effectively beyond our reach.
And even within this “observable universe,” current technology only allows us to glimpse ten percent of what is out there, according to the new findings.
The analysis reached back more than 13 billion years — very near the time of the “Big Bang” thought to have given birth to the universe.

:: Business and Economy ::

Air India posts operational profit for first time in 8 years

Air India posted an operational profit of Rs.105 crore in 2015-16 compared with an operational loss of Rs.2,636 crore in 2014-15 due to an increase in traffic growth.
This is the first time the national carrier has posted an operational profit since it was merged with erstwhile Indian Airlines in 2007, the financial results of 2015-16 cleared by the airline’s auditors and approved by its Board showed.
A sharp decline in aviation turbine fuel prices helped it bolster operational profit to more than Rs.100 crore in 2015-16 even as the airline was earlier expecting an operational profit of Rs.8 crore.
Aviation fuel accounts for roughly 40 per cent of an airline’s operational costs. As the airline offered lower fares, it carried 18 million passengers in 2015-16 compared with 16.88 million passengers last year.
Airline’s operational cost per average seat kilometre came down from Rs.4.59 in 2014-15 to Rs.3.88 in 2015-16.

Wholesale price inflation eased marginally in September

Wholesale price inflation eased marginally in September to 3.6 per cent from 3.7 per cent in August due to a cooling off of food prices, data released by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry showed.
Inflation in the food category eased to 5.75 per cent in September from 8.23 per cent in August.
The slowdown in the growth of the WPI comes at a time when India’s retail inflation also eased sharply.
Growth in the Consumer Price Index stood at 4.3 per cent in September, the slowest in more than a year, down from 5.05 per cent in August.
This shows that the Reserve Bank of India was correct in cutting rates in its latest policy review, according to experts.