Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 16 MARCH 2020

::NATIONAL::

Union Home Minister Amit Shah has said that an Industrial Policy will be announced soon for the rapid economic development of Jammu and Kashmir.
Saying that Jammu and Kashmir attracted 13,000 Crore rupees for the last 70 years, Mr Shah expressed hope that by 2024 three times more investment will come in the region.Mr Shah said this while meeting a 24 member delegation from Jammu and Kashmir’s Apni Party led by AltafBukhari in New Delhi yesterday.
The Home Minister said NDA government will take all steps for the overall development of the region. Mr Shah also emphasised that there is no intention of the Government for demographic change in the region and all such talks have no basis at all. He said the Government will work with all sections of the society to realize the hopes of statehood for Jammu and Kashmir at an early opportunity.
Mr Shah emphasised that there is no discrimination in the implementation of Central Laws in the region and interests of all sections will be taken care of.

An urgent meeting was called by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Sharad A. Bobde on Sunday to clarify that there cannot be a complete shutdown of courts in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak.
The CJI explained that as virtual courts are on the verge of commencement, there can only be a possibility of limited shutdown at present. The court is reopening on March 16 after the Holi break.
It was also clarified that the cause list has already been published for March 16 and hence the medical advice that had been sought has to be complied with to facilitate the functioning of the apex court.
A common medical advice issued by the medical experts relates to entrants to the apex court declaring if they have travelled abroad or are showing any symptoms of COVID-19.

A cumulative amount of Rs 5,275.24 crore remained unspent under Members of Parliament Local Area Development (MPLAD) scheme as on March 4, 2020, Parliament was informed on Wednesday.
The government released Rs 53,704.75 crore under MPLAD scheme out of which Rs 51,267.75 crore was spent as on March 4, 2020, Union Minister RaoInderjit Singh said in a written reply to the LokSabha.
As per the data given by the Ministry of Statistics &ProgrammeRs 5,275.24 was the "unspent fund" as on March 4.
Under MPLAD scheme, each Member of Parliament has the choice to suggest to the District Collector for development works to the tune of Rs 5 crore per annum to be taken up in his/her constituency.
RajyaSabha MPs can recommend works in one or more districts in the State from where he/she has been elected. The nominated members of the LokSabha and RajyaSabha may select any one or more districts from any one State for implementation of their choice of work under the scheme.
"Given the nature and dynamics of the scheme, unspent balances are bound to exist at any given point of time, as the funds released under the scheme are non-lapsable and the funds received by a district in a particular year can be utilized in the subsequent financial year(s) also.

The Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC) has advised its members to explore more markets for buying intermediates or raw materials to reduce dependency on China due to coronavirus outbreak.
In a letter to its members, AEPC Chairman A Sakthivel said that he has approached the government to direct Indian embassies abroad to identify alternate sources of input suppliers.
"We have advised our members to diversify their sourcing base given that the supply chain from China is disrupted," he said.
He also said that the council has identified top 10 apparel product lines or items each in the US, the EU, Japan and South Korea which are showing significant decline in imports from China.
"These items can work as new opportunities for local apparel exporters who have the potential to fill the gap," he said.
Sakthivel also urged members to spread health awareness about coronavirus among its workforce at their factories.

UN chief Antonio Guterres on Sunday urged governments to work together to stop the coronavirus pandemic from plunging the global economy into recession.

"No country can face it alone," the secretary general wrote in an opinion article in the Publico daily.
"More than ever, governments must cooperate to revitalise economies, expand public investment, promote trade and ensure that people and communities affected by the disease are supported," he said.
The virus was "infecting the global economy," hesaid.The pandemic had created a "real and growing risk of a global recession," the former Portuguese premier said.
The International Monetary Fund, which releases its updated outlook on the world economy next month, has said that the severity of the slowdown will depend on how long the virus outbreak lasts and how governments respond.
In January the fund was still projecting world GDP growth of 3.3 percent, but that was before global disruptions, shutdowns and plunging oil prices.
Coronavirus has infected close to 160,000 people worldwide and killed more than 6,000, according to the latest AFP tally of official figures.

Astronomers have discovered 139 new trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs) -- minor planets located in the far reaches of the solar system.
The study, published in The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series, also describes a new approach for finding similar types of objects, and could aid future searches for the hypothetical Planet Nine and other undiscovered planets.
Using the first four years of data from Dark Energy Survey (DES), graduate student Pedro Bernardinelli started with a dataset of seven billion "dots," all of the possible objects detected by the software that were above the image's background levels.
The researchers looked for nearby pairs or triplets of detected objects to help determine where the object would appear on subsequent nights.
With the 7 billion dots whittled down to a list of around 400 candidates that were seen over at least six nights of observation, the researchers then had to verify their results.
The researchers are rerunning their analysis on the entire DES dataset with a lower threshold for object detection at the first filtering stage.
This observatory will survey the entire southern sky and will be able to detect even fainter and more distant objects than DES.

In Badminton, Taiwan's shuttler Tai Tzu Ying clinched her third women's singles title of the All England Championships at Birmingham in United Kingdom today.
Ying beat China's Chen Yufei in two straight games 21-19, 21-15 in 44 minutes.