Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 18 AUGUST 2019

SSC CGL Current Affairs

::NATIONAL::

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has constituted a committee chaired by the Director-General (Acquisition) to review the Defence Procurement Procedure (DPP), 2016 and the Defence Procurement Manual (DPM), 2009.
“The committee will revise and align the procedures to ensure seamless flow from asset acquisition to lifecycle support,” the Defence Ministry said in a statement. The committee has been given six months to submit its recommendations.
The Ministry said the DPP 2016 and the DPM 2009 had been due for revision and aligning the procedures “will ensure seamless flow from asset acquisition to life cycle support and strengthen the ‘Make in India’ initiative of the government”. Apart from DG (Acquisition), 11 members, not below the rank of Joint Secretary/Major General equivalent, are part of this committee.

A pension scheme for small traders, one of the priorities of Prime Minister NarendraModi’s government in the first 100 days of its second term, is likely to have a soft launch on the evening of August 19, two officials from the Union Labour and Employment Ministry said.
According to the Ministry’s 100-day plan, the PradhanMantriLaghuVyapariMaan-Dhan scheme will target enrolling 25 lakh subscribers in 2019-2020 and 2 crore by 2023-2024.
Apart from an online portal that will be launched, people will be able to apply for the scheme through the common service centres already in place for other schemes.

Growth in bank credit moderated during the first quarter of the current financial year following a slowdown in the services sector while loans for consumer durables contracted significantly.
According to the latest data from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on the sector-wise deployment of bank loans, there was a 71.5% year-on-year contraction in the consumer durables category till June 21, compared with the 17.3% growth in the year-ago period.
Consumer loans are under the personal loan category where growth slowed down to 16.6% from 17.9%.Outstanding bank credit to the consumer loan segment fell sharply to Rs. 5,800 crore from Rs. 20,300 crore.
Loan growth to the services sector slowed to 13% year-on-year from 23.3% from a year ago. After recording 13.2% year-on-year growth in 2018-19, bank credit moderated to 12.2% year-on-year till August 2.

The government plans to give debt waiver for small distressed borrowers under the insolvency law framework.
The proposed waiver would be offered as part of 'Fresh Start' provisions under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC).
Corporate Affairs Secretary InjetiSrinivas said, discussions have been held with the microfinance industry regarding criteria for the proposed waiver for small distressed borrowers from the economically weaker section (EWS).

Top military leaders from North Korea and China have recommitted themselves to strengthened exchanges between their armed forces during a meeting in Beijing.
The yesterday's meeting came as North Korean leader Kim Jong Un supervised another test-firing of an unspecified new weapon, seen as an attempt to pressurise Washington and Seoul over nuclear negotiations and joint military exercises.
The official Xinhua News agency reported that Zhang Youxia, the Vice Chairman of the Central Military Commission, met Kim Su Kil, director of the General Political Bureau of the Korean People's Army.
Zhang said China's military wanted closer communication to promote cooperation and mutual support, so as to contribute to the consolidation and development of bilateral relations and regional peace and stability.

Prime Minister NarendraModi has returned home after a successful two-day visit to Bhutan.
During the visit, Prime Minister Modi and the Bhutanese leadership resolved to take the bilateral cooperation beyond hydroelectric power sector. The two countries signed various MoUs to diversify the friendship. The sectors include, space, education, science, technology and legal education.
Prime Minister Modi also addressed the students of Royal Bhutan University in Thimphu this morning. He said that happiness shall always prevail over mindless hate.
He said, Bhutan’s message to humanity is happiness which springs from harmony. Mr Modi appreciated that Bhutan has understood the essence of happiness as well as the spirit of harmony, togetherness and compassion.

Identifying diseases and pests on banana crops will now be just a click away. Researchers have developed a new artificial intelligence system (AI) which can look at photographs and tell what disease the plant has and also give recommendations and treatment options to the farmers. The results showed that the model was over 90% accuracy.
The neural network was given about 20,000 images showing diseased and healthy plants. “Just like teaching a kid to tell an elephant from a horse, we taught the AI to identify leaf, root, fruit diseases and pests. Pictures from Uganda, Colombia, Congo and India were fed into the system for the training,” says Dr.SivalingamElayabalan from the Department of Biotechnology.
The app is now being tested across many countries and when the confidence of 100% is reached it will be available for free download. “Yellow leaf spot and Fusarium wilt are the major fungal diseases in India and farmers spend a lot of money on fungicides.
Apart from the fungal disease, the viral disease such as Banana Bunchy top virus is a big problem in hilly areas of Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Northeast region.

India have won gold at the Under 12 Asian Tennis Team championship held in Kazakhstan. India defeated Chinese Taipei 2-1 in the summit clash to win the title.
The final was a tie of three matches - 2 singles and one doubles and India won both the singles matches while lost the doubles encounter.