Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 18 October 2016

:: National ::

Panel says Cauvery basin a reason for farmers suicide

The parched Cauvery basin is become a fertile reason for farmers' suicides and mass migrations to urban areas in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, a Supreme Court-appointed High Level Technical Team told the apex court.
In its report, the team, said the “ground realities” of the Cauvery delta region include drought, rising unemployment, bore wells dug a 1000-feet deep for ground water and withering of acres of crops in both States.”
On October 4, a Bench led by Justice Dipak Misra, unable to resolve the impasse over the release of water, set up the team to conduct a field inspection in the Cauvery area.
The matter is scheduled for hearing on October 18.

Babies born to women aged over 40 from assisted reproduction have fewer birth defects

Babies born to women aged over 40 from assisted reproduction have fewer birth defects compared with those from women who conceive naturally at that age, a new study has found.
This is contrary to widespread belief that the greater risk of birth defects after assisted conception is due to the frequent use of these services by older women.
According to researchers from the University of Adelaide in Australia, this may point to the presence of more favourable biological conditions in IVF (in vitro fertilisations) specific to pregnancies in older women.
The research is based on data of all live births recorded in Australia from 1986 – 2002, including more than 3,01,000 naturally conceived births, as well as 2,200 births from IVF and almost 1400 from ICSI (intracytoplasmic sperm injection).
The average prevalence of a birth defect was 5.7 per cent among naturally conceived births, 7.1 per cent for the IVF births, and 9.9 per cent for the ICSI births, across all age groups.
In births from assisted reproduction, the prevalence of birth defects ranged from 11.3 per cent at its highest for women less than age 30 using ICSI, down to 3.6 per cent for women aged 40 and older using IVF.

Laboratory have developed way of producing electricity from water at room temp.

In a major breakthrough, scientists at Delhi’s National Physical Laboratory (NPL) have developed a novel way of producing electricity from water at room temperature without using any power or chemicals.
A team led by Dr. R.K. Kotnala used nanoporous magnesium ferrite to split water into hydronium (H3O) and hydroxide (OH) ions and used silver and zinc as electrodes to make a cell that produces electricity.
The hydroelectric cell that uses magnesium ferrite of 1 sq. inch size produces 8 mA current and 0.98 volt.
According to a paper published in the International Journal of Energy Research, magnesium ferrite of 2-inch diameter produces 82 mA current and 0.9 volt.
Now, the hydroelectric cell material design has been improved and a 2-inch diameter material generates 150 mA current and 0.9 V.
Since magnesium has high affinity for hydroxide, it spontaneously splits or dissociates water into hydronium and hydroxide ions.
The hydronium ions get trapped inside the nanopores of magnesium ferrite and generate an electric field. The electric field helps in further dissociation of water.
Magnesium ferrite is made as an oxygen-deficient material and has plenty of oxygen vacancies.
To further enhance the activity of magnesium ferrite, about 20 per cent of magnesium is replaced with lithium.
The substitution of lithium at magnesium site increases the sensitivity of magnesium ferrite. This is helpful in dissociating water at room temperature as the electrons get trapped in the oxygen deficient sites.

:: International ::

Russia announced an eight-hour “humanitarian” ceasefire in Aleppo

Russia announced an eight-hour “humanitarian” ceasefire in Aleppo later this week, as the EU warned that the Syrian regime’s Moscow-backed assault on the city could amount to war crimes.
The United Nations (UN) and European Union (EU) welcomed the announcement, but said the planned pause in fighting needed to be longer to allow the delivery of humanitarian aid.
In the latest violence, dozens of civilians including 12 members of the same family were killed in heavy bombardment of rebel-held eastern sectors of the embattled city, a monitoring group said.
Russia's announcement, to which there was no immediate reaction from rebels, came as the EU condemned the ferocious air war waged on Aleppo over the past three weeks.
“Since the beginning of the offensive by the regime and its allies, notably Russia, the intensity and scale of the aerial bombardment of eastern Aleppo is clearly disproportionate,” EU Foreign Ministers said in Luxembourg.

:: India and World ::

Vice-President concluded three-day visit to Hungary

Vice-President Hamid Ansari concluded his three-day visit to Hungary and flew to Algiers on the next leg of the two-nation trip.
He called on President Janos André at the presidential palace after a meeting with the Speaker of the National Assembly, Laszlo Kover, at Parliament House in the forenoon.
Vice-President drove down from Budapest to the quaint resort town of Balatonfured and paid homage to the memory of Rabindranath Tagore who in 1926 spent a few weeks there 90 years ago.
He was convalescing here for a few weeks after suffering a heart ailment during a visit to Budapest, where he arrived on October 26. Tagore loved Hungary and has written of it.

India declared its commitment to play role in energising the Bay of Bengal community

India declared its commitment to play an “asymmetric” role in energising the Bay of Bengal community that held its first global diplomatic outreach during the weekend with the BRICS countries.
Diplomats said the response of BIMSTEC countries to India’s call for greater engagement has rejuvenated the organisation, and diplomats are now “duty-bound” to take the organisation to a cooperative future.
BIMSTEC-BRICS outreach eclipsed the SAARC event that was planned for Islamabad in November but was postponed after several member countries withdrew, citing cross-border terrorism and Pakistan’s interventionist policy.
However issues of unsettled borders, refugee issues and ethnic tension among BIMSTEC member countries would pose a challenge to the grouping, especially the Rohingya issue between Bangladesh and Myanmar, Nepalese refugees in Bhutan, and also the Myanmar-Thailand border problems
Mr. Modi, in his speech welcoming the BIMSTEC leaders, laid down an entire array of tasks for the members, including greater coordination in law enforcement, trade and commerce and digital symmetry.
“With 1.5 billion people and a combined GDP of $2.5 trillion, the countries of BIMSTEC have shared aspirations for growth, development, commerce, and technology.”

:: Business and Economy ::

The Tea Board of India has decided to keep on hold the post-auction settlement module

The Tea Board of India has decided to keep on hold the post-auction settlement module for four weeks, according to its Chairman S. Sarangi
The decision was made after two rounds of meetings here on Monday to address the issue which has been dogging the tea industry and trade since mid-September when the Tea Board started the post-auction settlement system for pan-India auctions through Bank of India, the settlement bank.
While NSEIT has prepared the software for the settlement module., Bank of India is the designated settlement bank.
The magnitude of problem was such that the tea industry had problems in making bonus payments, while companies could not close their second quarter results due to payment reconciliation issues through the four sales since mid- September.
The Tea Board’s official missive said that it had been decided that pan-India post settlement module would be kept on hold from October 18 or “till further orders.” Trade and industry see this as a temporary rollback.