Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 19 APRIL 2019
::NATIONAL::
Supreme court to consider voting rights of undertrials and convicts
- The Supreme Court is hearing a plea filed by a law student
questioning an electoral law which denies undertrials and convicts their
right to vote.
- A Bench led by Chief Justice RanjanGogoi, on April 16, scheduled
the case after a fortnight. The court is also interested to learn why
AdityaPrasanna Bhattacharya, the student at the National Law School India
University at Bengaluru, is interested in this particular subject and why he
has sought to move the petition under Article 32. It however added that its
queries had nothing to do with the merits of the petition.
- Section 62(5) of the Representation of People Act of 1951 mandates
that “no person shall vote at any election if he is confined in a prison,
whether under a sentence of imprisonment or transportation or otherwise, or
is in the lawful custody of the police”.
- The provisions however exempt a person held under preventive
detention from this rigour.
- The petition, represented by advocate ZohebHossain, highlights how
the Section sees both an undertrial and a convicted person equally. The
former’s guilt is yet to be proved in a court. A person is innocent until
proven guilty by law. Despite this, it denies an undertrial the right to
vote but allows a detainee the same. However, a person out on bail is
allowed to cast his vote.
- The plea argued that the provision violates the rights to
equality, vote (Article 326) and is arbitrary. It is not a reasonable
restriction.
::ECONOMY::
RBI stresses on addressing growth challenges
- Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Shaktikanta Das highlighted
the need to address growth challenges as the inflation outlook remained
benign, at the meeting of the monetary policy committee earlier this month.
- The minutes of the MPC meeting were released on Tuesday. Four out
of six MPC members had voted for a reduction in interest rate from 6.25% to
6% during the first bimonthly policy review of 2019-20.
- “With the inflation outlook looking benign and headline inflation
expected to remain below target in the current year, it becomes necessary to
address the challenges to sustained growth of the Indian economy,” Mr. Das
said, explaining why he voted for a rate reduction.
- The RBI Governor also flagged the idea of departing from the
conventional rate revision in multiples of 25 bps, during the MPC meeting,
an issue on which he elaborated in a speech on the sidelines of the
Fund-Bank Spring Meetings in Washington DC last week.
- Observing that February had already shown some seasonal uptick in
prices of several food items, Dr.Acharya argued that soft food inflation may
not persist for long a scenario in which the elevated level of inflation,
excluding food and fuel, would steer the headline inflation away from the
target rate of 4%.
IT department proposes change in methodology for taxing MNC’s
- The income tax department on Thursday proposed a change in the
methodology for taxing multinational companies (MNCs), including digital
firms, having permanent establishment in India by giving weightage to
factors like domestic sales, employee strength, assets and user base.
- “The committee noted the need to protect India’s revenue interests
in cases where an enterprise having global losses or a global profit margin
of less than 2%, continues with the Indian operations which could be more
profitable than its operations elsewhere.
- “The continuation of Indian operations justifies the presumption
of higher profitability of Indian operations, and in such cases, a deeming
provision that deems profits of Indian operations at 2% of revenue or
turnover derived from India should be introduced,” the report said. An MNC
with a fixed place of business in India is considered as having PE in India
and is taxed as per domestic laws.
::INTERNATIONAL::
Mali PM resigns along with entire government
- Mali's Prime Minister has resigned along with his entire
government yesterday after it came under mounting pressure over handling the
violence in the restive Mopti region.
- The rage was rising especially after a massacre on March 23 in
which 160 people were killed in the village of Ogossagou near the border
with Burkina Faso.
- A statement from President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita's office said he
had accepted SoumeylouBoubeyeMaiga's resignation, along with those of his
ministers.
- The statement said, a Prime Minister will be named very soon and a
new government will be put in place after consultations with all political
forces from both the ruling and opposition sides.
- Tens of thousands of people took to the streets of Bamako on April
5 to protest against the upsurge of violence, accusing the government of not
doing enough to stop it.
- Mali has been struggling to restore stability since Islamist
extremists linked to Al-Qaeda took control of the country's vast desert
north in early 2012.
::SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY::
CSIR to conduct genome sequencing to map population
- In an indigenous genetic mapping effort, nearly 1,000 rural youth
from the length and breadth of India will have their genomes sequenced by
the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR). The project aims
at educating a generation of students on the “usefulness” of genomics.
- Globally, many countries have undertaken genome sequencing of a
sample of their citizens to determine unique genetic traits, susceptibility
(and resilience) to disease. This is the first time that such a large sample
of Indians will be recruited for a detailed study.
- The project is an adjunct to a much larger government-led
programme, still in the works, to sequence at least 10,000 Indian genomes.
- Typically, those recruited as part of genome-sample collections
are representative of the country’s population diversity. In this case, the
bulk of them will be college students, both men and women, and pursuing
degrees in the life sciences or biology.
- Genomes will be sequenced based on a blood sample and the
scientists plan to hold at least 30 camps covering most States.
- Every person whose genomes are sequenced will be given a report.
The participants would be told if they carry gene variants that make them
less responsive to certain classes of medicines. For instance, having a
certain gene makes some people less responsive to clopidogrel, a key drug
that prevents strokes and heart attack.
- The project would involve the Hyderabad-based Centre for Cellular
and Molecular Biology (CCMB) and cost Rs. 18 crore, with the sequencing to
be done at the IGIB and the CCMB.
::SPORTS::
BajrangPunia maintains top spot in world rankings
- India's BajrangPunia has regained the world number one spot in the
men's 65-kilogram freestyle category rankings.
- The rankings were released by United World Wrestling on Wednesday
night.
- Punia, who won Gold in the Asian Games and Commonwealth Games as
well as a silver in the World Championships last year, secured 58 points
ahead of AkhmedChakaev of Russia.
- Bajrang, who is currently preparing for the Asian Wrestling
Championship to be held in China from the 23rd of this month, had first
reached the world number one spot in November last year. He won gold at the
Dan Kolov-Nikola Petrov tournament in Bulgaria last month.
