Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 19 JULY 2020

SSC CGL Current Affairs

::NATIONAL::

The Centre has applied an unused provision in the Disaster Management Act, 2005 to allow any person or institution to contribute to the National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF) for the purpose of disaster management.
The Ministry had invoked the Disaster Management Act, 2005 for the first time in March this year in the wake of COVID-19. The pandemic was notified as a “disaster,” paving the way for the States to utilise the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) for treatment of patients and other logistics such as quarantine centres, setting up laboratories among other things.
The other notified disasters are cyclone, drought, earthquake, fire, flood, tsunami, hailstorm, landslide, avalanche, cloudburst, pest attack, frost and cold waves.
As per Section 46 of the DM Act, the “NDRF supplements the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) in case of a disaster of severe nature, provided adequate funds are not available in the SDRF”.

India’s cybersecurity nodal agency CERT-In has issued a notice to Twitter asking the micro-blogging platform for full details of the recent global hack targeting high-profile users, as it sought complete information on the number of Indian users affected as well as the impact on data.
A source said that CERT-In has asked Twitter for information on the number of users from India who have visited the malicious tweets and links, and whether the affected users have been informed by the platform about unauthorised access to their Twitter accounts.
Cyberattackers had hacked into the Twitter accounts of global high profile users — including former U.S. President Barack Obama and Democratic presidential front-runner Joe Biden — on Wednesday in a purported Bitcoin scam.

The Finance Ministry’s move to impose an equalisation levy of 2% on e-commerce supplies and services from April 1 has led to a lot of ambiguity and needs clarity, according to tax experts.
The first instalment of payment became due on July 7. Earlier, the government had imposed a 6% equalisation levy on online advertisement services by non-resident entities. Later, the scope was expanded to online sale of goods and provision of services from April 1.
“Digital offerings of non-residents such as online books/online games/online gaming services (under specified circumstances) seem to come under the purview of the expanded equalisation levy.
The intent cannot aim to bring billions of dollars of cross-border commodity purchase transactions within the ambit of the equalisation levy merely on account of placement of the order online, he said.

Union Information and Broadcasting Minister PrakashJavadekar shared the details of a United Nations Development Programe (UNDP) report which states that more than 27 crore people in the country have come out of poverty in the last 10 years.
Mr.Javadekar termed the achievement as a big positive development. India recorded the world's largest reduction in multidimensional poverty between 2005-06 and 2015-16, according to the latest UN report.
The states include Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Telangana and Gujarat among others.

India summoned the Charge d’Affaires of the Pakistan High Commission and lodged a strong protest on the death of three innocent civilians, including a child in an unprovoked ceasefire violation by Pakistani forces.
The incident had occured Friday night in Krishna Ghati Sector in Jammu and Kashmir. The deceased persons belonged to a single family.
India has condemned, in the strongest terms, the deliberate targeting of innocent civilians by Pakistan forces. The External Affairs Ministry said this year alone, 21 Indians have been killed and 94 injured in over 2711 unprovoked ceasefire violations by Pakistani forces.
The External Affairs Ministry said Pakistan was called upon to adhere to the 2003 Ceasefire Understanding for maintaining peace and tranquility along the Line of Control and the International Boundary.

The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) will conduct a study to evaluate the effectiveness of the BCG vaccine in preventing morbidity and mortality due to COVID-19 in elderly individuals. The study will be conducted on people aged between 60 to 95 years of age living in COVID-19 hotspots in the country.
This study will be carried out in six states - Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Delhi.The ICMR's National Institute for Research in Tuberculosis (NIRT) in Chennai is heading the study.
The study will document whether BCG vaccine can prevent the occurrence of the CoronaVirus infection and its progression among elderly individuals.The study uses the same BCG vaccine that is administered to newborn babies as a part of the National Immunization programme in the country.
Apart from Chennai's NIRT, the five other centres where the study is being undertaken are National Institute of Occupational Health, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, National Institute for Research in Environmental Health in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, GS Medical College and KEM Hospital in Mumbai, Maharashtra, National Institute for Implementation Research on Non-Communicable Diseases in Jodhpur, Rajasthan and AIIMS, New Delhi.

Anticipating the postponement of the T20 World Cup, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has prepared a back-up plan to stage the Indian Premier League (IPL) this year.
The fate of the IPL’s 13th edition, which was deferred following the COVID-19 outbreak, has been linked to the T20 World Cup, scheduled to be played in Australia from October 18 to November 15.
The October-November period is the only available window to fit the IPL into this year.The ICC Board is set to meet on Monday and, besides finalising the election procedure for the chairman’s post, is expected to announce the postponement of the T20 World Cup.