Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 21 December 2020

SSC CGL Current Affairs



Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 21 December 2020



::NATIONAL::


Union Environment Minister releases the Status of Leopards in India

  • Union Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Prakash Javadekar released the Status of Leopards in India.
  • The estimation of leopards in the country went on concomitantly with the fourth cycle of the All India Tiger Estimation, whose detailed report was released on Global Tiger Day this year and declared to the nation by the Prime Minister on Global Tiger Day in 2019.
  • India now has 12,852 leopards as compared to the previous estimate of 7910 conducted in 2014.
  • More than 60% increase in population has been recorded.
  • The States of Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, and Maharashtra recorded the highest leopard estimates at 3,421, 1,783, and 1,690 respectively.

Mothers in MP will turn warriors against malnutrition

  • The Madhya Pradesh government has issued an order for appointment of committees led by mothers to ensure better monitoring of services delivered at anganwadis or daycare centres. 
  • The mothers will keep a watch on weekly ration distribution to beneficiaries as well as suggest nutritious and tasteful recipes for meals served to children at the centres. The move is aimed at strengthening community response to the problem of hunger and malnutrition.
  • Called ‘MatruSahyogini Samiti’ or Mothers’ Cooperation Committees, these will comprise 10 mothers at each anganwadi, representing the concerns of different sets of beneficiaries under the Integrated Child Development Services, or the National Nutrition Mission -children aged between six months and three years, children between three years and six years, adolescent girls, pregnant women and lactating mothers.
  • According to the order issued earlier this month, the committees will include mothers of beneficiary children as well as represented by pregnant women and lactating mothers, who are enrolled under the scheme.
  • The scheme includes a package of six services, including supplementary nutrition, health services including vaccination, early education, among others.
  • The committees will also include a woman ‘panch’ (elected village leader), women active in the community and eager to volunteer their support to the scheme, teachers from the local school, and women heads of self-help groups.

::ECONOMY::


MoRTH signs MoU with Austria on Technology Cooperation in Road Infrastructure Sector

  • The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Federal Ministry of Climate Action, Environment, Energy, Mobility, Innovation and Technology of the Republic of Austria on Technology Cooperation in the Road Infrastructure Sector in New Delhi on Wednesday.
  • The MoU aims to create an effective framework for bilateral cooperation in the field of Road Transportation, Road/Highways infrastructure development, management and administration, Road safety and Intelligent Transport Systems between both countries.It will further strengthen ties, promote long standing bilateral relations and enhance trade and regional integration between the two countries.
  • India has had good diplomatic relations with Austria since the establishment of bilateral ties between the two countries in 1949. Both countries share a history of friendly economic and diplomatic relations. Austria has state of the art technologies for roads and highways, such as electronic toll systems, intelligent transportation systems, traffic management systems, tunnel monitoring system, geo-mapping and landslide protection measures.

::INTERNATIONAL::


Japan sets record $52 bln military budget with stealth jets, long-range missiles

  • Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga's government approved a ninth consecutive rise in military spending on Monday, funding the development of an advanced stealth fighter and longer-range anti-ship missile to counter China's growing military power.
  • The Ministry of Defense will get a record 5.34 trillion yen ($51.7 billion) for the year starting in April, up 1.1% from this year. With Suga's large majority in parliament, enactment of the budget is all but certain.
  • Suga is continuing the controversial military expansion pursued by his predecessor, Shinzo Abe, to give Japan's forces new planes, missiles and aircraft carriers with greater range and potency against potential foes including neighbouring China.
  • "To correspond to the increasingly severe security environment, we would like to firmly strengthen our defence power while getting people to understand through our explanations at parliament sessions," Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato said at a news conference after the budget approval.
  • Japan is buying longer-range missiles and considering arming and training its military to strike distant land targets in China, North Korea and other parts of Asia.

UAE top diplomat acknowledges visa restrictions on Pakistan

  • The United Arab Emirates’ top diplomat has publicly acknowledged a so-far unexplained ban on visitors from Pakistan, which travel agents say also targets tourists and laborers from a dozen Muslim-majority countries amid the pandemic and the UAE’s normalization of ties with Israel.
  • The reported visa restrictions targeting countries such as Lebanon, Kenya, Iran, Syria, Afghanistan and Yemen came just as tourists began arriving in the Persian Gulf country on Israeli passports following the normalization agreement. 
  • The Emirati and Israeli governments are hammering out a mutual visa waiver agreement to grant Israeli tourists visas on arrival.

::Science and Tech::


Magmatic intrusions could lead to prolific traps for hydrocarbon and geothermal energy resources

  • Scientists have found that magmatic intrusions at shallow depths from lower crust or mantle could lead to traps for hydrocarbon and geothermal energy resources.
  • A team of researchers who studied Taranaki Basin on the West Coast of New Zealand have spotted trapped hydrocarbon and geothermal energy resources due to forced foldings resulting from intrusion of magma in shallow strata. 
  • Magma intrusion into relatively shallow depths often results into the structural deformation of host strata. Forced folds are typically formed above such intrusions in order to accommodate the addition of magma into the sedimentary pile. 
  • Scientists from Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology, an autonomous institution under the Department of Science & Technology, in collaboration with Cardiff University, UK and led by the Director WIHG, Dr. Kalachand Sain, have investigated large forced folds that were formed in the geological settings called Upper Cretaceous-Paleocene sequences due to the intrusion of a series of magmatic dikes and sills (intrusions) by using high-resolution 3D seismic volume from the Taranaki basin, offshore New Zealand. 
  • They found that forced foldings due to intrusion of magma in shallow strata in the Taranaki Basin on the West Coast of New Zealand have led to the development of four-way closures to form prolific traps for hydrocarbon and geothermal energy resources.

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