Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 21 FEBRUARY 2020
::NATIONAL::
SC questions speedy issuance of death warrants by trial courts
- The Supreme Court today questioned the issuance of black warrants by
trial courts for execution of death penalty even before the expiry of 60-day
time period for filing of appeals in the apex court by the convicts.
- The top court's observation came during the hearing of an appeal, filed
by death row convict Anil Surendra Singh Yadav, alleging that the black
warrant was issued by a Gujarat sessions court just 33 days after his
conviction was upheld by the high court.
- Yadav was convicted for rape and murder of a three-year old girl in 2018
in Surat. A bench headed by Chief Justice S A Bobde stayed the execution of
Yadav's death warrant.
- The bench, also comprising Justices B R Gavai and Surya Kant, wondered
as to how trial courts issue death warrants despite there being a reported
judgement of the apex court, passed in 2015, that black warrants cannot be
issued before the expiry of 60-day statutory period for filing an appeal in
the Supreme Court against the high court verdict.
Vice president inaugurates Indian students’ parliament
- Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu has urged the younger generation to join
politics in a big way.
- Inaugurating the four-day Indian Students’ Parliament in New Delhi, Mr
Naidu said, politics is a vehicle for serving the people and bringing about
the desired socio-economic change.
- He said, politics is a vehicle to take the country to new levels of
development and strengthening the foundations of democracy.Mr Naidu
expressed happiness that thousands of youngsters are taking active interest
in politics and various issues concerning the nation.
- Vice President said that there is a need for a national movement to
eradicate poverty and illiteracy and wipe out various social evils, which
are hampering the progress of the nation.
::ECONOMY::
ICRA revises outlook on Indian pharma industry
- Credit rating agency ICRA has revised the outlook on the Indian
pharmaceutical industry from ‘stable’ to ‘negative’ as it does not rule out
the possibility of lockouts in parts of China — due to the outbreak of
COVID-19 — impacting profitability of drugmakers in India.
- ICRA said the industry was highly dependent on imports. Over 60% of its
active pharmaceutical ingredients’ requirement are met through imports and
in some specific Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) like
cephalosporins, azithromycin and penicillin, the dependence is as high as
80-90%. Of the total imports of APIs and intermediates into India, China
accounted for around 65-70%.
- “The situation is more alarming in the case of intermediates of stages
prior to APIs and key starting materials (KSMs) which are the building
blocks for the drugs, wherein, in some cases, China is the exclusive
supplier. Also, for some input materials, even if alternative sources are
available, China remains the preferred source given the economical rates,”
ICRA said.
- The agency said “domestic API manufacturers have an inventory of 1-2
months, which should support their production till mid-March 2020.
Continuation of the virus [impact] beyond mid-March may adversely impact
production of these API manufacturers, possibly leading to a complete halt
of production for some smaller players.”
World’s second-biggest control centre for goods trains to come up in U.P
- The world’s second-biggest Operation Control Centre for goods trains,
built in India by the Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India (DFCCIL)
is ready to begin operations, and is likely to be inaugurated by Prime
Minister NarendraModi at the end of this month, a senior company official
said on Thursday.
- The centre, built at Prayagraj in Uttar Pradesh, will be the
‘nerve-centre’ of the over 1,800 km-long eastern dedicated freight corridor,
the corporation’s MD AnuragSachan said on Thursday.
- The control centre has a theater which measures 1560 sq m, with a video
wall of more than 90 m and will be used as a one-stop shop for controlling
and monitoring rail systems, including train operations and the power supply
system.
- The Dedicated Freight Corridor, touted as one of the biggest
infrastructure projects in the country, is a 3,360 km stretch consisting of
the Eastern and Western corridors. The Eastern corridor, which is being
funded by the World Bank, will run from Ludhiana in Punjab to Dankuni near
Kolkata, traversing Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand.
- Mr.Sachan said that the Western corridor will have a similar operation
control system at Ahmedabad.For the Eastern corridor, targeted to be
completed by December 2021, The World Bank loan stands at about $1.86
billion.
- The MD added that once operational, the freight corridor will help
decongest the existing Indian Railway network, while also helping increase
the average speed of goods trains to 70 kmph, from the existing 25 kmph.
::INTERNATIONAL::
President and rebel leaders of South Sudan agrees to form unity government
- South Sudan President SalvaKiir and rebel leader RiekMachar today agreed
to form a unity government, a long-delayed step towards ending six years of
war that has killed hundreds of thousands of people.
- Mr Kiir said, the new government will be formed on Saturday and he will
appoint Machar as his first Vice President, or top deputy tomorrow.
- The President said, security arrangements, one crucial issue, will be
resolved after the government's formation. He said, the protection of Machar
and others with the opposition will be under his responsibility.
- South Sudan's civil war broke out just two years after mass celebrations
after gaining hard-fought independence from Sudan. The conflict badly hurt
the oil-rich nation's economy and roughly half the country's 12 million
people are hungry today.
::SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY::
Cabinet set to form technology group in India
- On February 19, 2020, the Union Cabinet approved to set a technology
group.The 12-member group will provide scientific advice on mapping of
technologies, commercializationof dual use technologies and develop a road
map on selected key technologies.
- The group will provide three major pillars of support namely Policy
support, research and development proposals and procurement support.
- The group will help the GoI in achieving the following To render advice
on technology procurement strategy,to develop in-house expertise in
developing merging technologies and to make sure the public sector
technologies developed are sustainable.
- The Group has been constituted as the GoIfaced the following challenges
like there was no mapping of technologies and their uses spread across the
country ,the Researches were not aligned to technology development The dual
use of technologies was not commercialized,The standards of technologies
were not fixed etc. This led to sub-optimal industrial development.
::SPORTS::
Indian wins over Romania in U-17 women’s football
- The Indian Under 17 women’s football team registered a 1-0 victory over
Romania in its second friendly match at Turkler, Turkey today.
- Priyanka Devi scored the only goal of the match in the 29th minute from
a penalty. The first friendly match had ended 3-3 draw on Sunday.
