Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 21 MAY 2019
::NATIONAL::
Opposition to meet EC over addressing of mismatch between VVPAT and EVM
- Leaders of Opposition parties will meet Election Commission (EC)
officials on Tuesday to urge the panel to spell out the mechanisms to
address any mismatch between voter-verified paper audit trail (VVPAT) and
electronic voting machine (EVM) tallies during the counting of votes on
Thursday.
- The Commission will counter-check the VVPAT and EVM tallies in
five randomly selected polling stations in an Assembly segment.Earlier this
month, the Supreme Court dismissed a review petition filed by 21 Opposition
parties for verification of tallies in at least 25% of the booths.
- Opposition leaders earlier met the panel seeking details of what
it planned to do if any discrepancy cropped up during the random
counter-check. The EC at the time promised to come up with detailed
guidelines.
- The Opposition parties expressed confidence that the exit polls
did not reflect the actual result. The agenda of the meeting would include
discussions on the way forward after the results.
India to block UN panel on Human rights over submission of J & K reports
- Reacting angrily to a submission from the Geneva-based Human
Rights Council (HRC) on alleged violations in Jammu and Kashmir, India has
informed the United Nations body that it will no longer entertain any
communication with the HRC’s Special Rapporteurs on its report.
- The report from the UN body came at the same time as a report from
two NGOs in Jammu and Kashmir on alleged cases of torture, was released in
Srinagar, which was endorsed by a former UN Special Rapporteur.
- Rejecting all the claims, the Indian Permanent Mission to the
United Nations in Geneva replied to the OHCHR on April 23, saying that
“India does not intend to engage further with these mandate holders or any
other mandate holders on the issue,” whom it accused of “individual
prejudice”
- India had also rejected the OHCHR’s report on the “Situation of
Human Rights in Kashmir” the first ever such report on J&K that came out in
June 2018 and accused the High Commissioner of Human Rights ZeidRa’ad Al
Hussein of “clear bias” in bringing it out.
- “This report will constitute a landmark. It is hoped it will be an
example to other civil society organizations in India and in other countries
as a model,” wrote Juan E. Mendez, former UN Special Rapporteur on Torture
(2010-16), in the report’s preface, adding that he had been denied
permission to visit India.
::ECONOMY::
PM economic advisory council wants new government to liberalise agriculture
- The government that comes to power should focus on agriculture by
removing all restrictions placed on the sector in terms of sale, purchase,
and exports, former member of the Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council
SurjitBhalla said. He further said that the new government should reduce the
cost of capital in the country to boost investment and growth.
- “Every country that has conducted large scale reforms, has
reformed agriculture first,” Mr.Bhalla said, speaking at a FICCI event. “In
India, the Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) says that farmers
can only sell in the mandis and need a licence to sell in the mandis.”
- “There should be zero intervention in agriculture,” he said.
“Farmers should be allowed to buy, sell, and export whatever.”Mr. Bhalla
said that India’s potential economic growth rate was 8-8.5%, but several
factors had meant that this had not been achieved.
- “India has the second highest corporate tax rate in the world.
Taxes paid by corporates as a proportion of their profits are 24% in India,
compared to 15-16% in large economies around the world.”
No additional seats likely for foreign aircrafts
- India is unlikely to grant additional seats to foreign carriers,
over and above the numbers agreed to under bilateral pacts, even though
Indian expatriates in some of these countries are facing the prospect of
having to pay sharply steeper airfares during the peak travel season this
year following the grounding of Jet Airways.
- It is reliably learnt that authorities in the UAE have written to
the Indian government requesting additional capacity for its Dubai-based
airlines Emirates and FlyDubai. Qatar Airways, too, announced last week that
it had approached Indian authorities for more seats on high volume routes
such as Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru on a temporary basis.
- “Emirates made an offer to temporarily enhance capacity but I
believe Civil Aviation Ministry will give preference to domestic carriers,”
a senior official of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), who declined to
be identified, confirmed.
- Government officials, however, are worried that the failure to
ramp up capacity on routes to West Asia will impact not just tourists, but
also Indian workers based there.
- For example, an economy airfare for a Mumbai-Dubai flight on May
18 had risen to as much as Rs. 22,913 when booked 30 days before departure.
This was about three times the fare that had been available for the same
travel period last year, according to Yatra.com.
- “The requests have been made so that the demand between the two
countries could be satisfied to ensure fares don’t go out of control,” said
an airline executive.
::INTERNATIONAL::
Indian and Pakistan to meet at SCO at Bishkek
- For the first time, since the Pulwama terror attack and the
Balakot airstrikes, Indian and Pakistani Foreign Ministers will together
attend a ministerial meeting under the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO)
in Bishkek, Kyrgyz Republic, on May 21-22.
- The meeting will be attended by External Affairs Minister
SushmaSwaraj, along with the Foreign Ministers of SCO member states,
including Pakistan.
- In keeping with the evolving developments, Shah MahmoodQureshi,
Pakistan’s Foreign Minister told the media on Monday that career diplomat
MoinulHaq will be the new High Commissioner of Pakistan to India. Pakistan
had not appointed a new envoy since the tenure of the previous incumbent
SohailMahmood ended in mid-April.
- This is also the first meeting since India successfully ensured a
global blacklisting of Jaish-e-Mohammed head MasoodAzhar. India had blamed
JeM for being behind the Pulwama attack.
- The Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure of SCO has emerged in the
last few years as an important platform where terrorism and security-related
problems are discussed among member countries. India and Pakistan have
participated in the multilateral military exercises.
- The meeting acquires significance as it comes in the backdrop of
an expanding U.S.-China trade war and the energy shock to several of the
member countries after the U.S. administration ended waiver for energy trade
with Iran.
::SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY::
World gets redefined units for standard measurements
- After decades of ground-breaking laboratory works, the world’s
scientific and technical community, in a landmark and historic decision
taken in the recent open session of the General Conference on Weights and
Measures (CGPM) at BIPM on 16 November 2018, has unanimously adopted the
resolution to redefine four of the seven base units, the kilogram (SI unit
of weight), Kelvin (SI unit of temperature), mole (SI unit of amount of
substance), and ampere (SI unit of current).
- This decision has now enabled scientists and researchers to base
the SI units entirely on fundamental properties of nature, which will ensure
their ongoing refinement and improvement for years to come.
- The fundamental constants are invariants of time and space and
successfully replaced the artifact based units, and aptly opened up the new
era for quantum world by linking all seven base units to fundamental
constants/quantum standards.
- The whole metrology world, especially the National Metrology
Institutes (NMIs) are celebrating this year's WMD as mark for the new
beginning of metrology, based on constant of nature on a large scale.
- CSIR-NPL, the NMI of India have kept the strides going in these
fields and started the R&D efforts in establishing the new SI, alongside the
international implementations from 20th May 2019.
::SPORTS::
Ashish kumar to lead India in global gymnastics championship
- A three-member team led by 2010 Asian Games bronze medallist
Ashish Kumar will represent India at the second World Challenge Cup Series
gymnastics tournament in Osijek, Croatia from May 23 to 26.
- Besides Ashish, the Indian contingent will also have Rakesh Kumar
Patra and ShraddhaTalekar.
- The World Challenge Cup is a major FIG event with a broader
participation of 110 gymnasts from 30 different countries.
