Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 21 September 2018

SSC CGL Current Affairs

::NATIONAL::

The first-of-its-kind national sex offenders’ registry launched on Thursday has names and details of some 4.4 lakh people convicted for various sexual offences across the country.
The database is for those convicted for sexual offences 2005 onwards. It includes name, address, photograph and fingerprint details of the convict. A Home Ministry statement said the database would not compromise any individual’s privacy.
India became the ninth country in the world to have a National Database on Sexual Offenders (NDSO), accessible only to law enforcement agencies for the purpose of “investigation and monitoring”. The proposal to set up a registry was mooted by the UPA government after the 2012 Nirbhayagangrape case in New Delhi.
The database will be maintained by the National Crime Records Bureau, that will also track whether the State police were updating the records on time. The database will include offenders convicted under charges of rape, gang rape, Protection of Children from Sexual Offenders Act (POCSO) and eve teasing.

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Thursday announced that a directive will be issued shortly to ensure that the amended SC/ST Act is not misused in the State.
He was replying to a query on the protests in the State against Parliament clearing the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Amendment Bill, 2018 in August restoring some stringent provisions of the Act.
“The misuse of the (amended) SC/ST Act will not be allowed in M.P. Only after a thorough probe, a case will be registered under it. To this end, a directive will be issued shortly,” the Chief Minister told reporters on Thursday.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) wants the government to amend the Income Tax Act to plug loopholes wherein individuals and companies managed to avail tax benefits on the money paid to the regulator to settle matters under the consent mechanism.
The regulator had already taken up the matter with the government highlighting cases where entities showed the settlement amount paid to the SEBI as a deductible business expense to lower their taxable income and thereby the tax liability.
“A committee formed to review consent framework has highlighted this issue and we are taking it up with the government. We do not think that a company should be allowed to use this [settlement money] for tax benefits,” said a senior SEBI official.
The past has seen at least three instances wherein such a tax benefit was availed by entities that settled their respective matters with the SEBI through the consent mechanism that involves paying a monetary penalty.

Saudi Arabia will be the third “strategic partner” of the $50 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a senior Pakistani Minister announced on Thursday, soon after Prime Minister Imran Khan returned from his first foreign trip to the cash-rich kingdom.
The CPEC is the flagship project of the multi-billion dollar Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), a pet project of Chinese President Xi Jinping, aimed at enhancing Beijing’s influence around the world through China-funded infrastructure projects.\
Addressing a press conference here on Mr. Khan’s two-day visit to Saudi Arabia and the UAE, Minister of Information Fawad Chaudhry said Pakistan’s main interest lies in cooperation with Saudi Arabia on matters of trade and security.
The CPEC aims to construct and upgrade the transportation network, energy projects, a deep-water port at Gwadar and special economic zones to eventually support Pakistan’s industrial development as a manufacturing hub by 2030.

Kim Jong-un and Moon Jae-in visited the spiritual birthplace of the Korean nation on Thursday for a show of unity after their North-South summit gave new momentum to Pyongyang’s negotiations with Washington.The 2,744-metre peak is considered sacred by all Koreans as the birthplace of Dangun, the legendary founder of the first Korean kingdom.
The North Korean leader on Wednesday agreed to shutter the Tongchang-ri missile-testing site in the presence of international observers, a move the U.S. welcomed by saying it was ready for immediate talks aimed at denuclearising the North.
Pyongyang also said it could dismantle its best-known nuclear facility at Yongbyon, if the U.S. takes “corresponding measures”, as Mr. Kim and the South Korean President held their third summit this year.

The number of winged visitors at the Raiganj Wildlife Sanctuary in West Bengal’s Uttar Dinjapur district has crossed all previous records. As per a census carried out by the State Forest Department, the wildlife sanctuary, spread over 130 hectares, recorded 98,532 birds this year.
This the highest number of birds which has visited Raiganj Wildlife Sanctuary over the past several years. What is encouraging is that the number of migratory birds is increasing every year,” Dwiparna Kumar Dutta, Divisional Forest Officer (DFO), Raignaj, told.
According to Mr Dutta, the sanctuary has one of the highest numbers of Openbill stork population not only in India but in Asia and this makes the sanctuary unique. “Of the 98,000 birds about 67,000 are Openbill storks. Then there are cormorants, night herons, little egrets, flycatchers, owls and other species,” he said.

The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) on Thursday lifted a ban on Russia’s anti-doping agency, RUSADA, paving the way for Russian athletes to return to competition across all sports.
“Today, the great majority of WADA’s Executive Committee decided to reinstate RUSADA as compliant with the World Anti-Doping Code subject to strict conditions,” WADA president Craig Reedie said. He said the decision “provides a clear timeline by which WADA must be given access to the former Moscow laboratory data and samples.”