Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 21 September 2020

SSC CGL Current Affairs

::NATIONAL::

A Memorandum of Understanding was signed between the Ministry of AYUSH and Ministry of Women and Child Development today in New Delhi for controlling Malnutrition as a part of POSHAN Abhiyaan. The MoU will see some time-tested and scientifically proven Ayush-based solutions being adopted for controlling malnutrition in the country.
Speaking on the occasion, Minister of Women and Child DevelopmentMrs Irani said that the collaboration of efforts of both the Ministries will go a long way in tackling the problem of malnutrition in mothers and children in the country.
On this occasion, ShripadYessoNaik said that Ayurveda and other AYUSH systems have much to contribute in dealing with mild and moderate mal-nutrition by way of many specific measures such as right intake of diet by the pregnant women, feeding practices by lactating mothers, use of traditional products augmenting milk secretion and nutritional food for children.

Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment has formulated and is implementing a National Action Plan for Drug Demand Reduction (NAPDDR) for 2018-2025.
The Plan aims at reduction of adverse consequences of drug abuse through a multi-pronged strategy. The activities under the NAPDDR include awareness generation programmes in schools, colleges, Universities, workshop and provisioning of treatment facilities and capacity building of service providers.
In a written reply to a question in the LokSabha Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment Rattan LalKataria said that the Ministry has also initiated focused intervention programmes in vulnerable districts across the country with an aim to increase community participation and public cooperation in the reduction of demand for dependence-producing substances.

Defence Minister MinisterRajnath Singh has said, opposition parties are trying to mislead the nation's farmers. He asserted that government is aiming to double farmers income and the two farm bills passed in RajyaSabha yesterday are historic and will pave the way in enhancing farmers income.
Parliament passed the Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill 2020 and the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill 2020 with RajyaSabha approving it yesterday amid uproar by the opposition.
The House also negated the oppositions’ amendments to send the Bills to the Select Committee. Speaking on the Bills, Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmer Welfare Narendra Singh Tomar said that the government has taken several steps for doubling the income of farmers after consultations with the famers and States.
The two Bills aim at increasing the availability of buyers for farmers’ produce by allowing them to trade freely without any license or stock limit resulting in better prices for their produce. They will replace two ordinances promulgated by the Central Government in June this year.

The government will implement a new financial model for interest subvention for individual beneficiaries as well as Self-Help Groups (SHGs) comprising people belonging to Scheduled Caste and OBC categories.
In a written reply to LokSabha, Minister of State for Social Justice and Environment Krishan Pal Gurjar said the National Scheduled Castes Finance and Development Corporation (NSCFDC) will be the implementing agency for SC SHGs/beneficiaries and the National Backward Classes Finance and Development Corporation (NBCFDC) will be implementing agency for OBC SHGs/beneficiaries.
"The objective of the model is to provide direct benefit of lower rate of interest to the eligible SHGs formed under National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM) or National Urban Livelihood Mission (NULM) or NABARD/individual beneficiaries who have availed loans through Public Sector Banks (PSBs), Regional Rural Banks (RRBs) and similar financial institutions or can be referred as Lending Institutions," he said.

India has provided financial assistance of 250 million dollars as budgetary support to the Maldives government to mitigate the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The 250 million dollar budgetary support was a response to the request made by Maldives President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih to Prime Minister NarendraModi for financial assistance to overcome the difficult economic situation in the Maldives. AIR correspondent reports it is being provided under the most favourable terms possible to the Government of Maldives.
India has provided substantial and continued assistance to the Maldives during the COVID-19 pandemic. The budgetary support of 250 million dollars has been extended without conditions. Maldives government is at liberty to use the money in repairing the domestic economic situation in line with its own priorities.

Nepal is planning to resume passenger railway services after a 7-year suspension after it received two sets of rails from India. The Diesel-Electric Multiple Unit rail sets that Kathmandu had purchased from India arrived in Janakpur city yesterday.
Director General at the Department of Railway Balram Mishra said, it would take at least one and half months to restart the services, as it was currently working to recruit necessary human resources. The Department has planned to recruit over 200 staff gradually.
It will be the country's first ever broad-gauge passenger railway service. The service will start from Kurtha, an area close to Janakpur town to Jayanagar, a town bordering India.

India’s first CRISPR test for COVID-19 has been launched by the TATA group. It has been developed by CSIR-IGIB ‘Feluda’ (Council of Scientific and Industrial Research-Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology).
The test recently received regulatory approvals for the commercial roll out from the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI).
The Tata CRISPR test is the world’s first diagnostic test that will deploy a specially adapted Cas9 protein in order to detect the virus that is causing the COVID-19.For the detection of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, test uses indigenously developed CRISPR technology.
Potential applications of the technology include- correcting genetic defects, Improving crops and treating and preventing the spread of diseases.
However, before the CSISPR method, there were several ways to edit the genomes of some plants and animals but they were highly charged. The CRISPR technology is cheap and easy.
The technology was first adapted from the natural defence mechanisms of bacteria and archaea .This technology was first unveiled in 2012.
These bacteria and archaea uses the CRISPR-derived RNA and Cas proteins like Cas9 in order to foil attacks by viruses and other foreign bodies. They do so by eating up and destroying the DNA of a foreign bodies.

In Italian Open Tennis, Top-seeded SimonaHalep has reached final of the Women's Singles beating GarbiñeMuguruza 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 in the first semifinal clash today.
The other semifinal will be played between last year's French Open runner-up MarketaVondrousova against fellow Czech and defending champion Karolina Pliskova this evening.