Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 22 JANUARY 2020

::NATIONAL::

SC asks Parliament to review disqualifying powers of speakers

In a path breaking ruling, the Supreme Court on Tuesday said, the time has come when Parliament should have a rethink on whether disqualification petitions ought to be entrusted to a Speaker as a quasi-judicial authority when such Speaker continues to belong to a particular political party either de jure or de facto.
The Apex Court said, Parliament may seriously consider amending the Constitution to substitute Speaker of LokSabha and Legislative Assemblies as arbiter of disqualification issues with a Permanent Tribunal headed by a retired Supreme Court Judge or a retired Chief Justice of a High Court or some other mechanism to ensure swift and impartial decisions.
A bench headed by Justice R F Nariman took note of the role played by Speakers and inordinate delays in deciding pleas for disqualification of lawmakers and asked the Manipur Assembly Speaker to decide within four weeks the plea of a Congress leader seeking disqualification of BJP lawmaker and Manipur Forest Minister Thounaojam Shyamkumar Singh.

Census 2021 aims at accurate enumeration of dalits and tribals

As part of an attempt to better enumerate the Dalit and tribal population of the country, Census 2021 data collectors have been asked to carry charts with "pre-coded" sub castes that come under SC and ST categories in every state.
The instruction manual of the Census 2021 has a code directory that has enlisted and given a specific code to every SC and ST community in every state and Union Territory (UT). Unlike in 2011, when enumerators were asked to write down the community name of the SC or ST respondent, this time every sub caste and tribe has been pre-coded and the data collector will enter the code of the caste in the form, along with the name.
The code will then be scanned as part of post enumeration work which will give a better listing of how many persons belonging to SC and ST communities live in the country, what sort of lives they lead, what jobs they do, and whether they own a TV or a smartphone, among other details, an official said.
According to an official at the Registrar General of India, the move was decided because of the "unavailability of reliable and authentic data about the exact numbers of the certain groups even among SCs and STs, geographical areas of their spread and density has been a huge challenge in ensuring focused and outcome specific planning."
Census 2021 has already been notified with the house listing and housing Census - April to September, 2020 and population enumeration - 9th February to 28th February 2021. Nearly 30 lakh enumerators have been roped in for this from across the country.

::ECONOMY::

Report suggests India needs large scale investment to meet SDG targets by 2030

India needs a whopping USD 2.64 trillion investment to meet the UN's sustainable development goals (SDGs), offering the private sector an investment opportunity of over USD 1.12 trillion by 2030, according to a report.
Of the total USD 2.64 trillion of investment needed, the potential investment opportunity for the private sector is a whopping USD 1.12 trillion with USD 701.5 billion going into clean energy, USD 226.5 billion for digital access, USD 176.9 billion in transport infrastructure, and USD 19.2 billion for clean water and sanitation, said the report.
The opportunity in the water and sanitation is USD 19.2 billion as 24 per cent of the people still do not have access to clean water and sanitation and closing this gap by 2030 will require investment of close to USD 20 billion, said the report.

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::INTERNATIONAL::

China to take coronavirus outbreak case seriously

Chinese President Xi Jinping today said that it's extremely crucial to take every possible measure to combat a new coronavirus that has infected more than 200 people in the country.
The President's remarks came the same day that the country reported a sharp rise in the number of people infected by the novel form of viral pneumonia, including the first cases in the capital. The outbreak comes as the country enters its busiest travel period when millions of board trains and planes for the Lunar New Year holidays.
Health authorities in the central city of Wuhan, said an additional 136 cases have been confirmed in the city, which now has a total of 198 infected patients. As of the weekend, a third patient had died, bringing the death toll to three.
Authorities in Thailand and in Japan have already identified at least three cases, all involving recent travel from China. At least half-dozen countries in Asia and three US airports have started screening incoming airline passengers from central China.

Reports suggest global unemployment to rise in 2020

Global unemployment is projected to increase by around 2.5 million in 2020 and almost half a billion people are working fewer paid hours than they would like or lack adequate access to paid work, according to UN's International Labour Organization report.
The World Employment and Social Outlook: Trends 2020 (WESO) report, released on Monday, states that global unemployment has been roughly stable for the last nine years but slowing global economic growth means that, as the global labour force increases, not enough new jobs are being generated to absorb new entrants to the labour market.
The International Labour Organization (ILO) forecasts that unemployment will rise by about 2.5 million this year. The ILO is a UN agency whose mandate is to advance social justice and promote decent work by setting international labour standards.
In addition, 165 million people do not have enough paid work, and 120 million have either given up actively searching for work or otherwise lack access to the labour market. In total, more than 470 million people worldwide are affected, the report said.
The ILO report said that moderate or extreme working poverty is expected to edge up in 2020-21 in developing countries, increasing the obstacles to achieving Sustainable Development Goal 1 on eradicating poverty everywhere by 2030.

::SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY::

France to train Indian flight surgeons for Gaganyaan

France will train Indian flight surgeons to enable them to monitor the health of astronauts selected for the ambitious human space mission Gaganyaan, officials said on Tuesday.
The two-week training is a critical aspect of the Gaganyaan project that is aimed at sending three Indians to space by 2022.
The flight surgeons, who will be Indian Air Force doctors specialising in aviation medicines and responsible for the health of astronauts before, during and after flight, will be shortlisted soon, an official from India's space agency ISRO added.
France has a well-established mechanism for space medicine. It also has the MEDES space clinic, a subsidiary of CNES, where space surgeons undergo training.
Officials said talks are also on whether to send the astronauts to France for further training.The four shortlisted astronauts -- all test pilots from the Indian Air Force -- are currently in Russia for an 11-month training programme.
India and France share robust ties in the area of space.The two countries had signed a joint vision for space cooperation in March 2018, months before Prime Minister NarendraModi announced the Gaganyaan project.
The vision statement envisaged developing technologies for human exploration of the universe under which ISRO and CNES would jointly develop capabilities and critical technologies.