Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 23 APRIL 2019
::NATIONAL::
Vice President stresses need for world class higher educational institutions
- The Vice President of India, Shri M. Venkaiah Naidu has said that
a world-class higher education system was the need of the hour, he said that
India’s quest for development would remain unfulfilled if we fail to create
opportunities for quality higher education till the last mile.
- Shri Naidu said that we have tremendous talent amongst us and we
cannot afford to let this talent lie dormant due to lack of avenues for
quality education, especially higher education and skill training. He called
for putting vulnerable sections of our population, the women, the
differently-abled and the economically weak at the center of our strategy to
expand higher education.
- Observing that rapid industrialization and economic growth would
create opportunities for around 250 million skilled workforces by 2030, Shri
Naidu asserted that India would emerge as the global supplier of skilled
manpower in the coming years.
- Saying that advanced research was the way forward for India’s
higher education, Shri Naidu called upon colleges and universities to equip
their institutions with latest technologies and re-invent the teaching
methodology.
IMA threatens protests over bridge course proposal
- The allopathic practitioners are up in arms over the NITI Aayog’s
proposal to bring in a bridge course between the Bachelor of Dental Surgery
(BDS) and the MBBS allowing dentists to practise family medicine with the
Indian Medical Association (IMA) threatening nationwide agitation, in case
the proposal is taken forward.
- The NITI Aayog had earlier proposed a bridge course for Ayush (Ayurveda,
Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy) doctors in the National
Medical Commission Bill meant to replace the Indian Medical Council Act.
Following pressure from the IMA, the course was rejected.
- “It is a criminal offence to let dentists into mainstream medicine
by just doing a bridge course,” said IMA president Dr.Santanu Sen. “The
government is not able to generate jobs for medical graduates. 63,250 MBBS
graduates come out of 494 medical colleges and we have only 23,729
post-graduate seats. Unemployment among medical graduates is a cause for
concern, then how can government say that they will give jobs to dentists,”
he asked.
- Dr. R.V. Asokan, honorary secretary general of the IMA, said, MBBS
graduates were not being absorbed into post-graduate courses. “The IMA
demands that medical graduates be given their due, the health budget be
flexed to include job creation and the government abandon their half-baked
proposal to convert dentists, nurses, pharmacists and Ayush practitioners
into mid-level medical practitioners. The IMA is left with no choice but to
initiate a nation-wide protest against the move,” he said.
::ECONOMY::
Aadhar card chief architect embraces role of technology in financial
services
- The Aadhaar has worked as a digital infrastructure backbone
helping governments in India to roll out several real-time initiatives and
service delivery capabilities for citizens and enterprises alike, said
NandanNilekani, chief architect of Aadhaar and co-founder and chairman,
Infosys.
- The Aadhaar, serving as an electronic know-your-customer (KYC)
tool, has triggered massive customer additions in the country’s financial
and telecom sectors and similar explosive growth is expected across other
segments as well in the years to come, said Mr.Nilekani at FICCI’s National
Executive Committee Meeting here on Monday.
- Earlier, KYC used to be a cumbersome process, and therefore,
opening a bank account or getting a new phone connection used to be a tough
affair. Also, with digital signature becoming a reality, identity
verification and other credential checks are now being done real-time and as
a result, banks are able to sanction loans in hours.”
- The country already has over a billion bank accounts that are
Aadhaar number linked. It makes transferring of funds easier and the country
conducts over four billions financial transactions. In addition, Aadhaar
based e-KYC made LPG subsidies, MNREGA payments, farmer subsidies and
pensions corruption-free and seamless. For all these, the underlying
technology is Aadhaar, Mr.Nilekani added.
Domestic aviation growth comes to halt post collapse of Airlines
- On the back of Jet Airways’ collapse as well as the grounding of
Boeing 737 MAX planes in the country, the growth in domestic aviation
traffic was flat in March.
- Indian airlines altogether flew 115.96 lakh passengers last month,
a mere 16,000 more than the year-ago period, according to DGCA’s monthly
data.
- Jet Airways, which announced a temporary suspension of flight
operations last week, saw its market share decline to 4.6% in March when it
was operating with depleted fleet size after lessors grounded several planes
because of non-payment of rentals.
- The airline’s market share same time last year was at 14.2%. The
airline flew a mere 5.37 lakh passengers last month.
- As a result of cancellations by Jet Airways, flight related
problems accounted for 60% of passenger grievances.As many as 4,73,864
passengers were affected due to delays, cancellations and denied boarding.
::INTERNATIONAL::
U.S secretary warns countries trading with Iran
- U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Monday warned nations
against interacting with Iran in violation of the sanctions. “Any nation or
entity interacting with Iran should do its diligence and err on the side of
caution. The risks are simply not going to be worth the benefits,” Mr.Pompeo
said.
- Earlier in April, India’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), had
said that India and the U.S. were “continually engaged” on the issue of
India’s oil imports from Iran since sanctions kicked in last November, The
Hindu had reported.
- U.S. Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence
SigalMandelkar had visited New Delhi in early April to discuss the issue.
- That an announcement of this nature was imminent, was first
reported by the Washington Post on Sunday. The price of global benchmark
brent crude hit a six-month intraday high on Monday.
- Oil exports from Iran hit a low of 1.0 to 1.0 million bpd in March
this year down from 2.5 million bpd in April 2018. The U.S. announced that
it would withdraw from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) or “
Iran deal” in May.
- The U.S. has tried to allay fears that oil markets will be
impacted following the decision to stop exemptions. Organization of the
Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), the global oil cartel led by Saudi
Arabia, has been coordinating with Russia to cut oil supply since January.
- “Saudi Arabia and others in OPEC will more than make up the Oil
Flow difference in our now Full Sanctions on Iranian Oil,” U.S. President
Donald Trump tweeted on Monday.
::SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY::
Expert panel claims $100billion a year would be the cost of saving diversity
on earth
- Saving the diversity and abundance of life on the earth may cost
$100 billion a year, say scientists who have proposed a policy to prevent
another mass extinction event on the planet.
- There have been five mass extinctions in the history of the earth.
Scientists now estimate that society must urgently come to grips this coming
decade to stop the very first human-made biodiversity catastrophe.
- Mr.Asner is one of 19 international authors with a bold new
science policy proposal to reverse the tide, called “A Global Deal for
Nature” (GDN). The policy’s mission is to save the diversity and abundance
of life on the earth for the price tag of $100 billion a year.
- Societal investment in the GDN plan would, for the first time,
integrate and implement climate and nature deals on a global scale to avoid
human upheaval and biodiversity loss.
- While the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement was the first major accord
to take global action toward climate change policies, the international team
of GDN scientists believe a similar companion pact is desperately needed to
implement the very first global nature conservation plan to meet these
challenges.
- The study, published in Science Advances , outlines the guiding
principles, milestones and targets needed to avoid the extinction threats of
a two degrees Celsius warming forecast.
- The three overarching goals of the GDN are to protect biodiversity
by conserving at least 30% of the earth’s surface by 2030; mitigate climate
change by conserving the earth’s natural carbon storehouses; and reduce
major threats. The essence of implementing the plan is to set up protected
areas of land as natural ecosystems.
