Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 23 MAY 2020

::NATIONAL::

Information and Broadcasting Minister, PrakashJavadekar said that Community Radio is a community in itself and it is agents of change. Ministry will come out with a plan to increase the number of such stations soon.
Addressing listeners of all Community Radio stations through All India Radio News, Mr.Javadekar said, government is eager to raise air time for advertisements to 12 minutes from 7 minutes per hour on Community Radio Stations to bring them at par with TV channels.
He invited stations to share it with All India Radio so that the reach of the truth can be amplified. He added that the Ministry has created a Fact Check Cell under PIB and the Community Radio can complement the role of Fact Check Cell.
Mr Javedkarsaid, that fake news is very dangerous and should not be considered as part of press freedom. He stressed on the crucial role of community radios in countering fake news by giving the correct information verified at the local level.

Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has instructed India Post to work towards realizing the vision of Prime Minister for an Aatmanirbhar Bharat.
The Minister of Communications, Electronics and Information Technology stressed on the need to provide logistics support for Indian systems of medicines that include Ayurveda, Unani, Siddha. He said, India Post should prepare strategic plan to become flag bearer of Indian supply chain through which agri-products, handicrafts, artisan products can be delivered.
AIR correspondent reports that India Post has taken several steps to deliver essential items during the lockdown. In this period, India Post with its vast network of one lakh 56 thousand post offices, delivered mails and medicines, provided financial assistance at the doorsteps and distributed food and ration to needy people.
Six lakh food and ration packets were distributed to labourers and 1,100 crore rupees disbursed in beneficiary accounts through direct benefit transfers.

Hours after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) reduced interest rates, Finance Minister NirmalaSitharaman conveyed to public sector banks in no certain terms that the government expected banks to reduce lending rates, which was required to kick start the economy.
“The FM wants interest rate transmission. She wanted banks to cut rates as quickly as possible so customers are benefited,” said the chief executive of a public sector bank who attended the meeting. “The Finance Ministry is aware that transmission of interest rates has not happened fully,” the official told .
Bankers said lending rates are set to come down after Friday’s RBI rate cut. Some of the large lenders, including SBI, convened a meeting of the asset-liability committee to take a view on the interest rates.
“Since March 1, banks have sanctioned ₹6 lakh crore of loans. Our bank has sanctioned ₹15,000 crore, of which ₹12,000 crore has been disbursed. Over 1.36 lakh customers have been benefited,” said A.K. Goel, MD and chief executive officer of UCO Bank.

The central government’s debt as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) dropped marginally by 0.1% from 45.8% in fiscal 2017-18 to 45.7% or Rs 86.73 lakh crore in FY19, according to the Status Paper on Government Debt for 2018-19, compiled by the finance ministry in April.
Since 2010, the central government has been publishing an annual Status Paper on Government Debt that provides a detailed account of the overall debt position of the country. This was the ninth paper of the series.
Although banks still dominated the ownership patterns, the decline from 42.7% in March 2018 indicated a broadening of the market.
The government continued its efforts to reduce the roll-over risk of dated securities by elongating the maturity profile of its debt portfolio. However, the weighted average residual maturity of outstanding dated securities in March 2019 stood at 10.4 years compared to 10.62 years in March 2018.

Southeast Asian stock markets today plunged as the United States and China sparring over a new Hong Kong security law kept investors away from riskier assets.
Stocks declined across the globe led by a steep drop in Hong Kong shares as rising tensions between Washington and Beijing and the gloomy outlook for China’s economy weighed on investors’ sentiment.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng nosedived 5.6 per cent and China’s Shanghai Composite index plunged 1.9 per cent. Singapore’s Straits times tumbled 2.2 per cent. Japan’s Nikkei-225 Index lost 0.8 per cent while South Korea’s KOSPI lost 1.4 per cent.
European indices were also down in intra-day trade. London’s FTSC-100 declined 1.2 per cent and Germany’s DAX fell 0.6 per cent while France’s CAC-40 fell half a per cent.

Maldives has said it cannot support any action within the Organization of Islamic cooperation (OIC), that singles-out or targets India.
This was stated by Maldives Permanent Representative to United Nations Ambassador ThilmeezaHussain in a recently organized virtual meeting of OIC Ambassadors to the UN where the issue of growing Islamophobia in South Asia was discussed.
He said it would be detrimental to the religious harmony in the South Asian region as Islam has existed in India for centuries and it is the second-largest religion in India, with 14.2% of the country's population.
The ambassador said Maldives stands firmly against Islamophobia, xenophobia or any form of violence to promote political or any other agenda but targetting a specific country will be like side stepping the real issue. The issue was raised by Pakistan ambassador to UN.

The sun has reached into a state of ‘solar minimum’. It has been more than 100 days since sun has shown zero sunspots. The sun is to enter into the deepest period of ‘sunshine recession’.
The cycle of the sun lasts for 11 years. This is called Solar Cycle. Solar minimum does not mean that sun becomes dull or its activity reduces.It simply means that the sun is changing forms. The sun spots fade away every 11 years.
The Solar Cycle is also called the Solar Magnetic Activity Cycle. It exists for 11 years and is measured in terms of number of sun spots on the surface.Sunspots were observed in the early 17th century. It was first observed by Galileo Galilei.
Under Solar Cycle, the solar maximum and solar minimum refers to the periods of maximum and minimum sunspots respectively.
The sun spots are magnetic in nature. The magnetic polarity of sun spots are constant throughout the cycle.It is opposite across the equator throughout a cycle. Also, the magnetic polarity reversed itself from one cycle to the other.

The International Cricket Council - ICC has issued comprehensive guidelines aimed at resumption of cricket around the world while at the same time maintaining the highest safety protocols.
The ICC, yesterday recommended appointing Chief Medical Officers and 14-day pre-match isolation training camps in its guidelines for resumption of international cricket after the novel coronavirus hiatus.