Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 24 NOVEMBER 2019

::NATIONAL::

Prime Minister NarendraModi has urged Governors to work towards the upliftment of the under-privileged sections of the population by utilizing the existing schemes and initiatives.
Addressing the inaugural session of the 50th Conference of Governors at RashtrapatiBhawan, Mr Modi requested them and Lieutenant Governors to listen to the needs of the common man.
The Prime Minister said the Conference of Governors provides an opportunity for them to exchange views and learn from each other's experiences as well as to adopt international best practices best suited to each State and Union Territory’s distinct and diverse needs. He said that due to their administrative structure, Union Territories can emerge as a role model in terms of development.
Observing that as India celebrates the 75th anniversary of its Independence in 2022 and the 100th anniversary in 2047, the Prime Minister said the role of the Governor in bringing the administrative machinery closer to the people and showing them the correct path becomes even more important.

Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change PrakashJavadekar has said that the government has made city-specific plans to check pollution. He said pollution is being monitored in 355 cities at present.
Mr Javadekar informed the house that India has already reduced its carbon emissions intensity by 22 per cent. Saying planting saplings can be a good initiative, the Minister suggested that every citizen should plant at least seven trees. He informed that the Central Government has notified a Graded Response Action Plan for Delhi and NCR for different levels of pollution.
Mr Javadekar said a number of initiatives have been taken for the abatement and control of air pollution including, operationalization of Eastern Peripheral Expressway and Western peripheral Expressway in 2018.

Union Finance Minister NirmalaSitharaman has said, some of the free trade agreements with other nations have not helped exporters from the country in a proportionate manner.
Delivering the G.Ramachandran Memorial Lecture organized by the Southern Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry last evening in Chennai, she said the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership RCEP is also not meeting the aspirations of the nation, which is why India did not join the regional grouping.
Referring to reports of scams in certain cooperative banks, Ms NirmalaSitharaman said the Reserve Bank of India has begun to take initiatives to strengthen further its supervisory and regulatory roles. She observed that most of the banks in India have overcome the problem of huge Non-Performing Assets that were built in the past. She said, that government is making efforts to ensure better regulatory mechanism in the banking sector.

Union Transport Minister NitinGadkari has stressed upon the importance of Agriculture-based businesses for development of the farmers in Vidarbha region of Maharashtra. He was speaking at the inauguration of the 11th edition of Agro-Vision, an Agricultural Exhibition in Nagpur yesterday.
Expressing the need for a permanent venue for training on best practices in agriculture and extension activities for the farmers in Vidarbha, the Minister urged the professional and scientific institutes to take initiative in this regard.
The four-day Agro-Vision exhibition comprises of National Agri-Exhibition-cum- Workshop for farmers and seminars. This edition of the exhibition arranged in the orange city also has stalls dedicated to Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises and display of livestock will also be a special attraction.

Russia's foreign minister Serge Lavrov said that the US-Japan security alliance poses a problem for Russia-Japan relations and complicates peace treaty talks.
Mr Lavrov said today that implementation of the 1956 Soviet-Japanese Declaration, which outlined conditions for a peace treaty, was not possible with the US military presence in Japan. He said, the Japanese government has promised to address Russia's concerns.
The two countries have been struggling to negotiate a peace treaty after World War II because of a territorial dispute.
The Soviet Union took the four southernmost Kuril Islands during the final days of the war. Japan asserts territorial rights to the islands and the dispute has kept the countries from signing a peace treaty.

The 2017 nuclear test by North Korea shifted the ground by a few metres, and was 17 times more powerful than the bomb dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima in 1945, according to scientists from the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).
It subsequently developed nuclear weapons, with five underground nuclear tests culminating in a suspected thermonuclear explosion -- a hydrogen bomb -- on September 3, 2017.
The scientists, including RiteshAgrawal and A S Rajawat from Geosciences Division, Space Applications Centre, ISRO, used satellite data to augment measurements of tests on the ground.
In the study, published in the journal Geophysical Journal International, the researchers noted that conventional detection of nuclear tests relies on seismic measurements using the networks deployed to monitor earthquakes.
The study demonstrates the value of space-borne InSAR data for measurement of the characteristics of underground nuclear tests, with greater precision than conventional seismic methods.
The team noted that currently operating satellites such as Sentinel-1 and ALOS-2, along with the NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) mission -- due to launch in 2022 -- could be used for this purpose.

In wrestling, Indians grapplers continued their golden rush at the Under-15 Asian Wrestling Championships in Taichung, Chinese Taipei, clinching six gold medals yesterday. In freestyle, Akash performed brilliantly to beat Daiki Ogawa of Japan in the 48kg category.
In Greco-Roman category, AnkitGulia defeated Korganov of Kazakhstan to win the gold in the 68kg while ChiragDhalia clinched a gold by winning both his bouts in 75kg.
Three Indian girls - Saloni in 33kg, Babli in 36kg and Komal in 39kg also performed brilliantly to win gold medals for the country.