Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 24 October 2020

SSC CGL Current Affairs

::NATIONAL::

The sole and trustworthy evidence of a woman, who is a victim of a sexual offence, is enough to find her assailant guilty, the Supreme Court has held.
“A woman, who is the victim of sexual assault, is not an accomplice to the crime but is a victim of another person’s lust and, therefore, her evidence need not be tested with the same amount of suspicion as that of an accomplice,” a three-judge Bench led by Justice Ashok Bhushan observed.
The court was confirming the punishment awarded to a man found guilty under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act of sexually assaulting a 13-year-old child in Tamil Nadu.
Justice M.R. Shah drew attention to the long train of judicial precedents from the apex court which have all held that “evidence of the victim of sexual assault is enough for conviction” in a sexual offence case unless there are serious contradictions. Cases of violence against women should be treated with “utmost sensitivity”. Minor contradictions in her testimony should not derail an otherwise water-tight case.

About 30% of India’s dead cattle and 40% of goats weren’t flayed and nearly nine million bovine hides were “lost annually due to non-recovery,” according to a note by the Central Pollution Control Board proposing guidelines on proper disposal of deceased livestock.
The draft guidelines require carcasses of livestock to be disposed of in incinerators and municipal authorities must ensure that such facilities are set up and made available. However, the Board has not specified any deadline for the implementation of the guidelines.
Carcasses, especially those that result from the animal slaughter, are an ‘environmental hazard’ and are partly to blame for ‘bird-hit’ hazards at airports, according to an introductory note in the draft. There were nearly 25 million head of cattle including buffalo that died of natural causes. “However there wasn’t any organised system of disposal and it had become a major environmental hazard,” the note said.
The other methods of disposal were incineration and ‘deep burial’. The guidelines, which are open for public comment until mid-November, said these latter techniques, which are now the dominant method of disposal, must be put to use only in case utilisation plants couldn’t be set up. State PCBs should ensure that carcasses were being disposed of properly, the Board said.

Kicking off its borrowing plan to meet the GST compensation shortfalls faced by States, the Centre on Friday borrowed and transferred ₹6,000 crore to 16 States as well as the Union Territories of Delhi and J&K.
As of now, 21 States had selected the Centre’s option to borrow ₹1.1 lakh crore out of the total ₹2.35 lakh crore GST compensation shortfall estimated for 2020-21.
With seven States including Kerala, West Bengal and Punjab yet to convey their acceptance to the Centre’s proposed solution to meet the GST shortfalls, the Finance Ministry has so far granted permission to raise about ₹78,500 crore to meet the shortfall pertaining to 21 States.
The interest on these borrowings, as well as the principal, is to be repaid from future GST cess collections, with the GST Council extending the applicability of the cess levied on sin or luxury goods over and above the highest GST rate of 28%, beyond the original deadline of June 2022.

After 35 years, India has assumed the Chairmanship of the Governing Body of International Labour Organization, ILO.It marks a new chapter in the 100 years of productive relationship between India and ILO.
Labour and Employment Secretary, Apurva Chandra, has been elected as the Chairperson of the Governing Body of the ILO for the period October 2020- June 2021.
The Governing Body is the apex executive body of the ILO which decides policies, programmes, agenda, budget and elects the Director-General. At present ILO has 187 members.
Mr Chandra will be presiding over the upcoming meeting of the Governing Body to be held next month.
At Geneva, he would have the opportunity to interact with the senior officials and social partners of the member states.
It will also provide a platform to appraise participants of the transformational initiatives taken by India in removing the rigidities of labour market besides making its intention clear about universalization of social security to all workers.

Pakistan will remain on the grey list of global anti-terror financing watchdog, Financial Action Task Force, FATF as it has not been able to fulfil six out of the 27 mandates to check terror funding. The decision was announced by the President of FATF Marcus Pleyer.
The FATF strongly urged Pakistan to swiftly complete its full action plan by February 2021. It said, Pakistan needs to do more to check terror funding, adding that the 6 items which Pakistan is yet to address are serious deficiencies.
The implementation plan to curb money laundering and terror financing was supposed to be put in place by the end of 2019. However, the dead line was extended in the wake of COVID pandemic.
The FATF is an inter-governmental body set up in 1989 to combat money laundering, terror financing and other related threats to the international financial system. It currently has 39 members. .

Secretary, Ministry of Earth Sciences, Dr. M. Rajeevan dedicated Flash Flood Guidance services, first of its kind for South Asian countries namely India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal and Sri Lanka.
In his inaugural address, Dr.Rajeevan, brought out the need for enhancing the observational network for rainfall and soil moisture to improvise the performance of the system.
An automated mode of dissemination is to be established with the stakeholders along with the use of social media, so that the information reaches the concerned disaster authorities in a timely manner.
Dr. M. Mohapatra, Director General of IMD and Permanent Representative of India with WMO assured the member nations that the Guidance for flash floods in the form of Threats 6 hours in advance and Risks 24 hours in advance will be provided by Regional Centre to National Meteorological and Hydrological Services, National and State Disaster Management Authorities and all other stake holders for taking necessary mitigation measures.

Max Verstappen and Lance Stroll collided in an eventful second practice for the first Portuguese Grand Prix in 24 years on Friday while ValtteriBottas set the pace for Formula One champion Mercedes.
The afternoon saw two red flag interruptions, first when AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly pulled over with his car in flames and then when Red Bull’s Verstappen and Racing Point’s Stroll smashed into each other.