Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 25 FEBRUARY 2020
::NATIONAL::
Mizoram asks centre to review inter-state border with Assam
- The Mizoram government has been making efforts to resolve the
long-pending boundary dispute with Assam and has asked the Centre to review
the inter-State border, the Assembly was informed on Monday.
- In reply to a query by Congress legislature party leader
ZodintluangaRalte, Home Minister Lalchamliana said the State government had
sent a letter to the Union Home Ministry praying for a review of the border
on December 15 last year.
- He said the government was making efforts to resolve the dispute at
Zophai area near Bairabi town along the State border with Assam.
- The last border stand-off between the two States had taken place at
Zophai in March 2018 when members of a students’ body of Mizoram attempted
to construct a wooden resting shed there. The Assam police had resisted
their bid and many students were allegedly injured.
- Mr.Lalchamliama said a core committee constituted by the State
government in May 2018 to study the boundary issue has collected some
important documents related to the border.
- In July last year, Chief Minister Zoramthanga had said, without
elaborating, that his government had evolved a strategy to resolve the
border dispute.
KisanSammanNidhi to cover fewer farmers
- One year after the launch of the PradhanMantriKisanSammanNidhi, the
Centre has revised the farmer income support scheme’s beneficiary target
down to just under 12 crore from 14 crore.
- In fact, empirical evidence suggests that saturation level will reach
around 10 crore families. So far, almost 8.5 crore farmers have benefited.
- The scheme, which gives land-owning farmer families an annual sum of
₹6,000, was launched in the run-up to the 2019 LokSabha election, and new
registrations have slowed after the election.
- The revised estimate of 11.97 crore is based on the 9.84 crore who have
registered themselves on the portal so far (although only 8.45 crore have
received money so far), plus an estimated 2.13 crore beneficiaries left out,
mostly from West Bengal and Bihar.
- In Bihar, the potential beneficiaries number 158 lakh. However, only
59.7 lakh farmers have uploaded their data on the PM-KISAN portal so far.
“The State has adopted a beneficiary application-based approach, which is
delaying identification and upload,” said the presentation.
::ECONOMY::
RBI governor expresses concern over bank profitabilities
- While the Indian banking sector may be slowly turning around on the back
of improvement in asset quality, its profitability remains fragile, Reserve
Bank of India Governor Shaktikanta Das said.
- He also said that banks continued to face challenges like the present
crisis in the telecom sector.
- He said the capital position of banks had improved on account of
recapitalisation of public sector banks by the government and capital
raising efforts by private sector banks.
- According to Mr. Das, the overhang of non-performing assets (NPAs)
remains relatively high, which is weighing on credit growth.
- On non-banking finance companies, he said, recognising the systemic
importance of such entities and their inter-linkages with the financial
system, the RBI had taken steps and the asset-liability management (ALM)
position and other aspects of top 50 NBFCs were being closely monitored,
covering all NBFCs with asset size above ₹5,000 crore.
Government sets target for more urbanised clusters in rural areas
- Union Minister for Rural Development Narendra Singh Tomar has said,
after evaluating the success rate of Rurban Clusters scheme, government is
intending to move ahead to construct 1,000 more urbanized clusters in rural
areas.
- Speaking at the of 4th Anniversary Celebration function of Shyama Prasad
MukherjiRurban Mission, SPMRM in New Delhi today, Mr Tomar said, sense of
mutual cooperation between people, who want urbanization in their rural
space and concerned ministry officials will be instrumental in ensuring the
success of the scheme.
- AIR correspondent reports that this flagship scheme of Centre, launched
by Prime Minister NarendraModi on 21st February in 2016, aims at
transforming these Rurban clusters by stimulating local economic
development, enhancing basic services, and creating well planned Rurban
clusters.
::INTERNATIONAL::
PM describes trump visit as historical
- Prime Minister NarendraModi today hailed US President Donald Trump's
maiden visit to India as a new chapter in the historic Indo-US relations.
- The Prime Minister stated this while welcoming the US President at the
'Namaste Trump' event held at the Sardar Patel Stadium in Ahemdabad in
Gujarat after President Trump's arrival on the first leg of his two-day
trip.
- Over one lakh people gathered at the stadium in Motera area to witness
the address of US President Donald Trump and Prime Minister NarendraModi at
the 'Namaste Trump' event.
- The Prime Minister hailed the relationship between the two countries.He
said, India and the US is no longer just another partnership but a far
greater and closer relationship.
- The Prime Minister said, India and the US relations and cooperation will
play an important role in deciding the course of the world in the 21st
century. Prime Minister Modi also hailed President Trump's leadership in
containing terrorism.
UNICEF survey shows sharp decline in child malnutrition in Bangladesh
- The child malnutrition rate in Bangladesh has declined sharply over the
last six years. The finding was reported in the Multiple Indicator Cluster
Survey (MICS) 2019, jointly conducted by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics
(BBS) and UNICEF. The survey has also recorded an improvement in many other
areas related to health and nutrition, Child protection, hygiene and
sanitation.
- The rate of chronic malnutrition among children measured by the stunting
level among them has come down from 42 percent in 2013 to 28 percent in
2019. The percentage of underweight children below 5 also declined from
about 32 percent to 22.6 percent over the same period. The infant mortality
rate has also declined from 46 to 34 per thousand live births between
2012-13 and 2019.
- The survey reports that the percentage of children of school entry age
who enter the first grade of primary school marked a sharp upward trend from
33 percent in 2012-13 to 61.4 in 2019.
- The survey also records improvement in access to and use of toilets,
birth registration, ante-natal care coverage, institutional deliveries and
similar other parameters indicating an overall improvement in child and
mother health in the country.
::SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY::
Sweden launches food planet prize for sustainable food solutions
- Sweden has created 1 million USD worth prizes to feed billion of people.
The prize is named as the “Food Planet Prize”.The main aim of the step is to
address the climate change threats towards food supply all over the world.
- The prize is to be awarded annually. Sweden is to offer two Food Planet
prizes. They are “an existing scalable solution for sustainable foods” and
theother includes “innovative initiatives to transform global food sector”.
- Today, the world population is 7.8 billion and is expected to grow by 10
billion by 2050. In order to feed such a huge population, it is essential
totransform the eating habits, reduce food waste and also improve food
production.
- Today there are more than 820 million people that lack sufficient food.
There are many others that consume low-quality diet. The data was provided
bythe LANCET publication. Therefore, the prize will encourage people to work
towards sustainable food production.
::SPORTS::
India to host commonwealth shooting and archery championships in 2022
- India will host the Commonwealth Shooting and Archery Championships in
January 2022. The medals from the two events will be counted for ranking of
competing nations at the Birmingham Games. However, the medals will be added
to the final tally one week after the conclusion of the Games.
- The Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) announced this decision after
the three-day Executive Board meeting in London yesterday. The two events
will be held in Chandigarh in January 2022 while the Birmingham Commonwealth
Games is scheduled from 27th of July to 7th of August , 2022.
