Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 25 September 2018

SSC CGL Current Affairs

::NATIONAL::

India’s top nutrition panel has recommended that severely malnourished children must be fed freshly cooked food prepared from locally available cereals, pulses and vegetables, and distributed by anganwadi centres, as part of the country’s first-ever guidelines for nutritional management of children suffering from severe acute malnutrition (SAM).
The measures are part of the community-based health management of children suffering from SAM. The government had, till now, only put in place guidelines for the hospitalisation of severely wasted children who develop medical complications. Those norms were made public in 2011.
The guidelines outline the role of anganwadi workers and auxillary nurse midwives (ANMs) in identifying severely wasted children, segregating those with oedema or medical complications and sending them to the nearest health facility or nutrition rehabilitation centres.

The government has finalised the list of non-essential items on which it will be imposing import tariffs, according to a senior official in the Finance Ministry.
The official said the list, to be notified soon, would include electronics, gems, select items of steel that are also manufactured in India, imported apples, and almonds, among others.
The government had, earlier this month, announced the easing of overseas borrowing norms for manufacturing companies, removal of restrictions on foreign portfolio investment in corporate bonds and tax benefits on masala bonds.
The imposition of tariffs on the import of non-essential items is expected to bolster these efforts in stabilising the rupee’s levels, according to the official.

This prompted the Reserve Bank of India to announce late on Monday, that it will conduct an open market operation (OMO) on Thursday to purchase government bonds to infuse liquidity worth Rs. 10,000 crore into the system.
The IL&FS crisis had also impacted other non-banking finance companies (NBFCs) which are also facing increase in borrowing cost. Banks and mutual funds are the main sources of funding for housing finance companies and other NBFCs contributing about 40% and 30%, respectively, of their funding needs.
“While the lines of credit from banks are easier to roll over and insurance provides longer [term] funding, the paper with mutual funds tends to be short-term. Fifty-five per cent of NBFC paper with MFs has less than 90-day maturities and could lead to redemption related pressures,” broking firm CLSA said in a note.
With MFs becoming a key source of short-term liquidity, estimates suggest that the CPs of NBFCs have gone up three times since March 2016 and MFs now reportedly hold 60% of total NBFC CP issuance. Even if rating agencies have reaffirmed the NBFC ratings, MFs are expected to cap or cut down their NBFC exposures.

Much to the surprise of his critics and political rivals, Maldives President Abdulla Yameen on Monday conceded defeat in Sunday’s presidential election, making way for the joint Opposition candidate Ibrahim Mohamed Solih.
Senior parliamentarian of the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) Mr.Solih secured 58.3% of the votes, while Mr.Yameen obtained 41.7%, according to preliminary results released by the Elections Commission. The final tally is expected within a week.
Countries that had strained relations with the Yameen administration were quick to welcome the poll outcome on Monday, before Mr.Yameen conceded and ahead of the Elections Commission’s official announcement. The U.S. said it looked forward to “a peaceful transition of power,” and pledged cooperation to Mr.Solih’s government.
Meanwhile,A Maldives court released political prisoners and heard appeals for freedom from several others on Monday, including former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, just hours after strongman leader Abdulla Yameen conceded an election defeat.
Suggesting that the Chinese projects in the Maldives may be reviewed by his party-backed coalition that won Sunday’s presidential election, former President Mohamed Nasheed said: “India remains our natural partner.” “I can’t speak for the coalition, but my own views remain the same. None of the projects made business sense,” the Maldivian Democratic Party leader told.

External Affairs Minister SushmaSwaraj kicked off her week-long diplomatic engagements at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) on Monday morning, attending a special meeting on drugs convened at the instance of U.S President Donald Trump.
Ms.Swaraj will attend several bilateral and multilateral meetings over the next few days. She will address the UNGA on Saturday. Ms.Swaraj will also attend a special meeting on climate change being convened by Secretary General AntónioGuterres during her stay in New York.
The 73rd UNGA is taking place against the backdrop of increased American hostility towards the world body in particular and multilateralism in general. Mr. Trump believes that multilateral global bodies and treaties function to the detriment and at the cost of the U.S.
Mr. Trump is, however, seeking more support from member countries for his combative stance against Iran. As Mr. Trump pushes ahead with his ‘America First’ agenda, India will be trying to secure its interests and preserve its standing, according to a senior official overseeing Ms.Swaraj’s engagements.

Scientists said on Monday they had succeeded for the first time in wiping out an entire population of malaria-carrying mosquitoes in the lab using a gene editing tool to programme their extinction.
So-called gene drive technology works by forcing evolution’s hand, ensuring that an engineered trait is passed down to a higher proportion of offspring — across many generations — than would have occurred naturally.
In experiments with the species Anopheles gambiae , scientists at Imperial College London tweaked a gene known as doublesex so that more females in each generation could no longer bite or reproduce.
After only eight generations, there were no females left and the population collapsed due to lack of offspring. “This breakthrough shows that gene drive can work, providing hope in the fight against a disease that has plagued mankind for centuries,” said lead author Andrea Crisanti, a professor in Imperial’s Department of Life Sciences.