Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 26 May 2019

Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 26 MAY 2019

::NATIONAL::

Newly constituted loksabha to have record participation of women

At 78 elected women MPs, the 17th LokSabha would have the highest number of women representatives ever. They would account for 14.4% of the entire strength of the Lower House, an increase from the 12.5% (65) women MPs in the last LokSabha
“This is for the first time in independent India that such a large number of women MPs are sitting in Parliament,” Prime Minister NarendraModi said in a speech to the newly elected NDA MPs and senior leaders gathered in Parliament’s Central Hall on Saturday. “This has been made possible due to women power,” he added
With 40 women MPs, the BJP has the largest number of elected women representatives among the parties because of the sheer size of its victory. It is followed by Trinamool Congress (9), Congress (6), BJD (5) and the YSRCP (4), as per data compiled by the Association for Democratic Reforms.
The 78 women elected as MPs were from a total of 716 women candidates who fought the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, which is a success rate of 10.9%. This is much higher than the 6.4% success rate for male candidates.

EC yet to receive VVPAT verification datas of elections

The Election Commission is yet to receive country-wide data on the mandatory matching of Voter-Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) slips with the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) results of five random polling booths in each Assembly segment.
“However, given that there are no adverse reports from any segment, presumably there has been a 100% tallying of the EVM votes with the slips. In the previous elections also, no discrepancy was reported in the matching,” said a senior Commission official.
The Commission has laid down an elaborate procedure to ensure the integrity of VVPATs and EVMs. They are transported in GPS-fitted vehicles and their movement is kept under constant surveillance.

Before the actual use of EVMs and VVPATs at polling stations, mock polls are conducted on the machines three times. The slips from each VVPAT machine are then counted and the result is tallied with the electronic result of control unit. The tally is shown to representatives of political parties.
It was on August 14, 2013, that the Conduct of Election Rules was amended and notified to introduce VVPATs. These were first used in the byelection to the Noksen Assembly seat in Nagaland the same year.

::ECONOMY::

Single GST refund processing authority mooted from August

A single authority for sanctioning and processing GST refunds is in the offing as the Finance Ministry looks to speed up and simplify the process for exporters, an official said.
The current mechanism entails a twin refund sanctioning authority of the Central and State tax officers but that could well change by August when the proposed new structure involving a single authority comes in place.
As per the system being worked out by the Revenue Department, the taxpayer will get full refund from his jurisdictional officer once the claim is sanctioned, while at the back-end the Centre and States will apportion the amount to be paid to each other.
Currently, once a taxpayer files refund claim with the jurisdictional tax authority, say the central tax officer, then he would clear 50% of the claims, and the remaining is cleared by the State tax officers after further scrutiny.
Currently, the two authorities settling the same refund claims adds to unnecessary complexities and inconvenience for the taxpayers. It has been seen that even after sanction/payment of refund by concerned jurisdictional tax officer, the counterpart tax authority at times tends to delay the GST refund.
As per the formula for division of GST assessees decided by the GST Council, State tax officials administer and control 90% of the assesseesbelow ₹ 1.5 crore annual turnover, and the remaining 10% is with the Central tax officers.

Experts claim India has a fruitful future in IoT industry

Adoption of smart solutions has gained large traction in the smart city initiative across India. With a large volume of sensor-based infrastructure, citizen-centric solutions and big data analytics solutions being taken up in most smart cities, the Internet of Things (IoT) ecosystem provides the right platform to manage and monitor modern urban landscape, said a KPMG study released here.
Elias George, chairman — infrastructure, government and healthcare, KPMG in India said, the induction of IoTinto the urban setting would ensure optimal management and utilisation of public resources, in addition to making city services like urban transit more customer-centric.
“The expected widespread adoption of IoT will prove to be a seminal factor in improving the efficacy of urban infrastructure, as well as in improving the quality of services to the citizen, thereby making a city truly smart and liveable,’’ said George.
The study stated that, as governments world over focus on economic development, a key component to their strategy entails inclusion of smart technologies into urban planning. No doubt, technology will drive creation of smart cities.
IoT that has a potential economic value of $4 to $11 trillion annually by 2025 will be fundamental to most smart city projects. India alone has a mandate to create IoT industry worth $15 billion by 2020.
As per KPMG study, world over there will be over 75 billion connected devices by 2025. That means,IoT will create a huge ecosystem comprising faster computing, advanced analytics and improved connectivity, all basic prerequisites to build smart cities.

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::INTERNATIONAL::

India UAE to expand cooperation to next level

UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash today said, UAE - India relations are set for another great innings.
Welcoming Prime Minister NarendraModi's acceptance speech in the central Hall of the parliament yesterday, the UAE Minister in a tweet said he was looking forward to further strengthen UAE's splendid relations with India.
Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan was one of the first few world leaders who had called up Prime Minister Modi to congratulate him on his historic victory in the general elections on the counting day itself.
In a tweet, the Crown Prince said that he was pleased to talk to his dear friend NarendraModi, India's PM, over the phone to congratulate him on his party's election win.
India and UAE’s bilateral relationship has been on an upswing especially in the last five years under Prime Minister NarendraModi.

Papua New Guinea prime minister resigns over turmoil in party

Prime Minister Peter O'Neill announced his resignation on Sunday after seven years in the top job following weeks of high-level defections from the ruling party.
Mr. O'Neill told media in Port Moresby that he had handed over leadership of the Pacific nation to Sir Julius Chan. Mr.ONeill had resisted calls to resign for weeks but stepped down on Sunday, saying recent movements in Parliament showed a “need for change”.
Political instability is something of a fixture in the resource-rich but poverty-stricken South Pacific nation and Mr. O'Neill, who has been leader since 2011, has seen off previous attempts to topple him.
Defections from the ruling coalition have been going on for weeks, and on Friday at least nine members switched sides, according to two ministers who were among them. O'Neill's opponents needed to rally 62 members of PNG's 111-seat parliament to vote him out.
Oil Search in turn used the money to buy into the Elk Antelope gas field being developed by France's Total.PNG is estimated to have lost 1 billion kina ($287.00 million) on the deal after being forced to sell the shares when the price fell in 2017.

::SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY::

Researchers develop superconductivity at ambient temperature

Superconductivity at ambient temperature has been the holy grail in physics for about a century and a team from the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru led by Prof. AnshuPandey has confirmed that the material they tested exhibits major properties of superconductivity at ambient temperature and pressure.
A material is said to be a superconductor if it conducts electricity with nil resistance to the flow of electrons. Superconductors will help build very high efficiency devices leading to huge energy savings. Until now, scientists have been able to make materials superconduct only at temperature much below zero degree C and hence making practical utility very difficult.
The material that exhibited superconductivity is in the form of nanosized films and pellets made of silver nanoparticles embedded in a gold matrix. Interestingly, silver and gold independently do not exhibit superconductivity.
Interestingly, the new data still show the repeated “noise” in some instances. However, the researchers have clarified that the magnitude of the noise is well above instrumental resolution. “This suggests a possible physical origin related to the sample as opposed to instrument artefacts,” they write.

::SPORTS::

ISSF worldcup shooting begins in Germany

This year's third International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Cup in Rifle and Pistol began in Munich, Germany today. Indian shooters ApurviChandela, AnjumMoudgil and ElavenilValarivan will be vying for top honours in the current World Cup. The opening day of the competition will see women's 10m Air Rifle final.
A total of 919 athletes from 98 countries will be competing for the 17 Tokyo Olympics quota places available. Some of them will be in the non-competition Minimum Qualifying Score (MQS) section. This will be besides a coveted ISSF World Cup medal.
India has entered a 35-member squad, 23 of them competing for medals in the 10 events lined up over the next five days.India already has five quota places in Rifle and Pistol competitions.