Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 26 September 2016

:: National ::

Government is weighing extreme diplomatic actions against Pakistan

In an indication that the government was weighing extreme diplomatic actions against Pakistan, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to chair a meeting on the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT).
The IWT between India and Pakistan was sealed in 1960. The IWT, brokered by the World Bank, was signed between the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and his Pakistani counterpart General Ayub Khan.
The meeting that the Prime Minister will chair would have representatives from the Water Resources and External Affairs Ministries.
The meeting comes in the wake of Mr. Modi’s first public speech post-Uri attacks in Kozhikode. Mr. Modi had said the government would take measures to isolate Pakistan diplomatically.

PM again said that terrorists will be punished

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that the perpetrators of the Uri terror attack would be punished and the Army did not speak but exhibited its valour.
“I pay tributes to our 18 soldiers who lost their lives in the Uri attack. This cowardly act was enough to shake the country. It has not only left the people mourning but has also infuriated them."
"The loss of our soldiers is a national loss, and therefore I would like to reiterate that the guilty would be punished,” he said in his Mann Ki Baat radio programme.
Mr. Modi said he reposed faith in the Army. “We have faith in our Army. With their courage, they will defeat any attempt at such conspiracies. Our Army doesn’t speak but with their actions they show their valour,” he said.
He said the Kashmiri people started moving on the path of peace and wanted normality to return as they identified the anti-national forces.
Congratulating Indian medallists at the Rio Paralympics, Mr. Modi said the government was working towards development of para-athletes.
Stressing the cleanliness drive under Swachh Bharat Mission, Mr. Modi said: “Swachh Bharat Mission was started two years ago this day, and today I can confidently say the people are more cautious about cleanliness.”
Mr. Modi urged the youth to come up with new start-ups based on the concept of Waste to Wealth, so that revenue models could be associated with cleanliness.
He asked the people to buy Khadi products on Gandhi Jayanti to support the poor. He also hailed the people for supporting his call to give up their LPG subsidy.

Ratification of climate deal on 2nd October

India will ratify its U.N. climate change commitments next month to mark Mahatma Gandhi’s birth anniversary and as a tribute to Deendayal Upadhyaya, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced.
“On October 2, we will ratify it. Mahatma Gandhi’s life perhaps left the least carbon footprint on earth. We follow his ideals and India will play its part in ratifying the Paris agreement,” Mr Modi told.
The announcement comes a day before External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj is expected to speak at the U.N. General Assembly.
The Prime Minister’s announcement was welcomed by the US government that said it was “thrilled”.

:: International ::

China hosts world's largest radio telescope

The world’s largest radio telescope began searching for signals from stars and galaxies and, perhaps, extraterrestrial life n a project demonstrating China’s rising ambitions in space and its pursuit of international scientific prestige.
Beijing has poured billions into such ambitious scientific projects as well as its military-backed space programme, which saw the launch of China’s second space station earlier this month.
Measuring 500-meters in diameter, the radio telescope is nestled in a natural basin within a stunning landscape of lush green karst formations in southern Guizhou Province.
It took five years and $180 million to complete and surpasses that of the 300-meter Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, a dish used in research on stars that led to a Nobel Prize.
FAST would search for gravitational waves, detect radio emissions from stars and galaxies and listen for signs of intelligent extraterrestrial life.
Installation of the 4,450-panel structure, nicknamed Tianyan, or the Eye of Heaven, started in 2011 and was completed in July.
The telescope requires a radio silence within a five-km radius, resulting in the relocation of more than 8,000 people from their homes in eight villages to make way for the facility.

:: Science and Technology ::

Pluto may contain an ocean spanning over 100 km

Pluto may contain an ocean spanning over 100 km in thickness beneath its icy surface, with a salt content similar to that of the Dead Sea on Earth, a new study suggests.
Ever since NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft flew by Pluto last year, evidence has been mounting that the dwarf planet may have a liquid ocean beneath its icy shell.
The study finds a high likelihood that there is more than 100 km layer of liquid water beneath Pluto’s surface.
The research also offers a significant clue about the composition of that putative ocean, suggesting that it likely has a salt content which is similar to that of the Dead Sea.
The basin appears to have been created by an impact, likely by an object 200 kilometres across or larger.
The story of how the basin relates to Pluto’s putative ocean starts with its position on the planet relative to Pluto’s largest moon, Charon.
As Charon’s gravity pulls on Pluto, it would pull proportionally more on areas of higher mass, which would tilt the planet until Sputnik Planum became aligned with the tidal axis.
Water is denser than ice. If there were a layer of liquid water beneath Pluto’s ice shell, it may have welled up following the Sputnik Planum impact, evening out the crater’s mass.

:: Business and Economy ::

Incredible India Investors’ Summit gets big investment

Five states — Gujarat, Rajasthan, Karnataka, Uttarakhand and Chattisgarh — signed 86 MoUs worth close to Rs.15,000 crore during the recently concluded Incredible India Investors’ Summit.
Gujarat leads the tally with signed pacts worth nearly Rs.9,000 crore, followed by Karnataka (Rs.2,600 crore), Rajasthan (Rs.1,000 crore), Uttarakhand (Rs.500 crore) and Chhattisgarh (Rs.12 crore), according to an official statement.
The summit was organised by the Ministry of Tourism in partnership with industry body CII and the Tourism Finance Corporation of India.
The three-day summit was aimed at inviting investments from foreign and domestic players to fund 700 tourism-related projects from 29 states requiring over Rs.50,000 crore.
Invest India, which is a not-for-profit joint venture between the DIPP, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, state governments and FICCI, has shown interest in setting up the investment desk, which will be a unit under Ministry of Tourism.
Foreign tourist arrivals in June 2016, grew 7.3 per cent to 5.50 lakh as compared with 5.12 lakh during the month of June, 2015.
For the January-June period of 2016, 41.86 lakh visited India registering a growth of 8.9 per cent compared with the same period the previous year.

Government to block content of child sexual abuse

In an attempt to protect children from sexual abuse online, the government will soon issue an advisory to Internet Service Providers, asking them to filter and block related objectionable images, videos as well as text.
“In compliance with the provision of the (IT) Act… websites/portals and ISPs should deploy filters/technological tools to block/disable any such child sexual abuse images, videos and text available on the Internet,” according to a draft.
Government had banned more than 850 sites citing the Supreme Court’s directions to address the menace of pornography, especially child pornography.
However, the move did not go down well with a majority of users who took to social media to criticise it.
The Centre later clarified that the move was temporary and it was planning a long-term policy to tackle online child sexual abuse.
The ministry is also planning CBSE curriculum targeted at children in the age range of 8-10 years, on cyber-bullying and as to how children should navigate the Internet.