Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 27 December 2015

:: NATIONAL ::

Maharastra ATS caught three before joining IS

The Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) detained three Hyderabad-based young men in Nagpur for allegedly trying to leave the country with the intention of joining the terrorist outfit, Islamic State (IS).
Three were held after the Telangana police informed that they would try to board a flight to Srinagar from Nagpur.
Of the three, two are engineering students and were among the four caught in August, 2014 in Kolkata, while attempting to cross into Bangladesh to join the IS.
In total 25 men are believed to have joined IS from India, at-least six of them have died till now.

PM’s visit will start a series of engagements with Pakistan

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Lahore and talks with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif put a seal on a series of engagements that will begin with a meeting between Foreign Secretaries S. Jaishankar and Aizaz Chaudhury likely around January 15-17 in Islamabad.
While many of the discussions on the meeting that will start the new comprehensive dialogue have been going back and forth between Islamabad and New Delhi for two weeks now, the Prime Ministers gave the green signal for the talks to be held at the earliest.
During their meeting, the Foreign Secretaries will take up the issues of the comprehensive dialogue under their purview, like peace and security and Jam- mu and Kashmir.
They will also work out a schedule for the Home Secretaries, Commerce Secretaries, Culture and Tourism Secretaries to meet to discuss others including Sir Creek, Wullar Barrage, Tulbul Navigation Project, counter-terrorism, narcotics control and humanitarian issues and religious tourism.
They will also discuss the possible dates for talks between National Security Advisors Ajit Doval and Gen. (retd.) Janjua who will focus on terrorism.
The NSA talks will likely be held in Delhi, as that was the venue when they were can- celled in August 2015.
In addition, pending talks between the Director-General of Military Operations may be scheduled.

IRNSS, GSAT-II and others on agenda of ISRO for 2016

The year 2016 is set to see the national Space programme slowly shift gears to- wards large satellites, a heavy-lift launcher and improved Earth observation capabilities.
The Space agency will complete on priority the seven-satellite regional navigation loop, IRNSS, in the first three months.
On the target later in the year is GSAT-11, which would be the heaviest Indian satellite at four to five tonnes and packing many more trans- ponders than normal; the biggest so far was about 3.1 tonnes.
Also planned to be tested is a matching launcher to lift spacecraft like it to space: the GSLV-Mark III heavy-lifter with a limited version satellite.
After a gap of about three years, a host of functional Earth observation (EO or re- mote-sensing) satellites is lined up.
They include new ones with improved views of Earth as well as those to replace older ones that are in orbit.
A new EO version called Scatsat is planned, besides continuity missions Re- sourcesat-2A, Oceansat-3 series; and Insat-3DR a replacement Met sat.
The old Cartosat-1 series satellites would be replaced.

:: INTERNATIONAL ::

TURKEY and CHINA to jointly manufacture missile defence system

As tensions in West Asia and Ukraine rose in re- cent years, Turkey moved to jointly manufacture a sophisticated missile defence system. The $3.4 billion plan would have given Turkey’s military more firepower and laid the foundation to start exporting missiles.
But Turkey abruptly abandoned the plan just weeks ago in the face of strong opposition from its allies in NATO.
Their main opposition is based upon the loss of military secrets to China.
As one of its highest economic and foreign policy goals, China has laid out an extensive vision for close relations with Turkey and dozens of countries that were loosely connected along the Silk Road more than 1,000 years ago by land and sea- borne trade.
But Beijing’s effort to revive ancient trade routes, a plan known as the Belt and Road Initiative, is causing geopolitical strains, with countries increasingly worried about becoming too dependent on China.

First meet of Non- political Tamil People’s council in Srilanka

Even as the much-awaited meeting between Tamil National Alliance (TNA)’s chief R. Sampanthan and the Northern Province’s Chief Minister C.V. Wigneswaran took place on Christmas day, the Tamil People’s Council (TPC), which is headed by the latter, has decided to go ahead with its meeting in Jaffna.
The TPC, which had its inaugural meeting a week ago, is expected to come out with its future course of action.
The meeting between Mr. Sampanthan and Mr. Wigneswaran would not have any bearing on the recently formed body, of the Eelam People’s Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF), a constituent of the TNA.
This was the first occasion in recent times that the Northern Province’s Chief Minister had a one-on-one meeting with the TNA chief.

:: Science and Technology ::

Chhattisgarh using high zinc rice for better nutritional content

In a bid to mitigate malnutrition in tribal-dominated Chhattisgarh, the seeds of high zinc enriched variety of rice were distributed to farmers here for commercial production.
Chief Minister Raman Singh launched the seeds of new species of paddy, ‘Chhattisgarh Zinc Rice-1’ to farmers at the “National Farmers Fair” which began in Jora village on the outskirts of the capital.
This variety of seeds are also very high yielding.
Various schemes run by agriculture department in co- ordination with Indira Gand- hi Agriculture University have also accelerated growth of agro-sector.

:: BUSINESS and ECONOMY ::

Kaushik Basu indicates some changes in India’s growth forecast

Kaushik Basu, the Chief Economist of the World Bank, indicated that India’s growth forecast may witness ‘some changes’ in the bank’s January review.
The Central Statistics office (CSO) has released data indicating growth in the “vicinity of 7.5 per cent” for 2015-16, which is less than what was projected in the last Economic Survey.
In this year’s Economic Survey, the Finance Ministry had projected GDP growth of 8.1-8.5 per cent.
As of October, the World Bank’s forecast for India was retained at 7.5 per cent for the current financial year.
Prof. Basu, who also was the Chief Economic Adviser to the Government of India till 2012, said the government’s failure to get the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Bill passed may have an ‘impact’ on the GDP growth projection of the World Bank.
This is the first time India is leading major global economies in terms of growth fore- cast. India is dominating for a couple of reasons.
China is growing below 7 per cent, Brazil and Russia are in recession. The general mood is positive for India which is helping the investment climate.

Government pauses software patenting norms

The Indian Patent office has put in abeyance new guidelines on examination of computer-related inventions (CRIs) such as software programmes.
After the guidelines amending relevant provisions were out in August, several associations strongly opposed the move saying the norms are ‘detrimental’ to the domestic IT sector.
According to the Section 3(k) of the Indian Patents Act, a mathematical or business method or a computer pro- gramme per se or algorithms are not inventions.
Experts said the guidelines issued in August could place the Indian software industry at the mercy of multinational corporations.
In India, over 95 per cent of these irregular patents have been granted to foreign entities.

Coal India limited production 9 percent more than last year

Government said coal output by state-owned Coal India Limit- ed (CIL) crossed 9 per cent over last year’s production adding that there is “still a very long way to go” amid the PSU eyeing one billion tonnes production target.
CIL accounts for over 80 per cent of the domestic coal production. The government has set a production target of 550 MT for the PSU for the current fiscal.
CIL missed the production target for 2014-15 by 3 per cent, recording an output of 494.23 million tonnes.

:: SPORTS ::

Haryana Hammers and Mumbai Garuda in pro wrestling league final

Haryana Hammers overcame Punjab Royals 4-3 in the semifinal of the Pro Wrestling League at the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium.
In Sunday’s final, Haryana meets Mumbai Garuda.
Punjab Royals led 2-0 but Haryana Hammers stayed in the hunt through well-contested bouts by Andriitesey Valeri and Tatyana Kit, both winning by fall.
Even though Jargalsaikhan Chuluunbat of Mongolia regained the lead for Punjab Oksana Herhel swung the contest in Haryana’s favour.