Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 29 APRIL 2019
::NATIONAL::
Supreme court to consider protection of accused in sexual offences
- A petition has been filed in the Supreme Court to frame guidelines
to protect the reputation and dignity of persons accused of sexual offences.
- The petition, filed by the Youth Bar Association of India, said a
person was considered innocent unless proven guilty by a court of law. If a
person was falsely accused, his reputation would be lost forever and exposed
to public ridicule for no fault of his. This would be a violation of the
fundamental right to life enshrined under Article 21 of the Constitution.
- “It does not only destroy an individual’s life but also creates a
social stigma for the family members too. Some preventive measures must be
taken to avoid and deal with such situations in the interest of justice,” it
said.
- The petition said it would be tragic that the person, even after
being found innocent, would continue to be known as a suspected sex offender
on social media because once his identity entered the public domain it would
become searchable and permanent. “The previous identification as a suspect
will endure in the public sphere,” the petition said.
Heat wave sweeps several regions of the country
- The severe heat wave has gripped several parts of the country. In
Gujarat, heat wave conditions prevailed in many parts, especially in the
southern and the Saurashtra-Kutch regions.
- The Kandla airport remained the hottest place in the state with
the maximum temperature at 46.8 degree Celsius yesterday. The maximum
temperature at Surendranagar in Saurashtra touched 44.7 degrees, while it
was recorded at 44.6 degree Celsius in Amreli.
- In Maharashtra, Met Department has issued a heatwave warning for
North Central and Marathwada regions for today. The warning comes as
Akola,Parbhani and Chandrapur districts in Vidarbha region recorded the
highest temperature in the country at 47.2 degree Celsius on Saturday.
- As the mercury climbed up, Amravati and Wardha, also in Vidarbha
region, sizzled at 46 degree Celsius each while Yavatmal, Parbhani, Nanded,
Jalgaon and Ahmednagar districts each recorded 45 degree Celsius
temperature.
- In Odisha, the mercury soared up to 46.3 degree Celsius in Talcher,
making it the hottest place in the state. Met Office said, with the entire
state sizzling under intense heat, the maximum temperature soared above 40
degree Celsius in at least 13 places. The department has already issued a
heat wave warning for nine districts.
::ECONOMY::
PSB’s witness increase in deposits under Jan Dhan scheme
- Public sector banks stand to earn as much as Rs. 5,000 crore due
to the increasing quantum of deposits placed in Jan Dhan accounts, and can
vastly monetise this resource once they start implementing advanced
analytics and begin lending to these customers, according to industry
players and analysts.
- Over the last three years, the number of Jan Dhan beneficiaries
has risen from 22 crore to 35 crore, as of April 10, 2019. This represents a
growth of nearly 60% over the three years.
- The growth in the number of accounts has been pretty steady over
the last three years, with the demonetisation year of 2016-17 seeing the
fastest growth of about 27%, which then subsequently slowed to a
nevertheless robust 10% in 2017-18 and 12% in 2018-19.
- Deposits, however, have seen a much stronger growth rate over this
period. The total quantum of deposits in Jan Dhan accounts has grown from a
little more than Rs. 36,000 crore in April 2016 to Rs. 98,400 crore in April
2019, a growth of more than 2.5 times.
- “For any bank account, the bank has to incur some expenses on
opening and maintaining it regardless of whether there is any balance in the
account or not,” VishwasUtagi, former Secretary in the All India Bank
Employees Association said. “That’s why Jan Dhan accounts are compulsory for
the government-owned banks, but they have not made it compulsory for the
private sector banks.”
::INTERNATIONAL::
Defence minister holds meeting with china on sidelines of SCO
- Defence Minister NirmalaSitharaman held a bilateral meeting with
her Chinese counterpart General Wei Fenghe at the Shanghai Cooperation
Organisation, SCO Defence Ministers' Meet at Bishkek in Kyrgyzstan today.
She reached Bishkek yesterday on a three-day visit.
- The SCO Defence Ministers will explore ways to further boost
defence and security cooperation among the member countries in the wake of
evolving security challenges in the region.
- India is also keen on deepening its security-related cooperation
with SCO and its Regional Anti-Terrorism Structure (RATS) which specifically
deals with issues relating to security and defence.
BCIM corridor excluded from BRI initiative : China
- India’s decision to skip the Belt and Road Forum (BRF) may have
led to the exclusion of the Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar (BCIM) economic
corridor from the list of projects covered by the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI)
umbrella.
- In an annex tagged with the Joint Communiqué of the Leaders’
Roundtable of the BRF, which concluded in Beijing on Saturday, the Chinese
Foreign Ministry website has not listed the BCIM as a project covered by the
BRI the giant connectivity initiative speared by China to revive the ancient
Silk Road across Eurasia and Africa.
- Instead, South Asia is covered by three major undertakings — the
China-Myanmar Economic Corridor (CMEC); the Nepal-China Trans-Himalayan
Multi-dimensional Connectivity Network, including Nepal-China cross-border
railway; and the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
- Citing “sovereignty” concerns, India, for the second time, did not
participate in the BRF, as the CPEC passes through Pakistan occupied Kashmir
(PoK).
- The 2,800-km BCIM corridor proposes to link Kunming in China’s
Yunnan province with Kolkata, passing though nodes such as Mandalay in
Myanmar and Dhaka in Bangladesh before heading to Kolkata.
- The CMEC will run from Yunnan Province of China to Mandalay in
Central Myanmar. From there it will head towards Yangon, before terminating
at the Kyaukpyu Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in the Bay of Bengal.
::SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY::
Study finds food intake during stress period increases weight
- Indulging in high-calorie ‘comfort’ foods when you are stressed
can lead to more weight gain than usual, scientists say.
- Researchers from the Garvan Institute of Medical Research in
Australia discovered a molecular pathway in the brain, controlled by
insulin, which drives the additional weight gain.
- Using an animal model, the team showed that a high-calorie diet
when combined with stress resulted in more weight gain than the same diet
caused in a stress-free environment.
- “This study indicates that we have to be much more conscious about
what we’re eating when we’re stressed,” said Herbert Herzog, who led the
study.
- To understand what controls this ‘stress eating’, the team
investigated different areas of the brain in mice. While food intake is
mainly controlled by a part of the brain called the hypothalamus, another
part of the brain the amygdala processes emotional responses, including
anxiety.
- At the centre of this weight gain, the scientists discovered, was
a molecule called NPY, which the brain produces naturally in response to
stress to stimulate eating in humans as well as mice.
- To understand what might control the NPY boost under stress, the
scientists analysed the nerve cells that produced NPY in the amygdala and
found they had receptors, or ‘docking stations’, for insulin — one of the
hormones which control our food intake.
- Under normal conditions, the body produces insulin just after a
meal, which helps cells absorb glucose from the blood and sends a ‘stop
eating’ signal to the hypothalamus feeding centre of the brain. The
scientists discovered that chronic stress alone raised the blood insulin
levels only slightly, but in combination with a high-calorie diet, the
insulin levels were 10 times higher than mice that were stress-free and
received a normal diet.
::SPORTS::
India winds up Asian wrestling championship with 16 medals
- India wrapped up their campaign at the Asian Wrestling
Championships at Xi'an, China, on a resounding note with 16 medals.
- Men's freestyle wrestlers bagged eight medals comprising one gold,
three silver and four bronze. Women wrestlers claimed four bronze.
- The Greco-Roman wrestlers bagged four medals comprising three
silver and one bronze.
