Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 29 September 2018

SSC CGL Current Affairs

Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 29 September 2018

::NATIONAL::


Supreme court brings in gender equality at sabarimala

  •  A deity in a temple does not have any constitutional rights, Justice D.Y. Chandrachud wrote in his separate opinion.Fundamental rights are meant for individuals not deities or idols.

  •  Justice Chandrachud was countering arguments raised that the right to preserve the celibacy of the deity in the Sabarimala temple is a “protected constitutional right”. This constitutional right of the deity extends to excluding women from entering and praying at the Sabarimala temple.

  •  Justice Chandrachud observed that the law recognises an idol or deity as a “juristic person which can own property and can sue and be sued in the court of law”. But to claim that a deity is the bearer of constitutional rights is a distinct issue, the judge reasoned.

  •  “The fundamental rights guaranteed under Part III of the Constitution are geared towards the recognition of the individual as its basic unit. The individual is the bearer of rights under Part III of the Constitution. The deity may be a juristic person for the purposes of religious law and capable of asserting property rights.

NGT directs states to act on river pollution

  •  Taking suomotu cognisance of a report in newspapers on the increase in polluted river stretches in the country, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) has directed all States and Union Territories to prepare action plans within two months.

  •  Stating that the action plans should aim at improving the polluted stretches for “at least bathing purposes”, a bench headed by NGT Chairperson Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel said, “We are of the view that the situation is far from satisfactory and action is required to be taken on war footing. There has to be meaningful further action to restore the minimum prescribed standards for all the rivers of the country.”

  •  The tribunal specified that Chief Secretaries of each State and administrators of UTs will be “personally accountable for failure to formulate action plan.”

  •  The bench directed that four-member committees, comprising representatives of State pollution control boards and the State governments, be constituted for preparing and executing the action plans.

::ECONOMY::

RBI penalise bandhan bank for violating norms

  •  The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has cracked the whip on Bandhan Bank freezing the remuneration of its MD and CEO Chandra ShekharGhosh for not bringing down promoters’ shareholding in the bank to 40% within three years of operations as mandated by it while granting the bank licence.

  •  RBI had also barred the Kolkata-based lender from opening new branches. The bank has to take RBI’s prior approval for opening branches.

  •  There is a three-layered structure for the group. Bandhan Financial Services holds 100% stake in Bandhan Financial Holdings which is the non-operative financial holding company and also the promoter of Bandhan Bank with a 82.28% stake. The bank started operations on August 23, 2015.

  •  “RBI has communicated to us that since the bank was not able to bring down the shareholding of Non Operative Financial Holding Company (NOFHC) to 40% as required under the licensing condition, general permission to open new branches stands withdrawn and the bank can open branches with prior approval of RBI and the remuneration of the MD & CEO of the bank stands frozen at the existing level, till further notice,” the bank said in a stock exchange filing.

NITI Aayog and oracle to use blockchain technology for drug supply

  •  In order to fight the growing problem of counterfeit drugs in India, NITI Aayog and Oraclesigned a Statement of Intent (SoI) to pilot a real drug supply-chain using blockchain distributed ledger and Internet of Things (IoT) software. Apollo Hospitals and Strides Pharma Sciences will partner in this effort.

  •  Amitabh Kant, CEO, NITI Aayog, said “The problem of fake and counterfeit drugs is a major issue, costing the Indian pharma industry billions. At the same time, it’s putting patients at higher risk. This agreement with Oracle and our partnership with Apollo Hospitals and Strides Pharma, will help ensure that Indian drug manufacturers and healthcare experts have access to a standards-based, modern technology platform – blockchain and IoT, to help eliminate fake drug distribution.”

  • The major advantages of blockchain software will be its ability to allow the sharing of information across the drug supply chain securely with every exchange of information getting recorded, inability to tamper with any record of the drug movement and inability to delete any records so there can be no dispute, if an offender is caught.

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::INTERNATIONAL::

Centre to look forward to trade potential of south asia

  •  Union Minister of Commerce & Industry and Civil Aviation, Suresh Prabhu, launched the World Bank Group’s regional trade report “A Glass Half Full-The Promise of Regional Trade in South Asia” at a seminar organised by FICCI in New Delhi today.

  •  Speaking on this occasion the Minister said that the potential for intra-trade growth in South Asia region has not been fully tapped as yet. The Minister further stated that during his recent trip to Bangladesh talks on boosting trade between the two countries were discussed and Bangladesh Trade Minister along with a delegation has been invited to India to discuss trade and investment potential between the two countries and India and Bangladesh are already working on a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA).

  •  During the Minister’s recent visit to Bangladesh it has been decided to set up seven border haats some of which will start immediately. The Minister further added that the potential of services sector is yet to be explored in this region.

  •  India’s top three trading partners in South Asia are Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal. India’s trade with South Asia is only 3% of its global trade. Today India’s trade with the world stands at 637.4 billion USD but with South Asia it stands at only 19.1billion USD.

India-Uzbekistan cooperation further enhances in science & technology

  •  A meeting between Union Minister for Electronics & Information Technology, Sh. Ravi Shankar Prasad and the Minister for Development of Information Technologies and Communications, Uzbekistan Mr ShuhratSadikov was held in New Delhi for strengthening bilateral cooperation between the two countries in ICT sector.

  •  The Uzbek side appreciated India’s achievement under the Digital India programme and expressed interest for cooperation in the area of IT-ITeS trade promotion, e-Governance, HRD and Capacity building, Telemedicine etc. Further, the Uzbek side showed keen interest in techno-park cooperation.

  •  Union IT Minister Sh. Ravi Shankar Prasad assured his counterpart that India will provide all possible technical support from the Indian side in the digital growth of Uzbekistan. Subsequently, in presence of both the Ministers Two Memorandum of Understandings (MoU’s) were signed

  •  An Agreement between National Informatics Centre (NIC), India and e-Government System development centre of the Ministry for Development of Information Technologies and Communications of Uzbekistan for strengthening e-Governance cooperation.

::SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY::

New embryo transfer technology centres being established

  •  Twenty Embryo Transfer Technology Centres are being established in the country and a proposal of 19 centres has been approved so far .This was stated by the Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare ShriRadha Mohan Singh at the foundation laying ceremony of Embryo transfer Technology ceremony of Embryo Transfer Technology (ETT) centre in the Bharatiya Agro Industries Foundation (BALF), Uruilikanchan, Pune.

  •  The Minister further stated that 3000 high genetic merit bulls of indigenous bovine breeds are being produced from these centres. Two of these centres are to be set up in Nagpur and Pune in Maharashtra.

  •  The Minister also said that there is a huge demand of semen from high genetic merit bulls of indigenous bovine breeds. At the same time, the number of certain breeds has decreased considerably and so, ETT can prove to be extremely effective in enhancing productivity and breed improvement.

::SPORTS::

Indian wins Asia cup title in last ball thriller

  •  Bangladesh batsmen may have wilted under the big-match pressure after a three-figure opening partnership. But its bowling unit stretched India to the hilt to make the Asia Cup final a memorable night.

  •  Had it not been for RavindraJadeja’s experience and Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s helping hand, India would have found it difficult to retain the title with a thrilling three-wicket win at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium on Friday night.

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