Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 30 May 2016

:: National ::

India's diplomatic situation with Africa still tensed

India’s diplomatic downturn with Africa intensified as the Ministry of External Affairs sent mixed signals on responding to the series of attacks on African nationals.
Though the Delhi police arrested five men for the series of attacks on African nationals, the African Students Association in India announced that it would take out a ‘March for Justice’ rally in the national capital.
Responding to the announcement, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said, “I have asked Gen V.K. Singh MoS and Secretary (ER) Amar Sinha to meet African students who have announced demonstration at Jantar Mantar.”
“Had detailed discussion with Delhi Police and media is blowing out of proportion minor scuffle as attack on African nationals in Rajpur Khurd,” Mr Singh said in a tweet.
Gen. Singh’s tweets prompted sharp criticism with opposition parties and the Broadcast Editors Association calling it “absurd” and “irresponsible”, while African students said they disagreed with his comments.

World highest Tenzing-Hillary Everest Marathon

The annual Tenzing-Hillary Everest Marathon, which began in 2003, is meant to mark the anniversary of the first summit of the peak by Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary on May 29, 1953.
About 130 foreign runners, including from Britain, United States, China and Australia, joined another 30 from Nepal.
The air at base camp contains only half as much oxygen as at sea-level, leaving many runners gasping for breath on even the slightest incline along the narrow, rocky mountain paths.
The event organisers hailed the large number of participants as a further sign of the recovery of Nepal’s mountaineering industry after two years of tragedy on the 8,848-metre peak.
Only 55 took part last year and it was postponed until October after a massive earthquake hit the Himalayan nation in April, killing nearly 9,000 people and triggering a deadly avalanche on Everest base camp.
An avalanche on Everest in 2014 also claimed the lives of 16 Nepali guides and forced a shutdown of the mountain.

First-of-its-kind multiple organ transplant in U.S.

In a first-of-its-kind procedure, doctors in the U.S. have successfully transplanted a “composite” skull and scalp flap, along with kidney and pancreas — all from the same donor.
The patient was suffering from a non-healing scalp defect and declining organ kidney and pancreas function, researchers said.
The experience may open the way to further procedures combining “vascularised composite allotransplantation” (VCA) with organ transplants, in patients who have already accepted the need for lifelong immunosuppressive therapy.
VCA refers to transplant procedures combining different types of tissues, such as skin, muscle, blood vessels, nerves, and bone.
However, they also have a major drawback — the need for immunosuppressive drugs to prevent the recipient’s immune system from rejecting the transplant.
Patients who also need or have already undergone organ transplantation have already accepted the risks of lifelong immunosuppressive therapy

:: International ::

UNHCR says more than 500 people died off Syria this week

A week of shipwrecks and death in the Mediterranean culminated with harrowing testimony from migrant survivors who said another 500 people including 40 children had drowned, bringing the number of feared dead to 700.
Brought to safety in the Italian ports of Taranto and Pozzallo, survivors told the UN’s refugee agency (UNHCR) and Save the Children how their boat sank.
With some 100 people missing after a boat sank earler, and 45 bodies recovered from a wreck that happened, the UNHCR said it feared up to 700 people had drowned in the Mediterranean this week.
The first boat, carrying some 500 people, was reportedly towing the second, which was carrying another 500. But the second boat began to sink. Some people tried to swim to the first boat, others held onto the rope linking the vessels.
Italy’s Interior Minister Angelino Alfano said that Europe needed “a quick agreement with Libya and African countries” to halt the crisis.
The chaos in the North African country since Muammar Qadhafi’s fall in 2011 has been exploited by people traffickers.
European Parliament President said in an interview that Italy’s “migration compact” idea was “the best proposal so far” for stopping the boat crossings and preventing deaths.

Breakaway Taliban faction willing to hold peace talks with the Afghan government

A breakaway Taliban faction is willing to hold peace talks with the Afghan government but will demand the imposition of Islamic law and the departure of all foreign forces.
Mullah Abdul Manan Niazi told a group of around 200 followers in eastern Afghanistan that his faction had no faith in the government but was willing to negotiate without preconditions.
Niazi is deputy to Mullah Mohammad Rasool, who split from the Taliban last summer after Mullah Akhtar Mansoor was chosen to succeed the group’s late founder, Mullah Omar.
Mansoor was killed earlier this month in a U.S. drone strike in Pakistan.

:: Business and Economy ::

Start-up backs new e-learning model

Online education start-up Emeritus Institute of Management is betting on a feedback and outcome-based paid executive learning model to achieve the desired completion rates.
The Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) has suffered from poor completion rates of 5-7 per cent.
The diplomas will have accreditation of the founding schools unlike the usual MOOCs model which does not have any accreditation to any institute.
The foundation for the model emerged when Mr. Damera first identified the gap in executive training while evaluating training options for 350 global employees at his maiden startup Travelguru.

To encourage solar power generators a policy on solar zones

To encourage solar power generators and equipment manufacturers, the New and Renewable Energy Ministry will unveil a policy on solar zones.
Govt has been working on a new policy for solar zones, which would be spread over one or even more districts of a State to encourage generators as well as equipment manufactures.
The work on the policy is almost complete and it will be launched next month. Under the policy, the developer will be provided with inputs like land availability and power evacuation locations for planning his project.

Cloud Technology is improving the experience

Around 25 news and entertainment channels are beaming region-specific ads.
With the trend of geo-targeted advertising catching on, more companies are making use of technology to beam adverts to only areas where their products have strong presence.
Advertisements tailored to the location or browsing pattern of a person is common on websites.
What is common on websites is coming to television. Airing of region-specific content is determined by triggers as varied as the user’s GPS location or watermarks on the video stream.
On television, it happens differently. Normally, local cable operators have decoder boxes for each channel that receive and relay the programmes to households.
To enable geo-targeted advertising these boxes are replaced with smart boxes that not only store data but also intelligently identify the spot where the location-specific ad has to replace the nationally telecast one.
The trigger for the geo-targeted ad comes from a unique watermark inserted on the video, which gives the cue to the smart box to run the local ad. Watermark is an invisible and inaudible identifier, like a product barcode.
There are at least two companies that have the technology for geo-targeted advertising. While Amagi was founded by three technologists in 2008, Star TV came out with AdSharp in 2014.
The KPMG-FICCI Indian Media and Entertainment Industry Report 2016 speaks of considerable scope for geo-targeting, considering that the Indian market is underpenetrated and India is a heterogeneous market.
The traditional mode of television broadcast, which involves use of satellites, too is changing.
Internet is providing a way out and it involves a reversal of the traditional sequence of broadcast.
Normally, what should go on air is decided first, and the playout is delivered using satellite to local operators.
In the Internet-based method, all contents are stored in the cloud, and delivered to playout servers at different locations: they could be anywhere in the world.
The platform then does everything from managing the contents to graphics, subtitling, scheduling, editing, quality checks and the like.
B4U is another channel that uses the technology. The scheduling of the 12 channels is done in Mumbai, the contents are pushed from London, and they are viewed across all time zones.
The technology can be used to even set up a TV channel without taking recourse to satellite.