Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 30 MAY 2020

::NATIONAL::

The current upsurge in desert locust attacks could turn into a full-fledged global plague by the end of the year if it spreads to West Africa and the insects begin breeding there, says the Food and Agriculture Organisation’s senior locust forecasting officer Keith Cressman.
However, despite the dramatic images of locusts in Jaipur and at the Panna tiger reserve, and the fears of attacks as far as Delhi, Mr.Cressman says the swarms are unlikely to linger in the central Indian States or over large urban centres, and will return to the deserts of Rajasthan with the arrival of monsoon.
“Locusts don’t like urban areas, they will simply overfly the urban areas. They will make enough of a bother to scare people, [but] they don’t attack humans, of course. There’s not much to eat in urban areas. They’re not good at eating cement and concrete, they really like to eat the natural vegetation,” he said on Friday, speaking at a webinar organised by the Centre for Science and Environment.

Ministry of Labour and Employment under its National Career Service (NCS) project has now started offering free online Career Skills Training for its registered job-seekers.
This course on soft skills assists the learners in enhancing personality development with modules on corporate etiquette, improving inter personal skills, making impactful presentation including other necessary soft skills demanded by the industry at present.
The training module is available in Hindi and English on the NCS portal. The Ministry is implementing the NCS Project for transformation of the National Employment Service to provide a variety of employment related services like job search, career counselling, information on skill development courses, apprenticeship and internships through an on-line portal of NCS.
National Career Service has taken a number of initiatives to mitigate the challenges in the labour market due to COVID-19 and the consequent lockdown.
NCS has so far conducted around 76 Online Job Fairs during the lockdown period. Online Job Fairs are being organized to bridge the gap between job seekers and employers where the complete cycle from job posting to selection of candidate can be completed on the portal.

The country’s fiscal deficit widened to 4.6% of the gross domestic product (GDP) in 2019-20 mainly on account of poor revenue realisation, according to official data.
The deficit, which signifies the gap between government revenue and expenditure, is higher than the revised estimate of 3.8% for the fiscal.
According to the Controller General of Accounts (CGA) data, the fiscal deficit for 2019-20 worked out to be 4.59% of the GDP, while the revenue deficit was 3.27%.
The effective revenue deficit was 2.36%, the data showed. The increase in the fiscal deficit has been mainly on account of shortfall in revenue collection during 2019-20.
Revenue receipts during the year worked out to be only 90% of the revised estimate.In absolute terms, total receipts of the government were ₹17.5 lakh crore against the estimate of ₹19.31 lakh crore.
The data showed the government’s total expenditure was ₹26.86 lakh crore, lower than the ₹26.98 lakh crore projected earlier.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India on Friday recommended that a new National Numbering Plan be issued at the earliest so that a uniquely identifiable number can be provided to every subscriber in India.
Some of the options that TRAI has recommended include switching to a 11-digit mobile number, reallocation of mobile numbering resources surrendered by operators who have shut shop and prefixing zero for all mobile calls made from fixed line.
The ongoing plan implemented in 2003, was developed keeping in mind the projections till the year 2033. The total number of telephone subscribers in India stands at 1,177.02 million with a tele-density of 87.45% at the end of January 2020.

United States President Donald Trump has announced that America is terminating its relationship with World Health Organization over its handling of the Corona virus.
He blamed WHO and China for the deaths and destruction caused by the COVID-19 pandemic across the globe.
The US President said, because they have failed to make the requested and greatly needed reforms, the United States will be terminating its relationship with WHO forthwith and redirecting those funds to other worldwide and deserving, urgent global public health needs. He said that the world needs answers from China on the virus.
In his speech from the Rose Garden of the White House yesterday, Mr.Trump also announced that the US will end special treatment of Hong Kong in response to Chinese imposition of new controls. US will revise its travel advisory to warn of surveillance in Hong Kong, he added.

A research project by the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras has helped Odisha'sChilikalake, Asia's largest brackish water body, in tripling the population of the Irrawaddy dolphins. The searchers conducted geotechnical, hydraulic and satellite imagery studies and developed a dredging methodology with minimum impact on the lake ecosystem.
The process of dredging consists of the excavation (loosening or dislodging) of the material from the bottom, removal of the loosened material to the dredge vessel and ultimately transportation of the material to the placement area.
Restored at a cost of Rs 10 crore by opening the mouth and other related works in six months', the lake is now off the threatened list (Montreux record).
The IIT Madras team developed the dredging methodology identifying the location of dredging along with disposal and selection of suitable dredger with minimum impact on the ecosystem.
The Chilika Lake Authority has developed an Ecosystem Health Report Card and periodical monitoring of salinity, fish and dolphin, freshwater weeds, birds and other biological parameters are being carried out.

To improve umpiring standards and bring more structure to officiating, Hockey India has decided to introduce grading system for all officials, including umpires and technical officials. Tournament officials — technical delegates, umpire managers, technical officials, judges and umpires — will be divided into three grades.
While for Umpires the final score will be based on performance reports from all domestic tournaments, fitness tests and online tests, for technical officials the parameters will be the same without fitness tests.