Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 30 September 2016

:: National ::

Indian commandos conducted surgical strikes on PoK terror launch pads

The Indian Army announced that it had carried out strikes on eight terror launch pads, in a night long operation across the Line of Control in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, which, officials claimed, exacted casualties in the “double digits.”
The operation to hit terrorist bases in a “pre-emptive counterstrike” were given the go-ahead a week ago, days after the attack on the Uri army base in which 19 Indian soldiers were killed.
The strikes were in locations spread over 200 kilometres, and were carried out by Para Special Forces and 'Ghatak' platoons of the local units.
Local commanders were given a free hand to select the targets that had been mapped in advance. The teams had already been moved to forward positions by helicopters, but no Indian Army chopper crossed the LoC.
Army started with artillery fire at a few locations including along the LoC at Uri. As the Pakistani troops focussed on retaliating, Indian commandos crawled across to the predetermined spots across the LoC.
The Union government had kept the Army strike across the Line of Control under the wraps, but had put the forces guarding the border on maximum alert two days ago.
The Army strike is a testimony that the LoC is back to being the preferred route by Pakistan’s Inter-Service Intelligence and the Army to push militants into Indian territory.
In the past three years, officials recorded most of the infiltration attempts and ceasefire violations along the 197-km International Border, which runs along Jammu district.
In 2013, there was massive displacement of Jammu’s villagers along the border. From November 2015, however, the focus shifted back to the LoC and this year alone, the Army has thwarted more than 20 attempts.
The Border Security Force (BSF) guards the 2,308-km border with Pakistan, running from Gujarat to Jammu.
In Jammu, 192 km of the border, which is referred to as a working boundary by Pakistan, is manned by the BSF, while the remaining 8 km is secured by the Army. The LoC is entirely secured by the Army.

The first surveillance aircraft carrying the first Indian AEW&CS is to be inducted

The first of the two small surveillance aircraft carrying the first Indian airborne early warning system is slated to be inducted into the Air Force in about two months, it is reliably learnt.
The DRDO has fitted its own airborne early warning and control system (AEW & CS) on a modified Embraer ERJ 145 aircraft imported from Brazil.
The AEW & CS is basically a ‘sharp-seeing and listening’ radar that can look out deep across enemy territory for any incoming threat without itself crossing over.
The second aircraft is going through the initial trials and is likely to join the first one around mid-2017 at the Bhisiana Air Force Station in Bathinda, Punjab, close to the northern borders.
The DRDO’s Bengaluru-based Centre for Airborne Systems (CABS) is the nodal agency for the design, integration and testing of the Indian early warning systems on the Embraer.
Work on the twin Rs. 2,000-crore surveillance aircraft project started after the first customised plane reached CABS in July 2012 from Sao Paulo.

:: India and World ::

China says its trying to decrease the tension between India and Pak

China signalled that it was actively engaged in defusing tensions between India and Pakistan, using multiple channels, to prevent a spillover of friction between New Delhi and Islamabad in the region.
China said: Beijing maintains contacts at different levels with both India and Pakistan. China is friendly neighbour to India and Pakistan. China hopes that both the countries could properly deal with their differences through dialogue.
China’s Deputy Foreign Minister Liu Zhenmin told Pakistan’s special envoy to China for Kashmir that “Beijing hopes that Pakistan and India will strengthen channels for dialogue, appropriately handle any differences, improve bilateral relations.”

:: Science and Technology ::

3D-printed material helps bones regrow

A cheap and easy method to make synthetic bone material has been shown to stimulate new bone growth when implanted in the spines of rats and a monkey’s skull, researchers said.
Human trials using the biomaterial, called Hyper-Elastic Bone [HB], could begin in the next five years, according to the research team from Northwestern University.
“Its biological effects in the outcomes we observed directly were quite astounding.”
The material is “made mostly of a ceramic, which contains mineral found in teeth and bones, and polymer, both of which are used in the clinic,” said the study in Science Translational Medicine.

Rosetta spacecraft to switch off after 12 years

Europe’s Rosetta spacecraft, due to switch off on Friday after a 12-year odyssey, carried eleven scientific instruments to sniff and photograph a comet from all angles.
After arriving in orbit around comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, it launched Philae, a separate lander, which itself had 10 hi-tech gadgets, including cameras, X-ray scans, radio wave probes and a drill that never deployed.
Together, the robot explorers have advanced our understanding of comets — of which there are billions — believed to be leftovers from the birth of our Solar System some 4.6 billion years ago.
The comet was formed in a young, outer part of our Solar System that was much less densely packed with bodies than previously thought.
This affects our understanding of planetary formation, thought to have happened when ice and dust debris, swirling around in a proto-planetary disk around an infant Sun, collided and stuck together, growing bigger and bigger over time.
The comet’s surface was another surprise. It was less “fluffy” and much harder than expected, which contributed to Philae bouncing several times after its harpoons failed to fire on landing.
The comet had much less water ice than thought, was littered with pebbles and rocks ranging in size from a few centimetres across to five metres, and pocked with deep craters.
The surface is rendered super-dark and non-reflective by a thin layer of dust.
Scientists were astonished to find oxygen molecules in the gassy halo around the comet, and said they appeared to be older than our Solar System.
67P has organic molecules, many different ones — including amino acids, which are the building blocks of life as we know it.
This discovery supports the hypothesis that comets may very well have helped spark life on Earth by delivering organic materials when they slammed into a young planet that was basically molten iron.
Water, on the other hand, is unlikely to have come from comets of 67P's type, the mission found.

:: Business and Economy ::

Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways will invite bids from foreign funds

Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways will invite bids from foreign pension funds for recycling of brownfield projects to raise funds, a senior official said.
The Cabinet has approved the proposal last month. There is a need for model concessional agreement after which the Request For Proposal (RFP) will be finalised.
The process involves handing over of 75-odd brownfield road projects across the country to these foreign funds for a concession period of 30 years, he told reporters.
During this period, the foreign funds would collect toll as per law and maintain them while ownership would not be transferred.
The government was expected to garner Rs.50,000 crore which would be given upfront by the fund managers and would be then ploughed back in creating other new road assets.

Union announced a cut of 0.1 %on small savings schemes

The Centre announced a cut of 0.1 percentage point in the interest rates on small savings schemes, including Public Provident Fund, Kisan Vikas Patra and Sukanya Samriddhi Accounts, for the period October 1-December 31, 2016.
The rate on savings deposit remained at 4 per cent. Interest rates for small savings schemes are notified on a quarterly basis. The next revision will be for the January-March quarter.
Under the new rates, the Public Provident Fund will fetch an interest of 8 per cent as opposed to the 8.1 per cent in the quarter ended September 30.
The Kisan Vikas Patra will see an interest rate of 7.7 per cent, down from the earlier 7.8 per cent.