Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 31 DECEMBER 2019

::NATIONAL::

Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu urged the students to stay healthy through physical exercise and proper food. He was addressing the National Children's Science Congress held at Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala today.Mr Naidu said, knowledge is the biggest investment.
The innovative mind of the youth is the most powerful resource on the earth in this knowledge era. Students must be aware that the real purpose of science is to make people's lives comfortable and happy.
Governor Arif Mohammed Khan presided the event while Kerala Minister of Tourism KadakampallySurendran and MLA V.K Prashanth were among the dignitaries attended the event.

A survey of nearly 10,000 migrants in rural Bihar by Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad has found that rural migrants who move to urban areas tend to be from relatively well-off social and economic hierarchies. On the other, hand, poorer migrants tended to move to other rural areas.
The study found that 78% of all migrants from rural Bihar went to an urban destination. However, those belonging to the top of the social and economic hierarchy in villages are disproportionately represented in the rural-urban migrations.
Migrant who are more educated were more likely to move to urban areas – and they moved without having worked in the local rural economy.On the other hand, poorer migrants, who generally do manual labour, tended to move to other rural areas.
The data also showed that migration tended to increase with increasing incomes, showing that poverty is a constraining factor in migration. Migration rates were the lowest in the bottom-most income quintile and kept increasing until the fourth quintile – it falls again in the top income quintile. This has been the same pattern for all three surveys - 1999, 2011 and 2016.

Union Government has decided to give 5G spectrum for trial to all players in the country.
Addressing a function in New Delhi after launching a Web Portal for customers of Delhi to facilitate blocking and tracing of stolen or lost mobile phones, Communication and Information and Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said, the in-principle decision has been taken in this regard.
He said 5G is future and government will encourage new innovation in 5G spectrum.
Our correspondent reports a project called Central Equipment Identity Register, CEIR system has been undertaken by the Department of Telecommunications for addressing security, theft and other concerns including reprogramming of mobile handsets.

Concerned over exit of a few states, dropping out of insurance companies and growing dissent among farmers on the government’s flagship crop insurance scheme, the centre has set up a seven-member group of ministers (GoM) headed by defence minister Rajnath Singh to review the scheme and recommend changes to make it more farmer friendly.
There have been demands for making crop insurance voluntary to all farmers, removal of high premium crops and giving flexibility to states to provide customised add-on products.
Similarly, ICICI Lombard,Tata AIG, Cholamandalam MS, and Shriram General Insurance have opted out of this scheme citing losses in the crop insurance business due to high loss ratio, which refers to claims paid plus adjustment expenses against premium earned.
The scheme provides comprehensive crop insurance from pre-sowing to post-harvest period against non-preventable natural risks at extremely low premium rates a farmer has to pay - 2% for kharif crops, 1.5% for rabi crops and 5% for horticulture and commercial crops. The remaining amount of premium is equally shared by central and the respective state governments.

The UN's Libya envoy has said that military and maritime agreements signed between Turkey and the Tripoli government represent an escalation of the conflict in the North African country.
GhassanSalame's remarks came as Egypt called for an urgent meeting tomorrow of the Cairo-based Arab League to discuss developments in Libya and the possibility of an escalation there.
Libya has been mired in conflict since a NATO-backed uprising toppled and killed dictatorMoamerKadhafi in 2011, with rival administrations in the east and the west vying for power.
In April, military strongman KhalifaHaftar, who is based in the east, launched an assault to seize the capital Tripoli from the UN-recognised Government of National Accord.

Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Guwahati Researchers have developed materials that can produce energy from water, on a small scale.
In the centralized energy generation model, one large plant produces energy for an entire region, in contrast, the decentralized energy model introduces a large number of small generation devices that can be employed to generate in every household.
The excess energy produced in households can be transported nearby areas where there is an excessive need for energy. The researchers of IIT Guwahati employed the nanoscale phenomenon called “Electrokinetic streaming potential” to harvest energy from flowing water on the small length scale like water flowing through household water taps.
Similarly, the “Contrasting Interfacial Activities” different types of semiconducting materials were employed to generate power from stagnant water.
In order to extract power from stagnant water, devices were fabricated by employing doped graphene flakes. The complementary charge transfer activities of doped graphene flakes based devices generate power just upon dipping in any kind of water source, like lake, river or seawater.

Indian Olympic Association (IOA) has withdrawn its threat to boycott the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham over Shooting's exclusion. It also announced that the country will bid to host either the 2026 or the 2030 edition.
During its Annual General Meeting in New Delhi, the IOA, on the advice of Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF), also decided to submit a formal proposal to host a Commonwealth Shooting Championships before the main Games, an idea mooted by both the national and international shooting bodies to make up for the sport's exclusion from 2022 CWG.
CGF President Dame Louise Martin welcomed India confirming participation at the Birmingham Games.