Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 4 SEPTEMBER 2019

SSC CGL Current Affairs

::NATIONAL::

The Supreme Court has agreed to examine a plea that starvation deaths continue to eat into the right to life and dignity of social fabric and a “radical” new measure like community kitchens need to be set up across the country to feed the poor and the hungry.
The petition said State-funded community kitchens was not a novel concept in the country. They pointed out how Tamil Nadu's AmmaUnavagam had become a roaring success by involving peers in self-help groups, employing the poor to serve hygienic food to eradicate the gnawing problem of hunger on the streets.
It urged the court to direct the Chief Secretaries across the country to formulate schemes for the implementation of community kitchens and to further ensure that “no person should sleep on an empty stomach”. It called for the creation of a national food grid by the Centre that would be beyond the scope of the Public Distribution Scheme (PDS).

The government on Tuesday raised the price of sugarcane-extracted ethanol used for blending in petrol by up to ₹1.84 per litre as it looked to cut oil import bill by $1 billion annually through its greater use in auto fuels.
State-owned oil marketing companies will buy ethanol from sugar mills, for mixing in petrol, at enhanced rates for ethanol from December 1, Petroleum Minister DharmendraPradhan said here.
The price of ethanol from ‘C-heavy molasses’ has been raised by 29 paise per litre to ₹43.75 while the same from ‘B-heavy molasses’, also called as intermediary molasses, by ₹1.84 to ₹54.27 a litre.
Pradhan said the higher price is expected to increase the procurement of ethanol to 260 crore litres between December 2019 and November 2020, up from 200 crore litres bought in the previous ethanol year.

Reserve Bank-constituted task-force on developing a vibrant secondary market for corporate loans has called for setting up a central loan contract registry to remove information asymmetries between buyers and sellers.
The six-member task force, headed by Canara Bank chairman TN Manoharan, was formed to examine the scope for developing a secondary market for corporate loans and make recommendations to facilitate rapid development of such a vibrant market.
The task force submitted the report to Governor Shaktikanta Das yesterday. It has called for creating a loan contract registry to remove information asymmetries between buyers and sellers, its ownership structure and related protocols such as standardization of loan information, independent validation and data access.

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) continues to be the leading cause of death across the world, but there are significant variations between rich and poor nations. While in high income countries, death from cancer is twice that of CVD, in low income countries, including India, death from cardiac disease was three times that of cancer.
Additionally, indoor or household air pollution has been identified as a key cause of CVD, research papers published in the Lancet, on Tuesday, have shown.
“The study establishes that though risk factors are lower in low income countries, factors such as access to quality health care and lack of insurance have a play, leading to the mortality,” explained V. Mohan, one of the co-authors of the study, and president, Madras Diabetes Research Foundation, Chennai. With better insurance and improving hospital standards, it is possible for LIC to head towards similar outcomes, he said.

Prime Minister NarendraModi will embark on a three- day visit to Vladivostok in Russia this evening to take part in the 5th Eastern Economic Forum - EEF summit. Prime Minister will be the Chief Guest at the 5th Eastern Economic Forum. The Prime Minister will also attend the 20th annual summit between Russia and India during the visit.
Ahead of his visit, in his departure statement, Prime Minister said his visit to Vladivostok is the first-ever by an Indian Prime Minister to the Far East Region of Russia and it underlines the desire on the both sides to strengthen the bonds of robust bilateral relations. He said the EEF summit presents enormous potential for developing close and mutually beneficial cooperation between Rusia and India in this region.
He said India and Russia enjoy excellent relations, based on the strong foundation of special strategic partnership and also have robust and growing trade and investment opportunities. The Prime Minister said, Our strong partnership is complemented by a desire to promote a multipolar world and the two countries closely cooperate towards this end in regional and multilateral fora.
In Russia, Prime Minister would also visit to the Zvezda ship-building complex. In a tweet, Prime Minister said, It would present a great opportunity to learn about Russia’s exemplary capabilities in the ship-building sector as well as explore possibilities of cooperation in this area.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani today ruled out holding any bilateral talks with the United States. He also threatened to further cut Iran's commitments to a nuclear deal within days.
In an address to Parliament, Rouhani said any dialogue with the US would have to fall within the framework of the group of major powers that agreed to a landmark nuclear deal with Tehran in 2015.
He also said Iran was ready to further reduce its commitments to the accord in the coming days if current negotiations with European nations yield no results by Thursday.
Tehran and Washington have been at loggerheads since May last year when President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew from the nuclear deal and began reimposing crippling sanctions.

About 70 hatchlings of the rare Black Softshell and Indian Softshell turtles bred in the ponds of two temples in Assam were on Monday released in the Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary, about 50 km east of Guwahati.
The sanctuary is often called ‘Mini Kaziranga’ because of similar landscape and a sizeable population of the one-horned rhino.
The “wild restocking” of the two turtle species was done under a joint programme of the management committees of two temples — Ugratara in Guwahati and HayagrivMadhav in Hajo about 35 km north-west — the Assam Forest Department and two NGOs specialising in the conservation of reptiles.

Indian women's cricket great and ODI captain Mithali Raj announced her retirement from T20 Internationals today. The 36-year-old said she wants to focus on her ODI career, keeping in mind the 2021 World Cup in New Zealand.
The veteran cricketer's announcement came as a surprise, considering that she had last week made herself available for the home series against South Africa, beginning from 24th of this month.