Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 18 September 2018

SSC CGL Current Affairs

Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 18 September 2018

::NATIONAL::

NITI Aayog proposes new policy for Jhum cultivation

A recent NITI Aayog publication on shifting cultivation which is particularly practised in the northeastern States, has recommended that the Ministry of Agriculture should take up a “mission on shifting cultivation” to ensure inter-ministerial convergence.
“Central as well as State government departments of forests and environment, agriculture and allied departments often have divergent approaches towards shifting cultivation. This creates confusion among grass-roots level workers and jhum farmers,” said the report titled, “Mission on shifting cultivation: towards a transformational approach”.
The document that calls for policy coherence, said land for shifting cultivation should be recognised as “agricultural land” where farmers practise agro-forestry for the production of food rather than as forestland.

Center says chinese intrusions declined by 10%

There has been a 10% decline in the number of Chinese transgressions this year, a senior government official told.The official said the presence of Chinese troops along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) has also reduced by around 30%. The manpower has been substituted with powerful surveillance equipment, he said.
Minister of State for Defence SubhashBhamre informed the RajyaSabha on February 5 that the number of transgressions was 426 in 2017.
The official claimed that the transgressions dropped after the 73-day standoff between the Indian Army and the Chinese People’s Liberation Army at Doklam on the China-Sikkim-Bhutan tri-junction near Nathu La last year. “The transgressions continue to take place due to the difference in perception of the actual boundary. But after Doklam, the diplomatic manoeuvring and dialogue with the counterparts at the border ensured there was no steep increase,” he said.
“There are many incidents of border transgressions that are not being recorded by both sides. If it’s reported, then it becomes part of the official record. The troops on both sides are communicating more and sorting out the differences,” said the official.

::ECONOMY::

Merger of more nationalised banks proposed

The Centre on Monday proposed the amalgamation of state-owned Bank of Baroda, Dena Bank and Vijaya Bank to create India’s third-largest bank.
The decision was taken at the meeting of a ministerial panel, headed by Finance Minister ArunJaitley, which oversees merger proposals of state-owned banks.
“This major decision was taken by Alternative Mechanism today to amalgamate Bank of Baroda, Dena Bank and Vijaya Bank. While making this suggestion, we have borne in mind that we don’t want a merger of what are relatively weak banks,” Mr.Jaitley said, adding, “You can have two well-performing banks absorbing a weak one in the amalgamation process and hopefully creating a mega bank which will be sustainable, whose lending ability which will be far higher.”

WEF report claims machines will overtake manpower by 2025

In less than seven years, by 2025, machines are projected to overtake humans in workplace task hours in 12 key industry sectors, according to a ‘Future of Jobs’ report by the World Economic Forum (WEF).
Globally, almost half of all companies expect automation to cut their full-time workforce in the next four years; however, new jobs will still lead to a net gain in employment opportunities if sufficient reskilling is done. In India, 54% of employees in these sectors will need reskilling by 2022, the WEF said in the report released on Monday.
“Workforce transformations are no longer an aspect of the distant future,” WEF founder and executive chairman Klaus Schwab, said in a preface to the report. Instead, technological changes such as high-speed mobile Internet and cloud technology, artificial intelligence, robots and automation are expected to drive a “significant shift on the frontier between humans and machines when it comes to existing work tasks between 2018 and 2022.”

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::INTERNATIONAL::

British PM says no preferential treatment to non EU citizens post Brexit

EU and non-EU citizens, including those from India and Australia, could have the same immigration rights after Brexit, British Prime Minister Theresa May indicated on Monday.
Asked whether the EU would get a preferential deal on immigration rights that would mean they would continue to be able to travel to the U.K. more easily, the Prime Minister told BBC Radio 4 in an interview that one of the messages from the referendum was that people “didn’t want a situation where they could see people coming having those automatic rights to travel to the U.K. and a set of rules for people outside the EU.
The issue of preferential rights for EU citizens has been a controversial issue throughout the referendum campaign and afterwards. During the referendum campaign, some politicians courted voters from the South Asian diaspora with promises that Brexit — by enabling Britain to restrict the rights of EU citizens to travel to the U.K. — could provide the government with the capacity to ease rules for those from non-EU countries.
The Prime Minister has faced growing pressure over her Brexit plan — which has come to be dubbed as the “Chequers Plan” (after the location at which it was forged) that would result in Britain maintaining a common rulebook for goods, including agricultural products, with the EU after Brexit.

::SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY::

WHO developing Benchmark Documents for practice in traditional medicine
World Health Organisation is developing Benchmark Documents for practice in Ayurveda, Panckarma and Unani system as part of its global strategy to provide safe, effective and accessible Traditional Medicine to global community.Development of these benchmarks documents is included in the Project Collaboration Agreement (PCA) between WHO and Ministry of AYUSH.
On this occasion, Secretary, Ministry of AYUSH Vaidya Rajesh Kotecha briefed about the activities undertaken by the Ministry of AYUSH. He informed that National Ayurveda Morbidity Standardized Terminology Engine (NAMSTE) is being actively used for documentation of AYUSH facilities and activities including recent rehabilitative activities undertaken by AYUSH at Kerala Flood.
He further informed about the activities undertaken by Ministry of AYUSH under AYUSHMAN BHARAT Scheme of Govt. of India and suggested that WHO may also provide assistance in this regard. He requested WHO may also help Ministry of AYUSH for developing country specific module and applications based program like M-Yoga and M-Ayurveda etc.
The purposes of the meeting are to review, comment and revise as required each of the three zero draft documents prepared by the experts. This is aimed at arriving at an International consensus regarding the structure and content of each of the documents.
The documents are expected to provide minimum requirements for qualified practice by practitioners of Ayurveda, Panchkarma and Unanito provide minimum safety requirement for practicing these and also to serve as a reference to national authorities to establish/ strengthen regulatory standards to ensure qualified practice of such system and patients safety.

::SPORTS::

India getting ready for deaf world tennis championship

PrithviSekhar stood out with his powerful game as the rest tried to keep pace with him on the fast courts of the Nehru Stadium as the Indian tennis team prepared in earnest for the Deaf World Championships to be held at Antalya, Turkey, from September 22 to 29.
The women’s team was particularly weakened after Parul Gupta pulled out, reportedly owing to a leg injury, leaving the task to run a successful campaign on JafreenShaik’s shoulders.