Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 10 MAY 2019
::NATIONAL::
Vice President upholds govt. commitment to reach out to overseas Indians
- Vice President Venkaiah Naidu arrived in Vietnam today on his
four-day official visit to the Southeast Asian nation. The visit is expected
to enhance India's comprehensive strategic partnership with Vietnam.
- Addressing Indian Community and Friends of India in Hanoi,
Vietnam, Mr Naidu said that the government has made it a priority to reach
out to the Indian community overseas.
- He also said that Indians living abroad are the cultural
ambassadors of the country. The vice president also appealed to the Indian
diaspora to cherish their roots and carry the message of India to the world.
- Describing the ties between India and Vietnam as historic, Mr
Naidu said that the partnership between the two countries has stood the test
of the times. Successive generations of leaders have built upon this trust
and goodwill, he added.
- The Vice President will be holding one-on-one interaction and
delegation level talks with his Vietnamese counterpart Dang Thi Ngoc Thinh.
He will also hold meetings with Prime Minister Nguyen XuanPhuc and
Chairperson of the National Assembly Mme. Nguyen Kim ThiNgan.
- The event has been themed as "Buddhist Approach to Global
Leadership and Shared Responsibilities for Sustainable Societies."
Nation to celebrate 158th birth anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore
- The 158th birth anniversary of RabindraNath Tagore is being
celebrated all over West Bengal today.
- Various programmes have been organised to pay respect to Gurudev
Tagore. The day began with musical soirees, probhat ferry and garlanding
statues and potraits of Tagore.
- The West Bengal Government has organised a special musical
programme in Kolkata this afternoon to pay tributes to Gurudev Tagore. The
day is also being observed in Santineketan.
- In a tweet, Mr Kovind said, Asia's first Nobel laureate and
composer of India’s National Anthem, Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore remains one
of the country's foremost cultural icons. He called upon people to draw
inspiration from Gurudev's genius and creativity.
- In a tweet, Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu said, the multifaceted
Nobel laureate lives in the hearts of crores of people through his writings
and his works continue to inspire millions all over the world. He called
upon people to strive to live by the ideals set by him.
- Prime Minister NarendraModi paid tributes to Gurudev Rabindranath
Tagore on his birth anniversary.In a tweet, Mr Modisaid,Gurudev Tagore
manifests the best of India’s ethos of learning and expressing.
::ECONOMY::
Digital technology sector to add 3million jobs by 2023
- The Indian tech industry will add another three million new jobs
in the next five years, said Indian Staffing Federation (ISF), the apex body
for the ‘flexi’ working industry.
- With the additions, the size of the country’s tech army will be 7
million by 2023.
- RituparnaChakraborty president, ISF, told that all these new jobs
would come up in digital technology areas such as artificial intelligence
(AI), machine learning, Internet of things (IOT), data science, analytics,
big data, blockchain and augmented reality. Jobs would also be created in
newer technology areas that are presently unknown but are expected to emerge
and evolve in the next few years.
- The ISF’s tech employment projection comes as a big relief to
millions of young techies and software engineering students amid talks of
the move towards jobless growth with automation that replaces humans with
robots. “We, at ISF, are confident of making this job projection for the
next five years based on our constant interactions with a wide range of
companies, including Indian tech firms, MNCs, global capability centres of
hundreds of international firms, enterprises across segments including
e-com, BFSI, pharma and telecom,” she said,
- India now has about 1,300 captive units. Some 400 new captive
units are coming up in 2019. “The shift is attributed to a sharp rise in
hiring by existing and new global in-house centres (GCCs) due to technology
innovation activities in India for their global markets.”
- It’s impact on productivity of businesses would be ‘huge’. Some
63% of CEOs think that AI would have a larger impact than the Internet and
some 39% of them had already started AI-related initiatives in their
organisations.
- Staffing organisations in India are going to play a vital role in
helping the industry reach this hiring milestone in terms of identifying and
sourcing billable talent Ms.Chakraborty added.
- Bank credit in FY2019 grows than previous year
- Bank credit grew by 13.2% in financial year 2018-19 as compared to
10.3% in the previous financial year, mainly aided by loans to services and
retail sector.
- Deposit growth also gained momentum, growing by 10% as compared to
6.7% a year ago. “We have to be a bit careful while looking at this data
because a bump-up has happened in the month of March. If you see, up to
February, credit growth was not that strong,” said MadanSabnavis, chief
economist, CARE Ratings. Banks typically tend to push for more loan
disbursement and also try to get more deposits ahead of the end of a
financial year to shore up their balance sheet and meet year-end targets.
- The Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) data on deployment of gross
credit across different sectors shows healthy credit growth in the services
sector followed by retail sector.
- Credit growth in services sector till the middle of February was
23.7% and in retail sector it was 16.7%. Credit growth in the industry
sector was 5.6%.
- Banks have also benefited from the liquidity crunch that
non-banking financial companies are facing following the IL&FS crisis. NBFCs
have slowed down their loan growth since their cost of funds increased
substantially after September-October. This is particularly true for retail
loans, where NBFCs are a major player.
- Banks have been pushing loans to the corporate sector at a slower
pace after sharp rise in bad loans, mostly in sectors like infrastructure.
::INTERNATIONAL::
India- China to resolve issues of market access in Delhi
- India and China today agreed to resolve market access issues
expeditiously in order to achieve the vision of the leaders of both
countries by promoting a more balanced trade.
- After a meeting of Commerce Secretary AnupWadhawan and General
Administration of Customs of China, Vice Minister Li Guo. Ministry of
Commerce and Industry signed a protocol for export of Indian chilli meal to
the neighbouring country.
- A release said, that both the sides discussed trade-related issues
of pending Indian request for clearance of agricultural products in the
meeting.
- From the Indian side, officials from different departments
including commerce, agriculture, animal husbandry and the Agricultural and
Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) are
participating.
- The meeting assumes significance as India is seeking greater
access for its manufactured and agricultural products in the Chinese market
to bridge the widening trade deficit.
- Recently, India has identified and shared with China a list of 380
products, including horticulture, textiles, chemicals and pharmaceuticals,
as their shipments hold huge export potential.
::SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY::
Iceland researchers find new ways of reducing CO2 abundance
- In the heart of Iceland’s volcano country, 21st century alchemists
are transforming carbon dioxide into rock for eternity, cleaning the air of
harmful emissions that cause global warming.
- The technology mimics, in accelerated format, a natural process
that can take thousands of years, injecting CO2 into porous basalt rock
where it mineralises, capturing it forever.
- The plant, located on the Hengill volcano in southwestern Iceland,
sits on a layer of basalt rock formed from cooled lava, and has access to
virtually unlimited amounts of water.
- The plant pumps up the water underneath the volcano to run six
turbines providing electricity and heat to the capital, Reykjavik, about 30
km away.
- The CO2 from the plant is meanwhile captured from the steam,
liquified into condensate, then dissolved in large amounts of water.
- The fizzy water is piped several kilometres to an area where grey,
igloo-shaped domes dot a lunar-like landscape.Here the fizzy water is
injected under high pressure into the rock 1,000 metres under the ground.
- The solution fills the rock’s cavities and begins the
solidification process a chemical reaction that occurs when the gas comes in
contact with the calcium, magnesium and iron in the basalt.
