Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 14 May 2019

Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 14 MAY 2019

The Vice President of India, Shri M. Venkaiah Naidu has called upon social science researchers to come up with innovative and out-of-box solutions to address various problems confronting the world from eradicating poverty to achieving sustainable development.
Speaking at the Golden Jubilee Celebrations of the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR), the Vice President said the objective of every research outcome should be to better the lives of the people. The upliftment of the poor should be the goal of social science research. As such, any research would be incomplete if the researcher failed to spend time in the field and with the people.
Urging social science researchers to find solutions to societal problems, the Vice President he stressed the need for inclusive development, reaching the unreached and funding the unfunded. Achieving sustainable developmental goals, taking care of the health of the population, alleviating poverty, mitigating the urban-rural divide and the challenges faced by the agriculture require a fresh and practical approach, he added.
Stating that tight boundaries between various disciplines have almost disappeared, the Vice President said that today’s researchers cannot confine themselves to compartmentalized silos and must have a basic understanding of other related disciplines. For example, health, education and environment cannot be confined to particular disciplines, he added.

The Supreme Court has suspended the NGT order directing the Andhra Pradesh government to deposit 100 crore rupees with the Central Pollution Control Board for inaction to prevent illegal sand mining.
In the interest of natural justice, the apex court allowed the state government to place its perspective before the National Green Tribunal, NGT with regard to illegal sand mining.
A bench of Justices D Y Chandrachud and Hemant Gupta in its recent order said that it is permitting Andhra Pradesh to move an appropriate application before the NGT within two weeks.
On April 4th, the tribunal while asking the state to deposit 100 crore rupees with the CPCB within a month, directed the chief secretary to forthwith prohibit all unregulated sand mining.

Commerce Secretary, Dr.AnupWadhawan, welcomed senior officials of participating delegations from Developing and Least Developed Countries (LDCs) who are meeting in New Delhi over two days to discuss key issues and challenges facing the multi-lateral trading system.
The logjam in the Appellate Body is a serious threat to the dispute settlement mechanism of the WTO and the implementation function of the Organization. The fundamentals of the system are being tested through a tide of protectionism around the worldvitiating the global economic environment. The situation does not bode well for developing countries, including the LDCs.
The harm that the institutional failure due to the collapse of the Appellate Body will cause will be felt more in Developing Countries including LDCs who needthe protection of the rules based system more than developed countries. There is an urgent need to engage constructively to preserve the system and come up with constructive solutions to the problem.
India believes that developing countries need to work together to protect their interests in the WTO negotiations through preservation of the core fundamental principles of the WTO. The two-day meet gives an opportunity to the participating countries of developing a shared WTO reform proposal on issues of priority and interest for developing countries. This will help in building a common narrative on issues of importance for Developing Countries including LDCs.

Retail inflation quickened to a six-month high of 2.92% in April, driven in large part by accelerating food and fuel inflation, according to official data released on Monday.
Growth in the consumer price index (CPI) quickened in April from 2.86% in March.
Within the index, growth in the food and beverages segment accelerated to 1.38% in April compared with 0.66% in March. Similarly, the fuel and light segment saw inflation quickening to 2.56% from 2.34% over the same period.
“Moreover, food inflation continued to rise with sustained upward momentum in fruits and vegetables. We expect this trend to continue over the summer months.”
Inflation in the pan, tobacco and intoxicants eased to 4.27% in April from 4.61% in March. Similarly, the clothing and footwear segment saw inflation slowing to 2.01% from 2.52% over the same period.
The housing segment saw inflation slowing to 4.76% in April from 4.93% in March.
“Based on this reading and the slowdown visible in industrial production, we maintain our call of another rate cut in the August policy, with the action being dependent on realised outcomes of monsoons and trajectory of oil prices,” Mr.Prasanna added.

The International Monetary Fund- IMF has warned that Pakistan is facing a challenging economic environment and decisive policies and reforms are needed to stabilise the economy.
IMF reached a deal on Sunday with the cash-strapped government of Prime Minister Imran Khan on a USD 6 billion bailout to ward off a financial crisis.
The funding, which still needs approval from the International Monetary Fund's management, would be provided over three years.
Pakistan is facing an economic crisis with short supplies of foreign currency reserves and stagnating growth. In February, its central bank had the only USD 8 billion left in foreign reserves.

Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) conducted successful flight test of ABHYAS - High-speed Expendable Aerial Target (HEAT) from Interim Test Range, Chandipur in Odisha today.
Theflight test was tracked by various RADARS & Electro Optic Systems and proved its performance in fully autonomous way point navigation mode.
The configuration of ABHYAS is designed on an in-line small gas turbine engine and uses indigenously developed MEMS based navigation system for its navigation and guidance.
The performance of the system was as per simulations carried out and demonstrated the capability of ABHYAS to meet the mission requirement for a cost effective HEAT.