Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 21 JULY 2019

::NATIONAL::

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Saturday said the Kashmir problem was “bound to be solved”. The Minister is in Jammu and Kashmir on the 20th anniversary of the Kargil War.
Referring to his appeals of talks to separatists during the NDA government’s previous tenure, Mr. Singh said the Hurriyat had shut its door on the members of the delegation. “The new government’s focus is only on speedy development and prosperity of J&K,” he said.
The Defence Minister paid tributes to the soldiers killed in the 1999 Kargil War at a memorial in Drass Sector.
He was accompanied by Union Minister Jitendra Singh, Chief of the Army Staff General BipinRawat and General Officer Commanding-in-Chief (Northern Command) Lt. Gen. Ranbir Singh, said a Defence spokesman.

20 thousand wellness centres will be completed by the end of the current year under Ayushman Bharat programme.
This was stated by the Health and Family Welfare Minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan in Hyderabad yesterday, he said that a total of 1.5 lakh wellness centres are to be established in the country under this programme.
Addressing scientists and officials of CSIR laboratories Dr Harsh Vardhan termed the Ayushman Bharat programme as a successful model in implementing universal health.
He asked them to work in a proactive and out of box manner to reduce sufferings of people, especially those with rare and genetic diseases. He asked the scientists to work in a focused manner so that the results of the research reach people.

The government is in talks with foreign lenders to provide $14.5 billion in credit to millions of small firms, two officials said.
The government is in discussions with multiple foreign lenders, including Germany’s state-owned development bank KfW Group, the World Bank and some Canadian institutions to extend lines of credit to small enterprises, one of the officials, who did not want to be identified, told Reuters.
The World Bank’s India spokesperson did not reply to an email seeking comment. The official said the government plans to source up to Rs. 1 lakh crore of loans from foreign institutions because Indian banks were not in a position to provide enough capital for the small business sector, which is seen as critical to job creation.
State-owned banks have not been able to drive increased lending because they are burdened with more than $145 billion in bad loans. Last month, a study by an RBI panel said the overall deficit in credit for the MSME sector is estimated at about Rs. 20-25 lakh crore.

India's foreign exchange reserves declined by USD 1.113 billion to USD 428.797 billion in the week to July 12 - the first fall after four consecutive weeks of gains - due to a fall in foreign currency assets.
According to the latest weekly RBI data, foreign currency assets, which are a major component of the overall reserves, slipped by USD 1.11 billion to USD 399.697 billion.
The central bank said that despite ongoing massive rally in gold prices, the country's gold reserves remained unchanged at USD 24.304 billion.

China's new Ambassador to India Sun Weidong has said that China and India should not allow any individual case at certain time to disrupt the bilateral relations and take more initiatives to move forward the bilateral ties.
Talking to media in Beijing, Mr Sun Weidong said under the strategic guidance provided by XiJinping and Mr Modi at their first informal summit in Wuhan last year, the China-India relations have gathered a very good and sound momentum of development.
In an apparent reference to the CPEC and the Belt and Road Initiative( BRI), Mr Sun said both the countries should not allow individual cases to disrupt ties.
Outlining various initiatives taken by India and China including the appointment of Special Representatives in 2003 to address the boundary dispute, Sun said an early settlement of the boundary issue is in line with the interests of the two countries.

The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has issued an order prohibiting the manufacture, sale and distribution of colistin and its formulations for food-producing animals, poultry, aqua farming and animal feed supplements.
Intensivists across the country are rejoicing as the move is a “massive victory” for the movement against anti-microbial resistance.
The order, issued on Friday, directed manufacturers of colistin and its formulations (since it is also used to treat humans) to affix a label on the container reading thus: Not to be used in food producing animals, poultry, aqua farming and animal feed supplements: on the package, insert and promotional literature.
Dr.Ghafur,an expert says awareness programmes need to be conducted for farmers, telling them about the danger of using colistin in feed. “Most are not aware of the presence of colistin, since it comes mixed in the feed.
However, we have had discussions with associations of poultry farmers and they have not objected to removing colistin from the mix.” Also, he argues that since the bulk of colistin (nearly 95%) is imported from China, it would also be easy to stop importing it within a short time.

India are in line to get the Asian Games gold in 4x400 mixed relay as Kemi Adekoya of Bahrain, who was part of the gold winning team, has been handed a four-year ban for failing a dope test.
The silver won by India's mixed relay team of Mohammad Anas, Hima Das, Arokia Rajiv and M R Poovamma at the Asian Games in Jakarta last year is set to be upgraded to gold.