Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 30 JULY 2019

::NATIONAL::

The LokSabha on Monday passed the National Medical Commission Bill, 2019 (NMC) with Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan assuring the House that the Bill, which seeks to repeal the Indian Medical Council Act, 1956, will go down in history as the most revolutionary step taken to improve medical education in India.
According to him, no powers of the State government will be taken away by the Centre through this Bill. Dr.Vardhan said: “We have also withdrawn the suggestion of a bridge course.’’
The Bill was opposed by several Opposition MPs. While Vincent Pala of the Congress asked the Minister to explain what happens to MBBS students who don’t pass the NEXT or the national exit exam, DMK’s A. Raja called the Bill a ‘joke’ and ‘undemocratic.’

India has 2,967 tigers, a third more than in 2014, according to the results of a tiger census made public on Monday by Prime Minister NarendraModi. Madhya Pradesh saw the highest number at 526, closely followed by Karnataka (524) and Uttarakhand (442). Chhattisgarh and Mizoram saw a decline in tiger population and all other States saw a “positive” increase, according to a press statement.
The survey, the fourth such since 2006, is a gargantuan exercise and conducted once in four years. The latest survey is the culmination of 15 months of forest officials surveying 3,81,400 square kilometres of forested habitat, installing 26,760 camera traps and wildlife biologists ferreting through 35 million images of wildlife — 76,523 of which were tigers (there can be multiple images of the same tiger). Nearly 83% of the estimated tiger population was captured in these images.
While the Pench Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh recorded the highest number of tigers, the Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve in Tamil Nadu registered the “maximum improvement” since 2014, the statement said.

Government bonds yields dropped sharply on Monday after Finance Minister NirmalaSitharaman clarified that there was no rethinking on issuing sovereign bonds to raise funds from abroad.
The yield on the 10-year benchmark government bond fell 11 basis points (bps) over the previous close, ending Monday at 6.41%.
“The main reason for bond yields to decline is the reassurance by the Finance Minister that there is no rethinking on the sovereign bond issue,” said a treasury head of a large public sector bank.
Last week, following reports that the government would review the Budget announcement of issuing sovereign bonds after economists raised concerns over such a move, bond yields headed north.
RBI has reduced the repo rate by 75 bps in 2019 and will announce the review of the monetary policy on August 7.

Bangladesh today handed over a fresh list of 25,000 Rohingyas to Myanmar for verification before their repatriation to their place of origin in Rakhine State.
So far, Bangladesh has handed over names of around 55000 Rohingyas to the Myanmar authorities.
This was disclosed today by the acting Foreign Secretary of Bangladesh KamrulAhsan after holding discussion with the visiting top-level delegation from Myanmar led by its Foreign secretary U Myint Thu.
Earlier the delegation visited Rohingya Camp in Cox's Bazar on Sunday to explain the preparations for the Rohingyas' return to Myanmar.
It met various groups of Rohingyas including Hindu and Christian groups to convince them to return to Myanmar.
According to the Bangladesh refugee commissioner Mohammad AbulKalam, the talks were positive but the representatives of the Rohingyas in Bangladesh said that they wanted citizenship, safety and security as preconditions for their return to Rakhine province in Myanmar.

A study carried out using Zebrafish, researchers at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Mohali have found hard evidence to support how turbidity negatively affects foraging efficiency and how they learn to cope with it. The study was done in collaboration with IISER Kolkata.
The study found that acclimatisation to the immediate visual environment does play an important role in determining success in foraging food. The results of the study were published in the journal Biology Letters.
In addition to acclimatisation, the presence of colourful landmarks that are visible even in extremely turbid conditions plays an important role in improving foraging success.