Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 2 AUGUST 2019

SSC CGL Current Affairs

::NATIONAL::

India on Thursday expressed “grave concern” over the recent U.S. military assistance to Pakistan, and stated that it had conveyed its concerns to Washington.
The U.S. had publicly stated that the proposed sale was intended to enable it to continue technical and logistics support services to assist in the oversight of the operations of F-16 fighter aircraft in Pakistan's inventory, he said.
However, official sources emphasised that the concern expressed was not just for the supply of F-16 parts, but for the “signs of growing military cooperation and resumption of military supplies” by the U.S. to Pakistan.
Last week, days after Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan’s visit to Washington, the State Department approved a military assistance package for “continued support” of the F-16 programme.
“The State Department has made a determination approving a possible Foreign Military Sale to Pakistan for Technical Security Team (TST) in continued support of the F-16 programme for an estimated cost of $125 million,” the Defense Security Cooperation Agency said in a statement after delivering the required certification notifying Congress of the possible sale on July 26.

Parliament has passed the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Amendment Bill, 2019 with the RajyaSabha approving it today. The LokSabha has already passed the bill.
Replying to discussion on the bill, Home Minister Amit Shah reiterated NDA government’s commitment to fight against terrorism. He said there is a need to speak in one voice against terrorism.
Referring to some members objection to naming an individual as a terrorist, Mr. Shah said the countries like US, Pakistan and China also has similar provisions to name an individual as a terrorist. He emphatically said a terrorist does not belong to any religion and the law should be amended along with time.
Earlier participating in the debate, Congress objected to some of the provisions of the bill saying they are unconstitutional and against individual liberty.

Ratings agency Crisil has cut its forecast for GDP growth in 2019-20 to 6.9% from its earlier forecast of 7.1%, citing weak monsoon, slow global growth and poor high-frequency data for the first quarter of the financial year.
It added that the slowdown would be more pronounced in the April-June period while the second half of the year would be bolstered by the expected monetary easing, consumption, and a statistical low-base effect.
Crisil also expects corporate sector growth to slow to 8% in 2019-20, lower than the double-digit growth trend of the last two financial years.
The report said that banking sectorNPAs are expected to come down to about 8% by the end of financial year 2019-20, based on lower additional NPAs and increased recoveries. Credit growth is expected to recover to 14%, the highest in five years.

The United States and Russia both walked away from the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces treaty today putting an end to a landmark arms control treaty that President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev signed three decades ago.
If both US and Russia choose not to extend or replace the larger New START treaty when it expires in early 2021, there will be no legally binding limits on the world's two largest nuclear arsenals for the first time in nearly a half-century.
The US blames Russia for the demise of the treaty, saying that for years Moscow has been developing and fielding weapons that violate the treaty and threaten the U.S. and its allies, particularly in Europe.
President Donald Trump hasn't committed to extending or replacing New START, which imposed limits starting in 2018 on the number of US and Russian long-range nuclear warheads and launchers.

U.S. scientists have successfully built functional heart parts out of collagen using a 3D bioprinter, a breakthrough they say could one day create entire organs.
Their technique, which was described in the journal Science on Thursday, replicates the body’s own complex biological scaffolds that provide the structure and biochemical signalling organs need to function.
“What we were able to show was you can actually 3D print a heart valve out of collagen, and they function,” Adam Feinberg, one of the paper’s co-authors said. Previous attempts at printing these scaffolds, known as extracellular matrices, had been hindered by limitations that resulted in poor tissue fidelity and low resolutions.
But the scientists at Carnegie Mellon University were able to overcome these hurdles by using rapid changes in pH to cause the collagen to solidify with precise control. “That’s the very first version of a valve, and so anything that we engineer as a product will actually get better and better,” Mr. Feinberg said.
The technique could one day help patients awaiting heart transplants, but it will need to validated through animal testing and eventually human.

Football Giant East Bengal Club turns 100 years today. On this day in 1920 East Bengal Club was established at Kumartuli Park in North Kolkata.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee inaugurated the centenary year celebrations at a glittering function in Kolkata this evening. Speaking on the occasion Ms. Banerjee recalled glorious contribution of the East Bengal Club for popularizing football game in the country.
She said that the State Sports Department will also organize special programmes to mark the Centenary of East Bengal Club. Former Indian Cricket Captain KapilDev was given ‘Bharat Gourav’ Award at the function.