Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 16 SEPTEMBER 2019

SSC CGL Current Affairs

::NATIONAL::

The Press Council of India (PCI) has issued guidelines for the reporting of cases of suicide and mental illness.
Under the guidelines, set forth in a press release issued on Friday, the PCI said that while reporting mental illness, “the media shall not publish photograph or any other information of the person undergoing treatment at a mental health establishment without the consent of the person.”
As for suicide cases, the PCI adopted certain guidelines from the World Health Organization’s Preventing suicide: a resource for media professionals-2017.
The PCI said newspapers and news agencies must not “place stories about suicide prominently and unduly repeat such stories”.
PCI secretary AnupamaBhatnagar said this was the first time the PCI had come up with such guidelines. “Now that the guidelines have been adopted by the PCI, they have become part of journalistic conduct,” Ms.Bhatnagar said. Anyone could lodge a complaint with the PCI about the violation of these guidelines.

India’s oldest scientific department, the Survey of India (SoI) — historically tasked with mapping the country will for the first time rely on drones to map the country.
Other than unprecedented detail, a consequence of the mapping will be creating high resolution maps of land in villages facilitating the digitisation of land titles in villages, according to officials involved with the survey.
The aim is to map 75% of India’s geography— about 2.4 million sq km of the 3.2 million sqkm within the next two years. The organisation aims to procure about 300 drones sofar about 30 have been sourced for the gargantuan exercise. However forests, hills and deserts are likely to be left out.

India’s exports contracted 6.05% in August to $26.13 billion, official data released on Friday showed. The trade deficit widened marginally to $13.45 billion.
The sectors that saw notable contraction in their exports include rice (-23.95%), other cereals (-41.8%), oil meals (-44.4%), and oil seeds (-31.8%). Iron ore exports, notably, grew by a whopping 356.7%.
“Imports in August 2019 were $39.58 billion (₹2,81,606.41crore), which was 13.45% lower in dollar terms and 11.46% lower in rupee terms over imports of $45.73 billion (₹3,18,043.86 crore) in August 2018.”
The major commodity groups that saw a contraction in imports in August include coal, coke and briquettes (-23.75%), organic and inorganic chemicals (-14.95%), petroleum, crude and products (-8.9%), electrical and non-electrical machinery (-8.8%), and electronic goods (-4.12%).

Soon, engineers will have to register with a body to be able to practise their trade. A Bill to that effect is taking shape under the aegis of the All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE) and the Ministry of Human Resource Development.
The first draft of the Bill has been submitted to the Ministry, which has recommended changes. It has been suggested having a council to register engineers on the lines of those that exist for lawyers, doctors and pharmacists. The Bill has been drafted by a committee constituted by the AICTE.
The suggestion for a Bill came from E. Sreedharan, architect of the Delhi Metro Rail, who mooted a code of ethics and a council.
AICTE chairman Anil D. Sahasrabuddhetold that the committee had handed over its recommendations. “Right now, it is in the discussion stage. Some changes are required. It will take some time,” he said.

Iran signed a $440 million contract on Saturday with local company Petropars to develop the Belal gas field in the Gulf, Iranian state television reported, saying the country's vital energy sector was active despite U.S. sanctions.
“This contract and other upcoming contracts show that we are working under the sanctions. The sanctions have not stopped us and we are active,” Oil Minister BijanZanganeh said at the signing ceremony in remarks carried by state TV.
Under the deal signed with a subsidiary of the state-run National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), Petropars is to produce 500 million cubic feet per day of gas, state TV said.
Belal, a field shared with Qatar, straddles the maritime boundary between Iran and Qatar in the Gulf.

Researchers at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Pune have fabricated a non-silicon, organic–inorganic hybrid diode that not only shows high electrical conductivity but also high current rectification ratio.
The current rectification ratio obtained is comparable with commercial silicon diodes. A diode allows current to flow in only one direction.
In the case of silicon diodes, the current rectification ratio is in the order of 105-108, where 106 denotes one million times. The team led by NirmalyaBallav from the Department of Chemistry at IISER Pune was able to achieve current rectification ratio close to one million times.
Since the coordination polymer is less conducting and almost behaves like an insulating material, the researchers doped it with a redox-active molecule. The top portion of the coordination polymer is doped while the bottom portion is not. The doped top layer becomes highly conductive. The doped and undoped portions together behave like a p–n junction diode.

One of India's most consistent sportspersons, PankajAdvani, today increased his tally of world titles to 22 by winning a fourth straight final in the 150-up format at the IBSF World Billiards Championship in Myanmar. PankajAdvani defeated Nay Thway of Myanmar.