Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 17 SEPTEMBER 2019

SSC CGL Current Affairs

::NATIONAL::

The Supreme Court today asked the Centre and Jammu and Kashmir administration to make all endeavours to restore normalcy in Kashmir Valley as soon as possible. However, the court made it clear that the restoration would be on a selective basis keeping in mind national interest.
When the top court was told about the alleged shutdown of mobile and Internet services in the Valley, the bench said these issues could be dealt with by the Jammu and Kashmir High Court.
Advocate Vrinda Grover, appearing for petitioner and Executive Editor of Kashmir Times AnuradhaBhasin, told the bench that mobile, Internet services and public transport are not working in the Valley and it would be difficult for them to approach the high court.
Venugopal, however, said that issues raised by the petitioner do not appear to be genuine as Kashmir-based newspapers are being published and the government has been offering all kinds of assistance to them.
The Supreme Court today also allowed senior Congress leader GhulamNabi Azad to visit Jammu and Kashmir, but said he cannot hold any political rally.

Doordarshan is celebrating its 60 years today. The public broadcaster started its journey on this day in 1959 from Delhi. Today, over 90 percent of Indian population receive DD programmes.
Over the years, Doordarshan has grown into a network operating 34 satellite channels, besides providing free-to-air DTH service having 104 in its bookings. Doordarshan has served people as a major source of information, education and entertainment since years.
Entertainment shows like Chitrahaar, Mahabharat, DekhBhaiDekh, Fauji, Malgudi Days, among others, captured the imagination of the Indian public in the late 80s and early 90s, and still remains etched in people's minds as pure entertainment that brought people together.
In a tweet, PrasarBharati CEO ShashiShekharVempati said, it is a moment to recognise that it is not that Doordarshan has gotten older, but it is getting newer for digital audiences.

Stating that its investments in India till now were just a ‘tip of the iceberg’, Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Monday called upon tech giant Apple to create a ‘robust’ presence in India.
The Minister, who holds the portfolio of Electronics and IT, was speaking to reporters after a day-long conference with over 50 top executives from the electronics manufacturing sector.
Promising all support from the government, including sops for making in India and exporting from here, Mr. Prasad pitched for making India a hub for electronics manufacturing. India has set a target of creating $400 billion electronic manufacturing ecosystem by 2025.

India will conduct a two-week special training programme for Maldivian civil servants from tomorrow in Delhi and Mussoorie.
It is part of a bilateral MoU on Training and Capacity Building Programme between the National Centre for Good Governance (NCGG) and the Maldives Civil Service Commission (CSC). A 32-member delegation from the Maldives reached the NCGG campus in Mussoorie.
Senior policy makers, including Director LalBahadurShastri National Academy of Administration, would address participants in the training programme.

Three years ago researchers from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras observed silver slowly dissolving in a glucose solution when heated to 70 degree C.
Now, the team has demonstrated an environment-friendly strategy to degrade the chemically inert and physically stable plastic fluoropolymer — polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) of which Teflon is made.
All that is required to degrade the fluoropolymer into molecules is continuous stirring of it in water containing 1,000 ppm glucose and metal ions for about 15 days at 70 degree C.
The team tested Teflon in different forms — pellets, tapes and plates. They repeated the experiment using a Teflon beaker and tried different metals too and still got the same result each time.
The only difference was that the particles did not show bright red luminescence when copper, silver and iron were used instead of gold.
According to the paper, similar chemistry can possibly lead to micro and nanoplastics in food during cooking as many modern cookware are coated with Teflon.
“Triboelectric degradation of PTFE, polypropylene and other polymers might be occurring in nature in large water bodies such as oceans where metal ions are found in abundance and waves provide constant agitation,” Prof. Pradeep says. “This must be one of the ways by which microplastics get generated.”