Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 16 OCTOBER 2019

::NATIONAL::

The Centre will advise all States to hold regular meetings with wholesalers, traders, importers, exporters of onions, pulses, edible oils and oilseeds at State and district levels especially during the festive season upto December this year.
A decision in this regard was taken at the 18th meeting of the group constituted for monitoring cartelisation, hoarding, speculative trading with respect to essential food items such as Pulses, Onions, Tomatoes and oil seeds held under the Chairmanship of Consumer Affairs Secretary in New Delhi.
The Committee of Police of NCR States will hold regular meetings under the Chairmanship of a Senior Delhi Police officer to keep watch on hoarding of stock by the traders near the State borders of Delhi and take suitable action against them. To augment availability of Pulses across the nation, appropriate policy interventions will be recommended at the appropriate time.

National Green Tribunal has asked Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Punjab to depute a person each to report daily on air pollution due to stubble burning. The green tribunal observed that the worsening air quality is causing fatal diseases to people in Delhi-NCR.
Taking note of a news report stating crop burning shoots up carbon dioxide levels in the air by 70 per cent, the NGT asked Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Haryana governments to sensitise farmers on pollution caused by burning of crop residue. The NGT bench, headed by its chairperson Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel also expressed concern that equipment are yet not made available to farmers.
The Centre's counsel told the NGT bench that the Union government has disbursed 600 crore rupees which was being paid to farmers to purchase equipment, however, additional funds will have to borne by the states.

Union Minister of Communications Ravi Shankar Prasad today said that the Department of Posts should strive for achieving the target of 25 crore savings accounts from the current 17 crore accounts in coming years.
Speaking at an event of National Postal Week Celebrations in New Delhi, he said, it should also make efforts to link the same with the accounts of India Post Payments Bank for achieving the goal of financial inclusion. He urged the department to enhance considerably postal insurance accounts.
Mr Prasad said that 3.05 crore insurance accounts in a population of 130 crore is unacceptable. He said, Postal Department should come forward to forge partnership with global companies and the administrative issues, if any, would be resolved amicably.
The Minister asked the senior officials to work on a set of special stamps on Mahabalipuram (Mamallapuram) in the wake of successful informal summit between Prime Minister NarendraModi and Chinese President Xi Jinping due to its historic significance.

In the gloomy global economic picture painted by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), India retains its rank as the world's fastest-growing major economy, tying with China, with a projected growth rate of 6.1 per cent for the current fiscal year, despite an almost one per cent cut in the forecast.
However, the IMF's World Economic Outlook (WEO) released on Tuesday projected India's economy to pick up and grow by 7 per cent in the 2020 fiscal year.The WEO cut India's growth rate by 0.9 per cent from the 7 per cent made in July and by 1.2 percent from the 7.3 per cent in April.
In contrast to the dark view of the economy within India, when viewed globally, the nation's picture seems brighter despite the cuts.The world economy is projected to grow only 3 per cent this year and 3.4 per cent next year amid a "synchronised slowdown", according to the WEO.

Union Commerce Minister PiyushGoyal today said that India does not have any bilateral trade dispute with United States and there is a huge trade potential between the two countries.
Addressing a ministerial dialogue at India Energy Forum in New Delhi, he said that there are differences with the US which are very normal in any bilateral relation. He said, little uncertainty in any relation is also good for having healthy bilateral relations.
Participating in the dialogue Petroleum Minister DharmendraPradhan said that India is preparing for a low-carbon energy future with an aim to set up 450 GW of renewable energy capacity by 2030. Power Minister R K Singh expressed confidence that investment will definitely come here because demand will continue to grow in India.
Coal Minister Prahlad Joshi said his ministry is taking all necessary measures to attract the investment in coal sector and government is addressing the policy related issues. India Energy Forum is an annual gathering offering insight into the energy future where various delegates from across the world are participating.

Scientists have developed a new liquid-cell technology that allows them to see living biological materials and systems in three dimensions (3D) for the first time under an electron microscope.
"With this technology that we developed in collaboration with Protochips, scientists could analyse host-pathogen interactions, see a virus being introduced into a cell and watch molecular mechanisms take place in real-time," said Deb Kelly, a professor at Pennsylvania State University in the US.
"The work represents the world's first nanoscale CAT scan in a liquid environment," Kelly said.The field of liquid-cell electron microscopy has grown rapidly in recent years, but until now it has been limited to 2D, the researchers said.
In tomography, slices of a sample are imaged as the sample is tilted. Then, the images are stacked into 3D using computer software, they said.
"We use a copper grid that is coated with a carbon layer and cover that with a silicon nitride chip," said William Dearnaley, the technical director in Kelly's Center for Structural Oncology.
"There is a window in the chip and we pipette the liquid sample in between the two layers," Dearnaley said.

The International Cricket Council (ICC) has changed the super over rule for all its major events following the uproar over the outcome of the men's World Cup final this year when England were declared winners against New Zealand on boundary count. As per new rule, in case of a super over tie there will be a repeated super over until one team has more runs than the other.
In July this year, England won their first-ever World Cup title. In the final, winner was not decided after the 50-over and super over action, both of which were tied.
In the end, England were announced as the winner as they had hit more boundaries, 26, as compared to New Zealand's 17 boundaries in the match.