Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 22 DECEMBER 2019

::NATIONAL::

Report suggest every 5th fire death in the world is in India

With 27,027 deaths, every fifth fire-related death in the world in 2017 took place in India. Around 9 million fire incidents and 1.2 lakh deaths were recorded across the globe that year.
Of these incidents, India recorded 1.6 million fires and 27,027 deaths, according to a 195-nation analysis by Global Diseases Burden published in The BMJ Injury Prevention journal recently.
The Indian deaths were 2.5 times the figures in China, where 10,836 people died in fires in 2017. India, along with seven countries, including Pakistan, accounted for over half the deaths due to fires. The study said kids under five and adults above 60 are the biggest fire victims — a trend seen in urban India as well.
Earlier, women made up for 80% of the fire victims in Mumbai, but now we have started seeing more senior citizens and children in burn wards,” divulged Dr S Keswani of Airoli Burns Centre in Navi Mumbai.

Union ministers attend WEF annual meeting at Davos

Union ministers PiyushGoyal and MansukhMandaviya as well as three chief ministers - Amarinder Singh, Kamal Nath and B S Yeddyurappa will join over 100 Indian CEOs in the Swiss ski resort town of Davos next month for the WEF's 50th annual meeting, which will be attended by thousands of rich and powerful from across the globe.
Among the global leaders, US President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin are also expected to attend the high-profile summit, where over 3,000 global leaders would converge to discuss what requires to make it a 'cohesive and sustainable world'. However, there is no official confirmation about the two leaders as yet.
There are a number of other heads of state from various countries also who have confirmed their presence for this annual jamboree of the rich and powerful from across the world which is expected to be a much bigger affair this time because it would be World Economic Forum's 50th anniversary.
The WEF has said the 2020 meeting aims to give a concrete meaning to "stakeholder capitalism", assist governments and international institutions in tracking progress towards the Paris Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals, and facilitate discussions on technology and trade governance.

::ECONOMY::

IMF wants India to keep up its fiscal deficit targets

IMF Chief Economist Gita Gopinath on Friday said India needs to keep its fiscal deficit target, which would require expenditure rationalisation and increased revenue mobilisation.
Speaking at the 92nd Annual Convention of Ficci, she said that in the past few quarters, there has been a steep slowdown in private sector demand and there is now weakness in investment.
And, if there is a prolonged weakness in investment, it will affect potential growth, she stressed at the special plenary moderated by Harsh PatiSinghania, former president of Ficci.
The finance minister in full Budget 2019 reduced the fiscal deficit target to 3.3 per cent, from earlier 3.4 per cent for 2019-20. Keeping in mind its fiscal deficit target, the government has stayed with the borrowing plan for the financial year as announced in the Budget despite a sharp cut in corporate tax rate that is expected to cost Rs 1.45 lakh crore.

Infrastructure projects show cost over runs

As many as 377 infrastructure projects, each worth Rs 150 crore or more, have been hit by cost overruns of more than Rs 3.94 lakh crore owing to delays and other reasons, according to a report.
The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation monitors infrastructure projects worth Rs 150 crore and above.Of such 1,635 projects, 377 projects reported cost overruns and 565 projects time escalation.
According to the report, the expenditure incurred on these projects till September 2019 was Rs 9,96,613.94crore, or 42.55 per cent of the anticipated cost of the projects.
However, it said the number of delayed projects decreases to 495 if delay is calculated on the basis of the latest schedule of completion.
Besides, there are other reasons like fund constraints, geological surprises, geo-mining conditions, slow progress in civil works, shortage of labour, inadequate mobilisation by the contractor, Maoist problems, court cases, contractual issues, ROU/ROW (right of use/right of way) problems, law and order situation, among others, the report said.

Click Here for Study Material for SSC CGL Exam

SSC CGL (Tier-1) Exam Crash Course

::INTERNATIONAL::

India coveys protest on comments by Malaysian PM

Sources said, the Malaysian Charged ’Affaires was summoned to the Ministry of External Affairs today in order to lodge a solemn protest over the remarks made by the Malaysian Prime Minister in Kuala Lumpur.
It was conveyed that such remarks are neither in keeping with accepted diplomatic practice of non-interference in each other's internal affairs, nor with the state of bilateral relations. It was also conveyed that such remarks are both ill-informed and insensitive. Malaysia was asked to take a long-term and strategic view of the bilateral relations.
External Affairs Ministry had yesterday termed the Malaysian Prime Minister's comment on Citizenship Amendment Act as factually inaccurate.

India constructs hostel for Nepal army school

The Govt. of India has constructed Girls' Hostel for Nepal Armed Police Force School, Kirtipur. Deputy Chief of Mission, Embassy of India, Dr. Ajay Kumar inaugurated hostel building at Kirtipur in Kathmandu district today.
Mayor of Kirtipur Municipality, senior officers of Nepal Armed Police Force and political, community leaders also attended the inaugural ceremony.
Nepal Armed Police Force (APF) School is an academic institution created under the APF Welfare Service Centre of Nepal Armed Police Force. The school was established in 2005 and it has over 21 per cent of girls students.
The new infrastructure constructed with the Government of India’s grant assistance of 40.42 million Nepali Rupees is a two-storied girls' hostel. It comprises 32 rooms including a dormitory, warden room, bathroom, sanitation facilities for girls on each floor and furniture.

::SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY::

Scientists discover oldest forest cover fossil

Scientists have discovered the remnants of world’s oldest fossil forest- an extensive network of trees around 386 million years old in a sandstone quarry in United States (US). According to the researchers from Binghamton University, and New York State Museum in U.S., the fossil forest in Cairo would have spread from New York all the way into Pennsylvania and beyond.
The findings throw a new light on evolution of trees and transformative role they played in shaping the world we live in.
The forest is being assumed to have been looked like a fairly open forest with small to moderate sized coniferous-looking trees with individual and clumped tree-fern like plants of possibly smaller size growing between them.
The research shows that the forest was home to at least two types of trees:- (1) Cladoxylopsids, a primitive tree-fern-like plants, lacked flat green leaves, and grew in vast numbers at Gilboa; while (2) Archaeopteris, had a conifer-like woody trunk and frond-like branches which had green flattened leaves.
A single example of a third type of tree was also uncovered, which remained unidentified but could possibly have been a lycopod. All these trees reproduced using only spores rather than seeds.
Researchers also reported an extensive network of roots which was more than 11 metres in length in some places and belonged to Archaeopteris trees. It is these long-lived woody roots that transformed interactions of plants and soils and were pivotal to co-evolution of forests and atmosphere.

::SPORTS::

India clinches ODI series against West Indies

In Cricket, ViratKohli starred with the bat as India defeated West Indies by four wickets in the third and final ODI of the three-match series at Barabati Stadium in Cuttack yesterday.
Chasing 316, India got off to a steady start as openers KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma put on 122 runs for the first wicket. Rohit Sharma made 63 while KL Rahul contributed 77. Rohit Sharma declared Man of the Series. India made 316 for the loss of 6 wickets in 48.4overs.