Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 10 FEBRUARY 2020

SSC CGL Current Affairs

Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 10 FEBRUARY 2020

::NATIONAL::

CJI pushes for mandatory pre-litigation mediation in cases

Chief justice of India S ABobde has stressed on the need to have a comprehensive law on making pre-litigation mediation mandatory. He said it would ensure efficiency and reduce the time of pendency for parties as well as courts.
Speaking at the third International Conference organised by the Indian Council of Arbitration (ICA ) and Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) yesterday, Justice Bobde said the time is ripe to devise such a law.
The Chief Justice of India said, though arbitration is the most preferred mode of privately resolving a big range of disputes today, it is done at the cost of mediation and conciliation which is faster and less expensive.

Odisha plans for developmental projects in Naxal affected areas

After the security forces made their presence felt in SwabhimanAnchal, a stronghold of the CPI (Maoist), in Odisha’sMalkangiri district, the State government has lined up development projects, including livelihood programmes and irrigation facilities, besides critical road networks for the region.
SwabhimanAnchal remained outside the ambit of development for years due to its remoteness, poor connectivity, hilly and inhospitable terrain and above all the presence of outlawed left wing extremists.
The administration has decided to promote turmeric cultivation by replacing prohibited cannabis cultivation, while all nine gram panchayats will be covered under integrated farming.
Avoiding top-down approach in development, the government has taken a decision to listen to locals who understand the ground situation better than others. A five-day workshop has been proposed at the Gopabandhu Academy of Administration at Bhubaneswar.
The government will emulate the model of Maharashtra where CFR has been granted in an expeditious manner for making tribals partners in development. People of SwabhimanAnchal are likely to be taken to Maharashtra for a field visit.
For the overall development, a plan has been mooted to install lift irrigation points alongside the Balimela reservoir basin. The administration proposed to provide an 11-kv power line exclusively for irrigation projects.

::ECONOMY::

Textile industries urged to take advantage of chinese export crisis

With several businesses said to be affected in China due to the coronavirus, the Indian textile and clothing sector should seize the opportunity in global trade, T. Rajkumar, chairman of the Confederation of Indian Textile Industry, said.
“We expect China will take 3-4 more months to return to normalcy [following the outbreak of the coronavirus]. Indian textile and clothing exporters should be aggressive and tap overseas orders that will shift from China,” he told mediapersons here.
On the announcements in the Union Budget, Mr.Rajkumar said that abolition of anti-dumping duty on PTA would lead to 20-25% of textile mills switching over to synthetic yarn production from cotton. The anti-dumping duty on PTA was $26 to $160 a tonne depending on the country from where it was imported.
With removal of the anti-dumping duty, the raw material for production of MMF (man-made fibre) will be available at international price. At present, cotton yarn production in India is higher than synthetic yarn. Several mills will move to MMF now, he said.
Textile Secretary Ravi Capoor will visit Coimbatore on February 12-13 and hold meetings with representatives of textile associations from the southern State, Mr.Rajkumar said.

Top airports hit due to capacity issues

Congestion at India’s top four airports Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad will continue in the medium term as the number of air passengers has seen a rise despite the slowdown in the economy and closure of Jet Airways, Crisil Ratings said in a study.
These four airports handle more than half of air passenger traffic in India and currently operate at over 130% of capacity utilisation. With healthy traffic growth projected in the near future, this operating rate is expected to rise further in next 12 months, it said.
This, despite a ₹38,000-crore capex being undertaken by operators between 2020 and 2024. The capex, the highest to be incurred in any continuous five-year period, is largely debt-funded.
High utilisation will ride on pent-up demand (accumulated in 2019 as traffic was impacted with the grounding of Jet Airways) and one-off issues with new aircraft of certain airlines. Further impetus will also come from improving connectivity to smaller cities and reducing fare difference between air and rail, Crisil Ratings said.

Click Here for Study Material for SSC CGL Exam

SSC CGL (Tier-1) Exam Crash Course

::INTERNATIONAL::

China to use AI data to fight against virus

A man who had travelled to Wuhan -- the central city at the heart of China's coronavirus crisis -- was surprised when police showed up at his door after he returned home, asking to check his temperature. The man, who had quarantined himself at home in Nanjing, eastern Jiangsu province, said he had not told anyone about his recent trip to the city.
But by trawling through travel data from Wuhan, local authorities were able to identify him and dispatch officers to his home last week, according to a newspaper article posted by the Nanjing government.
As Chinese authorities race to contain the spread of a new virus, which has infected more than 34,000 people and killed more than 700 in China, Beijing is turning to a familiar set of tools to find and prevent potential infections: data tracking and artificial intelligence.
"Use big data technology to track, screen priority (cases), and effectively forecast the development of the epidemic in real time," China's National Health Commission (NHC) told local governments in an online statement Tuesday.
"Strengthen the information link between... public security and transportation, and other departments," it said, urging them to share train, flight, communication, and medical data.
Besides fever detection, Chinese tech firms have raced to develop a wide variety of services to help with epidemic control efforts, from preparing drone deliveries of medical supplies to mapping the spread of the virus from Wuhan.
In Beijing, some neighbourhoods are prompting residents to scan a QR code to fill out personal details, such as their phone number and hometown address.
One form also prompted participants to fill out details on their mode of transport, such as their licence plate or flight number, if they had travelled.

::SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY::

Scientists map Basmati rice genome

Scientists have mapped the complete genome of two basmati rice varieties, including one that is drought-tolerant and resistant to bacterial disease. The findings, published in the journal Genome Biology, also show that basmati rice is a hybrid of two other rice groups.
Despite the economic and cultural importance of basmati and related aromatic rice varieties, their evolutionary history is not fully understood, the researchers said.
The researchers focused on two basmati rice varieties: Basmati 334 from Pakistan, known to be drought tolerant and resistant to rice-killing bacterial blight, and Dom Sufid from Iran, an aromatic long-grain rice that is one of the most expensive on the market.
Most genetic material in basmati comes from japonica —a rice group found in East Asia — followed by the rice group aus found in Bangladesh.
The researchers aim to work with the scientific and rice breeding communities to identify important genes, see what makes the basmati group unique, and even develop molecular markers to help breed new varieties.

::SPORTS::

Gopi Chand wins IOC life time award

India’s chief National badminton coach P. Gopi Chand was on Saturday named among the recipients of the International Olympic Committee’s 2019 Coaches Lifetime Achievement Award.
“This award, coming across Winter and Summer Olympics, and the fact that there were so many illustrious coaches in so many disciplines across the globe is something which means a huge, huge recognition for me,” Gopi Chand told The Hindu on receipt of the news.
“Frankly, I think this is not just a recognition for me but for all coaches in India. And, coming in the Olympic year, it is a huge morale-booster to badminton,” said Gopi Chand, who has won most of the prestigious awards instituted by the Government of India.