Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 1 July 2020

SSC CGL Current Affairs

Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 1 July 2020

::NATIONAL::

PM addresses nation; extends PMGKY for providing free food grains till November

Prime Minister NarendraModi has announced free food grains to 80 crore people across the country for five more months. The Prime Minister GareebKalyan Anna Yojana has been extended till the end of November this year.
Under the scheme announced in the wake of COVID- 19 pandemic, 5 kg free wheat or rice along with 1 kg whole chana will be provided to each member of a family per month. Its extension will cost over 90 thousand crore rupees.
He also said, regulations need to be followed with the same seriousness as during Lockdown, especially in the Containment Zones. The Prime Minister added that people must maintain discipline and those not following the rules, need to be stopped and made aware. He warned that nobody is above the rule.
Mr.Modi also hailed farmers and honest tax payers for their contribution in making the welfare scheme successful.
Economic activities will also be enhanced, with due precautions in place. He reiterated the pledge to work towards Atmanirbhar Bharat and to be vocal for local, while also asking people to be careful, use mask and face cover and continue following the mantra of maintaining do gazdoori.

UN report finds 46million girls missing in India

One in three girls missing globally due to sex selection, both pre- and post-natal, is from India — 46 million out of the total 142 million, according to the UNFPA’s State of the World Population 2020 report released on Tuesday.
The figure shows that the number of missing women has more than doubled over the past 50 years, who were at 61 million in 1970.
The report examines the issue of missing women by studying sex ratio imbalances at birth as a result of gender-biased sex selection as well as excess female mortality due to deliberate neglect of girls because of a culture of son preference. Excess female mortality is the difference between observed and expected mortality of the girl child and avoidable death of girls during childhood.
According to estimates averaged over a five year period (2013-17), annually, there were 1.2 million missing female births, at a global level. India had about 4, 60,000 girls ‘missing’ at birth each year.
In many countries, this results in a “marriage squeeze” as prospective grooms far outnumber prospective brides, which further results in human trafficking for marriage as well as child marriages.

::ECONOMY::

RBI launches inflation expectation survey

The Reserve Bank of India has launched the inflation expectations survey of households and responses of the participants will be gathered over telephone in view of the coronavirus pandemic. The RBI has been regularly conducting the survey to elicit subjective views of the households on price movement across various cities of the country. The results of the survey are used as inputs for monetary policy.
The July 2020 round of the Inflation Expectations Survey of Households has been launched. As per RBI release, Hansa Research Group, Mumbai has been engaged to conduct the survey of this round on behalf of the RBI over telephone instead of the regular personal interview mode in view of the pandemic.
The survey aims at capturing subjective assessments on price movements and inflation, of approximately 6,000 households, based on their individual consumption baskets, across 18 cities.
The survey would seek qualitative as well as quantitative responses from households on price changes, general prices as well as prices of specific product groups, for the three months ahead as well as in the one year ahead period.

Current account sees meagre surplus as trade deficit shrinks

India recorded a current account surplus of $0.6 billion, or 0.1% of GDP, for the January-March quarter, against a deficit of $4.6 billion, or 0.7% of GDP in the year-ago period, the Reserve Bank said on Tuesday.
For the fiscal year 2019-20, the current account deficit narrowed to 0.9% of the GDP, compared with 2.1% in FY2018-19, the central bank said. Lower trade deficit was one of the prime reasons for the improvement in the current account balances both for the March quarter as well as for the whole fiscal year.
The current account balances, which represent the net of the country’s export and imports of goods and services and also payments made to foreign investors or inflows from them, are considered as an important indicator of a country’s external sector.
Private transfer receipts, mainly representing remittances by Indians employed overseas, increased 14.8% to $20.6 billion for the reporting quarter, the RBI said.
The net outgo from the primary income account, which primarily reflects the net overseas investment income payments, decreased to $4.8 billion from $6.9 billion a year ago, the RBI said.

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::INTERNATIONAL::

India and Srilanka holds talk related to debt issues

India is holding “close and constructive” discussions with Sri Lanka, on Colombo’s pending requests for rescheduling its debt repayment and for currency swap facilities under bilateral and SAARC arrangements, the Indian mission here said on Tuesday.
Indian High Commissioner GopalBaglay held discussions “at senior levels” in Colombo on Monday and Tuesday, the statement issued by the High Commission said, on taking forward ongoing discussions.
Sri Lanka’s mounting external debt was a concern even before the coronavirus pandemic, but its impact has aggravated the strain on the island’s nation’s economy that is saddled with loans — bilateral, multilateral and in the international money market — amounting to billions of dollars.
This year alone, Sri Lanka is scheduled to repay $2.9 billion of its debt, which Colombo is reportedly trying to reschedule with bilateral partners. It is unclear how Sri Lanka will repay the apparently non-negotiable $1 billion international sovereign bond maturing this October.
Sri Lanka is in talks with the IMF, from whom it sought a rapid financing instrument in April. Following the global pandemic, Beijing has pledged a loan of $500 million to help Colombo deal with its immediate impact. Sri Lanka already owes China about $5 billion.

UN rights chief slams virus responses in certain countries

The UN rights chief on Tuesday said COVID-19 was being instrumentalised to silence free speech, citing China and Russia, while voicing alarm at statements in the U.S. that “deny the reality” of the virus.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet pointed to Russia, China, Kosovo, Nicaragua among others, where “threats and intimidation against journalists, bloggers and civic activists, particularly at the local level, (were being used) with the apparent aim of discouraging criticism of the authorities' responses to COVID-19”.
The former Chilean president said it was vital for leaders to maintain “consistent, credible and fact-based communication” with citizens, praising South Korea's “open” approach to its pandemic response.
“In contrast, in Belarus, Brazil, Burundi, Nicaragua, Tanzania and the U.S. — among others — I am concerned that statements that deny the reality of viral contagion, and increasing polarisation on key issues.

::SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY::

Plant species “Globbaandersonii” rediscovered from Sikkim himalayas

A team of researchers from Pune and Kerala have “rediscovered” a rare and critically endangered plant species called Globbaandersonii from the Sikkim Himalayas near the Teesta river valley region after a gap of nearly 136 years.
The plant, known commonly as ‘dancing ladies’ or ‘swan flowers’ was thought to have been extinct until its “re-collection”, for the first time since 1875, by noted city-based botanist Sachin Punekar, founder of the city-based environmental NGO Biospheres, during a field trip to Sevoke in the Darjeeling district of West Bengal.
“The earliest records of the collection of this plant were dated between the period 1862-70 when it was collected by Scottish botanist Thomas Anderson from Sikkim and Darjeeling. Then, in 1875, the British botanist Sir George King, had collected this taxon from the Sikkim Himalayas,” said Dr.Punekar.
Since then, the plant had not been collected for over 135 years, until chanced upon by Dr.Punekar during a field trip to the Sevoke hill forest region in July 2011.
Globbaandersonii are characterised by white ﬂowers, non-appendaged anthers (the part of a stamen that contains the pollen) and a “yellowish lip”. Classified as “critically endangered” and “narrowly endemic”, the species is restricted mainly to Teesta River Valley region which includes the Sikkim Himalays and Darjeeling hill ranges.
“Micro-propagation, tissue culture of this taxon and multiplication of this species and its re-introduction in the natural habitat could be the key for it to survive and thrive in the future,” said Mr.Hareesh.