Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 30 January 2021

SSC CGL Current Affairs

::NATIONAL::

The draft suggests that the basic research be ready for the challenges of the future such as precision medicine, gene editing, epigenetics, artificial intelligence and machine learning.
The department of biotechnology has released a draft policy for the next five years enabling India to become a global biomanufacturing hub with an exponential growth of the sector to become a $150 billion industry by 2025.
To do so, the government plans to focus on four areas – building human resource and infrastructure capacity, strengthening the research and innovation ecosystem and connecting it to start-ups, small scale and large scale industry even in the tier 2 and 3 cities. The government will also focus on translation of science to a product and commercialisation while enabling a balance between translation and basic science.
The draft also suggests creating an ‘Ease of doing science’ index.
The draft suggests that over the next five years the sector should focus on tackling problems such as the climate crisis – such as controlling methane emission, microplastics, and restoration of wetlands and lands – developing climate resilient crops, addressing food security, creating thermo stable vaccines, and creating a national phytochemical repository to set national standards for Indian and Ayurvedic pharmacopeia.

Cheng made the comments in a blog post on the eve of changes to the UK's visa application program that will allow Hong Kong residents who hold a British National Overseas (BNO) passport to live, study and work in Britain for five years and eventually apply for citizenship.
Hong Kong Secretary of Justice Teresa Cheng reiterated on Saturday that Britain had no rights over the city under the joint declaration that laid the blueprint for how the city would be ruled after its 1997 reunification with China.
Cheng cited former Commissioner of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China in Hong Kong, Xie Feng, as saying "the UK has no sovereignty, jurisdiction or right of ‘supervision’ over Hong Kong whatsoever after the latter returned to China" under the Joint Declaration.
Beijing's imposition of a national security law in Hong Kong in June last year prompted Britain to offer refuge to almost 3 million Hong Kong residents eligible for the BNO passport from Jan. 31.

Biden called for a $15 hourly minimum wage during his campaign and has followed through by hitching it to a measure that, among other things, calls for $1,400 stimulus checks and $130 billion to help schools reopen.
The Democratic push to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour has emerged as an early flashpoint in the fight for a $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package, testing President Joe Biden's ability to bridge Washington's partisan divides as he pursues his first major legislative victory.
Biden called for a $15 hourly minimum wage during his campaign and has followed through by hitching it to a measure that, among other things, calls for $1,400 stimulus checks and $130 billion to help schools reopen. Biden argues that anyone who holds a full-time job shouldn't live in poverty, echoing progressives in the Democratic Party who are fully on board with the effort.
“With the economic divide, I mean, I want to see a $15 minimum wage. It should actually be $20," said Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich.
Some Republicans support exploring an increase but are uneasy with $15 an hour. They warn that such an increase could lead to job losses in an economy that has nearly 10 million fewer jobs than it did before the pandemic began. Moderates such as Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Rep. Tom Reed of New York are urging Biden to split off the minimum wage hike from COVID-19 talks and deal with it separately.

Emphasising the importance of heart muscle cells intracellular communication, researchers from the Hubrecht Institute mapped the recovery of the heart after a heart attack with great detail.
The study published in Communications Biology shows that the heart muscle cells also called cardiomyocytes play an important role in intracellular communication after a heart attack.
The researchers documented their findings in a database that is accessible for scientists around the world. This brings the research field a step closer to the development of therapies for improved recovery after heart injury.
As per the reports, during a heart attack, the blood supply to a part of the heart is blocked, for example, due to a blood clot in a coronary artery. Attempts to restore the blood supply are made as soon as possible, also known as reperfusion.
However, a part of the heart has already been without oxygen for some time. Depending on the size and duration of the infarction, this causes heart muscle cells also called cardiomyocytes, to die.
Especially the role of cardiomyocytes in the recovery following a heart attack was still largely unknown, partly because of technical difficulties. However, another recent paper from Van Rooij's lab solved these obstacles, allowing the researchers to specifically study the function of cardiomyocytes in the recovery process.

"It'll mean that over the 14 days, we will have up to 390,000 people here at Melbourne Park and that's about 50% of the average over the last three years," he told reporters at the venue for the tournament.
The Australian Open will be allowed to admit up to 30,000 fans a day, around 50% of the usual attendance, when the Grand Slam gets underway on Feb. 8, Victoria state sports minister Martin Pakula.
The limit will be reduced to 25,000 over the last five days of the tournament when there are fewer matches, but Pakula said the announcement would ensure some of the biggest crowds for a sporting event since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
"It'll mean that over the 14 days, we will have up to 390,000 people here at Melbourne Park and that's about 50% of the average over the last three years," he told reporters at the venue for the tournament.
"It will not be the same as the last few years but it will be the most significant international event with crowds that the world has seen in many, many months."