Current Affairs For SSC CGL Exam - 01 August, 2014
Current Affairs For SSC CGL Exam
01 August, 2014
India’s largest solar power plant planned in Madhya Pradesh
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Plans are afoot to set up the country’s largest ultra mega solar plant in Madhya Pradesh’s Rewa district. The plant, to produce 700 MW of electricity, would require an investment of Rs 4,000 crore. The country’s biggest solar plant with a capacity of 130 MW is situated in Neemuch district of the state.
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Thirteen hectares of land spread over four villages of Barseta, Ramnagar, Latar and Badwaar has been chosen for locating the plant in Gurh tehsil of Rewa. The State government would set up the plant as a joint venture with the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, Power Grip Corporation and the Solar Energy Corporation of India .
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The government is promoting generation of renewable energy by providing various fiscal and financial incentives such as capital and interest subsidy, concessional excise and customs duties to encourage Indian and foreign investors to invest in new renewable energy sector.
Sierra Leone declares emergency
- Sierra Leone leader Ernest Bai Koroma declared a state of emergency as the country struggled to contain the deadly ebola epidemic.
- The impoverished country, along with neighbouring Guinea and Liberia, is struggling to contain an epidemic that has infected 1,200 people and left 672 dead across the region since the start of the year.
- Mr. Koroma announced a raft of measures as part of the state of emergency, including quarantining ebola-hit areas and deploying security forces to protect medical workers. He banned all public meetings not related to ebola and cancelled foreign trips by ministers and other government officials, exempting only “absolutely essential engagements.”
- The largest recorded Ebola outbreak in history has led the US Peace Corps to evacuate hundreds of volunteers from three affected West African countries.
- Ebola has no vaccine and no specific treatment, with a fatality rate of at least 60 per cent.
- Fears that the outbreak could spread to other continents have been growing with European and Asian countries on alert.
PSU banks to hit market in November: Sandhu
- State-owned banks are likely to hit the capital markets in November in a bid to meet Basel III capital adequacy norms, for which the requirement has been estimated at Rs.2.40 lakh crore over a five-year period.
- It will be a combination of follow-on public offer (FPO), and in some cases it will be QIP. The budget allocation for recapitalisation of public sector banks of Rs.11,200 crore. Government shareholding in various banks varies between 56.26 per cent and 88.63 per cent.