Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 25 October 2015

:: International ::

Maldives vice president arrested over president's boat blast

The vice president of the Maldives will be charged with high treason after being arrested Saturday in connection with an explosion aboard the president's boat last month that authorities have called an assassination attempt, officials said.
Vice President Ahmed Adeeb was arrested at the airport when he returned home from an official visit to China ``on suspicion of involvement in the boat blast," said police spokesman Ismail Ali, adding that Adeeb had been taken to a detention centre.
Home Minister Umar Naseer said that Adeeb would be charged with "high treason," an offence not specified in the penal code, but a term used in the Maldives for terrorism or offences against the state by government officials, lawmakers, judges and others.

Business

Centre unveils policy for capital goods industry

The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government on Friday released the draft of a National Capital Goods Policy that envisages increasing the share of capital goods from 12% to 20% of total value manufacturing by 2025.
The government wants to double production of capital goods—which include equipment and machinery used to produce other goods—to more than Rs.5 trillion from Rs.2.2 trillion now. A significant part of the increased production will be exported to overseas markets.
The policy is aimed at turning India into “one of the top capital goods producing nations of the world”, the policy draft said.
In the draft policy, released by department of heavy industries, the government said that it plans to increase exports to 40% of total production, from Rs.62,000 crore to Rs.2 trillion by 2025, which will enable India’s share of global exports in capital goods to increase to 2.5% from less than 1% now.
It also aims to increase the share of domestic production in India’s capital goods demand from 56% to 80% by 2025 and, in the process, improve domestic capacity utilization to 80-90%.
The policy aims to create 3.5 million more jobs by 2025.
It will also play an important role in improving India’s trade balance. India currently has an overall trade deficit of $138 billion.
The country imports $20 billion worth of capital goods every year.
In recent years, production of capital goods sector has vastly lagged behind targets. The former Planning Commission targeted a growth rate of 16.8% every year in the production of capital goods in the 12th Five-year Plan period (2012-17), but the sector’s compounded annual growth has only been 0.3%.
The policy is an offshoot of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ambitious “Make In India” campaign that seeks to attract foreign investment into manufacturing and accelerate economic growth..

Science and Technology

Ozone Depletion by Refrigerators, Automobile ACs Small but Measurable:

A class of chemical coolants used in refrigerators and in home and automobile air conditioners contributes to ozone depletion by a small but measurable amount, says a new Nasa study.
The ozone layer comprises a belt of ozone molecules located primarily in the lower stratosphere.
It is responsible for absorbing most of the sun's harmful ultraviolet radiation before it reaches Earth's surface.
The researchers estimated that the common chemical coolants known as hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) will cause a 0.035 percent decrease in ozone by 2050.
The study, which focused on the five types of HFCs expected to contribute the most to global warming in 2050, found that the gases indirectly contribute to ozone depletion.
HFC emissions cause increased warming of the stratosphere, speeding up the chemical reactions that destroy ozone molecules, and they also decrease ozone levels in the tropics by accelerating the upward movement of ozone-poor air, the findings showed.
HFCs have been adopted as replacements for chlorofluorocarbons (CFC) and hydro chlorofluorocarbons (HCFC) in refrigerators and in home and automobile air conditioners.
CFCs were largely responsible for the ozone depletion first observed by scientists in the 1980s, most notably the ozone hole above Antarctica, which continues today.
But the scientists also found that HFCs have a nearly linear impact on stratospheric temperature and ozone change.
For example, reducing HFC emissions by 50 percent would decrease the ozone change by a comparable amount.

:: Sports ::

Pak may refrain team from participating in ICC World T20 2016 in India,

Pakistan cricket chief Shaharyar Khan said today that if India turn down a proposed series in December-January then it would be possible that Islamabad would prevent Pakistan from featuring in next year’s World Twenty20.
The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has called on India to honour a Memorandum of Understanding under which the arch-rivals agreed to play six series from 2015-2023 — pending clearance from both governments — the first of which is this year in the United Arab Emirates
But the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has yet to give a final response on the series comprising of two Tests, five one-dayers and two Twenty20 internationals.
Talks between the two Boards failed to get going on Monday after Shiv Sena activists attacked the BCCI office in Mumbai, protesting any cricket with Pakistan
India and Pakistan have not played a full bilateral cricket series since 2007 after New Delhi stalled the ties in the aftermath of terrorists attacks on Mumbai in 2008, blamed on militants based across the border.