Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 12 April 2016

:: NATIONAL ::

Supreme Court recalled its judgement declaring NEET unconstitutional

Admitting to have acted too hastily, the Supreme Court recalled its 2013 judgment declaring the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) unconstitutional.
Earlier SC disqualified the NEET, a single common entrance test system for MBBS, BDS and post-graduate medical courses.
SC said in that judgement that NEET is an interference in the right of the State and private medical colleges to administer, the court agreed without elaborating that its decision required re-consideration.
The NEET was meant to end rampant corruption in medical admissions, especially payment of huge capitation fees or donations in private colleges.

Government discusses possibility of simultaneous elections with EC

Days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke in favour of holding simultaneous polls for the Lok Sabha and State Assemblies, a group of ministers, headed by Home Minister Rajnath Singh discussed the proposal with Election Commission.
The GoM included Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Law Minister Sadananda Gowda and Minister of State (PMO) Jitendra Singh.
The GoM asked EC officials to explore the possibility of holding simultaneous polls.
The GoM also wanted the EC’s response on modernising the electronic voting machines (EVMs). Since the number of voters has increased in the last decade, the GoM asked EC officials to take stock of the surge in demand.
The two companies — Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) and Electronics Corporation of India (ECIL) — have been asked to study and examine the revamping of EVMs before the next general elections in 2019.
The proposal for initiating e-ballots for NRIs was also discussed.
During BJP’s national office bearers meet, the Prime Minister had spoken in favour of simultaneous polls for Lok Sabha and State Assemblies.
In that meeting, the Prime Minister also referred to the 78th report of the parliamentary standing committee of Law and Justice that had been asked to go into the issue in detail. The report was submitted in December 2015.

:: International ::

US President admits lack of planning after fall of Qadhafi was a big mistake

Barack Obama says the biggest mistake of his presidency was the lack of planning for the aftermath of the fall of late Libyan leader MuammarQadhafi, with the country spiralling into chaos and grappling with violent extremists.
Reflecting on his legacy in an interview aired, Mr. Obama said his “worst mistake” was “probably failing to plan for the day after what I think was the right thing to do in intervening in Libya”.
Since the downfall of Qadhafi, who was killed in a popular uprising, Libya descended into near-anarchy, ruled by rival militias vying for power.
Mr. Obama also reflected on some of the best moments of his tenure as President — due to end in January — in the interview.
“Saving the economy from a great depression” was his biggest accomplishment, he said. As for the best day in the White House? “The day that we passed health care reform,” Mr. Obama said.

Researchers came up with evidence to prove that Zika virus causes brain defect

Researchers have now produced evidence of how Zika virus causes brain defect in babies. Several cases of microcephaly, a rare birth defect in which the brain fails to grow properly, continue to be reported in Brazil following the outbreak of Zika virus, first detected in the country in May 2015.
To study how the virus causes birth defects in babies, the researchers used human induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells to make neural stem cells (NSC), neurospheres and brain organoids.
How quickly the neural stem cells get infected with Zika virus became clear when the researchers detected it just 24 hours after they were exposed.
The researchers used the virus-infected neural cells and cultured them as neurospheres (a culture system composed of free-floating clusters of neural stem cells).
While those cells not infected with the virus generated normal neurospheres, the virus-infected neural cells generated neurospheres with abnormalities. At the end of six days, the virus killed most of the neurospheres.
To further investigate the impact during neurogenesis, organoids were exposed to the virus and followed for 11 days.
To check if dengue virus, a flavivirus with similarities to Zika, caused similar effect on neurogenesis, the researchers infected human neural stem cells with dengue virus 2 (DENV2).
After six days, significant difference in cell viability was seen between dengue-infected calls and Zika-infected neural stem cells.
The dengue-infected cells were similar to the normal cells and there was no reduction in growth of dengue-infected organoids at the end of 11 days.
However, further studies are needed to characterise the consequences of Zika infection during different stages of foetal development.

:: Science and Technology ::

Research shows ribose may have formed on comets

In a first, researchers have shown that ribose — a sugar that is one of the building blocks of genetic material in living organisms — may have formed in ice on comets.
The genetic material of all living organisms on Earth, as well as of viruses, is made up of nucleic acids, DNA and RNA.
Scientists have long wondered about the origin of these biological compounds.
Now, by simulating the evolution of the interstellar ice making up comets in the laboratory, French research teams have successfully obtained ribose — a key step in understanding the origin of RNA and of life.

:: INDIA and World ::

Abdulla Yameen thanked India for protecting from CMAG action

Maldivian President Abdullah Yameen has thanked India for “protecting” his country from possible punitive actions from the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG), which had been asking Maldives to move towards genuine democracy.
“I am in India today to show my appreciation for the very steadfast way India has protected the Maldives from the CMAG.” Abdullah Yamen said.
The CMAG held an extraordinary meeting in February 24 and asked Maldives to create an “inclusive” country.
Mr.Yameen said his government was trying to achieve the same goal based on universal human rights and democratic principles, which were essential if his country had to provide employment to youngsters prone to radicalisation.
Maldives drew international criticism in November, 2015 after he declared national emergency ahead of a big wave of protests against his political opponents. The Emergency was withdrawn later.
Maldives has undergone a wave of crackdowns since September 28, 2015, when a bomb targeting Mr. Yameen went off in the Presidential yacht, injuring his wife.

:: Business and Economy ::

NITI Aayog is working on sector-based medium term planning framework

NITI Aayog, the government’s policy think tank, is working on a sector-based medium-term planning framework.
The new planning framework could replace five-year plans, the last of which is set to end in 2016—17.
It was possible to synchronise with the finance commission cycle, the financial approval of schemes and projects of both the central and state government.
The current financial year, 2016-17, is the last year of the 12th five-year plan.
With the Planning Commission scrapped, the process for formulating a 13th five-year plan government has not been initiated, as a consequence of which the era of five-year plans is set to end in India this year.
While medium-term growth is dependent on past performance, long-term growth, on the other hand, can only be enhanced by structural reforms and improving the productive capacity of the economy, he said.
Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had announced in the Budget Speech that from the next financial year, the plan and non—plan distinction will be done away with for expenditure classification.
The government had constituted a committee for proposing a new format of budget statements and accounts.
The committee to be headed by Special Secretary Expenditure will co-opt state secretaries.
The primary units of appropriation at both central and state levels are being revisited to create a clear distinction between revenue and capital items of expenditure so that accounts can be prepared in a bottoms-up manner.

Bankers hit sweet spot on IPO pricing amid volatility

Companies and investment bankers seem to be getting the pulse of the market right more frequently when pricing shares meant for public issue.
Shares of most entities that listed on the stock exchanges in 2015 and 2016 have stayed above the issue price even as the broader market has declined.
According to stock exchange data, there have been 27 new listings since January 2015, and a little more than half — 15 to be precise — are trading above their respective issue prices.
While there are still 12 companies that, in 2015 and 2016, dipped below their issue price, the trend is in sharp contrast to the earlier years when almost 65 per cent of the newly-listed companies traded below their issue prices shortly after their debut.
This, even as the benchmark Sensex has lost 4.2 per cent this year, following a 5 per cent drop in 2015, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) had also taken a tough stand on the pricing of shares at the time of IPO.
Specifically, only 42 out of 117 companies that made an IPO between 2008 and 2012 traded above their issue price at the end of that period. With SEBI cracking the whip, prices of shares from IPOs started doing better.
Investment bankers say that IPO pricing is also a function of broader market direction along with the expected investor sentiment on the sector and the company fundamentals.
Bankers also say that some amount of polarisation within the investment banking space has also led to this trend as most issues are being managed by leading domestic and foreign names that are typically known to be more cautious in pricing and due diligence.