Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 12 February 2017

:: National ::

India made progress towards Ballistic Missile Shield

An indigenously developed interceptor missile successfully destroyed an incoming ballistic missile in a direct hit, demonstrating the capability of India’s Ballistic Missile Shield (BMD), which is under development.
India successfully conducted a test wherein an incoming ballistic missile target was intercepted by an exo-atmospheric interceptor missile off the Bay of Bengal.
As part of the test, a target missile mimicking an enemy ballistic missile with a range of 2,000 km was launched from an Indian Navy ship stationed in the Bay of Bengal and the missile travelled towards the coast, reaching a very high altitude.
The BMD is being developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) as a two layered system to tackle incoming targets at endo and exo atmospheres.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated the scientific community on social media. “I want to congratulate our scientists for successful testing of missile that can destroy other missiles in the air itself,” he said.
India has crossed an important milestone and has entered an exclusive club of four nations with developing capabilities to secure its skies and cities against hostile threats.

The immunity of pregnant women can be affected by the gender of the baby

The immunity of pregnant women can be affected by the gender of the baby, say scientists. They found that women carrying female foetuses showed a heightened inflammatory response.
Researchers followed 80 pregnant women through the course of their pregnancy to find out if they exhibited different levels of immune markers called cytokines based on the gender of the foetus.
Analyses were conducted on the level of cytokines in the blood and levels produced by a sample of immune cells that were exposed to bacteria in the lab.
Inflammation is a critical part of the immune response involved in wound healing and responses to viruses, bacteria and chronic illnesses. However, excessive inflammation is stressful to the body.
The heightened inflammation observed among women carrying female foetuses could play a role in why mothers-to-be tend to experience exacerbated symptoms of some medical conditions, including asthma, when carrying a female foetus.

People came to help stranded whales at New Zealand

Another 200 whales were stranded on a New Zealand coastline, frustrating rescuers who had battled through the day and even defied a shark threat to try and keep them at sea.
Hundreds of volunteers mobilised to help the rescue operation with many working to comfort the stranded animals and keep them cool in the morning heat while they waited to re-float them on the high tide.
At twilight, officials made the decision to leave the whales overnight as it became too risky to continue efforts to re-float them as darkness approached.
The crisis began on Friday when a pod of 416 whales became stranded on Farewell Spit in Golden Bay on the northwest of the South Island.
The whales were re-floated at high tide in the late morning but linked up with a so-called “super pod” of another 200 whales gathered off shore.
Rescuers waded into neck-deep water, defying a shark threat to form a human wall and guide the survivors out to sea while also prevent the other 200 from coming to shore.

:: International ::

US President says new executive immigration might come

Donald Trump has said he is considering signing a “brand-new” executive order on immigration, following the court ruling blocking his travel ban.
The U.S. President said he was confident he would win the court battle over the hugely controversial executive order suspending the country’s refugee programme and barring citizens from seven Muslim-majority countries.
He said the White House was also considering “a lot of other options, including just filing a brand new order”. Asked if he meant a new executive order, he said: “It very well could be. We need speed for reasons of security, so it very well could be.”
There was confusion about whether the administration intended to take the fight to the Supreme Court, following his setback in a San Francisco federal court.
Despite the President claiming he would “win that [legal] battle” over the travel ban, a White House official told Reuters the President had decided not to go to the Supreme Court.
Minutes later the Washington Post quoted White House chief of staff Reince Priebus as saying the administration was “reviewing all of our options in the court system” — including the Supreme Court.
Separately, an unidentified judge on the ninth circuit requested that the court consider reconsidering the travel ban case “en banc” — or by a full panel of 11 judges.
The court’s 25 judges will vote on the issue after both sides file briefs, which are due on 16 February.

:: Science and Technology ::

Comet hunters have a chance to spot comet 45P

Comet hunters have a chance to spot comet 45P/Honda-Mrkos-Pajdusakova in the next few days using binoculars or a telescope, NASA said.
“It’s the first of a trio of comets that will, between now and the end of 2018, pass close enough to Earth for backyard observers to try to spot and for scientists to study using ground-based instruments,” the U.S. space agency said.
It’s named Comet 45P/Honda-Mrkos-Pajdušáková after the astronomers who discovered it in 1948: Minoru Honda, Antonín Mrkos, and Ludmila Pajdušáková.
45P is a short-period comet, with an orbit that takes it around the Sun and out by Jupiter about every 5-1/4 years. This weekend’s encounter will be the comet’s closest with Earth, passing by at a distance of about 12.4 million kilometres, through the end of this century.
The comet will pass by our planet again in 2032 but will be much farther away — at a distance of nearly about 48 million kilometres.
Scientists have taken advantage of 45P’s approach, making observations using powerful ground-based telescopes such as NASA’s Infrared Telescope Facility to investigate the gases, dust and ice particles that are released from the comet nucleus and show up in the coma and tail.
By looking for water, methane and other compounds, astronomers get clues about how the comet is put together and where it originated in the cloud of material that surrounded the young sun as the solar system formed.
NASA said ground-based observations also are planned for comet 41P/Tuttle-Giacobini-Kresak, which will pass closest to Earth on April 1, and for comet 46P/Wirtanen, passing closest to Earth on December 16, 2018.
By studying this trio of comets, astronomers can learn more about the differences between comets — information they use to fill in the comet family tree.

:: Business and Economy ::

Central Bank wants Banks to cut the rates further

RBI Governor said that banks are in a position to reduce their lending rates further as they have so far slashed interest rates only on a few products such as home and personal loans.
The central bank, in its monetary policy review last week, had not only decided to hold its benchmark policy interest rates but also shifted its stance from remaining ‘accommodative’ on these key rates to ‘neutral.’
“The amount of reduction in the repo rate that we have undertaken, combined with the fact that banks have benefited immensely from the influx of CASA (current account, savings account) deposits that have come into the system.
The weighted average lending rate reduction has been considerably less,” Dr. Patel said after a customary post-Budget meeting of the RBI board with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.
While Dr. Patel had referred to the scope for rate cuts in the RBI’s monetary policy review as well, bankers aren’t on the same page. Bank of Baroda had ruled out any further interest rate cut in the near term.
The bank has lowered its home loan rate to 8.35%. SBI chief Arundhati Bhattacharya has also pointed out that the bank has reduced its interest rates by 200 basis points since March 2015.
SBI had reduced its marginal cost of fund based lending rate (MCLR) by 90 bps to 8% in early January as its cost of funds came down due to demonetisation.
Concurring with the Finance Minister’s assertion that high non-performing assets in the banking system are largely a legacy issue.
The RBI governor said: “The fact of the matter is that the sectors in which the NPAs have emerged over the years, do pertain to the long-gestation projects that were funded before 2011-12, for the most part.”
Mr. Jaitley said that the resolution of NPAs is an ongoing process, with the Centre and the RBI putting systems in place to deal with them.

SEBI laid out a road map for reforms for the financial year 2017-18

SEBI laid out a road map for reforms for the financial year 2017-18 and plans to bring in a host of changes in various segments including primary market, commodities and foreign investors among others.
The capital markets regulator plans to reduce the listing time gap by bringing down the public issue timeline from the existing requirement of T+6.
In other words, shares of a company are currently listed within six days from the day of the issue closure.
It also plans to allow institutional participation in the commodity derivatives markets in a phased manner. Further, it will work towards integration between the commodity spot market and the derivatives segment.
The regulator will also initiate consultation with various stakeholders and also design a system of risk-based supervision for commodity brokers.
Among other things, the watchdog will also set up a cybersecurity lab for the securities market and set up a facility for online registration of intermediaries.
It also plans to allow listing and trading of securitisation receipts issued by Assets Reconstruction Companies.
The SEBI board, will introduce a common application form for registration, opening of a bank and demat account, and issue of PAN for Foreign Portfolio Investors.
In what could be a major reform for institutions like exchanges, depositories and clearing corporations, the regulator plans to review the regulations pertaining to such Market Infrastructure Institutions.
The SEBI board took note of the memorandum related to the co-location facility of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) and the examination carried out by the regulator under the guidance of its Technical Advisory Committee (TAC).

Railways Ministry is planning to consult the World Bank for investments

The Railways Ministry is planning to consult the World Bank to identify areas that require investment from the special rail safety fund announced in the Budget.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announced setting up a special safety fund named ‘Rashtriya Rail Sanraksha Kosh’ with a corpus of more than Rs. 1 lakh crore over a period of five years in Budget 2017-18.
The Railways is exploring advanced ways to automate track inspection and track surveillance.
The Minister in his Budget speech had said that the government would lay down clear-cut guidelines and timelines for implementing various safety-related works to be financed from the rail safety fund.
The Finance Ministry will contribute 75% towards the fund and the remaining amount will be generated by the Railways from its own resources.
The Railway Ministry had asked the Finance Ministry to set up the fund last year and proposed spending one-third of the special fund towards eliminating unmanned level crossings.
Other areas included: track works, bridge rehabilitation works and track vehicular ultrasonic testing system, among others.