Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 15 August 2017

::National::

Centre likely to take a divergent opinion on Article 35A

• The Centre is likely to take a divergent opinion from that of the Jammu and Kashmir government on Article 35A.
• It will be taken on the grounds that it discriminates against women who marry outside the State from applying for jobs or buying property, which is in violation of Article 14 of the Constitution.
• Article 14 says: “The State shall not deny to any person equality before the law or the equal protection of the laws within the territory of India.”
• The Supreme Court is hearing a PIL challenging the constitutional validity of Article 35A, which prohibits a non-Jammu and Kashmir resident from buying property in the State and ensures job reservation for residents.
• A 2002 order by the J&K High Court in the State of Jammu and Kashmir Versus Dr. Sushila Sawhney and Others had said that the daughter of a permanent resident marrying a person outside the State would not lose the status of permanent resident of J&K.

President called for a partnership between citizens and the government to create a new India

• President Ram Nath Kovind, in his first address to the nation on the eve of the Independence Day, called for a partnership between citizens and the government to create a new India “that does not discriminate on gender or religious background”.
• Spelling out his vision, President Kovind said when India completes 75 years of Independence by 2022, it should have a compassionate society.
• “New India must include that integral humanist component that is in our DNA, and which has defined our country and our civilisation,” he said.
• The President said the goal of creating a new India can be achieved only when disadvantaged sections like the Scheduled Castes and Tribes, Other Backward Classes are part of the national development process.
• President Kovind said senior citizens, the differently-abled, the poor and underprivileged should always be part of a compassionate “society’s thought and not an after thought”.
• The President recalled the contribution made by the freedom fighters including Jawahar Lal Nehru and urged citizens to draw inspiration from them and invoke the same spirit for the task of nation building.
• “The stress on the moral basis of policy and action, belief in unity and discipline, faith in a synthesis of heritage and science, and promotion of the rule of law and of education — all of it was located in a partnership between citizen and government,” said the President.

Japanese encephalitis (JE) virus has been a problem for eastern UP for long

• Dozens of seriously-ill children at Gorakhpur’s Baba Raghav Das Medical College Hospital were starved of oxygen from the ventilators that were keeping them alive. News reports say this happened because the hospital didn’t pay its oxygen vendor.
• But the story of why the babies were in the hospital in the first place is equally worrying — it’s one of medical researchers not looking beyond the obvious while investigating the three-decade old scourge at Gorakhpur.
• Even though this recurring epidemic has killed over 5,000 people since 2010, its primary cause wasn’t identified until early this year.
• Now, researchers have learnt that a majority of the children being admitted to BRD have scrub typhus — a mite-borne disease endemic in Uttar Pradesh.
• Because they weren’t treated during early stages of the disease, the scrub typhus triggered brain inflammation, which can be very hard to cure.
• This means that some of the children at the hospital didn’t have much of a chance anyway — a fact the Yogi Adityanath government is citing as a defence of its incompetence.
• Today, researchers suspect that Japanese encephalitis wasn’t the only cause even then. Scrub typhus was hiding in the encephalitis burden during the seventies as well.
• Why did it take so long to pinpoint scrub typhus? First, because we were too focused on the usual suspects to look beyond them.
• The scientists should have studied the symptoms of each patient in detail, logging data such as the length of fever before encephalitis, and involvement of organs other than the brain, like the liver and the spleen.
• These symptoms would have revealed that the epidemic wasn’t due to typical viruses, but the scrub-typhus bacterium that is not known to trigger encephalitis outbreaks.
• Once Japanese Encephalitis vaccinations began in 2007, incidence of this disease at the hospital fell to less than 20%, but encephalitis cases kept coming. It was obvious to researchers that something other than Japanese encephalitis was at work.
• Yet, even today, the Yogi Adityanath government is talking of poor sanitation as the reason behind the pestilence at the hospital (enteroviruses spread through contaminated water).

Uncertainty continues over ceremonial Border Meeting between India and China

• Amid the standoff at Doklam, uncertainty continues over the ceremonial Border Personnel Meeting (BPM) between the armies of India and China on the eve of Independence Day.
• Before ceremonial BPMs that are held on national days, either side gives confirmation a couple of days in advance. However, that has not happened this time.
• In addition, there is also uncertainty over the annual bilateral military exercise Hand-in-Hand to be held later this year. The joint planning conference has not taken place thus far, but it has not been formally cancelled either.

SC favoured audio recording of all court proceedings with CCTV

• In a major bid to ensure transparency, the Supreme Court favoured the installation of CCTV cameras with audio recording of all court proceedings, including in its own complex, along with those of the High Courts and Tribunals.
• The apex court observed that the Constitutional courts in other countries have audio and video recording.
• A Bench of Justices Adarsh Kumar Goel and U.U. Lalit directed the Centre to submit a feasibility report for installation of CCTV cameras with audio recordings in Courts and Tribunals.
• Additional Solicitor General Maninder Singh, appearing for the Centre, pointed out that there was a decision of the e-committee of the apex court that does not allow recording of the Supreme Court’s proceedings.
• The Bench said that order was on the administrative side only and a Court of Record means that everything should be recorded as long as it does not obstruct the proceedings.

::International::

China will halt iron, iron ore and seafood imports from North Korea

• China will halt iron, iron ore and seafood imports from North Korea, following through on new UN sanctions after U.S. pressure for Beijing to strong arm Pyongyang over its ally’s nuclear programme.
• The decision was announced after days of increasingly bellicose rhetoric between U.S. President Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un’s regime, which has raised international alarm about where the crisis is headed.
• Beijing had pledged to fully enforce the latest sanctions after the United States accused China of not doing enough to rein in its neighbour, which relies heavily on the Asian giant for its economic survival.
• The United Nations Security Council, including permanent member Beijing, approved tough sanctions against Pyongyang on August 6 that could cost the country $1 billion a year.
• China, which is suspected of failing to enforce past UN measures, accounts for 90% of North Korea’s trade.
• Among the latest banned products, China imported $74.4 million worth of iron ore in the first five months of this year, almost equalling the figure for all of 2016.\
• Fish and seafood imports totalled $46.7 million in June, up from $13.6 million in May.

::Business and Economy::

Consumer price index (CPI) accelerated to 2.36% in July

• Retail inflation as measured by the consumer price index (CPI) accelerated to 2.36% in July after easing for three straight months.
• The gains in retail prices were driven by a hardening of prices in sugar and confectionery items, pan, tobacco and intoxicants. However, there was disinflation in the food basket.
• The Reserve Bank of India (RBI), which factors in CPI for arriving at its monetary policy, had earlier this month slashed the key interest rate (repo rate) by 25 basis points to 6%.
• Separately, skyrocketing tomato prices propelled inflation at the wholesale level to 1.88% in July from 0.9% in June, with the food category overall contributing significantly to the uptick in WPI terms.
• Inflation in the food segment of the primary articles category in July came in at 2.15%, snapping a two-month contraction. Within this, the fruits and vegetables segment contributed the most, with inflation coming in at 29%.
• The index for ‘Food Articles’ group rose by 6.2% due to higher price of fruits and vegetables (29%), peas/chawali (6%), ragi (4%) and condiments & spices, barley, poultry chicken and paddy (1% each),” the government said in its release.
• Inflation in the minerals segment of the primary articles category accelerated to 24.8% in July from a contraction of 2.02% while manufactured products saw a marginally lower 2.18% compared with June’s 2.27%, marking the sixth month of slowing inflation in the segment.

Goods exports rose for the twelfth consecutive month

• Goods exports rose for the twelfth consecutive month with shipments in July registering a 3.94% year-on-year growth to $22.5 billion. However, this was the slowest pace of growth since November 2016, when exports grew by 2.56%.
• Data released by the commerce ministry showed that major commodity groups of export showing positive growth in the month included engineering goods (15.16%), petroleum products (20.27%), organic and inorganic chemicals (20.67%).
• Also cotton yarn/fabrics and made-ups and handloom products (5.39%) and marine products (30.53%). Non-petroleum and non-gems and jewellery exports in July increased 6.93% to $22.5 billion.
• Meanwhile, goods imports in July recorded 15.42% to $33.99 billion — the slowest pace since 1.13% growth in January 2017.
• This led to trade deficit (goods) narrowing on a month-on-month basis to $11.45 billion, the lowest since $10.5 billion recorded in the month of March 2017.

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