Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 05 June 2021

::NATIONAL::

The Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) said acceptance of such an employment offer without the completion of mandatory cooling-off period “constitutes a serious misconduct”.
All government organisations should mandatorily take vigilance clearance before offering post–retirement jobs to babus.

Post retirement acceptance of offer by retired government officials without observing cooling off period, constitutes a serious misconduct on their part.
All government organisations may, therefore, formulate appropriate rules and guidelines for its employees to ensure that post retirement, the cooling off period is mandatorily observed by them before accepting any offer from private sector entities.
The rules and guidelines should incorporate the procedure for seeking or obtaining permission before accepting offer from private sector entities during the cooling off period if not in existence.
The applicable service or conduct rules should also be revised and modified to ensure that, if required, appropriate action can also be initiated in case of violation of such rules by retired employees.

The Union Cabinet has given its ex-post facto approval for signing and ratification of an agreement on ‘Cooperation in the field of Mass Media’ between all the member states of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation.
The Agreement was signed in June, 2019.

The government notified that, the agreement shall promote equal and mutually beneficial cooperation among associations in the field of Mass Media.
The Agreement would provide an opportunity for the Member States to share best practices and new innovations in the field of mass media.
It will promote creation of favourable conditions for wide and mutual distribution of information through the Mass Media in order to further deepen the knowledge about the lives of the peoples of their States.
It will also promote cooperation among the editorial offices of the mass media of their States, as well as among the relevant Ministries, Agencies and Organizations working in the field of the mass media, specific conditions and forms of which shall be determined by the participants themselves, including through conclusion of separate agreements.
Ratification of an agreement will provide equal and mutually beneficial cooperation among professional associations of journalists of the States in order to study the available professional experience, as well as to hold meetings, seminars and conferences in the field of mass media.

The eruption of Mount Nyiragongo, an active volcano in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), led to the deaths of at least 30 people.

Nyiragongo is a large stratovolcano near Lake Kivu at the eastern border of DR Congo with Rwanda in the Virunga National Park.
Mount Nyiragongo is part of the Virunga volcanic chain and owes its existence to the activity of the African Great Rift.
It is infamous for its extremely fluid lava that runs as water when the lava lake drains.
The rift is constantly extending and opening. In a few tens of million years it will have led to the creation of a new ocean separating the bulk of the African continent from its present eastern portion.

As per a study, Iceland’s glaciers have lost seven percent of their surface since the turn of the millennium due to global warming and 1 could disappear entirely by 2200.

Iceland’s glaciers have lost around 750sq/km, or 7% of their surface, since the turn of the millennium due to global warming.
The glaciers, which cover more than 10% of the country’s land mass, shrank in 2019 to 10,400 square kilometres.
Since 1890, the land covered by glaciers has decreased by almost 2,200sq/km or 18%.
Iceland an island nation in the North Atlantic Ocean, between Europe and North America.

The Labour and Employment Ministry constituted an expert group to provide technical inputs and recommendations on fixation of minimum wages and national floor for minimum wages.
This is the second expert committee on minimum wages formed by the government within the last two years.

The recommendations, which weren’t accepted by the Centre, included setting the national floor wage at Rs 375 per day (Rs 9,750 per month) as per July 2018 prices.
To arrive at the wage rates, the group will look into international best practices on the wages and evolve a scientific criteria and methodology for fixation of wages.
Under the Code on Wages, which is yet to be enforced, a National Floor Level Minimum Wage will be set by the Centre to be revised every five years, while states will fix minimum wages for their regions, which cannot be lower than the floor wage.
The current floor wage, which was fixed in 2017, is at Rs 176 a day, but some states have minimum wages lower than it.

NASA has announced two missions to Venus, Earth’s closest planetary neighbour, as part of its Discovery Program.
It aims to explore and study the solar system.

DAVINCI+ (Deep Atmosphere Venus Investigation of Noble gases, Chemistry, and Imaging) mission.
VERITAS (Venus Emissivity, Radio Science, InSAR, Topography, and Spectroscopy).
The last US probe to visit the planet was the Magellan orbiter in 1990.